We were up at 7AM on what would end up being one of the longest days ever, and luckily, Davis woke up with no fever. He still had his clothes on from the night before tho, so I got him to run get his shower. We did the normal packing up the night before, but with Davis feeling bad, I was a little behind because he had not changed, but all was well. On the bus by 8, prayer led by Donny before we got on our way.
We stopped at a Spanish Mennonite bakery (yep, didn't know that was a thing, but they had bread). I can't say that the bread was all that good, but it was a nice stop. The ladies behind the register were excited to try some of their english on us, so I tried to help them as so many helped me in the reverse this week. I think it was here that Peyton had one of the Spanish Mennonite muchachas ask for his phone number...maybe she was a liberal. I remember that on this day, I pulled my watch out of the back pack...it was dustry from no use for a week, but I was no longer on Campamento time, back to the rush rush rush of life.
And then began the delays that ended up making this day last forever. We will begin at the airport learning that anyone traveling with minors had to go to a special passport line to get stamps. While this was really just a separate line from the normal one everyone else had to use, ours was easily the slowest. After about 40 minutes, we were through with our passports stamped. Then back to the airline counter line to get our bags checked. Then to the Security line that seemed to never end, and finally we were through and into the boarding gate area. It was here that I could tell that my patience was thin, and I was completely sleep deprived. Sam and Davis were at a restaurant and wanting to talk to the other people in our group. I just wanted to be alone and away from people, so I went to a separate restaurant with a shorter line and sat by myself and ate my sandwich. It did help as I felt a little better, able to go shop a little bit at the airport shops, did I mention we had plenty of time because our plane had been delayed for 45 minutes. We only have about 3.5 hours in Miami to get thru customs and to our next flight, but we could still do it with this minor delay. I stayed optimistic on this day way longer than I should have.
Once on the plane, the ride was great. Even though we were in the very last seat of the plane, I got to hang out with Sam and Davis, across the way from Sonja. And really, when you are sitting right next to the bathroom, it aint to bad, especially for an old man like me that needs it at least once on this flight. I purchased the online wifi, and caught up on a few things, made sure all my Honduras pics uploaded to the cloud, chatted with Magan, and even turned on some Netflix for the final season of Better Call Saul. All was going well, and we were starting our decent into Miami. "This is your captain speaking, we are being told that we can not land at Miami right now, so we are going to pull up and circle until they let us land"
Our window for getting to Birmingham was getting smaller, but surely our flight to Birmingham will also be delayed, so the delays should all equal out. But then another message "This is your captain speaking, we don't know how long we may be required to circle, but we know we need some gas soon, so we are being re-routed to Fort Myers to land and refuel". And honestly at this point, I was still optimistic, but that window had shut at this point.
At this point, it just got ugly. We landed at Fort Myers, and could not get a gate, because many others had also landed at Fort Myers. We could not get off the plane anyway, just had to wait for an hour while we finally got a gate, then got refueled. Did I mention the benefit to being right next to the bathroom? Finally, they announced that we would be heading to Miami, but apparently all of the other planes also got that same message, as we were number 15 in a long line of planes waiting for our turn to take off. And finally we landed in Miami at 10:30PM (This is the flight time of our departure to Birmingham), being on this 2.5 hour flight now for about 6 hours. And guess what, when we landed in Miami, they did not have a gate for us ready, so we waited for that. After finally getting off that plane, we completed the required 5K course to get through customs. And it was here of course that John Clemons let everyone know our flight to Birmingham was cancelled. Great!
So we were stuck in Miami, but passports were stamped and we were back in the USA. It would not hurt to hang out in Miami for a night and get home the next day. We waited for our luggage at the baggage claim, and had all of the groups bags except for 2 (yes, one of them was ours)...when a loud screeching occurred, and sure enough, the luggage rack had jammed somewhere. We saw a worker come across and climb down into Narnia where the bags come from...and he never returned out. But 15 minutes later, the luggage rack did start working again, and the final two bags were returned.
It was at this point that John Clemons informed us that there were no flights available the next day, so we would have to stay until Monday in Miami. He had booked us a hotel near the airport for this first night, and we all walked out to get the free shuttle to the hotel. It was hear, that my typically passive aggressive manner kicked into a more aggressive mode telling the other guys that we need to look for a rental car. All were tired and ready to just call it a night, get to the hotel, and worry about a rental car in the morning. "Do you guys really want to try and get back to the Miami airport in the morning to get a rental car?" I asked. Then the hotel shuttle showed up and it was full. The driver said to go to the other side of the airport, and he would pick us up first, and we would have a seat then. "We need to get a car tonight if we can" I told them, "why dont 4 of us (Deacons/Elders) go try and find a rental, while the rest of the group goes on to the hotel to rest", and thus I convinced them to do what in my mind was going to get me home on Sunday...honestly as soon as I heard Monday for a flight, I was driving home as soon as I could get a car.
