Do you remember that the car broke down on both directions of my trip? I was flying in and out of an airport 2.5 hours from home, so that added to the excitement.
While I was in Florida my mother-in-law was gracious enough to arrange the towing of the vehicle to the shop and arrange for its repair. The repair shop was across the street from the airport. I was thinking I would pickup my bags and walk across the street to the garage and pickup my car. While it was across the street from the airport, it was actually quite a hike and the shop recommended I get a taxi to their shop to pickup my vehicle.
So…it was all arranged, I arrived at the airport for my return flight to find out…my flight was delayed by an hour. That gave me a great opportunity to hang out with my cousin and visit for a while. We both assumed the flight would leave on time after that, however it ended up getting delayed a few more times after that. 🙂
During my trip I had watched a few of the World Cup soccer games and was following the scores. My flight was to depart at the start of the USA vs. Portugal game. Bummer! Well, now with all of the flight delays I was able to watch a good bit of the game while waiting at the airport. Also, because of the delay I struck up a conversation with another man who was waiting for the same flight. He volunteered to drive me to the garage where the car was waiting.
I arrived at my car at 11:30 PM quite a bit later than expected, however it started up and was running just fine. I started on my journey home, which included “The Dragon’s Tail” a curvy road through the mountains….with no cell service. About 1 hour into my trip I was exhausted and pulled off the road for a 20 minute power nap. When my alarm went off and I attempted to start the car, it behaved almost exactly the same way as it had in the parking lot before my departure. Bummer! I tried to contact Jenny who was expecting me, but I had NO SIGNAL. I walked around and tried to get signal to no avail.
I thought maybe it needed some time to cool down, or ??? and so I went back to sleep for a while until maybe 3:30 AM. I tried again to start it and realized it was not going to start. 🙁 I started walking back towards the beginning of the Dragon’s Tail where I hoped to get cell signal. Do you know those all familiar white lines that are painted on the side of the road. As I was walking, the LORD helped me to be thankful for the white lines that helped me to see while I was walking down the road in the dark. I walked for about an hour and there was a church off to the right. I went over to check it out and as it was on a small hill I hoped cell service might be a possibility. As I stood in front of the church the Lord prompted me to head down a little road near the church. I was thinking the parsonage would be there but did not want to disturb the pastor. There was no parsonage or pastor, just a road with water running across a low point…and CELL SERVICE. I was able to contact Jenny to update her and contact insurance to get a tow truck on the way. The next morning a local man drove by and told me that where I was on that little side road was one of 2 places on the Dragon’s Tail where there is cell service. It was a section of the road 20-50 feet long. The story goes on to include:
- Tow Truck canceling
- Insurance company wanting me to be “with my vehicle” where there was no cell phone service.
- Rescheduling the tow truck
- A nap on a bench in front of the church
- A tow back to the shop where they fit me right in instead of having me wait until afternoon
- God providing someone to pay for the car repair without our asking
Now before you get any ideas about my being super spiritual and thankful during a difficult situation…let me say, this was a GOD THING for me to be able to make it through the situation and see His hand through it all. It was difficult, it was from Him, and it was ONLY Him that allowed me to be thankful in it. If you have any questions about my being super spiritual please feel free to call or email my wife. 🙂
Evelyn says
Glad God had fed the bears and mountain lions the day before you were walking down that dark lonesome road !!!
So good you made it home okay. He does take care of us.
Evelyn