I heard you share this story at Kingdom Bound, and let me tell you, all of my stories paled in comparison when I heard of all you had to go through the get to New York. My goodness! What an adventure!

My worst travel time was when I was flying to visit my best friend at the age of 16. I was all alone and it was only the second time I had flown. My flights all got delayed or canceled on Friday because of a snow storm as it was right before Christmas. They wanted to put me on later flights but could not because if we had any more delays I would not be allowed to get a hotel room or anything since I was not 18. I had to wait until the following morning.

I went to the airport quite early and everything seemed fine. I sent my mom off and got to my gate to wait. About twenty minutes before boarding, an airline worker came out to say the flight was cancelled because the crew did not show up. I was devastated. I went up to the counter and explained that I had tried to fly yesterday but couldn’t and I couldn’t deal with my flights being cancelled another day and I just wanted to get to my best friend. They put me on a new flight with a new airline and gave me two food coupons for my struggles. (What a compensation!)

Since I changed airlines, I had to go back out to the front, check in again with the new airline, have my bag switched, and go through security all over again.

I went over to my next gate and proceeded to wait until 3 in the afternoon to leave New York. I then flew to Chicago, where I missed my connecting flight. They put me on another new flight which was supposed to leave at 7. I waited… it was only 4:30 ish.

Well, I kept waiting. I spent five hours sitting in a little cramped space with hundreds of other passengers whose flights were delayed and cancelled. I sat on the floor just reading my Bible and trying to keep in touch with my parents and best friend and her family telling them how things were going.

I finally left Chicago at 9:30. I flew to Springfield, Missouri and arrived at 10:30 PM-and was heartbroken to discover that my best friend and her family weren’t even able to pick me up from the airport because an ice storm in Missouri kept them from being able to get out of their driveway.

They sent friends with a 4-wheel drive truck to pick me up-people I had never even met. So, I got in their truck and proceeded to be driven an hour to my friend’s house… the whole time worrying that we would slip off the road or get killed or something.

At 11:30 PM, after two days of struggles and 16 hours of travel, I arrived at my best friend’s house, called my parents, and fell into bed!

And I probably looked just as exhausted as you do in that photo! =)