I am not usually one of those people who plans way ahead and is always looking forward to something in the future.  Rather, I prefer to live in the here and now.  But sometimes I have be a planner.  And sometimes I like having something “out there” to look forward to.  Long-range planning is most certainly a necessity when you are gathering people from different cities and the event involves travel and taking time away from work. 

Over the last weekend, I met four other photography friends on the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a weekend of fun and photography.  This group has been meeting together twice a year for several years.  We started planning this weekend at least six months ago to give us all time to get our “ducks in a row.”  And I have to admit, I have been looking forward to our time together almost every day of those six months!  With my trip only a week away, I was super excited to have some time away from work and to be with these amazing women.

And then Michael entered the picture…hurricane Michael that is.

Hurricane Michael was predicted to make landfall in Florida on Wednesday and then make his way up the east coast.  I was to travel on Thursday.  During the three days before I was to head out, I diligently tracked the storm, trying to stay and top of its path, hoping that it didn’t cross mine.  In an effort to be prepared for the worst, my brain was going non-stop trying to figure out what I could do to keep Michael from literally raining out my parade.

I was to fly from Dallas to Charlotte and then from Charlotte to Newport News Virginia, where one of my friends would pick me up and then she and I would drive to the Outer Banks.  Because my flight departed Dallas at 5am, meaning that I had to be at the airport by 3:30am, I went to bed before 10pm the night before.  Such an early bedtime is almost unheard of for me.  At the point I set my alarm for 2am, both my flight to Charlotte and the connection on to Newport News showed “on time.”  Based on my vigilant storm tracking, I had figured that I was going to be about twelve hours ahead of the storm.  I went to sleep feeling like everything was going to go smoothly.

At 2am I awoke to my alarm…and a message from American Airlines saying that my connecting flight from Charlotte to Newport News had been cancelled.  But, American had rerouted me and I had a confirmed seat on a flight into Norfolk instead.  The problem was that my friend was expecting to pick me up in Newport News and this change gave me only a thirty-five minute connection in Charlotte.  I had to make the decision, at 3am, to go ahead at head to Charlotte and hope that the change in my final destination to Norfolk would not totally screw up my friend’s morning.  This change also meant that I was arriving in Virginia two hours before my original itinerary.  I had lots of decisions that had to be made in a short amount of time…in the middle of the night.

I texted my friend at 3:15 when I got to the airport in Dallas to tell her of the change.  I assumed she would see it when she got up, but by that time, I would be well on my way to Charlotte.  I hoped that I would have time to check with her once on the ground in Charlotte.  That crazy girl responded to my text message almost immediately!  Apparently she is a light sleeper.  We were able to regroup and all was well with her.  As I got on the plane to Charlotte, I was relieved knowing that all was under control when I got to the other end.

Until we were ten minutes late landing in Charlotte…

Fortunately, I was seated in the front of the plane.  I deplaned as quickly as I could and made my way to the concourse for my next flight.  I managed a quick text message while we were taxiing to the gate saying that I hoped that I would make my connection.  My friend responded with, “Run, Forest!  Run!”  And I did.  I walked off of one plane and immediately onto the next with a sprint in the middle.  All was good.

We were late getting into Charlotte because of wind and turbulence from the storm’s leading edge.  It was a bumpy ride as we headed to Norfolk.  That didn’t bother me, but the women sitting next to me threw up about ten minutes before we landed.  I got a new seat in the very back of the plane. 🙂  

When I finally got off the plane in Norfolk, my friend was right there waiting for me.  The fun could now begin!

We had am hour and a half drive ahead of us.  I was afraid that she would end up driving in bad weather, but as it turned out, arriving two hours early meant that we made that drive ahead of the rain and with no traffic!  Score!

All of our group arrived by mid-afternoon so we made a quick trip down to the beach.  It was gray, but no rain.  The winds were strong and sand was being blown around.  We felt like we were being sandblasted so only stayed about forty-five minutes. 

