Missed Connections

On my recent trip to Ketchikan, I had quite an interesting time. A series of "missed connections". My airport shuttle to Kansas City was uneventful but it went downhill from there. We boarded the plane bound for Chicago on time, only to find out that the radar was down in Chicago so we waited. While my connections were not terribly close, losing time, even minutes, can change everything. We finally departed and arrived in Chicago, even later and I missed my flight by a mere couple of minutes. I mean the plane was still at the gate but they had closed the flight, meaning, they filled all the seats. I was told to go to rebooking a couple of aisles over. If you are familiar with Chicago airport, the distance is quite long. After talking with the agent my choices were to wait until the following morning for the next Alaska Airline flight or book on American for a flight that left in three hours to Seattle. Well, of course I opted for the earlier flight. While waiting I chatted with a family (turns out the father is a Nazarene Paster from Seattle) and they were just returning from a missions trip in Russia. In the course of the conversation, a few names were dropped and to my surprise, they knew our pastor's (in Junction City) father who lives in Denver. Wow! Small world.
I arrived in Seattle very late and surprisingly, so did my checked bag. I tried to find a cheap hotel for a few hours of sleep and found no rooms at the inns. In desperation, I called one more only to find out on arrival that the rooms were $135 a night for a single. Too rich for my blood, seeing as I was only going to be there for about 5 to 6 hours so I started to leave and a young woman with a three year old daughter approached my and asked if I would be willing to split a room. Now let me say that I have never done anything like that in my entire life but at 2:30 in the morning my time, I threw caution to the wind and agreed. It turns out she grew up in Sitka. We got a room with two queen beds and basically dropped because we were so tired.
The next morning, or I should say later in the morning, we had continental breakfast together and went our separate ways.
I rented a car and drove to Portland and surprised my sister with a visit. She had no idea I was coming and it turned out to be a pleasant day and I was also able to see my nephew as well. I then drove to Washington and spent Friday night and all day Saturday with my cousin out on his little farm. He has 5 miniature donkeys, one a brand new baby that was sooooo cute, nine cows and some chickens. It was a great visit and I left Sunday morning to finish my trip to Ketchikan which went smoothly.
There is a second chapter to this little tale but I will save it for later. The trip home was also a series of missed connections.
Now onward to Oklahoma!!