The Departure
Sunday, August 6. Today was a crazy but wonderful day. Paul & Corey got married and I was honored to be apart of the wedding. It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful wedding. What made the day crazy, was not only that I was apart of the wedding, but also the Fine Arts Festival team leaving the same night for Orlando, Florida.
Jarron was kind enough to rush me from the wedding to the airport and we made it in good time! Thanks Jarron! I actually made it to the airport in time to check in with the team. There were six of us traveling together; Doug, Tiffany, Carlee, Sarah, Josh and myself. Here's where the adventure begins...For some reason, when you go on trips like these, something interesting always happens to someone; well, it happened to me. The team affectionately named our departure "Waiting on Jireh."
Since I was at a very important engagement, I was the last one to arrive at the airport. Upon arriving, we group checked in. I successfully got all our e-tickets printed and everyone proceeded to check in their bags. The lady at the counter went through the list of our team and checked everyone's bag except for me. I had an e-ticket printed and my name appeared on the computer as being checked in; however, for some reason the computer didn't print my baggage tag. Hence, we had to wait while the counter staff tried to figure out what was wrong. Finally, after a few minutes, they managed to gen something up for my bag. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10 pm and by this time it was about 9 pm.
Next, we headed for the security gates. As soon as we turned the corner towards the security check points, we saw a line that stretched a long, long, way. We all got in line and waited our turn. It took us probably around 15 mins to get to the x-ray machines. By that time I had already taken out everything that needed to be taken out and removed all metalic objects on me, well, except my metal watch. It was too late when I realized that, so I went ahead and walked through the metal detector. The machine just started beeping, so I had to take off my watch and walk through again. Again, it started beeping. The friendly TSA screener then asked me to try walking through again. While I am doing all of these, the team was waiting on the other side and they had even picked up my guitar, backpack, shoes, etc. The third time was to be the charm but NO, it had to beep again! This time I was asked to take a "sit." What happened next was a full body scan and a full pat down only this time, nothing beeped. Go figure!
I am finally through and it's about 9:20 pm. We hustle to the gate which we find out is on the furthest end of the terminal. We eventually made it there and boarding was in progress. Thankfully, we were all seated towards the back of the plane so we were able to take a breather. They finally call our zone and we start heading to the ticket counter. As I approached, the ticket man notices my guitar and I get pulled aside to wait. Once again, I am the last one on. They didn't allow me to carry my guitar on, so they had to tag it and gate check my guitar.
The team is now seated in the plane waiting for me. I finally make it on the plane and then a Brian Regan moment occurs. The lady in front of me decides to stop and try to fit her bag into a packed overhead compartment. And for what seemed like an eternity, I stood there waiting for her to try to do this. I look around and I see that she had successfully backed up the passengers. At last she fits her bag in and we get to our seats. Now we were ready for our departure. We had about a 4.5 hour flight to Atlanta where we had a layover before heading to Orlando.
Arrival In Atlanta
After a long and somewhat uncomfortable flight, we arrive in Atlanta at 2:30 am (5:30 am EST). All of us were wiped out. I was especially tired since I had been up preparing for the trip and for the wedding till 5 am on Sunday. As such I was running on adrenaline. We now have an 1.5 hour layover before we jump on a plane again. The ladies and Josh break off to find hot and cold beverages. Josh is successful in tracking down a Starbucks - a very true Seattle trait. The ladies however, settled on some local coffee place.
Soon, we started our boarding again for the next part of our travel. Guess what? I get pulled aside again because of my guitar. Once again, the team waited for me to make it onto the plane. We have a 1.5 hour flight this time round and we took off around 4:15 am (7:15 am EST). I had a window seat and I pretty much don't remember too much until we started our descent into Orlando. We touched down in Orlando at about 5:30 am (8:30 am).
Day 1 - Monday, 7 August
We were even more tired by now, but glad to have made it to Orlando. As we deplaned, I decided to wait for my guitar because on the last flight they had brought my guitar up to me. The team was now waiting for me in the terminal while I waited for my guitar. Before I knew it, the entire plane had emptied out and the crew started coming out. I was informed that I would get my guitar at the baggage claim.
Do you have a sense now of how we came up with the name of our trip thus far? So I join up with the team and we make our trek to the baggage claim area to retrieve our bags. We find the carousel and the bags start coming out. While some of us started getting our bags, my guitar was still no where to be seen. I had a suspicion it was going to be delivered to the baggage office I quickly ran over, trying to break the "curse" and presented my claim ticket in hopes that they would have my guitar since it was last baggage in, it would have been the first off. No such luck! The lady at the counter looks at my ticket and tells me that the guitar should be coming off the carousel. I quickly ran back to the carousel and by this time everyone's got their bags and they were again waiting on me. We wait and wait, and wait...and after seeing the same bags revolving through, I decided to give the baggage counter one more try. As I approached the office, I see my guitar in the distance. Finally, our travel ordeal was over(at least for now)!
