Have you ever had one of those times that made you step back and say – is this really happening? Only to realize that yes, yes it is indeed happening and you are caught smack dab in the middle of A Series of Unfathomable Events…..

…the conclusion…

It only took one minute of me standing in the customer service line before I turned to my new friend, College Girl Jen and proclaimed: I’m renting a car. Do you want to ride with me? She proceeded to phone her mom and ask what she should do, being only 19 she assured her mom that I was indeed 26 and could rent the car (as I shouted over the phone – I promise..I’m NOT crazy! *because that sounds completely legit…). Her mom’s reply? “Oh, just do it!” Golden. I had a passenger to help me stay awake for the ride and split the cost. Done.

The College Boy who gave such a valiant attempt at making the flight happened to be behind us in line. I turned to him and said well – we’re renting a car and driving to Charleston….do you want to ride with us? He thought about it for a moment. (again I muttered, I promise – I’m not crazy. I just want to go home. *at this point I was realizing how crazy I indeed sounded offering rides to COMPLETE strangers at 11:15 at night.) It was as if a light bulb turned on in his mind as he debated then said “You know what…yea…I’m in…let’s do this!” Woo wooo another passenger in the bag!

We started to meander away from customer service as I turned around to let The Shrink know the situation, offering him an in on it. As with the other two, he hesitated – thought for a bit – and then said let me check with my buddy (The Dad). After a bit of chatter between the two, phones were hung up and they were out of the line, officially part of this crazy scheme of driving home. But there we were, 5 jilted passengers standing in front of customer service, at the cross roads for the night thinking -

OK. Do we do this? Do we really get in a car with 4 other strangers and drive for 5 1/2 hours? The answer my friends is: Well, why the Hell not?!

And we were off to rent a car. The initial introductions were made – hi, [insert name, mental status, how you happened to get stuck in this particular situation] – you know, the norm. I caught myself sitting on the train looking at my new found best friends, thinking to myself…Oh Jennie Boo! I hope I don’t end up on Dateline or 20/20, because this could be one of those situations. BUT then again, I was in the company of 2 doctors and 2 college students..technically I was the odd ball.

After making it over to the rental car area we were quick to discover there were NO cars available for our situation. NO ONE would rent us a one way car to Charleston right then and there. (Which by the way I knew was a lie because I had called a car company earlier and there WAS a car but I hadn’t made the reservation – My b.) So we split up, each of us taking a car company to tackle until one of us – The Dad – secured a vehicle. During this process, The Shrink was about to give up on us but I insisted we were going home tonight! Solidarity. We were all in this and I wasn’t gonna let anybody back out now.

Midnight: all five of us are loaded up in the SUV (making sure everyone hit the restroom before hand) and finally heading out to the airport. Estimated drive time? 5 1/2 hours. The Dad was driving. First mission – grab some take out food for the ride. At this point I was able to throw out my “actually, I’m a vegan…” joke which I’ll admit I had been saving for the opportune moment that finally came. (pulled off seamlessly, might I add) *not that there’s anything wrong with being vegan, I’m just a meat & potatoes kind of gal.* Taco Bell food at 12:30 a.m.? Check. Surplus of Mountain Dew to drink? Check. Back on the road….

About two hours later we stop at the rest stop where me and Jen hop out of the car only to walk up to a “Closed for Cleaning” sign on the women’s bathroom. Seriously?!? Are you KIDDING ME right now?!??! Do you have ANY idea how much Mountain Dew I’ve been drinking to stay awake?? And then we turned around to see another door that wasn’t closed. :) As we were walking out I casually mentioned to Jen- You know, I bet they moved the car. Stupid boys….of course they did. Apparently even at 2 something in the morning these kids still had jokes. [insert sarcastic Awesome here] haha

Back on the highway and things are running smoothly, good convos going, everyone (except The Shrink) is awake, The Dad’s still driving, the College Boy is navigating, things are going well. Low and behold what do we see?

Flashing Blue Lights

Of course. Because no spur of the moment, out of this world, early Monday morning road trip would be complete without being pulled over by a State Trooper. Thank you, state of Georgia. The look on the Trooper’s face when he saw inside our vehicle was priceless. I’m sure he was wondering the same thing we all were at some point, what on Earth is going on here?! Which is probably why he pulled The Dad out of the car for a little chatter, opted to let us all go with a warning and we were back on our way. Thank you officer for not implanting another thorn in our sides!

The car ride continued with a few more jokes, stories and shenanigans. It would be impossible for me to recount all which was said as I was way past delirious at this point and pushing 24 hours sans sleep. My phone died so I unfortunately had to stop documenting the journey with blurry photos. I would however like to throw out a big thanks to my new friend Jen, for saying she had to go to the restroom again because I was too chicken to say I had to go again because I didn’t want them to yell at me. :)

We rolled into the airport at roughly around 5:30. None of us had slept yet, except for The Shrink who drifted in and out the whole ride. (20 miles outside of Charleston our gas light came on – of course!) We had found out that we could possibly be reimbursed for the portions of the tickets we didn’t use and as for the car, we’d have to take that up with the gate agent. It was on. We all pile out of the car and head into the gate together. Tired. Wired. Past the point of delirium and entering the state of disillusioned. Solidarity. We were finishing this off the same way we started. 5 random strangers on a mission. What happens? No dice on the rental car reimbursement, but they offered us each a voucher. The Dad and The Shrink filed claims for their luggage as me and the College Kids turned in the car. We met back at baggage claim where we all said our goodbyes and parted ways at 6 a.m.

