9:10 to Yuma

I made it home after a wonderful conference in Phoenix where I got to spend time with some of my favorite people — writers! Including our own Robin Lee Hatcher. The Faith, Hope, & Love Christian Writers Conference was my favorite conference of the year, for sure. But I think my book characters plotted some revenge on me for all the obstacles I throw in their paths, because getting to the conference was a crazy adventure.

I flew from Abilene to Dallas with no issues, but a monsoon hit Phoenix on Friday and all air traffic was grounded. After several hours of delays, they finally cancelled my flight and sent all of us to Customer Service to re-book. When I finally made it through the line, my ticket agent told me that the earliest she could get me from Dallas to Phoenix was 5:30 on Saturday evening. I would miss nearly all of the conference! Including the session I was supposed to teach at 3:00. Thankfully, I’m an avid watcher of The Amazing Race and knew to eavesdrop on other passengers. The gentleman next to me was also desperate to get to Phoenix and his agent had found him a flight to Yuma that night. I immediately asked for the same option. After a few minutes, my agent found me a seat on the 9:10 to Yuma. (Sounds like a movie, right?) So after 10 hours in the Dallas airport, I made plans to spend the night in the Yuma airport and hoped to catch an early flight to Phoenix from there. I went so far as to buy a travel pillow and a toothbrush and toothpaste, since I planned to rough it, and all my personal items were in my checked bag.

Fast forward to Yuma, and I come to discover that it is a very small airport. No worries . . . I’ll just find a corner somewhere to curl up. Only they close after the last flight. They kicked me outside! Very apologetically, of course.

Now, I could have found a hotel and called an Uber, but I still wanted to make sure I could get on an early flight. And the man said the property was safe and well lit, and I could use one of the outside benches if I wanted. I’m also terribly cheap by nature, and it bothered me that I was paying for a hotel in Phoenix that I wasn’t using that night, and I didn’t want to pay for another hotel in Yuma for the same night. So . . . I took the outdoor bench option. It helped that the man from the customer service line was on a bench, too with his son. He was only there for about 2 hours until his wife came to pick him up, but it helped. After another 2 hours, the airport opened at 3:00 am and I was able to move back inside.

As you can imagine, I got basically no sleep. I dozed a little bit, but my over-fifty body didn’t work well on the hard metal bench. I did feel a bit like an intrepid heroine, though. Overcoming obstacles with grit and determination. Or maybe foolishness. Not sure which was more dominant. Anyway, I survived. I even got a seat on the 7:00 am flight out of Yuma and made it to the conference in time to freshen up and jump in after missing only one session. WooHoo! I even managed to reunite with my long lost luggage, which was a HUGE blessing. Never have I been happier to see a hair brush. Ha!

I made it through the day running on adrenaline. Taught my session, introduced others, and smiled through it all with true joy because God had taken care of me, and life was good. Then I slept 10 hours before leading worship Sunday morning.

I felt good after a full night’s sleep!

God is good, even if his weather timing was a mite inconvenient.

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Have you ever experienced dramatic obstacles when traveling?

I came home from the conference with lots of book goodies, and I’d love to share with you. One person who leaves a comment on today’s post will receive these great new books. (US addresses only.) Winner will be posted in the comments on Friday.