We went and got our Town & Country mini van and headed for our accomodations. What we didn't realize was we were on a tolled freeway. We had to scramble for exact change quickly before we approached the toll-booth. Phew! We made it through! Less than 2 miles later, we see a sign for another toll-booth. This time we were a little worried because we didn't have any change left. Josh, in the nick of time, came through and we managed to make it through.
(LUNCH TIME PERFORMANCE BY HARP MAN)
We finally make it to our accomodations (which btw are amazing) and we reunited with Becca and Marsha. Becca and Marsha had left Seattle earlier but they also have a "wonderful" travel story to share. As we had arrived in the morning and check in time was not till 3 pm (EST), the guys couldn't get their room, so we all hung out in the girls' room for the afternoon. And after a short while, we were reunited with the rest of the team when Jenny, Davy and Mercy arrived. Now our whole team had arrived safely.
We then got together for a quick team meeting to plan our day. Basically the plan was to have lunch, register the team and buy groceries for some of our meals. We were surprisingly successful in our endeavors and accomplished what we had set out to do. Next on the agenda was to try and make our way to the convention center for the opening service. We had decided to buy a week's pass on the transport system called the I-Ride.
When the time came, we headed out in search of a place to first buy the pass and where to catch our ride. Our adventure took us to Wal-Greens, a porta-potty (you can ask the team later) and finally our bus stop. The only problem we now had was we were running late. We didn't forsee the trouble we had to go through to get our passes. Anyways, we eventually made it to the convention center, an hour late. We decided to go into the service and see what was going on. We could only stayed for a few minutes because after some calculations, we realized that we still had to grab dinner, catch the bus to make our trek back to the condos before the bus service stopped. We also knew we would have to contend with other people at dinner and on the bus (who were here for the Festival).
Well, after dinner at the world renowned "Golden Arches" we waited and waited for a bus that could take our entire team in one trip. Once again the waiting continued but this time thankfully it was not on me.
That basically wrapped up our first day here. God is so good, even through the craziness today, we have seen His hand on us. We are having fun and are looking forward to tomorrow's presentations. I am needing to get some sleep now. Good night...PEACE!
Sunday, August 6. Today was a crazy but wonderful day. Paul & Corey got married and I was honored to be apart of the wedding. It was a gorgeous day and a beautiful wedding. What made the day crazy, was not only that I was apart of the wedding, but also the Fine Arts Festival team leaving the same night for Orlando, Florida.
Jarron was kind enough to rush me from the wedding to the airport and we made it in good time! Thanks Jarron! I actually made it to the airport in time to check in with the team. There were six of us traveling together; Doug, Tiffany, Carlee, Sarah, Josh and myself. Here's where the adventure begins...For some reason, when you go on trips like these, something interesting always happens to someone; well, it happened to me. The team affectionately named our departure "Waiting on Jireh."
Since I was at a very important engagement, I was the last one to arrive at the airport. Upon arriving, we group checked in. I successfully got all our e-tickets printed and everyone proceeded to check in their bags. The lady at the counter went through the list of our team and checked everyone's bag except for me. I had an e-ticket printed and my name appeared on the computer as being checked in; however, for some reason the computer didn't print my baggage tag. Hence, we had to wait while the counter staff tried to figure out what was wrong. Finally, after a few minutes, they managed to gen something up for my bag. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 10 pm and by this time it was about 9 pm.
Next, we headed for the security gates. As soon as we turned the corner towards the security check points, we saw a line that stretched a long, long, way. We all got in line and waited our turn. It took us probably around 15 mins to get to the x-ray machines. By that time I had already taken out everything that needed to be taken out and removed all metalic objects on me, well, except my metal watch. It was too late when I realized that, so I went ahead and walked through the metal detector. The machine just started beeping, so I had to take off my watch and walk through again. Again, it started beeping. The friendly TSA screener then asked me to try walking through again. While I am doing all of these, the team was waiting on the other side and they had even picked up my guitar, backpack, shoes, etc. The third time was to be the charm but NO, it had to beep again! This time I was asked to take a "sit." What happened next was a full body scan and a full pat down only this time, nothing beeped. Go figure!
I am finally through and it's about 9:20 pm. We hustle to the gate which we find out is on the furthest end of the terminal. We eventually made it there and boarding was in progress. Thankfully, we were all seated towards the back of the plane so we were able to take a breather. They finally call our zone and we start heading to the ticket counter. As I approached, the ticket man notices my guitar and I get pulled aside to wait. Once again, I am the last one on. They didn't allow me to carry my guitar on, so they had to tag it and gate check my guitar.
