Sunday, September 19, 2004

Where in the World is...

Months and months ago, DH and I planned this awesome vacation holiday for my college friends who live up nawth and his english mates and family. We spent weeks looking for the perfect house at just the right price in Seagrove Beach, Florida (in between Destin and Panama City) and spent even more weeks trying to convince the English that we were worth the money to come down and visit us, darnit. We got everything booked, plane tickets booked to fly into Ft. Walton airport, house booked, the road trip planned from New Orleans to Florida...

and then came Ivan.

Now there is no longer a rental house in Seagrove Beach that we have booked. Can't even get in touch with the rental office, and I doubt they can even get through the roads and past the downed bridges. Ivan came on Thursday, and Sunday we were supposed to start our vacation with 5 people flying in from abroad.

In two days DH and I have pulled our hair, pulled other people's hair, and came up with a fantastic plan B. Take the Brits and my one friend who decided to come, to the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and have them visit the Redneck Riviera of Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg. We got an awesome cabin, and have planned trips such as visiting the Jack Daniel's Distillery in Lynchburg, TN.

Planning that in two days while trying to get all the visitors to reroute their flights to New Orleans instead of Florida has given me four ulcers and three migraines. I don't recommend going through this just after starting a new anti-depressant med. In the meantime I'm also having to plan a church ministry and train leaders at a church with the greatest amount of apathy in all of Baton Rouge.

Right now it's the calm before the storm. Church ministry starts tonight, and the first of our visitors flies into New Orleans tomorrow morning with the rest flying in...who knows when (instead of changing their flight via phone ahead of time and making sure they'll be on a plane to New Orleans on the right day, they're going to change their tickets at the airline counter the day they're supposed to fly out...fingers crossed and pass the ulcer medicine).

The British are coming, and our dirty clothes are stuffed under the bed.

I know we'll have a good time. In fact, DH and I are more excited about the Smokies than we ever were about the beach. We're mountain people, not beach people. I just can't rest until I have everybody in sight and they all have smiles on their faces.

See you in a week, when we return from Tennessee. I'd have some guest bloggers but my blogging friends blog even less than I do. Cheerio.