Serendipity

Websters defines serendipity as, the faculty or phenomenon of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for or an instance of this. 

In my first post I mentioned how flight delays and other travel maladies can actually be part of the fun memories we have from a trip.  Here’s an example of one such serendipity.

In the summer of 1999 I was running a bookstore full time for my church and I was also flying out on the weekends part time to make some extra money.  I had an acquaintance who was a Nikken distributor and he was also a motivational tool distributor at various Nikken functions.  Though I wasn’t in Nikken, I could “speak” the language due to past network marketing involvement.

On Friday evening I would meet my friend in a parking lot somewhere, pick up the product and my ticket, and head to the airport.  On this particular weekend, I had an engagement in Fort Washington, PA which is about 30 miles north of Philly.  I was flying TWA and was scheduled to make a connecting flight in St. Louis.  Well, as you probably have experienced, flying through the Midwest in the summer can be tricky because there are a lot of storms.

I arrived late in St. Louis and found out my connection to Philadelphia was cancelled due to bad weather.  The bulk of the business for this convention was due to occur on Saturday so if I couldn’t get routed to the east coast, the trip was a waste.  My friend purchased his tickets on Cheaptickets so he would’ve been out of the ticket as well.  As I was meeting with the ticket agent I asked her to book me on a flight back to Seattle.  She did and so went my opportunity to go to Philadelphia.

As I was turning away from the counter and the next disgruntled former passenger was heading to the counter, I looked back and asked, “do you have any other flights going out to the east coast tonight?”  I had momentarily thought that even if I don’t make the convention, I could make this an adventure.  At this point, I was pushing her buttons a little bit because the ticket counters were trying to shut down as the rest of the planeless were hunkering down in the chairs for the long wait until morning and their next flight.

She sighed and in a slightly but still cordial tone said, “yes, I have a flight leaving for Newark in an hour.”  It was about 12:30am.  I said, “I’ll take it.”  Looking back I am amazed that my bags arrived with me because they had their baggage tags changed twice.  So very weary, but kind of enthusiastic I waited for the plane to board and started planning a rental car and figuring out how to get from Newark to Fort Washington.

For those of you that know, I love to drive so I was looking forward to actually getting to drive more!  Many of you have been to New York City and some of you actually had the good fortune to dine at the Windows on the World restaurant in One World Trade.  Others of you had the good fortune of seeing One and Two World Trade in person.  Well as the plane was beginning to make its final approach into Newark the sun was beginning to rise in a radiant burst of orange, yellow, and pink right over Manhattan.  This was my first view of New York City in person and it was breathtaking!  The angle of the plane on its approach compared with the sun’s angle made it appear as the sun was rising right between the World Trade Center towers.  I was dismayed for a moment knowing that I couldn’t go to Manhattan on this trip; I had to figure out to get from Jersey to Philly.  Was I even going to survive Jersey?!

On the way to baggage claim another serendipity occured.  Once while living in Tigard, OR I had the ironic opportunity to pull over in my beater Ford Escort to assist a man in his disabled Ferrari.  Apparently, the Ferrari had a blown fuse and help was on the way.  Ask my wife, and you would know I couldn’t have helped this guy mechanically-I just wanted to see his Ferrari up close.  While I was there I introduced myself and I asked him his name and what he did.  His name was Laran Ghiglieri and he was an artist.  He went to describe his father Lorenzo who is a world famous bronze sculpter and painter.  I went on my way shortly and thought, “how interesting.”

After baggage claim I was headed to the rental car area and what do I see, but a bronze sculpture by none other than Lorenzo Ghiglieri.  I was so dumbfounded by the coincidence that I don’t even remember what the sculpture depicted!  So if you have been there and know, please tell me.  (I just got off the phone with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and none of the people at Newark airport know!)  Years later I actually met Lorenzo at a wildlife art show at the Tacoma Dome and related the story.  If you would like to admire his work it can be found at www.art-lorenzo.com

After picking my rental car, I nearly made it to Manhattan as I got on the wrong direction of the New Jersey Turnpike.  I knew I was in trouble when I saw the Holland Tunnel exit.  Well I made it to Fort Washington after a fun drive down the New Jersey and then Pennsylvania turnpike.  The conference went well and it was off to the Philadelphia airport.  There were more serendipities to be had.

I had a flight cancellation and a re-route so instead of Philly-St. Louis-Seattle, it became Philly-Las Vegas-Seattle on two different carriers.  Some day I’ll relate the experience I had on the Alaska Airlines flight from Vegas to Seattle.

So you may be wondering if I ever got back to New York to see and experience the Twin Towers?  I did.  From November 30-December 6th 2001 I particpated in a volunteer team to help the citizens of New York recover from 9/11.  Thank God I got to see that sunrise and that my flight to Philadelphia was cancelled back in the summer of 1999.

Be blessed and have an excellent day!  By the way, when was the last time you said to yourself, “It’s my turn to travel!”