WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24:

      A sad day . . . Beth & Landon have to go home. She was going around all glum-faced in the morning as she was packing. He was too, til he found his gang of friends to play with in the meantime. He came home right away when called (afater a 5-minute warning), didn't protest or whine. But immediately when we all got into the truck, he lay down on his mom's lap and just stared blankly. Broke my heart!

      Gave ourselves plenty of time. The freeways (I-5 & I-405) weren't crowded at all, so we got to the Orange County Airport off-ramp before 2:00. She didn't need to be at the airport til around 4:30, as her plane didn't depart til 5:35. We found a lovely food court just a few miles straight west of the airport, which was perfect . . . we each could pick out our own vendor, and assembled under a shaded umbrella.

                                                                 

        Then decided we had time for ice cream. Had never gone out for ice cream while they were here, and thought this would be a perfect send-off memory. Another 5 miles of so down the road, west of the airport. All fun and fine til around 3:30, when we get back into the truck. Then the adventure begins. The truck wouldn't start. Bill says not to worry – every once in a while it does this. It's some kind of glitch in this year Dodge's starter mechanism. Sometimes it'll start right up in 5 minutes, sometimes 20. We'd experienced this way back several years ago on one of our Michigan UP trips, and he'd experienced it a couple of times recently, but had them put in a new starter before we left which one would think would solve the problem! Anyway . . . 30 minutes later . . . no action. So now we decide we'd better call a cab. After 20-25 minutes, no cab (after being told one would be there in 10-15 minutes). Bill calls again – something about wrong address. By now it's 4:35, and rush hour. Starting to get a LITTLE panicked. We're standing on the curb of the busy street even looking for cops now, to flag one down and tell him our pitiful story and try to get an escorted ride. At last, around 4:45, the cab pulls up, with of course a driver who speaks very broken English. Beth whips out our credit card - “ONLY CASH”, he says. I tell her she may as well get out of the cab, as we have no cash. Ah – the cabbie understands that, and points in the direction of a liquor store across the parking lot. I run like crazy to get there, do my thing, wait, - “ERROR WITH THIS TRANSACTION. PLEASE TRY AGAIN LATER.” Seriously, Lord?? I was within an inch of running back in defeat, but thought, “What the heck, I'll try once more.” Success! I ran back like I was competing for Olympic gold, shoved the bills into her hands, and Bill stopped the parking lot traffic in order to let them get out. Beth's last view of me is of my hands clasped and my head stretched heavenward in an entreating pose. Didn't I see all of this in a movie?? Was it called “The Three Stooges Catch a Plane”, or something more recent, with maybe Jim Carey or Steve Martin??

 

                                                                Relieving the stress while waiting for a cab, perched on iconic Southern California palm tree:

        In the meantime, Bill's called an AAA truck to come out, even though we both don't think it's going to do any good. A tow back down to Oceanside?? At around 5:10, lo and behold, the truck starts of its own volition, just like Bill said it would . . . in time. Just a small factor when you have a flight to catch!! We decided to drive to the airport, not knowing if she'd made her flight . . . if not, figured we could put our heads together and decide what to do. But our entreaties to heaven were answered – the plane was delayed about 15 minutes. Just the window she needed. Lord, your sense of humor is gonna hasten my arrival in Eternity . . . not to mention these gray hairs here on earth!

       And she made her connecting flight in Las Vegas just in time as well, as those flights gave her precious little leeway to begin with. And she had another funny story to relate about that leg of her journey home: Just as everyone was boarded, buckled up, the flight attendant giving the safety spiel, Landon announced, “I need to go to the bathroom!” Not subtly. Doing the dance in his seat. Hard for a nearby flight attendant not to realize what's going on . . . she laughs and says, “No problem, he can go . . . I have a little boy of my own, and I know they wait until the absolute last second.” So B & L walk up to the front of the plane – even the Captain is smiling and lies, “We have to wait for clearance anyway,” (which they'd already announced). Landon emerges from the plane's bathroom, announces, “Oh no, I forgot to flush it!” to the amusement of the 1^st ten rows. He goes back, re-emerges triumphantly to good-natured applause. Beth can't help but laugh, but is red as a tomato at the same time.

      All of this adrenalin should take the fear of flying right out of her! 

       It will be nice for Bill and me to get back to a more relaxed pace for a while. But of course we'll miss them very much. They both had such a fabulous time here. Of course the obvious: the beach, Disneyland. But lesser things as well: the game room (L tried his hand at pool and ping pong, which he was surprisingly good at, and playing Wii-type games),

 

                                            The Gang (at least one of them) at leisure:

                                                               

 taking Pappy for walks to the park next door (always stopping to chat a little with “Steve, the homeless guy"), playing with other kids at their RV's, and just chillin' in our RV, with his portable game system.                                                         

                                                Relaxin' with an Oreo cookie:

 

 

      Ditto for Beth – just relaxing outside in front of the RV in the perfect weather when not at the beach.    We're already thinking and talking about a repeat in 2017! True sign of a GREAT vacation time!

         I'm so glad and grateful she got to take this vacation. To think how close I came to thinking it wasn't goint to happen . . . first because of her own issues  . . . and then, after Jason's stroke, b/c of us wondering how we could still take this trip. Thanks be to God - He faithfully paved the way, and she and Landon were able to have a trip they'll remember for a long time. One of her best vacations ever, I do believe. Very much needed . . . sandwiched in between her brutal 3-week intense Biology course in prep for going back to school for her Physical Therapy Assistant's degree, and all the things she's going to have to deal with when she returns. She'll have much to handle back at home . . . her own list of things to get done in the next few weeks (getting back to work, enrolling for school, setting up child care for Landon, to name a few.)

        And now of course there's Jason. The plan is for him to come up and stay with her at our house until we get home in Sept. When she talked with him just after getting home, he couldn't wait to get out of his dad's home. No surprise there. Don't know what his needed level of care is right now . . . but Beth will be taking that on, in addition to everything else. It's really just astounding – she has become my most trusted and reliable partner in Jason's story. She helps me think practical things through – e.g., who should be listed second on the Power of Attorney, helps me keep all of the detailed lists in order and prioritized, and will now get him to his many doctor and therapy appointments. So it's a lot. And a complete metamorphosis from someone who was not to be trusted at all a few months ago to my totally clear-thinking, reliable, strong, trustworthy daughter. And she seems to be very much a Christian believer, even if she's not in a church. So I have so very, very much to be grateful for, and in awe of how God has His Footprints all over this. For instance, as Beth pointed out a few weeks ago – if we had taken this trip as first planned, leaving in early May for Santa Fe, Sedona, Death Valley, & Yosemite before turning to Southern Calif , we would have been on our way to California when Jason had suffered his stroke. We would certainly have turned around and come back, not to complete the remainder of the trip, which was virtually all of it. God's mysterious Providence . . . taking all the broken and incomplete pieces in this shattered world and our shattered lives, and mending them for sure for our eternal good, and, more often than we deserve, mending them for our temporal well-being during our journey here on earth.