Arizona Adventure - Part 2

Well, it's true. Our morning flight out of Milwaukee had been canceled, with the next flight to Phoenix leaving at 3PM Saturday afternoon. (Turns out all the runways were still covered in five inches of water, and planes can't take off when they're in water.) We called the airport and we called the airlines, finally ended up with tickets out of the Madison airport at 11AM that morning, and hurriedly drove back to Madison to catch our flight.

  We drove right into another storm. Our flight was delayed about 20 minutes in Madison, and then when we were re-routed to Detroit (whoohoo... just where I've always wanted to go). Our plane had to circle the airport for about half an hour before we could land. Why? Well, because the thunder storms followed us to Detroit, of course! It's pretty hilarious, really, because the storms in Detroit were so bad they actually shut down the DETROIT airport too!!

Luckily, we had a long layover and by the time it was our turn to fly, the storms were over and the airport was back in business. Whew. We were glad to be in the air, leaving all that nasty weather behind us. Imagine our dismay when we were flying into Phoenix and the pilot announced, "It looks like Phoenix is getting some pretty bad thunderstorms, we're going to have to circle for a little bit." What?! When we finally landed, got our luggage and found our rental car, it was 6:30PM (8:30PM Central time). And it was pouring. 

 

  We drove two hours to the camp in a downpour. When we finally FINALLY arrived at the camp (24 hours late), the senior pastor greeted us and exclaimed "I'm sorry you had to drive out in this storm. I don't know what's going on! We NEVER get this much rain!"

 Timmy spoke Saturday morning on "Finding Your Calling", and he did an amazing job. It's so cool to be able to watch him fill teens up with God's word, speaking into their lives and encouraging them. He is the perfect kind of speaker – dramatic and passionate and completely hilarious. He makes listening interesting, and he's so darn cute to look at, too. (And he becomes an instant role model. All the teen dudes clamored to get his attention, and he was pretty excited to talk guy talk and punch shoulders and do all that weird guy stuff.) 

During the day on Saturday we went sightseeing. It was so gorgeous, and we had such a grand time exploring and hiking, I almost didn't notice the hot sunshine…
 

  

And  it wasn't until I was racing up a steep trail running along the inside of a canyon that I realized it. Dry heat is no better than humid heat. In some ways, it is worse. Dry heat is, well DRY. Just being in the direct sunlight made me feel like I was on fire. The air seemed to crack and sizzle, begging for a drop of moisture to quench the sharpness. Dry heat made my lungs ache and my throat burn. Humidity, how I missed you.

Ironically, I got my wish for water, as it ended up raining again Saturday afternoon. A huge Arizona type impressive thunderstorm. (I thought AZ was supposed to be a desert...) We drove up to the top of the mountains and everything looked misty and magical from the tippy top. (Plus, it was 20 degrees cooler up there!)
 

Saturday ended happily with us snuggled in our cabin, nestled in an Arizona pine forest. Sunday morning Timmy spoke on "Fighting for Your Calling" and then we had to immediately leave to catch our flight out of Phoenix. 

 With no time to spare, we sped back down the scenic highways. I took lots of pictures, 
 

  and even convinced Timmy to "just give me FIVE minutes" to stop and take pictures of the cactus forests.

Timmy tried to find a scorpion.

And then we were back at the airport. Ten hours later, we landed in Milwaukee. But our car was in Madison. Oh dear.

 Lucky for us, we have a darling little sister who was willing to drive to the airport and pick us up. And so our adventure ended at 12:30 AM Monday morning, when we finally arrived home, ate peanut butter sandwiches, and fell into bed.

And that is when I re-realized I have the perfect husband. And we really do pretty much rock at adventures.

 The End