There must be a light under the bushel!

That was some trip!

It was Friday morning and I set my alarm bright and early so that I would have plenty of time to get to the airport for my trip to Illinois. I sleepily turned to press the snooze button to get in an extra 6 minutes of sleep.

I was excited that I was going to get to visit my friend, Robin, since she moved away this summer and I haven't seen her since she left.

When I stretched my hand toward the clock and squinted out of one eye, I noticed the clock said it was 7:00 am. My flight left at 7:25.

Luckily, I had already packed, so I flew from my bed, grabbed my bag, and ran out the door. The trip to the airport ordinarily took 45 minutes. I made it to the check-in counter at exactly 7:25. I can't even remember the drive or how I managed it; it seemed surreal.

I had placed my ticket on reserve but had not actually paid for it, so before I paid, I asked the attendant if the plane had left yet. She had assured me that it had not and processed my credit card. Well, they had computer problems, and then her supervisor called her away to speak with her. By the time they processed my information, it was 7:45. After I signed the credit slip, the attendant informed me that the plane had just taken off.

I was outraged! She refused to refund my money or even to bump me to a later flight. She informed me that I would have to purchase another ticket. I didn't know what to do. Robin would be waiting for me at the airport, and I couldn't get in touch with her. I bought another ticket.

The most absurd thing happened next. My plane from Houston to Illinois was rerouted. We had to pass through London. Well, once we began our approach into London, they informed me that I would have to stay the night there. However, the hotel where they had booked me wasn't exactly in London; it was in the surrounding countryside. I had to take a helocopter to get there.

Oh, it gets worse. The helocopter didn't have enough fuel to take me all the way, so they landed in an area of breathtaking landscape in the middle of nowhere. They had a horrible time finding a place to put the aircraft down, but finally they set down in between some trees next to a beautiful lake. They dropped me and my luggage off and pointed me in the direction of my 5 mile walk to London, where I could get further help and directions to my hotel.

Well, I couldn't very well carry my luggage all that way, so I had to leave it behind and then began my trek.

Once I reached London, the craziest thing happened. I ran into some teachers I work with who had taken a group of students to Europe for a trip. However, they really didn't have any time to work on my dilemma since they were on a tight schedule.

I finally found someone who would be willing to fly me (in another helocopter) back to my luggage and then on to my hotel. Again, they had a problem landing but eventually found an acceptable spot. The problem was that the spot was on the opposite side of the lake.

I was debating my options when I noticed a long vine that looked capable of reaching to the other side of the lake. I thought, why not? Everything about the trip had been so far out of the ordinary, it really couldn't be that absurd to think I could do it.

I took a running leap and grabbed onto the vine! I flew across the beautiful lake and landed squarely next to my luggage! Then I realized I had no way to get the luggage back across the lake with me.

It's a good thing I woke up from my dream at this time because I was exhausted from trying to come up with solutions to my very inventive problems!