HOPE

MADE IT!  Yup, sure did arrive to Vancouver, Canada late last night.  What should have been a four hour ride from Portland, took ten due to traffic.  OOOo....and me getting lost for two hour in Vancouver, with no GPS due to being in another country and having to shut my phone off.  Needless to say not a good travel day.  That on top of the news that Natalie may have a stress fracture in her foot and Nana took a fall.....was waaayyyyy toooo much for me to handle.  But I MADE IT, may have had a few tears along the way.....but when I was lost and asked God for a sign.....not even 20 seconds later I came over a hill and there was a sign.   A sign for Hwy 1 .....Hope Road!   I couldn't believe it, I was like OK God, thanks for the sign.  But, not easy to have HOPE with sooo many things always going wrong and such bad luck, hard to keep your hopes up only to be disappointed right?  Well, with 7-10 minutes of my "sign" from God I was safely at the hotel.

That was how my three days of travel ended, now let's talk about how they began.  On Thursday, Loree and I made our way from Lexington to Indianapolis.  Along the way we call Air Tran to see if I could fly out on an earlier flight the next day and if there was a cost involved.  We were told there was only one other flight and it was at 6:45 A.M. and no charge to go standby on it.....and PLENTY of seats available.  Being able to arrive in San Fran to start my trek to Portland by noon verses midnight sounded good to me.  However, the "get to the airport two hours or more prior to the flight" was a hard pill to swallow.  

After a short while, we call Air Tran back to verify the info and seats available.  I mean after all if I was going to get up at 3:30-4:00 A.M......we needed to be sure I would have a seat.  Sure enough, same info.  So, said bye to Loree who headed back to Lexington.  

Unfortunately, I couldn't sleep that night and only got 2 1/2-3 hours when my eyes popped open at 3:15 A.M.  Got myself ready and to the lobby by four.  Arrived at the airport by 4:15 and by 4:20 was told....."ooooo sorry no seats available".  OMG.....are you kidding me???  So there I sat for 12 hours until the next flight which was my original flight, lugging my big bag that they wouldn't check until four hours before.  Horrible!

My flight left a few minutes early, with a lay over in Atlanta.  Which arrived five minutes before Natalie and Jackie's flight was taking off from there.  They flew out of Dayton and were going to Seattle.  Loree flew out of Cincy, lay over in Denver and onto Seattle.

After my three hour in ATL....and YES....I considered calling it quits and going home.  But I just couldn't allow myself to give up.  Boarded for SF, only to be seated in front of three, yes three children.  Two of which were already crying.  I was in a panic, I needed a few hours of sleep on that flight so that I could drive an hour to my hotel once I got to SF.  Long story short, I think my snoring was louder then those three sleeping angels....cuz I woke myself up at least six times.

Upon arriving I straight to Fox Rent a Car, which I would recommend....always cheap and good service.   A short line that ended up taking 2 hours due to four young stupid kids from Ireland that were trying to rent two cars.  Once Aton completed all the paperwork and wanted them to sign, they decided they didn't have enough money and he had to start allllll over.  Needless to say, the folks in the growing line were very upset and not happy.  Anyway...ATON was AWESOME!  I was on my way by 1:30 A.M.

But now, my mind was not clear.  I wasn't sleepy in the sense my eyes were closing.  I just couldn't focus.  So, I knew I needed to get to the hotel and get rest which is exactly what I did.  I climbed in bed fifteen minutes before the twenty-four hour mark of my day.  

Didn't sleep in as I had hoped and was back on the road by ten.  My nine hour ride ended up being around twelve due to my frequent stops for caffeine or to walk to clear the mind.  By the time I arrived at Jan's in Portland....I was exhausted and weary to say the least.  She and I had a great visit, topped with a HUGE glass of wine for me.  For I needed to get a good night's rest, since I don't drink very often I knew the wine would do the trick.  And that it did.

Since, Natalie and Loree were with Jackie, I didn't feel the need to rush to Vancouver on Sunday.  So, Jan and I spent a nice morning visiting and catching up.   As, I was readying to leave I got a message from Natalie that she was injured.  And being in a foreign country makes it complicated for treatment.  She saw the tourney doc who recommended she waits to see Powell at home.   So much for a peaceful day of rest and easy drive.  Loaded and go, is what I did.

Wasn't to far when I hit the first of many traffic jams along my four hour ride.  None of which seem to have a reason, buy many were miles long.  I thank Tim for his trucker's atlas and phone call for re routing me to Seattle.  Took four hours to drive a two hour route.....horrible.  I made my way thru Seattle and wanted to talk to my boys before leaving the country.  Called lil Ed, who is excited bout a new job....details to follow.  Then spoke to Nic, who let me know that Nana had a fall that morning.  Fell backwards into the bathtub.  I guess the shower curtain broke the fall, but she did bump her head.  She wasn't complaining about anything but fireman/EMT Nic was monitoring her.

Made it over the boarder in about an hour and half.  Sooo much for my plan to arrive earlier afternoon to miss the weekenders returning over the boarder to return to work.  Yep, I was right in the middle of all that mess.  Headed up 99 to Vancouver and was excited to be within ten miles.  Until that is, I got lost......THANK YOU GOD....FOR MY SIGN.....HOPE....I will promise....in my darkest of hours of bad luck to always hang on to HOPE!

Love and Blessing......Sherry!

We thought we would add the actual picture of the HOPE sign: