Some people wonder how I travel so often... and the answer is no, I am not made of money. I am a small business owner, and I'm extremely lucky to do what I love to make a living, but no I am not ,by any means, made of money. I am however, lucky enough to have a mother who has worked for Delta airlines for 20 years and the benefits are wonderful :)
The benefits are wonderful budget-wise, but flying stand-by has gotten more and more difficult over the years. Often times, I'll be stranded in a city for several hours, sometimes several days, just trying to get to another city. Often times, I'll be stranded in an airport for 24 hours or more. And often times, I'll get fed up with the hours in the airport and just fly somewhere other than my original destination. I'm thankful my schedule allows me the flexibility for this type of travel.
I'm spending the week in Arizona this week, maybe next week also. Yesterday, I got up at 4am to get on the Salt Lake City flight out of Portland to make sure I got there in order to try to make at least one Phoenix flight that day out of SLC. Chances were looking slim to none come 3pm, so I hopped on a Palm Springs flight instead.
Arriving into Palm Springs and having to rent a car to drive the 4.5 hours to Phoenix, most would be frustrated. I, too, would normally be frustrated. However, I've come to realize in the last few years that frustration does not result in anything good. It results in more frustration, tiredness, stress, bad attitudes, and that, in turn, effects the people around you. The term "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade" has really come into play for me lately. Everything happens for a reason, God gave me a little "me" time before hitting AZ with friends and visiting family, and I couldn't have been more thankful.
I rented the cutest car that I've never even heard of (I'm not a car person)... I was urged by a friend to rent a convertible and let my hair down, but I'm cheap so rented the latter and just rolled my windows down instead... felt just as happy ;) Anyways, what came of the Palm Springs-Joshua Tree detour was nothing short of fantastic. I met the sweetest old man on the plane, whom showed me around Palm Springs a bit when we landed, I took my time on the road to AZ, discovered some wonderful new music, stopped in Joshua Tree and got a little lost wandering around taking photos of plants and the beauty that surrounded me, and caught a sunset in the middle of no where all by myself. I didn't have any cell service most of the time, and truly didn't have any worry in the world of timeline, schedule, itinerary, anything. It was all a true breath of fresh air, and then I made it to my final destination of Phoenix by 11pm. Between 4am and 11pm, I had a damn good day. Come to find out, it was the first day of spring, and I'm so glad I got to spend it the way I did!
The first day of spring 2017 I learned that some of life's greatest adventures are actually detours. I actually didn't think I would blog about this (thought I was taking photos for myself), but I woke up today feeling truly blessed for my unexpected detour yesterday and had to share. Here's to detours. And here are my photos from Joshua Tree National Park... it is so beautiful, I can't wait to go back and explore for more than an hour!
