Good evening!

I am so happy to report that I am finally home!! WHOO! HOO!!

Yesterday was the last day of my computer training in Wisconsin, so naturally I started the journey home yesterday afternoon. Who knew it would be such a LOOOOONG journey!! 😉

The original plan was that I would leave my class at four to catch the shuttle to the airport in Madison, which would take about an hour to get there. Then I would have about a 2 and a half hour wait before my flight to Chicago. Once to Chicago, I would have one hour to catch that plane, and then my plane to Portland, Oregon would get in at about midnight, and my sweetie would pick me up and drive us home, which would get us home about 1 am. I would get some much needed sleep and then go to work from noon to 5, and life would officially be back to “normal”.

What really happened though, was this:

I left my class at 4 to take the hour long drive to the airport on the shuttle. Got to the airport, as expected, and when I got there found out my flight to Chicago had been delayed by an extra hour, because there was a really bad wind storm in Chicago. This would also mean that if I was going to make my connecting flight, I was going to have to SERIOUSLY run, which, at that point, I was sooooo tired, and sooooo ready to be home, I was more than willing to do.

At a little after 8 pm, they finally gave the a-ok to board our plane, but when we taxi’d out, we found out we had that we were grounded and had to wait on the Tarmac until air traffic control gave us the green light to go. It was quite a wait, but at this point, in my mind, it was still all good because it was a small plane, with even less passengers, so they let us sit wherever we wanted, and by that time there were about 4 of us who were really getting to know each other,nervously  laughing and joking, and three of us four, were all heading to Portland on the same flights. Come rain or come shine, I knew I wasn’t going to be alone!! What a blessing!! 😉

Well, I am not sure what time we actually got to take off, but we all knew we were going to miss our connecting flights! and boy, did we ever!

Before I tell you what happened next, I think I had better tell you about our AMAZING flight crew from Madison to Chicago! We flew United, and I have never really had any problems with them, so I knew we were going to be in good hands! That might have been the UNDERSTATEMENT of the whole trip!!! Seeing that they were forecasting cross winds of up to 50 miles an hour, we had a relatively smooth, and comfortable ride – considering the weather. There were times that I was sure we would NEVER get off of that Tarmac, but once we did the professionalism and skill of our crew was extremely self-evident! You  could tell that the plane was trying hard to roll, and the pilots did a lot of compensating to make sure we made it to Chicago safely! I am not saying that I was completely worry free during our flight. It was a lot bumpier than normal after all, but I had decided to just pray about it, and let God take care of getting us there. one way or the other, I knew I would be in His hands.

We did finally get there safely, and we had an AMAZINGLY smooth landing, which was a feat unto itself because it was SO RAINY and SO WINDY!! WHEW!!! but, I knew God was helping fly that little plane. When we finally got off the plane, I headed right to the gate to ask the person at the counter if our connecting flight had taken off, well, let’s just say he practically laughed his confirmation at me, as if I were some silly dreamer, which I guess I am, but a girl could hope that it had been delayed too can’t she?

So, the three of us Portland bound ladies, myself, Eartha, and KJ (short for Kathy Jo)  had decided that we were all in this together, and made the trek to find out how to go about getting ourselves set up with new flights so we could FINALLY get to Portland. After finding where we were supposed to go to get help, we found ourselves in the LOOOOOONGEST line and if we had any doubts before that this was going to be a long night, we knew for SURE now!! 😉 Thankfully, by the time I finally made it to the associate, she was still smiling – bless her heart!!  I had been watching and she had people yelling at her, and being downright rude, and I was just soooo impressed that she had kept her cool, and not only that, but to do it all with a SMILE?? She was VERY IMPRESSIVE!! So, when I go to her window, I had decided to tell her so, and thank her for what a GREAT job she was doing!!  She reserved me a seat on the next flight back to the Pacific Northwest, which was going to be going to Seattle, and we would be on the plane by about  8 am the next morning! WHOO! HOO!! as long as we were on our way! (Yes, all three of us girls ended up on the same flights, thankfully!!)

By this time it was a little past 11 at night, the airport had practically closed down for the evening and I was hungry because I had missed dinner that evening, and the young lady who had helped us reschedule our flights, I believe her name was Mary Jane, was just getting off of her shift, and had by then, made it her mission to make sure that the three of us had ANYTHING that we needed, food, drinks, etc!!! She kept offering to drive and get us some food, and bring it back. 🙂 We kept thanking her and telling her that wasn’t going to be necessary! She then said she was willing to go home, and bring us back some apples from an orchard that she had just picked these fresh apples from, she was VERY SWEET, but we assured her that we would be fine, and she headed home for the evening! Well, Eartha, KJ and myself had found our hunkering down spots in the airport and were busy chatting and getting to know each other a little better, when lo and behold, Mary Jane came back!!! She said that she had searched all over the airport and found that there was a Starbuck’s not to far away that would be open all night! She let us know that they had fruit, veggies, sandwiches, etc, on top of there coffee selections!!  We were soooo very appreciative!! I know that she was a walking angel, and that when I had prayed for God to take care of us getting us home, he had gone above and beyond, by sending us this AMAZING lady to help make us comfortable!!!

Well, it was waaay past midnight by now, someone from the airport had come around and given all of us stranded travelers fleece blankets to help keep us warm. I was convinced that God had placed people as angels all around us!! 😉 We knew it was going to be a long night trying to get any kind of sleep in those hard chairs, but we all took turns trying to catch some shut eye, while one of the other of us watched all of our bags, and belongings. I really couldn’t have asked for better company!!

So long story short, none of us really got much in the way of sleep, but we weren’t alone and by about 2-ish I was finally, and GRATEFULLY home!! When my sweetie got to the airport to pick me up, I almost cried with joy to see him!!! His twinkling blue eyes, smiling at me, was just almost more than my happy to be home self could bear!!

Looking back on this trip, I am sure that this will be one I will NEVER forget!! and KJ and Eartha, wherever you are – I do have your contact information, I want to say thank you to you both, you made a very scary situation, a fun, and memorable adventure, and I will forever be grateful to you both!!!

With my story told, it is time for me to go back to bed (I literally climbed in as soon as we got home, and I only got up because I ALMOST forgot to blog today!!)

Have a FABULOUS evening!!