Wanderlust and Comfort: The Shu Box Journey Awaits!

The goals series is set to restart tomorrow with my BLP 2025 goals episode (plus Laura and I will be releasing our BOBW version on Tuesday!).

Travel Mishap!

A quick note to mention that we managed to get through our first “being stranded somewhere” travel ordeal!

We departed from our Big Sky hotel at 11 am on Friday morning; the schedule included a 2 pm flight to Chicago and subsequently a 6:30 pm flight to PBI, with a projected arrival around 11:30 pm. It wasn’t the most straightforward travel day, yet it could have been worse.

However…Best Laid Plans, right!? (Am I permitted to use this expression sarcastically? Ha!!)

Ultimately, we faced delays in Bozeman because of a plane maintenance/crew situation (something concerning the door? Yet another person stated it was a crew issue?) and when we landed in Chicago approximately 2 hours late, our connecting flight was long gone. As it’s holiday travel season, you can envision that there weren’t many flights available to rebook our flight filled with stranded passengers!

When the delays commenced, I immediately entered full panic mode since there was a BLP at Home session scheduled for 2 pm – 4 pm on Saturday (the following day) that I had to be back home (or alternatively, in some tranquil spot with internet) to lead. When I initially planned, it genuinely didn’t occur to me that I wouldn’t be home by midday the next day but… things were trending poorly.

Our airline (American)’s response/offer was to place us on two additional flights the following day via Dallas that would arrive at 11 pm Saturday (i.e., 24 hours after the original landing time, and I would be airborne when I needed to present). Consequently, we chose to cancel our flights for a refund (amount TBD, but at least something) and I miraculously discovered a United flight (shout-out to the Kayak app, extremely helpful!) from Chicago to PBI for the next morning at 7:00 am, arriving around 11:30 am. This STILL made me anxious (we reside an hour away from PBI) but it was the finest option I could uncover, so we purchased it (a bit pricey, yet honestly considerably better than expected given the scenario!) with ardent hopes it would be punctual.

THANKFULLY it was, or nearly! We all sat in random middle seats (G chatted extensively with strangers, lol) but I feel SOOOO fortunate that these seats were available at all!!! We landed, collected our bags, and were headed home by 12:30. I was back home and preparing to commence my talk by 1:30 — a full 30 minutes to spare!!!

Oh! And we experienced our very first (likely not last?) overnight stuck-at-the-airport stay at the Hilton located WITHIN O’Hare airport, since we were exhausted and were going to manage less than 6 hours of sleep as it was. Grateful that option was available and that there were beds!

Interestingly, before all this unfolded I was telling Josh how wonderful it was going to be to ease into the second week of break all refreshed and feeling ‘prepared’ for the new year, but then all of this transpired. Thankfully we have now MOSTLY recovered, BLP at Home was successful (yay!), and we celebrated at his parents’ house with a Hanukkah gathering last night!

Did I gain any insights from this? I believe I’ll be more cautious with connection times moving forward, particularly during busy travel seasons! I should also perhaps consider the day after travel as “risky” for any significant planning. I feel that we’ve been fortunate in most of our flying that this didn’t strike me but… good to be aware!