Traveling mercies--and woes--to Ellerslie

I made it to Ellerslie! A little late perhaps, but none the worse for wear. My trip was more…shall we say… involved than I expected it to be, though.

The first thing that happened portended the mixture of unfortunate occurrences with blessings that I was due for the rest of the day: Mom dropped me off at the airport and then locked her keys into the car while she was in the “no stopping/no waiting” zone in front of the terminal. I had walked into the terminal and then I saw through the window that she was still there, so I went out to investigate. I remembered that we had a spare key hidden under the car, but my dad hides it really well and we couldn’t find it, so I asked mom to call him and ask him where it was. “I can’t,” Mom said. My phone is locked inside the car, too. “Oh,” I said, “well then, here, use my phone.” I dug in my purse for it. No phone. I looked in my suitcase, my pockets. I realized my phone was locked inside the car as well. Finally, at the expense of getting all dirty underneath the car, I found the spare key and we were able to unlock the door. I retrieved my phone, thankful that mom had not been able to drive off with it, leaving me without a phone for the next two months.

I was at the airport several hours early, which is unusual for me (I’m beginning to rise up and conquer procrastination), but the departure time for my flight came and went and still no plane appeared. I only had a 51 minute layover in Chicago, so I started getting worried. Sure enough, when the plane finally arrived, it was about an hour late, and we landed in Chicago after boarding had already closed for my next flight.

The clouds were spectacular on my flight! I don’t remember ever seeing such rich beauty in the sky from the window of a plane before. We encountered a thunderstorm system that we skirted around, and the combination of bright sunshine and dark clouds was just striking from our perspective.

Anyway, in Chicago they put me on standby for my next flight to Denver, and I waited around for that. The thought struck me, "I wish there was a piano I could play to pass the time." I immediately dismissed the thought as absolute nonsense. How could I expect to find a piano, of all things, in the airport? But God gave me even this gift. There was one! It was a lovely glossy black grand piano sitting outside of a cafe. I asked the ladies there if I could play, and they said yes! So I amused myself for a good while and got a good crowd of listeners. (Should've put out a tip jar...)

The hotel bathroom

Beats sleeping on the floor of the airport, eh?

I found this picture slightly creepy...what ARE those things?

Much good my carry-on luggage did me when all it consisted of was books!

When it came time to get onto my flight, I discovered that the flight was full and I was number 10 of like 42 people on standby, so I gathered I wasn't going to be getting onto that flight. That meant another long wait in the customer service line, but they took care of me, gave me two meal vouchers, and put me up in a hotel for the night. It was a lovely hotel room, quite possibly the nicest I had ever stayed in. I slept, got up at 3:20 to make my flight the next morning, succeeded on getting onto the plane, and finally landed in Colorado! Now I'm here and loving it!