… Far Outweigh the Unplanned Messes
The travels that began my holiday trip went so smoothly…until I got to Kansas.
I’d flown out to CO to help my daughter and her family move their RV (their home) to KS. The two days it took us to move were fabulous with incredible, epic weather. Their move, seriously, couldn’t have gone any smoother. We celebrated the final sunset of 2024 in the RV parking section of a Love’s Travel Stop. So fitting for the ending of my epic year of travel!
We arose next morning to a glorious sunrise – the promise of a grand new beginning to 365 days full of potential wonder and achievement!
Everything was going as planned…
We spent the 2nd and 3rd day of the year getting settled and discovering the surrounding area. And then the warnings began…
Potential snow accumulation became an emergency evoking blizzard. The icy “spitting” began late Saturday afternoon. Temperatures plummeted into the negative numbers and the winds began to howl. Driving pin-like specks permeated the darkness for seemingly endless hours. A brilliant flash of light awoke me and seconds later, a loud boom. Thundersnow… it’s a rare phenomenon and I’d never experienced it before.
We awoke the next morning to high winds and relentless flakes of snow.
Sunday morning, I’d tried to check in for my Monday flight, owning the fact it was an absurd waste of time. As soon as the app opened on my phone, CANCELED was the first word I saw. ALL flights were cancelled through Tuesday. The impending backup meant I wasn’t able to get a flight until Thursday.
Late Sunday afternoon, the howling subsided and a thick blanket of frozen whiteness had encapsulated our world.
The sun tried its best to release from the captivity of remaining snow clouds. I ventured outside to explore…landing thigh deep in drifts of snow. The temperatures were brutal and my stay outdoors was short lived.
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While I was living in my car and traveling the country, countless times I had to take “detours”, enduring the “messiness” of the situation. It’s not what I had planned, it wasn’t in my calendar, it’s now what I wanted and yet….
Those unexpected, unplanned “messy” situations delivered such unexpected, unplanned heartwarming memories…. Treasures from totally accepting the process of “messy”.
Those extra snow filled days gave me such precious extra time with no schedule. We were all totally captivated with the winter wonderland outside our door. No time constraints, no schedules, no “have to’s”…nothing but unencumbered hours to immerse ourselves in the after-beauty of an unexpected winter blizzard.
I boarded my flight early yesterday to head to NC – switching my planned flight at the airport after noticing cancelled flights out of Dallas, my intended destination. An ice storm had moved into the area and was wreaking havoc on the airline schedules.
I was planning to leave tomorrow (Saturday) morning to drive to PA, my final destination of my holiday travels. And now we are watching the radar as snow clouds form and cover the southeast. Predictions of snow accumulation will delay my start to home.
And you know what? I’m so excited to see what wonderful treasured memories will be found in the “messy” of my remaining holiday travel!
