When President Barack Obama arrived in Houston about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, former President George H.W. Bush was there to greet him.

"When the president comes to your hometown, you show up to meet him," said Bush, who chatted with Obama and the first lady for about five minutes at the foot of the steps next to Air Force One at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Obama greeted about 50 well-wishers behind a barricade and chatted and shook hands for about 10 minutes before leaving for a meeting with about 30 members of the Democratic National Committee at the Museum District home of trial attorney Steve Mostyn.

The roundtable discussion was attended by major Democratic Party contributors. The Mostyns, for example, contributed $3 million to the Democratic PAC Priority USA.

After the meeting, Obama headed to a fundraiser at the home of another trial lawyer, John Eddie Williams.

Couples would pay about $65,000 to have dinner with the president. Some local Houston dignitaries and a former governor attended the event, and the president used the pricey gathering to rally supporters ahead of mid-term elections, HoustonChronicle.com reports.

Earlier in the day, Obama attended a memorial service at Fort Hood, site of another mass shooting last week. He's flying to Austin on Thursday to address a civil rights gathering.

During his short Houston visit, he avoided one truly Bayou City experience: sitting in traffic.

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Drivers faced an extra dose of gridlock because of the Obamas' visit. By 5 p.m., buses and traffic on Smith Street was leading to lengthy waits. Buses lined up to grab commuters, one after another.

About two dozen Metropolitan Transit Authority park-and-ride routes are re-routed because of closures along Smith and Jefferson streets.

Smith at Clay Street, and Interstate 45 southbound access to Jefferson closed at noon Wednesday. Both will reopen at noon Thursday.

Portions of Pease and Brazos will also be closed, Metro said.

At 7:20 p.m., two police officers were positioned at each intersection on Kirby, between Memorial and San Felipe.

At Star Pizza west of the Montrose area, the presidential visit meant canceling delivery orders for several customers, the restaurant manager said.

"Him being in town has hurt our delivery," said Jimmy Edwards, manager of the restaurant on Norfolk near the Southwest Freeway.

Edwards said heavy traffic and road closures meant deliveries could not be made to customers in West University and River Oaks, where the fundraiser was scheduled. He focused on deliveries in the Montrose area.

The headache started about 4 p.m., Edwards said, when drivers complained that delayed delivery times were ruining the pizza.

"One West U driver took him over an hour," he said. "We could not get to our customers."

After about seven or eight such episodes, he started calling customers who had placed orders to tell them their dinner would not arrive.

Most people understood, he said.

"The customers were pleasant about it to us," he said.

And while deliveries were getting back to normal about 8:20 p.m., the business paled compared with a regular Wednesday night.

Seven deliveries were scheduled, when 20 is the norm, he said.

Officials do not disclose the president's route or scheduled road closings for safety reasons, said Cynthia Marble, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's Houston office.

"I can tell you we are doing everything we can to minimize the impact," Marble said. "It is not for a long period of time."

Marble said delays are inevitable. The good news for travelers is the closings are relatively brief. Local police and the Secret Service close roads, then reopen them after the motorcade speeds through the route.

The motorcade, which varies in size depending on the event and who accompanies the president, can reach speeds that might arouse jealousy in commuters who often get stuck on Loop 610.

The best way to avoid the melee of congestion around the motorcade is check online — at houstontranstar.org, for example — for traffic information shortly before taking a trip.