There's a plan . . . and then there's REALITY

This link is where you can read the plan for our trip . . . and below you can read how our trip has actually played out, so far. :)

Wednesday morning I was up at 3am, finishing a few things around the house and finalizing my packing, before our 5am departure. The 3-hour drive to the airport was uneventful.

At the check-in desk, however, I was informed that my flight's departure was going to be delayed an hour. I knew immediately that this meant I would miss my connecting flight to Colorado Springs, since my original schedule for the change of planes in Atlanta was already precariously short - cutting that an hour shorter would make it impossible for me to catch my next flight!

So, for about half an hour the gal at the desk worked to find me alternative flights. My two best options turned out to be flying into Colorado Springs the next day (with an overnight in Salt Lake City), or flying to Denver that evening, instead.

Denver was an option because Allen was flying to Denver on Wednesday, as well. The original plan was for him to arrive in Denver, rent a car, and drive to Colorado Springs to pick me up at the airport there. Then we would have had the time we needed to visit with friends in Colorado Springs, return the rental car, pick up the rental truck, do a bit of necessary shopping, and possibly even rest a bit before the next leg of our trip . . .

So, it's kind of amazing how much that one-hour delay in Honduras changed the rest of our plans!!!

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We changed my tickets for the flight to Denver. This gave me several additional hours in Atlanta, and meant that Allen would have to cool his heels for six hours in the Denver airport, waiting for me to catch up with him!

Because the regulations require passengers to check in at the San Pedro Sula airport three hours before departure, for international flights, the delay meant that I had four hours to wait. I settled in with my computer and a cold cut sub sandwich I bought in the duty-free area, and worked a bit during this time.

Eventually we boarded our flight (15 elderly people in wheelchairs? I have no idea what that was all about) and flew to Atlanta. Everything was fine until I got to the customs area, and the customs officer asked me, "Are you carrying any meat or cheese?"

Sigh. I only ate half of that sub sandwich back in the airport in San Pedro Sula. I'd put the rest into my bag, to eat later . . .  but I'd never finished it, and there it was, still in my bag.

I admitted to the sandwich, thinking it would be taken from me and thrown into the trash. But no. I was sent to stand off to the side and told to wait. My passport was enclosed in a special ziplock bag and handed off to my "escort." Happily, my escort was a sweet and helpful lady who took me to collect my luggage and then on to the area where "food and agriculture" problems are handled. She passed me along to the people there, who laughed at me when I explained my predicament.

Fortunately, international cold cut smuggling is not a punishable offense, and I was sent on my way, sans sandwich.

At this point, we need to take a moment to be thankful for that extended layover in Atlanta, which gave me sufficient time to tour the airport with my escort and still make my next flight!

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In the Atlanta airport, I purchased another cold cut sub (from Subway, this time), for my dinner. I made sure to finish this one, though, LOL.

The flight from Atlanta to Denver was uneventful, and soon I was at the baggage claim area at the Denver airport, with all of my luggage and no sign of Allen.

My Honduran cell phone doesn't work in the U.S., so I'd left that back in Honduras, and I had no way to contact anyone by phone. I hauled my laptop out of my bag and sent a Facebook message to Denise Cofer, who, fortunately, I knew to be a bit of a night owl. It was about 10:15 in Denver at this point, so after midnight in Maryland!

Denise called Allen for me, and told him where I was. Finally reunited, we were able to move along to the next step - driving to a hotel and going to BED! I was exhausted when we were finally able to rest at around 12:30am . . . 21 1/2 hours after my day began!

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Thursday morning we headed out to do some of the shopping, as there were things I would need as we traveled, which made more sense to purchase on this end than to transport. Then we made the drive to Colorado Springs, and picked up the truck we were renting. Allen had told me that he needed me to drive the truck the short distance between Home Depot (where we picked it up) and the car rental return. I was more-or-less okay with this, until I saw the truck. It was HUGE!

There wasn't really any option, though, so I climbed aboard. The truck has an automatic transmission and gazillions of gears. As you start driving and increase speed, it is continually revving and shifting and revving and shifting - while the driver does nothing but push the gas pedal. It was pretty unsettling to me (as I'm now used to driving a manual transmission), as it sounded to me like there was something wrong with the engine - but we just kept driving along . . . very slowly, LOL.

This photo is a recreation - I did NOT look that happy while driving the truck. 

After going a pretty good part of the distance, Allen pulled off to the side of the highway, and I pulled in behind him. He came back to tell me why he'd stopped - the GPS was saying that we had arrived at our destination, but there were only empty fields on both sides of the road! Allen called the rental car place and sorted things out so that we could finish our trip.

I was SO RELIEVED to be able to turn the driving of the truck over to Allen, once we'd returned the rental car! I may drive the truck again at some point during this trip - on straight, flat stretches of highway - if needed, but if that isn't ever required of me I will NOT be disappointed! LOL

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We drove the truck to my friend Lorri's house, where a dinner event was scheduled, which was sort-of in my honor. I got there barely in time - I was the second guest to arrive, LOL.

Allen had a chance to say "hi" and bring in my suitcases, then he was driving off in the truck again. He had to go and pick up the filled backpacks which were the real reason for our visit to Colorado Springs.

A few hours later he was back, and joined us for the rest of the fun evening. While I had a wonderful time, I found myself starting to nod off a bit earlier than I would have liked! After saying "goodbye" to everyone, Allen and I went straight to bed, exhausted again! (We aren't all that young anymore, LOL.)

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Friday morning we were up first thing, as we knew we had a long day of driving ahead of us. We didn't leave right off, because we did want to spend some time with our hosts, which we hadn't had much time to do before this, and also because I'd been off the internet for a couple of days and there were some messages and emails which required our attention. 

We were on the road by 9 or so. While the road was mostly flat and straight, the day was windy, and Allen had to work pretty hard to keep the large truck (which was mostly empty at this point, and so was fairly light) from being blown around! It was a long hard day of driving, and once again we pretty much fell into bed upon arrival at our hotel.

Thank heaven Saturday was a day with nothing on the schedule until dinner time - and that was just a friendly gathering, not a ministry event!

I may have spent a loooooong time soaking in the bathtub on Saturday, and Allen visited the hotel hot tub, too. We're making the most of this opportunity to rest and recuperate before the next stretch of work, meetings and driving!

Thanks for reading my very long account of our travels thus far! 

 - posted by Trish