Serendipity reigns

It was just weird. Good weird. But weird.

I was moving slowly thanks to my darned toe. Every time I'd try to hurry, the pain would argue strongly against it. So, I found myself packing for San Diego until nearly 1 am. The alarm was set for 4 am. Three short hours of sleep. I gingerly tucked my foot into bed and slumbered.

Got up on time, but departed for the airport 25 minutes later than expected (slow toe again). I was so sleepy that it didn't dawn on me until we reached the terminal that I would need extra time, not less time to get to my gate. And there were lines. I had less than an hour before flight time and I was hobbling!! My husband pushed my suitcase into the Continental area and kissed me goodbye. I race-hobbled to the check in.

Fortunately, Continental had sent me an email allowing me to print my own boarding pass, so it was quick and easy (I must say I am impressed with this airline). I headed for security and the line...was at least 20 minutes long. And that was just the downstairs line. The upstairs line would be longer and slower. Resigned, I started limping toward the end of the line when some kind of a TSA helper came along and said briskly, "Honey, our escalators are broken, you need to get right on that elevator and go upstairs."

Wow. She had just saved me 20 minutes. I glided upstairs and was promptly inserted into the shortest line. Another 20 minutes saved. Wow. I hoisted my carryon bags onto the x-ray conveyor belt, confident that I would make my flight. But I was stopped. The little boot with the Velcro straps protecting my toe was apparently suspicious, so I had to be checked carefully for explosives. I guess that makes sense. A little.

Then I was off to the gate. Which was ALL the way at the end of the terminal. Where was one of those little carts when I needed one? I took a dozen steps and guess what? One of those little carts was sitting there, idle. I begged a ride and was delivered directly in front of the gate, where I was invited to board immediately. Wow.

I moved slowly to my seat, collapsed and slept all the way to Houston, then waited until everyone else was off the plane to hobble out again. My next gate was only two gates from the arrival. Hurray! But no, this plane wasn't going to San Diego. It was bound for Detroit. There had been a gate change. My new gate was two TERMINALS away.

Miracle of miracles, I managed to hitch a ride on the back of yet another electric cart that had stopped for me. Amazing. It took the CART 20 minutes to reach gate E21. I shudder to think of how long it would have taken me on foot. Or toe.

Once again, I was allowed to board along with "Platinum members." I wasn't allowed to sit with them though. I was still relegated to Economy class. But near the front of the plane anyway.

All that was left was the rental car. At SAN, I retrieved my suitcase, hooked everything together and went out into the balmy California sunshine. The Hertz bus was waiting for me! WOW!

We jiggled and joggled over to the Hertz lot, where the driver let us Gold Members out at the Gold Terminal. Everyone else scurried off the bus to find their cars, but I needed a minute to regroup. I stood right where the driver had dropped my bags and looked around to find the parking place slot for my car, "Roggli, Linda: 200:" blinked the Gold Members sign. Where was 200? There was 212, 202, 201. Number 200 was the white car with its trunk open right in front of me! Wow again. This was really getting weird. Good weird, as I said.

It wasn't over yet. I headed for Escondido, to drop off my luggage a the Hidden Valley Artists' Retreat somewhere up in the hills. I had left my directions at home, but no problem: I had my laptop with the email. Or so I thought. My laptop had failed to download that particular email. Hmmm. I would call. No. My cell phone was dead and I had only a wall charger. No car charger. I stopped at a Shell station, already discouraged that the guy would give me the brush off.

But wait. This was a WOW day. The clerk not only helped me find the address on a map, but drew directions for me! WOW.

And even when I got lost (several times) up and down the dirt roads, people helped over and over again. I made it to the retreat center, but had to leave again quickly to make it to my 2 pm appointment--the reason I flew all the way across the country.

I was 25 minutes late. Took the wrong turn on the I-5 and hit rush hour slowdown. My cell phone was dead so I couldn't call. But I walked in the door JUST as the guy was ready to give up on me. Instead, I made the appointment, did what was necessary and sailed out at 4:30. Wow.

Very weird. A totally WOW day from a series of disasters. The charmed life, I think it's called. It rarely happens to me, especially in this weird sequence one-after-another. But I'm not complaining. In fact, I think I'll order up a few more of theses weird-wow days. Pretty cool, eh?