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It's always great to sleep in my own bed after a trip. And it's a lot of fun, if you know your bed has been used in your absence. In this case, Maribeth and Everley had used my bed on Friday night. The only family members left in town on that night were Maribeth, Everley, Lynnette, and Lindley, and they decided to all stay at my house (this was because Maribeth was going to work early on Saturday and it was easier for everyone to stay at my house, since Lynnette would be in charge of both Lindley and Everley). Anyhow, the point is that Steve and I have one of those softness/hardness adjustable beds (that's probably the first generation of that type). Steve keeps his soft and comfy and I keep my side firm and sturdy. However, Maribeth is like her father, and I told her to adjust it as she wished - to which I forgot until I heaved myself into bed, and almost sank to the floor (at least in my opinion)! I quickly readjusted the controls, and soon I was fast asleep.

Yes, it was good to be home, especially after yesterday's Davidson travel fun (you really didn't expect the trip to end on a routine note, did you?). After I finally limped back to the hotel room after the race, I had about 90 minutes to shower and change before we were supposed to be out of our room (that would be at 11am). The Super Shuttle to the airport was going to pick us up at 11:50 for our flight out of LAX. Everything was going fine - I had elevated my feet for awhile, taken a shower, gotten dressed, and was in the middle of finishing packing, when Molly looked at our SS confirmation. Apparently I had put in the wrong flight departure time. I had put that our flight was leaving at 2:50pm instead of the actual 2pm (and who knows when I made that SS reservation and how many times I had changed our flights since then). Anyhow, Molly and I began to question whether or not we would be making our flight, if we were going to be picked up at the 11:50 time. With race day traffic and LA traffic in general not knowing how many stops and where the SS would be making after our pickup and the distance to LAX, this didn't look too good.

We got all our bags and headed outside. Molly called SS and talked to someone who said it would be impossible to change our SS to an earlier one. We decided to just take a taxi (think $$$) instead and be sure that we could make our flight. We got to the airport in plenty of time to check our bags (we came with two carry-ons and were leaving with four, but thank you Southwest for not charging to check them). We headed through security, where the x-ray dude pulled our bags because he saw something suspicious in them. Of course we knew what they were - our race medals, which show up weird under x-ray. He pulled them to the side, and ignored them for 10 minutes. He also didn't bother to call for anyone to inspect them - I guess he wanted the three agents standing around to finish their conversation. Eventually he mentioned that somebody should check our bags, which they did, including running the tell-all swab around everything in our bags. We were deemed okay to travel, and headed to our gate.

Well, we started heading to our gate, only to figure out that it was the "down the hall in the back" gate that we had passed by. So we turned around and headed there, and came upon another 160 people waiting for their Southwest flight. To Nashville. That was a nonstop (ours wasn't going to be). The waiting flight was delayed an hour or more. Molly went to ask if we could go stand-by on it, which we could, but it would cost $260 more each, and if we got on, we would probably board last, which would mean sitting in the worst seats possible (which would be the last two seats on the plane that nobody wanted). We decided to stick with our original plans. And then because the flight that was delayed was not going to leave until ours was, our gate got changed - to the other end of the airport.

That was no problem, since our flight was late getting in. It was even later getting to our gate, because while the airport told us to change gates, they neglected to tell the pilot that our gate had changed. But soon it arrived, deboarded the passengers, and we started loading. While everyone was getting on and finding a seat, the lady pilot got on and apologized for being late, and then said the words that I want to hear from the pilot - "There are rain showers over the mountains, and it was really bumpy coming in." Yippee. She then partially made up for it by saying that she has a lead foot and was going to try to get to San Antonio (our first stop) really fast (which she did). But my hopes for a smooth flight were dashed.

Soon everyone was boarded and we took off. And I braced myself for a bumpy ride. Of course, I prayed to God that He would find us a smooth ride and push those rain clouds away. And do you know what He said to me? He said, "Don't look out, just trust in Me." And so I did. Every time I wanted to check on those rain clouds and/or the mountains, I just kept repeating His instructions. I told myself to keep doing that until He told me to look out the window. And I did when He told me to, and there were no rain clouds to be seen. We made it to San Antonio with no problems, and landed just in time to get lined up for our flight home, which was a little lumpy, but was okay.

I don't know if I will ever really like flying. But I do know that every time I get on a plane and am up in the air, I am never alone. I don't know if a flight will be bumpy, lumpy, or smooth. But I know that the One who controls everything is with me. All I have to do is listen and trust. Just like I need to do every day of my life.

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Thankful today for: taking Everley to school and chatting with her teachers; Molly going to the doctor and getting meds for her cold; lazy day of doing nothing