Go right at Jesus....

I am going to abbreviate the beginning of this story because I would have to get an ISBN number if I included that but just know it was actually well thought out....

John needed to leave Kamp in MO a day early to get back to Houston to play in a baseball tournament because the team is actually down a couple people. David left his car at the Little Rock Airport after volunteering at Kamp for a week. John is up at Kamp with a friend, Colby that I need to get back home to Bryan. Oh yea, and just to make things a LITTLE more crazy, I went to El Paso to see my parents.


The plan was for me to fly on Thursday at 11 from El Paso to Little Rock via a plane change in Dallas and drive up to Branson TX and check into the hotel. I was suppose to be there by 7 pm.

What happened.... hehe hehe....

My mother drops me off at the El Paso Airport, I check the monitors and my plane is still on time. I print off my boarding pass and proceed to my gate. The mood in the airport if very tense. Everyone seems grumpy but I skip merrily to my gate - B4. Again at the gate, I check my flight and it is still ON TIME. What I didn't know is the at the Dallas Airports had been shut down because of weather and tornado's. There is an announcement that my gate has been changed to B5. So I cross the hall and wait patiently. Then they STOLE my airplane. Apparently, there was a flight that was suppose to go to San Diego that couldn't leave because they were waiting on a part for THEIR aircraft from.... .wait for it.... DALLAS. So they just loaded all those people up on MY plane and they left. So we were moved over to that gate B6. We would get updates periodically. I decided I needed to stand in line to talk to the "gate agent" because I was HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS that I wouldn't make my connection to Little Rock. I approached the agent. She looked up from her terminal and tried to form a smile but she didn't try hard. So I looked at her and said: "I want to Thank you for all your tireless work and congratulate you on your new powers." She kind of looked confused and took my tickets to see what I could possibly need. I continued: "I don't believe I will be on time to make my connection to Little Rock and listening to all the people in line it all sounds like it is your fault." She hesitantly glances up at me. I finish: "It must be awesome to be equip with the power to manipulate weather!" She busted out laughing, now she was wearing a real smile. She tapped on her keyboard while we discussed the responsibility of the power and I moved on.

FINALLY - for my 11 flight (at 2:00) they told us to lineup at the gate. We all shuffled in order. Some of us joked, some of us didn't. Once we got assembled the voice on the overhead announced that DALLAS had put us on a 1/2 hour hold because it was being slammed with incoming flights. Everyone shuffled off - I just sat straight down. I wasn't going to wander around and find a spot to sit. We finally boarded the plane at 2:30 and was on our way to Dallas. When I got off the plane at 4:45 I was suppose to be two gates over for my 5:05 flight. You couldn't move in the Dallas airport. There were THOUSANDS of people there. You had to do this rotate thing to get by people. It took me 10 minutes to go 30 steps to the gate I needed. When I got there, my 5:05 flight was delayed til 8:15pm. I had to pee, I hadn't eaten and I had a headache that would put down a bull elephant. One of those headaches where the room moves and it makes you nauseous. I couldn't get to a bathroom, I couldn't get to the food court so I went to the bookstore and bought Tylenol and a coke. I just found a corner and ate my tylenol. About 7 the airport starts to thin out so I venture to go get food. I went to the Chili's too go thing and ordered potato soup. I figured there wouldn't be a lot of prep time for that. Apparently it takes 20 minutes to put soup in a cup in Dallas. I get my soup and go back to the gate. You couldn't sit on the floor next to the windows because the windows leaked during the storms and soaked the carpet - luckily I was wearing black shorts so it just didn't matter. My plane did leave at 8:15 and I arrive in Little Rock at 9:15.

I scurry to David's car and get settled in for the 3 1/2 drive ahead of me. I call David and he is giving me directions. Side note: Men and women don't communicate the same and when men try to communicate like women they fail. So David said after I left the airport parking place to "GO RIGHT AT JESUS". ????? Sure enough, there was a huge billboard sign that was green and in gigantic letters all it said was JESUS. So I took a right. The road was dark and unmarked. I called David and he said to turn around and try again... but really how do you mess up with those instructions? So I turned around and got on the road I was going on and there was an access ramp to the highway to my right AFTER Jesus. David said to take it but you had to know which of the 3 highways you wanted. David just kept yelling go to the one that is to the right, back toward Texas. .... TEXARKANA was on one of the signs on the far right and so I chose that one. If anyone knows anything about me, it is that I am directionally challenged. I accept that and am an amazing co-pilot. So I was told to drive about 5-10 minutes and I would get to the interchange. So I drive, and drive, and drive, no interchange, no signs and it doesn't "look" right. So I call....""No no...keep driving..." so I do. Finally I reach Benton, Ark. I KNOW I have never been to Benton, Ark and we have been coming to camp for 7 years. So I call - "David, I am on 30 East in Benton, Ark.... Is that right?" ... "Well let me get on Google." So he looks up Little Rock and says... "I don't even see a 30 on here" to which I respond "GOOGLE BENTON ARKANSAS PLEASE CUZ THAT IS WHERE I AM" . You hear typing and then a moment of silence and then he says these words...."Oh, you are SOUTH of Little Rock, Your in the wrong place." That is when I finally started crying.... "I TRUSTED You... you said to go right at Jesus and it was dark....insert random babbling here" He tried to calm me down and told me just to turn around... Well, Benton ARK you don't JUST turn around. You have to do this double knot pattern to get back to go the other direction. FINALLY with the help of Google and David, I get to HWY 65. I didn't make it to my hotel until 1:30 AM. I collapsed in on top of my bed fully clothed until the room phone rang at 2AM. I didn't answer, I just crawled under the blanket and went to sleep...

And that was was easier than day 2 of 3.
More tomorrow....