So our group divided, and 4 of us went to find any rentals that might be available. It did not look like it was going to work. Everyone was out of vehicles, until John Clemons went to Alamo, and I joined him at the counter. Yes, they have a car, and large SUVs that we could have one way to Birmingham. We need 4 of them I quickly interjected. And as we signed all the papers for these rental cars, and planned out who would ride with who, we called our group to see if they had made it to the hotel. No, they were still at the airport. The shuttle had came back to them after they made it to the first stop, but it was again full, and the driver said sorry, this was his last time to the airport for the night, they would have to get an Uber. But it worked out well, as we called them over to the car rental area, where our 4 cars were ready.
We all arrived at the hotel by 01:30AM, to an extremely long line in the lobby. No problem tho, we had all talked about it, and the plan was to get into the rooms, get a good shower, sleep for a few hours, then head home in the cars. Some mentioned that they did not want to drive back to Birmingham, and that was fine to me...but me and the boys were heading home. In the end, even the flights on Monday required connections thru either Dallas or Washington, and no one felt real confident they would ever get home on a plane. And as these discussions were being had, John Clemons waited in the hotel line...and finally made it to the front of the line at 02:30AM. At this point, I am just ready to drive back right now, so I went to the front with John to hear the front desk clerk say that the storms had knocked out the internet, and they could not give people rooms until it was back. When would that be back John asked. Soon was the only answer they could give. So we did have one room already, and the Aikens took that one. Jonathan and Sonja were in a car with their 3 girls, so they said they are heading out. Me and the boys had a car to ourself, so there was no question, we were out. And thus, we said our goodbyes, and got in the car headed to birmingham slightly before 3AM.
Even with no traffic at all, I took one wrong turn, but quickly we were on our way back home. Truly, this was an epically horrible travel day, but a road trip with both my boys from Miami in the middle of the night, I would be dishonest if I said I was not pretty excited about the opportunity as well. We made it to the turnpike, and all were excited to see the Hard Rock Hotel glowing along the Miami coast. Once on the toll turnpike, I knew we were set. The plazas every 45 minutes were perfect, and I knew I could stop at any time. At the first plaza, we stopped for some food, and after walking up to the Dunkin Donuts, the lady said (literally with fresh donuts lining the counter behind her) that they had not food ready right now, just coffee. Ok, we turned and left, all slowly chuckling in our sleep deprived delirium. So, we had some cuban sandwiches from the gas station store. And were on our way again. Until I saw Sam starting to nod off around 4:30, and I knew I better not chance it by myself. I pulled over at the next plaza, and we all slept till about 6:15AM. I woke up, got some hot bfast sandwiches and a coffee, and got moving again. The boys just slept thru most of that.
The road trip was long, but there were conversations, there was music. There was a another long stop at the citrus center in Florida where I took another nap, while the boys hung out in the store, and Sam woke me up with an Alligator hand he had bought, and we all laughed at. Yes, I did get my free sample of the most amazing orange juice there also. We got our picture with Mickey at one of the plazas. And at one of our stops for lunch, Sam shared some amazing news that he had gotten into the suite level dorms at Alabama (he was originally assigned to a traditional dorm, with a roomate that had a profile that said "I like rap rap rap"), then catching up on emails he also saw that he had been awarded the highest amount for the Southern Company scholarship. Like I said, you could say that was a horrible day of travel, but it was full of amazing moments of laughter, hugs, and fist bumps. There was another last nap at a love gas station near albany, GA...and then we were on the home stretch. Cheers when we crossed over into Alabama. And then, we were in Chelsea, at a Marathon, and Magan and the girls came and hugged us tight. Monday would not have happened, we made it home around 6PM, only about 18 hours behind when the flight was supposed to have landed in Birmingham the night before. I still crack up at the little drawing Davis made below and sent to our Honduras text group...he had captured our travel path from Honduras to Birmingham fairly accurately with a bunch of scribble near Miami.
I rode with my beautiful lady to the airport to return the rental car, while the boys drove home with the girls. We talked about the trip, and besides this crazy day of travel, our work in Honduras could not have gone better. When I think back about the previous year, and the pain of that first day when our flight was missed...there was a sinking feeling in all of us, that we failed, and that it would not happen, and even when we got there we were a little rushed the whole week. But this year, we made it there on time, we were able to worship with our Honduras church family. We were able to teach hundreds of children stories from the Bible. We were able to help 10 couples come together in marraige. We were able to talk to and hug our friends. The week could not have gone any better. As for this travel day, it ended with a short ride to and from the airport smiling and laughing with my favorite person on this Earth. It ended with a meal that she and the girls had made (and warmed up well because of our late arrival) especially for me on Father's day. This was the best 48 hour day I have ever had.
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