You Never Know

Here's one for Pastor Goss's Sunday school class.

Yesterday (the 6th), I left Fort Myers, headed for Tucson and the Assemblies of God Teen Bible Quiz National Finals.

The trouble began when I checked my luggage. I hadn't paid attention to the weight, and my suitcase was 13 pounds too heavy. I also had a golf bag, so I had to open my luggage and try to redistribute some items from the suitcase to the golf bag. Kind of embarrassing to do all that right there, but at least there wasn't a line behind me.

While I was trying to figure that out, the ticket agent said, "Mmm. I don't think this is going to work. Your plane is running late and I don't know if you'll make your connection in Houston." Turns out the weather in Houston was stormy, and ALOT of Continental flights were affected. My flight, scheduled for a 5:18pm departure, was going to be delayed by at least 2 hours.

To speed up my connection in Houston, which would be two concourses apart, the agent asked if I would like to move up...from my comfy exit-row-window seat to a middle seat in the front of coach - which would still give me room, but I hate the middle. But it would move me up 12 rows, so I took it.

Finally, I got the suitcase down to 48.5 pounds, which put the golf bag EXACTLY at 50 pounds, and off they went. And off I went to the gate.

On the way, I got the opportunity, for the very first time, to be selected for additional security screening. This trip was starting to gain too many negatives.

The plane from Houston came in, we boarded quickly, and it looked like we would get off in good time, with the computer estimating that we would be in Houston at 7:50 local time, one hour before my connection was to leave. There was also the possibility that my connection might be delayed, too. AND the woman that was supposed to be on the aisle moved to the middle - to be by her husband - so I had an aisle AND good leg room! Things were looking up!

We got ready for takeoff, the pilot gunned it down the runway...then lifted off the throttle...and we coasted...to the end...of...the...runway. Some warning lights had gone off in the cockpit, so they wanted to check it out. We taxied back to the gate, so the mechanic could inspect the plane. (The mechanic is the guy in the red.)

They told us that nothing was wrong with the plane - other than a secondary warning light going off when it wasn't supposed to - but now we WERE delayed and didn't leave Fort Myers until 8:18pm.

I completely missed my connection in Houston, waited in a very long line at customer service, received standby status on the 10:55pm flight and confirmed status on a 7am flight for this morning.

The 10:55 flight was delayed until 11:57, I DID get on, but my luggage didn't. The plane didn't take off until 12:20. After discovering in Phoenix that my luggage didn't make it, I was given a complimentary travel kit with toothpaste, toothbrush, comb, deodorant, razor, etc. and I was off to Hertz to pick up my economy car.

Which the nice lady upgraded to standard with a free tank of gas. Nice. Impala. I arrived at my hotel and finally hit the pillow at 2:30am...local time...which made it 5:30am Fort Myers time.

This morning I went back to the airport, my luggage came in about 10 minutes after I got there, and I was happily on my way to Tucson.

So...I mentioned Pastor's class. Why? Because his current topic is: Is it God? Is it Satan? Or is it just me?

I asked those questions a lot yesterday. I didn't really answer them.

But I thank God for his blessings and hope to make wise decisions along the way.