The team is now seated in the plane waiting for me. I finally make it on the plane and then a Brian Regan moment occurs. The lady in front of me decides to stop and try to fit her bag into a packed overhead compartment. And for what seemed like an eternity, I stood there waiting for her to try to do this. I look around and I see that she had successfully backed up the passengers. At last she fits her bag in and we get to our seats. Now we were ready for our departure. We had about a 4.5 hour flight to Atlanta where we had a layover before heading to Orlando.
Arrival In Atlanta
After a long and somewhat uncomfortable flight, we arrive in Atlanta at 2:30 am (5:30 am EST). All of us were wiped out. I was especially tired since I had been up preparing for the trip and for the wedding till 5 am on Sunday. As such I was running on adrenaline. We now have an 1.5 hour layover before we jump on a plane again. The ladies and Josh break off to find hot and cold beverages. Josh is successful in tracking down a Starbucks - a very true Seattle trait. The ladies however, settled on some local coffee place.
Soon, we started our boarding again for the next part of our travel. Guess what? I get pulled aside again because of my guitar. Once again, the team waited for me to make it onto the plane. We have a 1.5 hour flight this time round and we took off around 4:15 am (7:15 am EST). I had a window seat and I pretty much don't remember too much until we started our descent into Orlando. We touched down in Orlando at about 5:30 am (8:30 am).
Day 1 - Monday, 7 August
We were even more tired by now, but glad to have made it to Orlando. As we deplaned, I decided to wait for my guitar because on the last flight they had brought my guitar up to me. The team was now waiting for me in the terminal while I waited for my guitar. Before I knew it, the entire plane had emptied out and the crew started coming out. I was informed that I would get my guitar at the baggage claim.
Do you have a sense now of how we came up with the name of our trip thus far? So I join up with the team and we make our trek to the baggage claim area to retrieve our bags. We find the carousel and the bags start coming out. While some of us started getting our bags, my guitar was still no where to be seen. I had a suspicion it was going to be delivered to the baggage office I quickly ran over, trying to break the "curse" and presented my claim ticket in hopes that they would have my guitar since it was last baggage in, it would have been the first off. No such luck! The lady at the counter looks at my ticket and tells me that the guitar should be coming off the carousel. I quickly ran back to the carousel and by this time everyone's got their bags and they were again waiting on me. We wait and wait, and wait...and after seeing the same bags revolving through, I decided to give the baggage counter one more try. As I approached the office, I see my guitar in the distance. Finally, our travel ordeal was over(at least for now)!
We went and got our Town & Country mini van and headed for our accomodations. What we didn't realize was we were on a tolled freeway. We had to scramble for exact change quickly before we approached the toll-booth. Phew! We made it through! Less than 2 miles later, we see a sign for another toll-booth. This time we were a little worried because we didn't have any change left. Josh, in the nick of time, came through and we managed to make it through.
(LUNCH TIME PERFORMANCE BY HARP MAN)
We finally make it to our accomodations (which btw are amazing) and we reunited with Becca and Marsha. Becca and Marsha had left Seattle earlier but they also have a "wonderful" travel story to share. As we had arrived in the morning and check in time was not till 3 pm (EST), the guys couldn't get their room, so we all hung out in the girls' room for the afternoon. And after a short while, we were reunited with the rest of the team when Jenny, Davy and Mercy arrived. Now our whole team had arrived safely.
We then got together for a quick team meeting to plan our day. Basically the plan was to have lunch, register the team and buy groceries for some of our meals. We were surprisingly successful in our endeavors and accomplished what we had set out to do. Next on the agenda was to try and make our way to the convention center for the opening service. We had decided to buy a week's pass on the transport system called the I-Ride.
When the time came, we headed out in search of a place to first buy the pass and where to catch our ride. Our adventure took us to Wal-Greens, a porta-potty (you can ask the team later) and finally our bus stop. The only problem we now had was we were running late. We didn't forsee the trouble we had to go through to get our passes. Anyways, we eventually made it to the convention center, an hour late. We decided to go into the service and see what was going on. We could only stayed for a few minutes because after some calculations, we realized that we still had to grab dinner, catch the bus to make our trek back to the condos before the bus service stopped. We also knew we would have to contend with other people at dinner and on the bus (who were here for the Festival).
Well, after dinner at the world renowned "Golden Arches" we waited and waited for a bus that could take our entire team in one trip. Once again the waiting continued but this time thankfully it was not on me.That basically wrapped up our first day here. God is so good, even through the craziness today, we have seen His hand on us. We are having fun and are looking forward to tomorrow's presentations. I am needing to get some sleep now. Good night...PEACE!
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