When we arrived to the Fairbanks airport, we realized we had packed all our winter gear into a carry-on bag that had accidentally been put with the rest of the checked baggage. Nice! We already had on a few layers of clothes, but we knew it would take us a little bit to get all of our other stuff on...gloves, hats, boots, scarves, etc.
We had a less than enthusiastic "runner" that was there to pick us up and take us to the base. We quickly figured out that the vehicle she came to pick us up in was too small for all of us and our luggage to fit. So we put the kids in the car and most of our luggage, and Jason told me that I would ride with her to base lodging. I wasn't thrilled because in the midst of trying to get the kids' gear on them by myself (J was busy putting luggage in the car), I tried telling him that we were missing a few items. Of course the runner heard me and replied, "I'm sure they will be fine. The car is warm enough." "What?" I thought. Well, the car may be warm, but we're from TEXAS! I think the current temp was like -38! And she wanted to tell me we'd be warm in the car? I had overheard her telling someone that she would be back after she dropped us off. Apparently she had some other single soldiers at the airport who needed a ride and she had to take us in two trips first, so she was in a hurry. So, she wasn't very patient with us.
Anyway, I went outside and welcomed the frigid air (I was sweating from all the layers I was in and from working so hard at getting the kids dressed!) and I saw that the kids were in. Jason told me to go on and get in the car. Well, we left and I figured out a little too late that I had left my purse in the airport with J. That means my wallet purse was left behind. Thank the Lord I had my ID with me, but that was all I had b/c I had it in my pocket from security.
"Where are ya'll staying?", she asked. "Well, when we called to check on what we were supposed to do, the person on the phone told us we were going to have someone pick us up and that our lodging was taken care of. We are supposed to be in temporary lodging," I replied. I could tell she wasn't convinced because of the smirk that crept across her face. "Did you call Northern Lights Inn and make the reservations?" She asked. I started to get a little irritated, but kept it hidden. "No, they told us it would be taken care of." I answered. She sighed and said we'd see. She chattered a little bit on our way in to the Nothern Lights Inn. She seemed sort of nicer after all, but just wasn't really friendly to say the least. For example, she said that this flu season was supposed to be really bad, and that around here it is super important to be vaccinated. I was polite and didn't say much. I think this irritated her, so she pressed the issue. "Are you and the kids vaccinated?" I told her no. I explained that I have always been allergic to it (they use eggs as the base to that vaccine) and that the kids hadn't had it either. She told me that I was wrong and let me know that there is still a type of flu vacc that I can take and that we really needed to take it. I dropped the subject, but I didn't understand the issue!
When we got to the Inn, I was told that we should have made our own reservations. She explained that the housing office makes that mistake often and she was sorry but there were no rooms available for us until three days later! Ugh! I couldn't call Jason because I didn't have my phone, and I was so frustrated. I got back in the car, talked to the runner (who I will call E) and she offered to let me use her phone. E took me to the nearest hotel near the base, and said that if they didn't have any rooms that we'd figure it out. She even said that if we had to, we could stay at her house. (And boy, was that just the thing I wanted to do! ha!) But it worked out for us to stay at the Regency Fairbanks Inn (which sounds a lot fancier than it was) and the lady there was nice enough to hold the room on E's credit card since I didn't have mine with me, and give us a military discount. We were able to go up to our room and wait on J to get there.
We were seriously tired by the time Jason got back. It is a three hour time difference. So it was 9pm here, but we were still on Texas time, which would have been midnight! We decided to order a pizza (we had our van shipped and didn't have it yet) and relaxed the rest of the night. I made hot chocolate as a treat and the kids watched Toy Story 3 on their dvd player.
So although there was no room at the Inn for us, God still provided a way for us to have shelter that night. We were happy to be done with a very long day, and I was ready to go to bed and forget our stress!
No comments:
Post a Comment