Change of Plans

After our trip on the Bourbon Trail, Doug and I called Brett to see if he and Karen were home from their retreat at St. Meinrad Archabbey.  They weren't returning until tomorrow afternoon, so Doug and I decided to stay overnight in the Louisville area instead of meeting them in Columbus.  In the end, I was glad that we did for two reasons.  The first was that we had enough points for a free night at the Fairfield Inn in Jeffersonville, Indiana where Meg and Nick stayed the night before Brett and Karen's wedding rehearsal in June.  We knew from their visit that it was a nice hotel with a restaurant in the parking lot where we also had a fantastic dinner last evening.

The second reason that I was glad that we stayed in the Louisville area was because of Doug's flight back to Orlando.  We had booked him on the 6 p.m. flight from the Louisville airport.  Because of the chaos due to the government shutdown and lack of air traffic controllers, his flight got delayed until late in the evening.  I started checking other flights, but the times weren't much better.  I saw one that would have worked if we had known earlier, but it was boarding in less than an hour and Doug didn't think that we would have time to make it.  After talking about it, we decided that we had nothing to lose by trying and I got Doug to the airport within twenty minutes of leaving the hotel.  I decided to wait close-by in a Super 8 parking lot to see what happened.  Thankfully, Doug made it through security in time to change his ticket, get a boarding pass and board the plane before take-off.  He even ended up with a decent seat and room for his carry-on bag.  I was relieved as I knew that he really wanted to get back earlier than ten tonight.  

I had originally planned on stopping to see Paula tonight for dinner and was thankful that she would be able to meet for lunch instead.  It was a little over two hours to the restaurant that she chose in Fishers.  I was extremely glad that she picked one close to I-69 as the weather forecast predicted snow this afternoon.  It was already cold and blowing, a complete change from yesterday's beautiful, sunny day.  Even though I had just seen Paula a few weeks ago, I had a great time visiting with her as we spent over two hours talking and laughing.  As an added bonus, the restaurant served fantastic food as well.

I left Fishers just after three and was thankful to be able to drive while it was still light out.  It started snowing when I got to Albion, but it didn't come down very hard until I got to Syracuse.  My parents were glad to see me, and we spent the rest of the night, relaxing and talking about our plans for the week of Marketplace sales, going to the eye doctor and celebrating my birthday.  It was a nice way to end the evening.