...On the Side of the Highway

Home, Safe, Home. Literally.

The 'mystery trip' that I made this week was for the Pain Community Advisory Committee for the American Pain Foundation-of which I was honored to be chosen to be a member a few months ago. We were in Tucson, AZ for the American Society of Pain Management Nursing conference.

I finally met most of the other members of the committee in person and learned some terrific stuff! The committee is made of amazing people who live with daily pain and are very empowering and do so much to help others in pain-I was honored to be in their presence for 3 days!

And, I could not forget to mention the beautiful, incredible scenery in Arizona. It was my first trip there and hopefully not my last. I felt very peaceful as I looked at the rolling mountains with the cacti peeping up all over them (hopefully I will post some pics soon).

Besides all of that, I had some excitement while trying to catch my flights home. I enjoyed the morning-manned APF's booth, snuck out to the lazy river and pool, had lunch and arrived at the check-out desk on schedule. The girl working was new and long story short, accidentally tried to charge my credit card for stuff I was not responsible for which in turn caused me to be 5 minutes late for the driver and ride I had arranged the day before. When I got outside, I asked the bellboy where the car was, showed him the paperwork, etc. He didn't see it and then called the service. Apparently, the driver had picked up someone else-thinking it was me. They said they'd get another driver out as soon as possible but couldn't make any guarantees (the resort was 20-25 min. from the airport).

Thankfully (or so I thought) a taxi pulled up and dropped off some people. He agreed to take me to the airport. We're driving along and as we are merging onto the highway, I thought- This highway is awfully bumpy and noisy. A minute later it clicked-we had a flat tire!

So, there I was-hanging out on the side of an Arizona highway with my luggage, a taxi driver and soon after-a highway patrolman on a motorcycle. Thankfully, I got picked up by another cab (a friend of my original driver who he had called) about 20 minutes later and got to the airport in time. I actually started laughing to myself as I stood on the shoulder of the highway thinking, this is what my friends mean when they always say-Whenever Rachel's around, it's always an adventure.

That's it for now-time for sleep.

Today, I am grateful: I got home safe, for a wonderful trip, for an amazing understanding husband, family, friends and God.

R