Cordova!

Sometimes, the universe just intervenes and throws wonderful “coincidences” in your path. Look hard, you might miss them --- and as some say, there IS no such thing as a coincidence!

I’ve often talked to people, friends, family, and even strangers who say things like “I know this happened for a reason.” And I am left to ponder on that. Being a rather “Free Thinking” person, I’d like to think that it is not the fact that things happen for a reason or not, but what WE choose that reason to be – what WE decide to do with it.

And that is as deep as my thoughts go. I watch in wonder as each day arrives wondering what kind of interesting things are going to unfold – Like turning the pages of a book and being surprised when twists and turns happen that I never saw coming.

This small diatribe might make you think that there was something really BIG going on in my life, but in fact, it was just a small series of events that brought me together with one of the Quiltie Gals here in Cordova, who was making this trip here so possible!

Terri started emailing me and plotting and planning with me over 2 years ago. It has taken this long for me to get here.

Last July, when emailing about details with her….we found out that we were BOTH going to be in Minneapolis at the same time. I was visiting my mom and aunt, she was there with some crazy Alaskan friends on the Minnesota Shop Hop! Small world, no?

Well, I wasn’t able to join them, even if I wanted to. You remember how short my time was? Meeting my Mom, Aunt and family about midnight at the airport on Tuesday for the big surprise, and then spending only Wednesday and Thursday with them and flying home Friday morning. It just wouldn’t fit.

But it made me wonder….could our paths have crossed before? Were we ever in Minnesota at the same time before and didn’t know it? Who knows!

Friday night, as I was going to sleep ((Trying to sleep early but failing miserably due to too much excitement!)) I got a phone call from Terri ---Turns out she was in South Dakota on a family issue, and was returning to Cordova the same day I was flying out! In fact --- We would be on the same flight from Seattle to Anchorage, and the same flight from Anchorage to Cordova!

The universe must have known that I was feeling a little jittery over the small plane flight into Cordova at night ---And suddenly, I had a companion to go with me!

See, it isn’t life altering, not every thing that happens, but I still love to look at life with eyes of wonder on how things just work out.

The pic you see above is out of my window on the small plane as we were leaving Anchorage. Night time was fast approaching, it was almost 7pm. I’d been awake for 20 hours at this point. It was about 11pm North Carolina time, and I'd been up since 3:15am North Carolina time.

This is the small plane! And it was raining….and it was VERY VERY Bumpy! Not just up and down kind of bumpy, but it felt like we were skating sideways at some points. I told myself….as I dealt with the hexagons in my lap ((It was now completely dark out and we were IN the clouds so there was nothing to se out the window!)) “Just keep stitching, just keep stitching!!))

And before I knew it, we were on the ground! We ran for the terminal building because the rain was pounding!

I knew I was in Alaska, and definitely far from home when I was greeted inside the terminal by this HUGE husky dog…..he was soaked with rain and just loved right up on me soaking my jeans clear through. Tried to get a picture, but the dang beast just would NOT hold still, and the picture came out extra blurry, but after 21 hours awake, this was a good indication of just how I felt! LOL!

This guy was MASSIVE!! But I loved the doggie welcome! The bags all made it, and I was whisked off to Val’s house……and straight off to bed.

In the morning…..this was the view from the living room window! OH MY!! Hello, Cordova! You are definitely a well kept secret!

And in usual “Bonnie Travel” fashion…I had to laugh when I opened my suitcase to find yet ANOTHER TSA slip sitting just there on top. I hope they enjoyed it as much as I did..at least there were no DIRTY clothes to paw through, but they did rearrange stuff into some weird order that I did NOT pack it in – and my shampoo leaked all over the bottom so that we had to do laundry to clean it all up again.

And NO, I don’t think THAT happened for a reason either, but it’s a perk to have a nice clean jacket to keep me warm while I’m here!