Life Is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Life is the Stories You Can Tell
  • Sing His Praises
  • My Creed
  • Books I Love
  • Christmas Letters

Not As We Planned......

10/13/2019

1 Comment

 
Picture
Originally we planned to go to Cedar City Friday night.  A later-than-anticipated departure-from-work time for both Lance and I (5:00 p.m.) combined with Tanah’s plans to not be at her home until later (11:30 p.m.) changed our plans so we left Ogden for Cedar City semi-early (6:00 a.m.) Saturday morning instead.    

I drove most of the way, as planned, but was feeling drowsy just north of Beaver so Lance took the wheel.  Five miles south of Beaver we saw a vehicle at the side of the road whose owners were certainly dealing with a situation that they had not planned; blue smoke hovered in a cloud around the SUV.  Remembering the time when he and Tanah were stuck on the same stretch of freeway for four hours (no one stopped to help), Lance pulled over, an action which also was not in our original plan.

The family (mother, father, daughter, two sons, and a foreign exchange student from Saudi Arabia) was headed to Zion National Park.    The SUV was not. The father called a tow truck and accompanied his crippled vehicle back to Beaver. Lance climbed into the bed of the truck with the rabbit--an action we definitely had NOT planned for---while the family joined me in the cab.  [The truck has six seat belts. Five of them plus me maxed out the space in the cab so Lance banished himself to the back.]

Enterprise Car Rental of Cedar City did not have any vehicles available for one-way trips; all their cars had to be rented from and returned to Cedar City.  This caused a cascade of plan changes. The Orem family’s car was toast; it would not be returning to Orem. Renting a car allowed them to stick with their plan to visit Zion but they had no plan for how to return to Orem.

We planned to return to Ogden Saturday night after watching Hamlet.  Our plans changed too. “We are headed north Sunday morning,” I told them, “and could give you a ride to Orem…..if your husband does not mind joining my husband in the back of the truck.”    They quickly agreed and a new plan was born.

Our visit with Tanah went mostly as planned.   It was totally delightful--which we anticipated--but not entirely predictable.   We ate breakfast at 12:30 p.m. (much later than planned), bought rabbit food at IFA (which we should have planned), and purchased a Sunday skirt  at D.I. and a toothbrush at WalMart (because spending the night was not planned)      

Thankfully, we saw Hamlet, which was the event for which the trip was planned.   Utah Shakespearean Festival’s production of Hamlet was absolutely stunning. STUNNING.   The reasons Tanah has been raving about it for five months became very clear. The actor who played was Hamlet was snarky, engaging, and vibrant.   Polonius was stick-up-his-butt pompous and so long-winded , Claudius was a loathsome psychopath, and Ophelia was heartbreaking. Thank you, THANK YOU, Tanah for inviting, entertaining, and feeding us.

After plans changed and we decided to spend the night in Cedar, we planned to sleep on the couches in Tanah’s apartment.  When we returned from Hamlet at 11:30 p.m. and the apartment Saturday night social hour was still going strong in the front room that plan changed as well.   The money we spent on the hotel room may have been the best purchase we made all weekend.

We met the family at Enterprise Car Rental at 9:00 a.m. Sunday morning as planned  [Surprise!!!] and packed the truck: Hislops, three kids and mother in the cab, father and the Saudi in the bed of the truck.  The ride back to northern Utah was delightful. They are truly, TRULY salt of the Earth people---so good, so gracious, and so, SO fun.    The mother, Anadine, was a theater arts major, wrote, directed, and produced a huge community theater production in Tucson, and currently runs a non-profit food pantry for the less fortunate in northern Utah County.  Doug (dad) is a dairy-farmer’s-son-turned-seminary-teacher. Becca, the 15 year old daughter who is drop dead gorgeous (when Miles sees her picture he will be so sad he stayed home….), has a physics test Monday. She likes math but not physics, a fact that has a lot more to do with the teacher than it does the subject.  Sam (probably about 13) has eyes that absolutely light up when he talks about cross country and soccer. Mosad is a senior at UVU studying hospital administration and Ben, the youngest, loves everything Tesla. (Did you know Tesla has a whole line of accessories…?) We feel so blessed to have met these amazing people and to have lived a story together.

The ride home was uneventful, which would have been the plan had we made one, and then we were in Orem.  Hugs and expressions of gratitude on both sides. Good-byes. And gone.  

Thus ended a truly magical weekend.    We could not have planned a better one.   It did not go as we planned but I am convinced that it went as He planned.   There are no such things as coincidences. The weekend did not follow our master plan but it did follow the Master’s plan.    Thank you God!


Picture
Picture
Picture
1 Comment
Anadine Marshall
10/13/2019 08:06:59 pm

This is so special! THANK YOU for being angels without a plan and letting the spirit guide. We know God loves and takes care of us when ministering angels do His work. Life is an adventure and so thankful we are part of each other’s life story now. :-). Forever grateful you stopped to help us. Xoxo!

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Teresa Hislop
    [email protected]

    Archives

    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    September 2012
    August 2012

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.