 

The rest of our evening was spent catching up, eating, and laughing like we were teenagers at a slumber party!  We finally went to bed at midnight.  By that point, I had been awake for twenty-one hours straight!

The next morning, I awoke to sunshine.  When I made my way to the living room, everyone asked how I had slept.  “Like a rock!” I replied.  I returned the question.  To my surprise, none of them had slept well at all.  Apparently the tropical storm force winds began about 2am and wreaked havoc on the area for a good part of the night.  I missed the storm completely.  

As we made our way through the day, there was evidence of flooding from the storm surges, but for the most part hurricane Michael didn’t cause major devastation where we were.  What it did do was cool things down, mitigate the awful humidity from the previous day, and provide us perfect weather for the rest of our weekend together.  The clouds, a gift from the storm, were amazing!

My flights back to Dallas on Sunday were through the same airports as my original trip – Newport News to Dallas with a layover in Charlotte.  I got to the airport in Newport News a little less than three hours before my flight.  As an aside, the TSA agents at this little airport are the nicest ones that I have ever experienced!  I figured I’d grab a Diet Coke and knit for a couple of hours until it was time to leave.  I had just walked into the small restaurant area when a gate agent came over and asked what flight I was on.  I told her that it departed at 5:50.  It was now 3pm.  She told me that they were afraid that my flight might be late or even cancelled, and that they were boarding a flight to Charlotte right then. It had one seat left on it if I wanted to leave now.  How nice was that!  Onto the airplane I went.  I was so thankful that the gate agent took the time to come find me.  What a blessing!  

I then had a five-hour layover in Charlotte.  I did what all people do with five-hour layovers in an airport.  I ate lunch/dinner and shopped!  Well, I only shopped for about thirty minutes.  I then grabbed a cup of coffee and figured I’d find a place to sit and knit until time for my flight.  I could get a lot of knitting done in three and a half hours!

I found a table just around the corner from my gate.  It had six chairs.  I would have felt guilty about taking up such a large table, but there were plenty of other empty tables.  I’d been there about five minutes when a couple who looked to be about my age asked if they could sit with me.  I said, “Sure.” though I was a little surprised by their request since there were plenty of available tables.  I hadn’t yet gotten my knitting out of my backpack.  I was busily checking weather again because storms were predicted to move through Dallas.  I was on the last flight of the evening and ran the risk of having to spend the night in Charlotte, which I really did not want to do.

After about ten minutes, I did ask the folks that had joined me where they were headed.  They too were flying to Dallas.  I went back to my business and they started chatting to one another.  The gentleman said something about education or teaching.  I asked if he was a teacher and he was.  This was the beginning of a conversation that took us all the way to our boarding time!

As it turned out, my new friends live in the adjacent town to ours.  Both of them had taught in the same school district as Weber.  He now teaches at an area private school and she has a job outside education.  We discovered that we also have several mutual friends, both through the education field and beyond.  And, he and I share an interest in photography.  The icing on the cake was that our political views were also aligned with one another.  Our lively conversation, despite the fact that we were all weary travelers, made the time of waiting pass quickly and reminded me that there is still lots of good in the world.

My fellow travelers and I almost forgot to exchange names, but did so at the last minute.  As I was drinking my first cup of much-needed coffee before work on Monday morning, I sent them each a Facebook friend request.  I now have two new Facebook friends.  How awesome is that!  I would love to see them again and introduce Weber to them.

I know that travel can be stressful.  Fortunately, I am not a nervous traveler.  I enjoy the adventure and most of the time can easily go with the flow.  So many things could have gone seriously wrong with last weekend’s trip, but nothing did and it was amazing all the way around!  Well, except the woman next to me throwing up.  But hey…I was out of the way. Yes, flexibility was required and adjustments had to be made, but in the long run, they were all for the better.

Again, I have been reminded to always look for the bright spot in every situation even when it feels like there can’t possibly be one.