The Never-ending Road to Cali

Lindsay and I decided several weeks ago to fly out to California to spend a week with Meghan Baird. Little did we know that our endeavors would be somewhat thwarted, and our patience tested.
On December 27th, Lindsay and I headed to the MCO airport at 4:30 pm. We got there around 5:15 pm. But as soon as we walked in the doors, a Delta employee asked us if we were on the CANCELLED flight to LA. Our spirits fell, but we had NO idea what was in store for us. We got in line to see if there were any open seats on the other LA-bound flights. An hour and a half later, we got up to the front only to find out that they had already re-booked us for a flight out on Monday morning, and there was nothing going out that evening that wasn't already overbooked.
The airline was gracious enough to give us hotel and meal vouchers, so we decided to start our vacation off with a bang. =) We took the vouchers and headed to Macaroni Grill (luggage in tow) in the airport and feasted....compliments of Delta Airlines. After dinner, around 8 pm, we went out front to Ground Transportation to get picked up by the shuttle that would take us to our hotel. Long story short, we waited over an hour for the shuttle that came and went 2 times before we realized it was our shuttle! Oh, and there was a sketchy old guy who kept staring at us while we were waiting outside and then he stole my wheelchair...pictures to follow. ;)
So we FINALLY get to our hotel, the lovely Orlando International Hotel, around 10:30 pm. The concierge sends us to our room on the second floor by pointing in the direction. We drag our tired bodies (along with our VERY heavy suitcases) down the hall, only to find that there was no elevator. So we lug our suitcases up one flight of stairs...ONLY to find out that we were on the WRONG side of the hotel. Our room was up another staircase! =) So we lugged everything downstairs, trudged past the apologetic concierge, and dragged everything up the other flight of stairs. We get to our room on a rather deserted floor, and fall in exhausted relief onto our two beds. It was a decent sized room, complete with: a tv that had about 3 working channels, a bathroom with stained washcloths and toilet paper, and an AC unit that sounded like it was going to kill us every time it came on!
We got through the fairly sleepless night (after watching a movie on Lindsay's laptop...she put it up on the ironing board in between the 2 beds so we could both watch from our beds.
Sunday morning, we packed up again and waited about a 1/2 hour for the shuttle to take us back to the airport so we could see if there were any openings. When we got on the shuttle, the driver started asking us questions about our travels. When she realized Delta had put us up in this hotel, she started talking about how that hotel was haunted!...no WONDER we had such an awful night! ;)
But I guess our gracious God decided to bless us after our day of 'suffering', because when we got back through the Delta line, even though there was still no availability until Monday, they were able to find us a room in the Hyatt (inside the airport)....WOW! WHAT a switch from the night before. The room was so comfortable we stayed in it until dinner! We only left to raid Sbarro downstairs with our meal vouchers, and brought our plunder back up to our room. =)
Through all of this....over the past two days, God has reminded me that there is ALWAYS grace for EVERY situation, every trial we may go through. And Lindsay and I were challenged this whole time to be joyful and encouraging to the employees as much as possible (of course we had our non-joyful moments as well). Anyway, we're scheduled to fly out tomorrow the 29th at 7:15 am and we'll arrive around noon in LA. Please continue to pray for our traveling safety and for our attitudes, since we lost a day and a half in California. =\