Cincy--Day 1

This morning, I flew out of Long Beach Airport with this itinerary:

Long Beach to Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City to Minneapolis
Minneapolis to Cincinnati

Little did I know, things would change.



Here's the tiny plane I flew from Long Beach to Salt Lake City. I turned off my phone, like a responsible passenger.

When I arrived in Utah, I had a message on my phone telling me that my flight from Minneapolis to Cincinnati had been cancelled. They had re-scheduled my flight for noon tomorrow and I would arrive at 4pm tomorrow. So I talked to a wonderful woman at the Delta counter and she switched my flights. Now, I was flying directly from Salt Lake to Cincinnati. One problem: my luggage probably wouldn't make the connection.

My new flight was filled with students. They were playing football at the gate and it reminded me of how much I love youth ministry.
I arrived in Cincy (the airport is actually in Kentucky), hours before my initially scheduled time, without my bag...but they did give me a sweet Sky West shirt...more on that tomorrow.

Jake and Griff came to pick me up at the airport, driving very slowly in the falling snow. No more than two minutes from the airport, Jake begins to veer toward the curb saying, "no, no, no, no, no"...until we hit and drove up over the curb.

Griff and Jake got out of the car with the intention of pushing us back in to the road and continuing on...but they were met with this:

I, of course, instantly start laughing because we're not hurt and it's funny (after the crazy day we've all had already.)

As we wait there, calling the rental car company, an airport policeman pulls behind our car to help. He asks a few questions and then makes a call. He tells us there is someone on the way to help. Seeing that we are each wearing jeans and T-shirts with wimpy CA jackets and tennis shoes (in the snow), he asks if we would like to wait in his car?

Get in a police car in Kentucky? Of course.
Griff and I were laughing and joking, Jake was not ready to think it was funny...he'll still not.
Oh, and to help, the cop lit a flare. Radical.
Josh and I, still smiling and laughing...Jake was filing a report with the policeman and rental car manager.
After less than an hour, we had a new rental car (the broken car will need more than $1000 in repairs) and arrived at the hotel.

We met up with the Group Staff and had a good laugh about the "car accident"...

Griff and Jake had arranged to meet a few youth pastors for dinner. With the "unfortunate incident", we were very late to meet them, but they waited around. The guys introduced themselves, and then introduced me...and one of the youth pastors (Josh) says, "I love your blog. It's the best." (He then told Griff, out of obvious requirement, that he also enjoys his blog)

We walked around for about 30 minutes looking for a restaurant, but evidently, restaurants close early in the snow...So we ended up at a Waffle House.
Neither Jake nor I had ever been to a Waffle House.
These are the friendly youth pastors: Josh on the left and Shan on the right:
Jake and Griff...loving the greasy food.
We ate waffles, hash browns, omelets, bacon, toast, a cheeseburger...and maybe more...it was so tasty! (Since I hadn't eaten all day)
Jake loved the restaurant.
He also loves this guy...he was the chef.
In case you can't tell, that's Jake jumping in the front:
It's now 4:58am...and we are finally going to sleep...such a fun, exhausting night...I'll be wearing the same thing in my photos tomorrow...at least until my suitcase makes it here...