“The journey not the arrival matters.” – T.S. Eliot

Yes, this is true T.S. but when your flight is delayed four times and your journey lasts almost six hours longer than it should the arrival matters. It definitely matters!

We were off to a rough start. We knew we had one delay, but after arriving at the airport we discovered we had a second, then another, and finally a fourth. In fact, we knew about the delays before the gate agent, not a good sign. We ended up not taking off from Mesa Gateway until 11:00 p.m.

Along with me for this roller coaster start were Kyle and Ashley. The three of us landed in the Oakland, California airport quite tired at almost 12:50 A.M.!

There was no time to be snoozing however as we had 10 minutes to secure our rental car. You see the problem was that the rental car agency closed at 1:00 a.m. and we still had a 2 hour drive with a non-refundable hotel ahead of us.

Here's how it went...the seat belt light goes "ding" I scoot ahead to near the front of the plane exiting, I take off running for the shuttle bus. I see another couple with the same idea. We both barely catch the bus, hop on, and take off for the rental car location. Meanwhile, Kyle and Ashley go to baggage claim to pick up our checked bag.

The bus pulls up to the rental car station, it is like a ghost town. The couple heads for Budget and I take off running again searching for the Hertz counter. This place is empty I am telling you. But I, kid you not, catch this attendant as she is leaving out the back door and I start yelling, " Wait! I have a reservation!". Thank you Lord she is nice, comes back inside and helps me.

Then, just as she is handing me my keys the next shuttle bus pulls up and it is packed full of everyone from my flight including Kyle and Ashley. The reservation clerks wishes me a good night and quickly slips out the back door and says she is heading home. Whew!!

Kyle, Ashley, and I leave Oakland airport with a sweet, upgraded Chevy Impala model car with get this....226 miles on it!! It is seriously brand new! I drive, Kyle navigates, Ash crashes in the back seat and we are off!

We arrive at our hotel at 3 o'clock in the morning totally exhausted, and decide that we will NOT be making it to free breakfast in the morning. We will have to get some much needed sleep before we hit park #10 later that day - Pinnacles National Park. Stay tuned!