This is the point in the night where I got a little sad.

It all started with one crazy idea…and 7 hours later it was all ending.

Five strangers who hadn’t known each other were now bonded forever by a mere handful of life’s hours. It was odd saying goodbye, but it was also odd that such an attachment had formed in such a small amount of time. Lack of sleep apparently can do that to you sometimes – hah. I drove the College Kids downtown, dropped them off then headed home where I promptly walked into my house at 6:45 – just enough time to shower, get ready and head off to work. I worked a full day and eventually returned home to fall asleep at 6. (after having been awake for 35 hours) And so dear readers, that is where I’ve been all week. A little out of the loop and still trying to get back on a normal track. Sometimes life takes you around a few unexpected curves and I’ve learned the best thing to do is make sure your seat belt is buckled & just go.

I want to say a huge THANK YOU to my fellow passengers for believing me when I said I’m not crazy, for jumping on board, and for one of the most unforgettable stories of my life.

Have you ever had one of those times that made you step back and say – is this really happening? Only to realize that yes, yes it is indeed happening and you are caught smack dab in the middle of A Series of Unfathomable Events…..

I knew it was going to be a crazy trip when I switched travel plans at the 11th hour Thursday night from driving to Mississippi to flying into Memphis for the weekend for a dear friend’s engagement party. Friday and Saturday were wonderful and come Sunday it was time to leave. When you have to pull off on the side of the road for an emergency stop having not even driven 2 miles – there’s a good chance it’s going to be one of those trips back. (And that my friends is an understatement..)

I arrived at the Memphis airport 2 hours before my flight, checked in and discovered my flight was over booked. Times like these is when a seat number on your ticket is equal to a bar of gold in your pocket. My flight was scheduled to leave at 5. Overbooked and now delayed, we board only to sit on the run way for a “ground stop” in Atlanta. Nearly 2 hours later we leave. I was pushing it to get to my connection, which according to the web site was  running late itself. We land at 9 – my connection was listed as “boarding”. The red seas parted as I dart off the plane, carry on & hanging bag in tow, running down the terminal to make it to my flight. As I approached the gate I saw the door closing. I pleaded with the desk attendants to let me on MY flight but they refused saying the flight was closed and no more seats were available.  According to airline policy, flights close 10 minutes prior to departure time and there are no if’s and’s or but’s about it! They did however point me to the terminal where I could check on the later flight to Charleston. Apparently they are no longer able to assist you in any way until a flight opens up exactly one hour before departure time. My immediate response:

You made that up!!

(which probably wasn’t the best but it slipped out) My pleas did not work. Off to the next stop it was….

I treck it to the next terminal to stand in line and wait patiently to grab a seat on the last flight to Charleston. I soon discovered that a 4 o’clock flight was completely canceled due to maintenance and all 150 of those passengers were stuck on stand by for MY flight and now THIS flight. [insert sarcastic Awesome here] As the stand by list populated I went from number 3…to 8…to 23….to 34. I texted my boss to let him know the situation as my hopes for getting on the flight were quickly fading. My suspicions were confirmed as the flight closed and I was still rather low on the list. I had struck up a conversation with a girl who is a student at the College of Charleston, Jen. Poor thing had been one of those passengers on that 4 o’clock and still didn’t make it on this flight. The next thing I know, 2 guys (the dad & the shrink) come running down the terminal to get on the flight. My heart went out to them as I knew exactly what was going to happen — they weren’t getting on that jumbo jet — stupid “10 minute” rule. Way to rub it in their face as you let 3 people from the stand by list on right in front of them. One was even reprimanded for touching the door as he was pleading to get on the flight. I thought we almost had a Gaylord Focker moment – Sir step AWAY from the door! Step AWAY from the door, sir! Now! (Yikes) And then there was the 3rd guy (College Boy) who turned into a track star in attempts to get to the gate on time…..only to find out it was a no go for getting on the plane. *note: the 3 guys were on the same plane…which had landed 20 minutes prior but couldn’t find a gate to pull up to. So again it wasn’t their fault for not making it before that 10 minute-r kicked in.* Yet again we are all told they could do nothing for us there at the gate and that we must go to customer service and figure out our next step.

:: a few details which lead up to the next part – I was not able to get a hotel voucher as the reason I missed my flight was due to “weather conditions” – it is now 11 o’clock at night – I hadn’t heard back from my boss and my office manager had the day off on Monday – I could only be confirmed on a flight for 2:30 Monday afternoon, the earlier ones I could again sit on stand by (ummmm obviously that didn’t work out too great the first time buddy, thanks but no thanks) – Atlanta is a good 5-5 1/2 hours from Charleston – if we attempted to re-book a flight on a different airline, WE had to pay for the ticket. ::

The line at Customer Service was indescribably long and would have taken a minimum of two hours, and let’s be serious – this air line hadn’t been all that helpful and friendly up to this point and something was telling me things weren’t going to change in the near future. But regardless, the 5 jilted passengers started the hike up to customer service to attempt a final plea of our cases. As I walked something inside of me started to get revved up.

I was going home. Tonight. No doubt in my mind. This girl was going home.

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…to be continued…