Just Another Davidson Vacay

Back in the old days, before he went beserk, O.J. Simpson was a television commercial star who ran through airports.  I bring that up only to say that I wish I could have been in the Nashville airport today - I think I could have seen Sam do the same thing (as in run through the airport, not go beserk).  But I digress - let me explain. 

Recently, the Mississippi State University baseball team won the regional tournament (or something like it) and qualified to go to the College World Series in Omaha.  Although he wouldn't be able to stay for the entire weekend, Steve decided that he and Sam would go and see MSU play their first game.

Steve made flight and hotel reservations and then made a call or two to see if some of his friends can get him two premium tickets to the game (meaning free).  Somebody came through and was going to have his people FedEx the tickets to Steve that would arrive this morning.

Steve went to work and texted me several times to see if the tickets had arrived - which they hadn't.  He came home early for lunch and Sam came over so I could take them both to the airport for a 1:15 flight.  While he was at home, he called his connection to report that no tickets had arrived (and then starting looking for tickets online).

Since Steve likes to get to the airport early before a flight (preferably the day before or at least 18 hours before the flight leaves), it was obvious that we were going to have to leave with no tickets.  As we were going to get in the car for the airport run, I asked what was I supposed to do if I got back to the house and the tickets were there.  We had a brief discussions of options should that scenario happen, but nobody seemed too enthusiastic about the possibilities.

During the car ride, Judy/Julie/Jill/Whatever-her-name-was called Steve to offer apologies about no tickets and tell him they had tracked the tickets and were going to re-route them to their hotel and hopefully the tickets would be there tomorrow morning.  I let Sam and Steve out and went back home.

Once I was at home, I couldn't pull into my driveway because it was blocked - yep, by the FedEx truck.  Ms. FedEx lady was walking back down my sidewalk after depositing the envelope (yes, with the tickets) in my front door.  I scurried up the lawn, yanked the tickets, and called Sam, knowing that if I called Steve there would be way too much drama.

Sam and I devised a plan where he would come back through security (he was in the Delta or American or PuddleJumper executive lounge while Steve was somewhere down in the Southwest suburb area).  He would do this without telling Steve, because Sam was not into the drama either.  I drove a bit over the speed limit, pulled up to the departing passenger lane, and threw the tickets out the window to Sam (I might have pulled up on the curb, but we needed a little drama).  Sam grabbed the tickets and ran back through the doors to the airport to go back through security and head for the gate - with not too much time to spare.

As a mother of adult children, I knew better than to call/text to see the results.  I patiently waited until I got a text from Sam simply saying, "Made it!"  Sure enough, he made it on the plane (Steve had already boarded) and gave the tickets to a very surprised Steve, who said Sam was a little sweaty, obviously from his dash down three different concourses to get to the gate.

I am telling you about this because it's pretty typical of our vacation travel.  Once we were in Portland and were told we had no hotel reservation in a city where the hotel were all full (we did, and since I travel with a "travel folder", I had a copy - and nobody made fun of my travel folder any more!).  We ended up with a room, possibly the smallest room ever, but we managed to get four people in it.

We also mess up flight reservations, have flights that are late and arrive too late for planned activities, have been assigned rooms and unlocked them to find people already staying in them, and been given rental cars that we would never have chosen - but they were the only ones left.  In other words, we try to roll with whatever vacation burps come up.

Because in the end, the tickets may not come, or the flight may be late, or it may rain, but those things really don't matter.  We find a way to work around those things.  The only thing that really matters is spending time together.  And hopefully not with complete strangers who are occupying our assigned hotel room!!

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The Good Stuff From Today:  Lindley and Everley time; picking up Lindley from school; Calypso dinner with half the family; ticket arrival