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Spring Break was never meant to be like this. Okay, so I planned a little bit of a hectic stretch–8 days, 5 states, speaking 7 times, with everything from Harvard University to a youth rally in the middle of somewhere in Virginia, from speaking to a bunch of youth pastors in Florida to chapel at Criswell College in Dallas.
But I never expected the airlines to go berserk along the way. The trip to Harvard went without a hitch. The youth rally to Virginia, well, we ended up for a variety of reasons arriving home at 230 AM Saturday morning. Then a sweet rally near Raleigh on Saturday. A nice Sunday at home for a change to attend my home church and to catch a very enjoyable movie (Dan in Real Life) with my bride; life was moving along without a hitch.
And then along came Monday. One of my super students named Walter Strickland joined me to journey south to sunny Florida on Monday to speak that night to Florida youth pastors and the next morning at the Youth Pastor Summit (go to studentleadership.net). Josh also flew that day to Dallas where I would join him on Tuesday. Yeah right.
Our flight to Orlando, a nice tidy direct route to the city built by Disney, never made it. Delayed, then again, then canceled. So back home we went.
We journeyed to the airport again to catch a flight after 7 that would take us through Atlanta, getting us to Orlando at midnight. Oh well, so much for speaking to the Florida youth pastors. But that was fine; after all, Josh’s flight made it to Dallas without a hitch.
So off we went. I left out how that Delta, operating now like a third world nation’s carrier (with apologies to all third world nations), treated us like a couple of annoyances. And worst, they supposedly put us on first class from Atlanta to Orlando, which was sweet given the day we had so far. Not so fast. As we finally walked toward the plane board we were pulled and told unceremoniously that we were not to be in the first class section and to get to our coach seats like good little boys. Fine. I sat in a middle seat between a man speaking a language unknown to the modern world on one side and a man who buried himself in his earbuds on the other (who also smelled like 12 packs of bootlegged cigarettes). Did I mention I had a sinus infection? That malodorous odor so blessed me.
But arrive we did. Finally. Mercifully. And a dear brother named Chris Leader, at whose camp I will preach this summer, picked us up sometime after midnight. I am guessing no one on staff wanted to see us at that point. They would have been right. Our bags came two hours, well 20 minutes later. Off we went to the hotel. Only one problem. None of us knew how to get there.
So, after several U turns and misdirections we did make it. I immediately went to the business center to print my notes for the next day. The notes I planned to print at 5 PM earlier that day. Oh well. So about 130 AM I sat in the business center, feeling like a zombie with a bad case of ringworms. I stumbled to the room, crawled into the most comfortable bed I have ever slept in, and smiled. It was 2 AM.
So I arose the next day. Well that same day. Surely this day could never go worse than yesterday/today. Surely. Don’t call me surely.
Walter and I arose and waited for our ride. A little paranoid from my recent travels, I called our young chauffer. Imagine my joy when he said, “Am I supposed to pick you up now?” Yea buddy, another great day.
So we head to Universal Theme Park where I will speak at the Theatre at the City Walk. We almost missed valet parking and had to walk with all our stuff about 23 miles. Okay about a mile. But I remembered valet parking and we got there just fine.
My talk went fine I think. Nice folks, very receptive audience. Finally, everything is coming together. All is well. I looked at my watch and realized I needed to head to the airport. One problem. My ride was no where to be found and would not answer his cell. I put out an APB, Amber Alert,the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, Scotland Yard, Underdog, and even enlisted his wife to find the young buck. Dr. Thom Rainer, seeing my plight, volunteered to take me to the airport. Ah friends are great in hard times. But my bags were in the young buck’s car. So at the last possible time he showed up and we headed to the airport. I should say the young man who was my ride is a very fine fellow. He simply had never been in this setting before. So he and I and another brother headed to the airport. Time was tight but we would make it. Then he looked at me with such appropriate words given my last 24 hours: “If I do not stop for gas we won’t make it.” Really.
I bit my lip. I took a deep breath. I said, “You do not take people to the airport often do you?” I asked.
“No sir.”
“Let me give you some advice.”
“Yes sir,” he replied eagerly.
“Never take someone to the airport on a tight schedule on a completely empty tank of gas.” I wanted to say “never in your natural life let your car get so low on gas,” but I feared my voice tone my have dashed the young fellow’s spirits. My dashed spirits would be enough.
I felt for a moment like the Oracle of Delphi, considering the great advice about gasoline I had offered. We did find a gas station, and I began to wonder how fast I could get through the airport. Then the other gentlemen, who was on the same flight as I headed to Dallas, said something I could hardly wait to hear (enter sarcasm now): “I just got a call–our flight was canceled.”
At that point I remembered those sage words of my mother, “It is better to laugh than to cry.” So I laughed. And I wanted to cry.
We got to the airport and I stood in line to change my flight. For THREE HOURS. When they changed my flight they gave me news with such enthusiasm: “Good news! We can get you on a flight tomorrow at 5 PM.” FIVE PM!?!?!?!?!?!?! So much for speaking at Criswell on Wednesday. I called every airline,travel agents, I tried calling NASA or a hot air balloon company, bullet train or helicopter, all to no avail.
So here I sit in the Hyatt Regency (hey if I am stuck I might as well be stuck in a nice place) at the Orlando airport. I have called my wife several times. I have called my children. I have called friends. I even called a couple of enemies. Just kidding.
I have had some interesting days in airports. Never have I had two days like these. I am 48. I am praying that the next time I am due for this is sometime after age 90.
Mount Saint Mary’s just won the play in game, by the way. They face my Tar Heels. Their fate will be about like mine the past two days I hope haha.
Traveling can be quite an odyssey. One thing is certain. The Monday of my next break, I am going nowhere.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 19th, 2008 at 8:28 am and is filed under Blog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.