Unexpected: trivial and important

The trivial:
Friday evening after we had landed in Phoenix we had about 5 hours to drive 3.5 hours for the 50th wedding anniversary we wanted to attend. We had no time to lose. In fact, we had decided to carry on our luggage to save the few minutes it would take to get our luggage at the claim station. We hadn't had lunch and we decided a well-known fast food restaurant like Wendy's would be better than taking a chance on a real sit-down place even if we knew of one in Payson, which we didn't.

As we were leaving we stopped in the restrooms. Just in case. Who should Carolyn meet as she came out? Her sister-in-law Jeannie and Jeannie's daughter Monique. They were making the same drive and just stopping for a potty break. What are the chances?

The important:
It's always nice to be able to plan a little flexibility into your travel itinerary because unexpected events do come up. This time it was Monique's husband's computer that had been left up in the Taylor area that needed to be in the Phoenix area Monday morning. Everyone going that way had either gone or would be heading there too late. Could we please bring it? With a few calls to the airline, we managed to change our flight for four hours later (luckily we had totally changeable tickets). That allowed us to deliver the errant computer as well as eat lunch and visit with Monique and her family and parents.

As a byproduct, we found that Monique and her sister Nicole are avid bloggers like me. Their blogs can be found at http://jackson-five.blogspot.com/ (for Nicole) and http://qafrostfamily.blogspot.com/ (for Monique)

Monique and her family have just relocated to the Phoenix area so it was a pleasant surprise for us to be able to visit with them during this trip.