We Almost Didn’t Go. . .

This story was submitted by Robin Hurst to the Stories of Travel collection as part of the May SEEQ sessions.

The fires were raging through California, Oregon and Canada. The smoke was so thick the lens of the Seattle harbor webcam did not reveal the islands just across the water. In fact, if you did not know the water was there you would not know it was there. The air quality ratings were in the red danger zones – nearly off the charts.

I made calls to friends and family who lived nearby to make sure they were okay. Secondly, I asked them if we should postpone our trip for safety and breathable air. Their answers gave more insight to the old saying it depends which direction the wind blows.

My husband and I had thought about making this trip for nearly a decade. We finally charted it out: a few days discovering Seattle, several days meandering down the Oregon coast and ending the trip with five fabulous days in Sonoma punctuated by the Sonoma Music Festival. If we cancelled the trip, at least our itinerary could be reapplied at another time and most or our deposits could be salvaged.

Why didn’t I purchase trip insurance?

Our VIP tickets for the music festival were pricey to the tune of $800, so we sadly decided to remove our names from the waiting list. At least that investment could be protected.

After so much deliberation, we decided to pray for it all to be miraculously clear. We prayed for the people who were in harms way of the fires. We prayed for those who had lost their homes and perhaps even loved ones. We prayed for God to open the doors and clear the air if we were supposed to continue forward. We claimed that we would do so unless some doors were closed.

We boarded the plane. As we did so, my phone rang. It was Dianna, from the winery where the music festival was being held. I had spoken to her a couple of weeks earlier when the wildfires were in full blaze. I called to check on her and our other friends at the winery. Everyone was safe. I scheduled a time to stop by to see her and to taste their most recent releases. But this time, she had dialed my number. I picked up the phone just before placing it in airplane mode to hear Dianna say, “we could not stand that you are flying all the way from Virginia to California and not attending the concert. We have gratis VIP tickets for you and Ken. We can’t wait to see you.”

Our call was brief because it was time for the safety show on the plane. We were elated. We knew this was an open door.

That vacation was one of our best ever!

And to think, we almost didn’t go.