A So(ul)journ with Our Son

“Everything happens for a reason!”

“This was not the way I thought today was going to play out,” I whinged. Wesley’s response to my complaint came pretty quickly: “Everything happens for a reason. I'd rather you guys fly in better weather anyway.” When did he get so wise?

The airport was getting hit with storms, and our flight delays kept getting later and later until, finally, they gave up on the flight and informed us that our flight would now leave the next morning at 11 a.m.

That one thing going wrong caused a cascade of anxiety, but in the end, it all worked out.

I originally booked a hotel in Laramie, Wyoming, to cut a couple of hours off our drive to Grand Teton National Park. When I called to cancel our reservation, they informed me that they wouldn’t charge me for the cancellation. Thanks, Motel 8!

As the delays continued, it soon became apparent we wouldn’t make it, so Wes had to book a hotel. We initially planned to join him, but Wes ended up staying there, which made it easier for him to pick us up when we arrived the next day.

We left our car at Charlestown Retirement Community (Jacki’s folks live there) and took an Uber to the airport. That meant we had to get a return Uber back to Charlestown. Jacki’s folks let us use their apartment to spend the night, which was 15 minutes from the airport. Thanks, Jack and Jane!

Jacki felt we needed more time with Wes as the airline’s storm cut into our time with him. If I had made this change myself using their app, it would have cost over $426 in change fees, but because of the delay in our departure, the airline changed our return flight for free. And we got three more days with Wes.

The airline gave us a $30 food voucher, which paid for our Auntie Anne's Pretzel nuggets and bottle of water, two iced teas at BWI, a ginger ale on the flight, and two iced chai tea lattes in Denver.

We got on the flight the next day, and indeed, everything worked out.

We arrived as scheduled and drove from Denver Airport to Lander, WY. We even took a Snowy Ridge Scenic Byway through Medicine Bow National Forest, which was planned for today and still happened despite our delay in arriving in Colorado.
Arriving in Lander, we were even blessed with a beautiful sunset.  Photo creds to Wes for Moose  and Sunset photos. 

Day one of our So(ul)journ with our son may have been delayed, but everything seemed to indeed happen for a reason.




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