On Thurday morning, we were supposed to fly to IN where Jason was going to drive to Madison, WI to meet some college friends for a golf weekend. The kids and I were going to stay with my parents in Lafayette while he was gone. Little did we know when we headed to the airport so early that morning where we would be by bedtime and how we got there. Jason usually drops Maren and I off at the curbside checkin with the bags and then takes Tate with him to park the car. As I took a seat I noticed that the line wasn't moving very fast so thought I might stand in it while waiting for Jason. The airline guy finally announced that if you were flying into Dallas (which is where our layover was), the flights had been cancelled and we needed to go inside. Fabulous. Then I get a text from Jason saying he was dropped off on the other side of the building. Even more fabulous because now I had to get 2 suitcases, a set of golf clubs while pushing a stroller into the terminal, which is under construction, to meet him. Luckily, we caught up with him halfway in and some nice lady had helped me with the golf clubs. We get inside to a 2 mile long line coming from the American Airline counter. Could it get any better. After waiting on hold for 45 minutes while standing in line, we finally got an agent who said due to the storms in Dallas since the night before, the next available flight out of SA was Sat morning. Seeing this wasn't going anywhere, we headed home with 2 whiny children who didn't understand why we weren't on a plane to see Nana and Papaw.
When we got home, Jason and I got busy on each computer trying to getting something figured out. No flights out of SA. No flights out of Houston. Nothing until Saturday. So talking to Mom about how disappointed we all were, she mentioned meeting half way at Big Cedar Lodge in Branson, MO. One of her friends whose son lives in Dallas meet there. At first, we were just kidding, but, with my laptop on my lap, we started looking more into it. With Bella at the kennel and our bags packed and still in the car, why not? Jason called the lodge and booked the only thing available which was a one bedroom cabin that would sleep us all comfortably. The kids were so excited that while Jason was finishing up a project he needed to get done before we left, they insisted on watching a movie in the car in the driveway. That backfired when the car battery died and it needed to be jumped:) Finally, we were ready (sort of) for a 12 hour trip that we knew nothing about. We plugged the address into the GPS, grabbed a Rand McNaly and a cooler and snacks and we were out the door. We have entertained the thought of a long road trip but have been too scared seeing the age of my children and a 3 hour trip to Port Aransas causes all kinds of complaining. So we were crazy and spontaneous! About 30 min into the ride, Tate, of course, asks "Are we there yet?". On the GPS in the car it counts down the miles and time as you go, so at that point we had 745 miles left to go. About 5 min later, Tate again, "How much longer?" Ummm, 739 miles. Jason and I looked at eachother and laughed but after that it was smooth sailing. The kids were unbelievably good the whole car ride. We made 4 stops, took naps, watched movies, ate lunch and dinner, they fell asleep for the night and we were there! We pulled into the lodge exactly 12 hours after we left. Whew.
This place was amazing! As we pulled in to the lodge, we laughed thinking about the day and how this was completely NOT where we thought we'd be at that time that night. We found our cabin where Mom and Dad had already arrived a few hours before us. Our little log cabin had a deck that overlooked Table Rock Lake with the exception of a few trees but it was so beautiful and peaceful. Since we had gotten in so late, we settled in for the night.
We started exploring the grounds of the lodge in the morning. By the time the trip was over we had been fishing, horseback riding, hiking, canoeing, boating, and even snuck in a pedicure. We had so much fun, we can't wait to go back. Some things are just meant to be!
