The Night Things Didn’t Go As Planned

Which picture best represents your life?

This one that is orderly and perfectly manicured…

or this one in it’s wildness – maybe somewhat planned but a little impossible to keep contained in a nice and tidy way.

As you probably know by now, my life is not picture #1 but #2, a very unordered life that is impossible to control and to keep in a nice orderly box like some.

Case in point was Tuesday night. We have been planning a trip to Canada for 2 months. The departure day had arrived and our plane was not to leave until midnight. We had all day to get ready but for some (I’m not going to say who) it just wasn’t enough time. We hurriedly said our goodbyes to my son and his family who would be looking after the farm in our absence and rushed to our vehicle where we loaded up as quick as possible and made a beeline for the airport which is 1 1/2 hours away.

I have a good friend who volunteered to take us to the airport and park our vehicle at her house while we were gone. As we were nearing Phoenix, we gave her a call and asked if she could meet us at the highway since we didn’t have any time to drive to her house. (Our poor friends that have to put up with us!)

Picking her up we rushed on. As we were nearing the airport my son who has flown on Air Canada several times, started telling us about the time he wasn’t 1 hour early and how the ticket counter was closed and no one there… and how he was fortunate to find someone to help him.

“Oh, poor you,” we thought, never imagining it could happen to us, too!

Dashing out of our car upon arrival, my husband rushed to the Air Canada ticket counters while we hurriedly unloaded our bags, said our goodbyes to our kind and forbearing friend and went to join my hubby.

No one was at the counter… only the cleaning lady, who was very kind and hospitable asking if we needed put up somewhere for the night. haha We were 50 minutes before the flight was to leave and no help in sight. Mrs. Cleaning Lady said the last bag had went down the conveyor belt not more than 5 minutes earlier.

Finally, a man meandered our way who was a representative for Air Canada. But it was impossible. The flight had been closed. The kiosks wouldn’t let us print boarding passes and you can’t get past security without a boarding pass.

We were defeated…

A phone call was made. Our driver to the airport knew as soon as she saw our name on her caller id that we were stranded wannabe travelers that needed picked up.

And 1/2 hour after hurriedly walking into the airport, we walked out to catch our ride.

See, our good natured driver? It’s getting close to midnight by now.

“Oh, did you have a good trip?”

“Well it seems like we weren’t gone very long at all! I guess time flies when you’re having fun!”

The jokes were flying as was the laughter. Thankfully, we could laugh about it!

She said, “Now I get to see a little bit inside your family.”

I said, “Let me tell you, it’s not always a pretty sight.” 🙂

So back home we drove… not so panicked, but just a little bit surprised we weren’t on that plane headed for Canada.

“Oh, we’d better call Zachary to let him know we’re going to be arriving there at 1:30 in the morning. We’d hate for him to shoot us if he heard someone in the house and didn’t know it was us.”

“That would just be a really bad end to the day.”

So all ended well. We made it home, didn’t get shot and snagged a few … very few hours of rest.

And rescheduled our flights for another day.

You have to count your blessings whatever they may be, right? 🙂