The worst trip ever

Have you ever had a trip go this poorly?

At Least It’s Not as Bad as Robert’s Trip to Omaha

Have you ever had a trip that just went south? Everything that could go wrong, did. I just got back from filming an episode with Kap Chatfield on the Directed Life Podcast, and the recording itself was a blast. But the trip to get there was a small odyssey of misfortune, and I figured I’d share it. Not because it’s some grand life lesson, but because the next time your travel day falls apart, you can just tell yourself: at least it’s not as bad as Robert’s trip to Omaha.

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When the Car Dies Thirty Minutes from the Airport

I was flying out of Charlotte, about two hours from home, on a 10:00 PM flight into Omaha, Nebraska. The plan was simple: land around midnight, sleep, wake up and meet with some local Classical Conversations leaders in the morning, then head to the studio to record.

Thirty minutes into the drive, a warning light came on. The electrical system was failing, and things started shutting off one by one. I pulled into a parking lot just in time. The car died and wouldn’t restart. I called a tow truck, and thankfully I’d left early enough, had TSA PreCheck, and wasn’t checking a bag, so I still figured I’d make the flight.

Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes that “the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong... but time and chance happen to them all.” That’s a hard truth to sit with when your car dies on the side of the road, but it’s also a freeing one. I couldn’t control the electrical system in a vehicle I don’t even understand the wiring of. I could control whether I panicked or kept moving toward the next right step.

Charlotte Airport Has Never Felt So Big

While I waited on the tow truck, the flight got delayed over an hour because of weather. By the time I reached the airport and got word on the gate, I had a solid forty-five minute hike across three different terminals: B gates, then D gates, then finally A gates. Charlotte is not a small airport, and I got my steps in that night.

We finally boarded, well past the delay we’d already been told to expect, and then the pilot came on to explain the plane itself was having electrical issues. Apparently my car and my aircraft were having a sympathetic moment. Another forty-five minutes passed before we pushed back from the gate.

Aristotle taught that patience isn’t the absence of frustration, it’s the habit of ordering your passions under reason even when circumstances refuse to cooperate. I wasn’t serene. I was tired and frustrated. But there’s a difference between feeling that and being ruled by it.

Four in the Morning in a City That Doesn’t Know My Name

We landed in Omaha close to 3:00 AM. Ubers were scarce at that hour, so I waited another twenty minutes before finally reaching the hotel around 3:50 AM. Because I checked in so late, the hotel system was mid-reboot for its nightly update, and the front desk had no idea which room was mine. We tried one room. The deadbolt was thrown from the inside, meaning someone else was already asleep there. We waited another fifteen or twenty minutes for the system to come back online before I finally got into my actual room around 4:00 AM.

I was supposed to be up at 7:00 AM to meet with Classical Conversations families and local leaders. I had to send word to my team to cancel that meeting, which I hated doing. But I needed enough sleep to show up coherent for the podcast recording later that day, and something had to give.

Augustine wrote that God orders all things, even the things that frustrate our plans, toward ends we can’t always see in the moment. I don’t know why that particular meeting got canceled while the recording went off without a hitch. I just know which one I needed to be sharp for, and Providence seemed to agree.

The Point of Telling You This

The episode turned out great. It’ll be out in the middle of August on the Directed Life Podcast, and you can also learn more about Kap’s work at kapchatfield.com. I think you’ll enjoy the conversation. But if I’m honest, the getting there mattered too, not because it was fun, but because it was a reminder that we don’t get to choose our circumstances nearly as often as we get to choose our response to them.

C.S. Lewis said that hardship often prepares an ordinary person for some future glory or advantage we can’t yet see. I don’t know what a broken-down car and a four-hour-old hotel key card were preparing me for. Maybe just this article. Maybe just the reminder that a classical Christian worldview isn’t only for the big moments, the court cases and the culture battles. It’s also for the 4:00 AM hallway of a hotel in Omaha, when you’re tired and frustrated and still have to decide whether you’re going to trust that this, too, is being worked for good.

So next time your travel day falls apart, remember: at least it’s not as bad as Robert’s trip to Omaha.

Don’t be woke. Be wise.