MEMORY MAKING: JOYCE MEYERS’ LOVE LIFE 2023 IN SAN ANTONIO
It Wasn’t Love Life 2022 in St. Louis
There, I said it. There were a few great moments, but the impact I experienced in 2022 just wasn’t there, even if all the loud music was. We did not sign up for 2024.
That’s not to say there weren’t some good moments. I just didn’t feel as if I got as much out of it as I did the year before. I can’t point to a single moment or thought that impacted me significantly, but lightning rarely strikes twice.
But I Loved Life in San Antonio
If you’ve been around this blog long, then you know I love San Antonio. If I could only have one travel destination for the rest of my life, it would probably be San Antonio, but I’m glad I don’t have to make that choice.
Staying in New Braunfels with Shana and being at the Alamo Dome kept us from our usual center of activity, but we loved the time with Shana and the walking was good for us. All in all it was a great trip. Here’s a few highlights.
We loved reading all the signs!
Guadalajara Grill for Lunch
When Love Life broke for lunch on Friday, job one was to find a restaurant that wasn’t already filled to capacity with other Love Life attendees. That meant we walked and walked and walked and walked a little more, but finally we landed at Guadalajara Grill. Google is trying to tell me it was a four minute walk, but we must have gone the long way.
It was a fortunate stop. The food was great, but the best part was the signs all over the walls and the ceiling. Even though the restaurant was not as inundated with as many people as some we’d passed, this was a popular lunch spot, so we plunked down at the bar, margaritas and decided to enjoy ourselves.
We explained out conference dilemma to the man behind the bar and while he didn’t seem all that sympathetic, we did seem to get seated pretty quickly. On our next trip to San Antonio (and there will always be more trips to San Antonio) we’ll certainly eat at Guadalajara Grill again.
Chart House Restaurant in Tower of the Americas
So, one of my favorite places to eat, bar none, is the Chart House Restaurant in The Tower of the Americas. Not that I could find any of my own photos of it. I stole this one from their website. I love the food and the view is wonderful. And it’s a special place. People get dressed up to go there. Not all of them anymore, unfortunately, the usual grunge was visible on this visit, but it’s everywhere, so I have to live with it.
Deb and I tried it first in 2015 and we still feel the same way about it. So much so, that on the way back from Guadalajara Grill we stopped at the Tower and made reservations for dinner. Take that all you Love Life attendees filling the other restaurants. We had a reservation.
I did a good job of describing the the experience in the post linked above, so no need to go over it all again. Just click the link. Was it still as good Yep, for me it’s a must-do every time I go to San Antonio.
Lunch on Saturday
By Saturday we were a little tired of shuffling around the Hemisfair Plaza battling for dining space. We squeezed out of the morning session as soon as we dared and made a beeline for the first luxury hotel. I can’t remember which one we landed at. The meal was both mediocre and expensive – well at least the margarita was expensive – but we enjoyed the break and headed back to the final session, which we also scooted out of early. We were going out with Shana that evening.
Check in Wednesday for Memory Keeping and on Friday we’ll be creating something fun for Memory Sharing. Then next Monday I’ll wrap up a few details from this trip and we can start thinking about California!
So, one of my all-time favorite networking groups is Polka Dot Powerhouse . My particular chapter had a little thing they called the Traveling Tiara and I’d been selected to wear it for the next month. Most of the women get it and they don’t do much with it. Not me! I carried it everywhere I went and posted lots of photos. This first one was at a McDonald’s somewhere between Dallas and San Marcos.
SAN MARCOS OUTLETS
The next stop was the San Marcos Outlet Mall and we got there just as the stores were opening. We were girls on a mission. Deb needed a Brahmin bag. The last time we’d been down this way, back in 2015, I’d convinced Deb she should invest in a Brahmin. It was a little out of her intended price range, but she did it and she loved it. Eight years later, she was still carrying her Brahmin during the fall and winter, but now she needed one for spring and summer.
We parked out front and went in to handle all their stuff. I helped Deborah pick out a beauty from the clearance department and then went to see the billfolds. I didn’t really need one, but it was about the only item in the store I might fit into my budget. Eventually, I became aware of the fact that Deb’s purchase was not going smoothly. In fact, I’d handled all the billfolds several times and Deb was still waiting to check out. There was only one lady in front of her, but the cash register was down.
We waited a little longer, but nothing was happening. Finally, our stomachs let us know it was nearing the lunch hour, but Deb really, really wanted that bag. At least she did for a while and then she decided maybe the hold up was a sign from God. She’d put the bag back on the shelf and if we had time, we’d stop back by on the way home. If we had time and the bag was still there, then she was meant to have the bag.
GRUENE’S GRISTMILL
To begin with, for the uninitiated, “Gruene” is pronounced like the color, green. It’s a lovely little shopping and eating town right next to New Braunfels and the Guadalupe River. The Gristmill is a wonderful riverside restaurant that I try to eat at every time I pass by on nearby I-35. It’s like getting kolaches in West, you just do it.
Is it the best food you can get in Gruene? No, but it’s good enough and while you wait for a table (you ALWAYS have to wait for a table) you sit in their great little beer garden and the margaritas are marvelous. The Gristmill did not disappoint. It was a gorgeous day for the beer garden, so I enjoyed my margarita while we waited for a table.
I can’t remember what we ate, but I bet it included the onion rings. We love them and used to always get them. (Now I’m gluten free, so I wonder what I’ll eat next time! I won’t be having my usual burger either.)
HEADING ON DOWN THE ROAD
Next stop was Shana’s house where we got situated for our stay. Deb took a nap and I marveled at her cat who looked just like our Princess, who we’d lost not all that long before this trip. So, it almost seemed like I was seeing a ghost! FYI – the top one is Princess!
Joyce’s conference was going to begin at 7, so the nap ended and we got back on the road. Doors opened quite a while before we got to the Alamo Dome, so we didn’t exactly have optimal seats, but we enjoyed the opening festivities.
Afterwards, we made our way back to Shana’s, so we could turn around and do it all the next day. I hope you’ll turn around and read my blog post on Wednesday. We’ll be doing some Memory Keeping and on Friday, we’ll Memory Sharing!
The Love Life Conference was great. A little too much rock music and we skipped out on Joel Olsteen, but Joyce was on point with us and I decided I’d give Deb a repeat for her next birthday. So, I booked the next conference while I was in St. Louis.
A few months later, I passed through New Braunfels for a quick visit to my friend Shana. I mentioned Joyce to her and she was excited by the thought of it. So, we had a plan. Shana, Deborah and I were going to see Joyce in October of 2023 and we’d stay with Shana.
Well, it was a great trip! Shopping at the San Marcos Outlet Mall, great food, fun times and oh yes! We did also attend Joyce Meyer’s Love Life Conference in the Alamo Dome.
Come along for the next few Mondays and I’ll share that fun with you. And don’t miss Memory Keeping on Wednesday or Memory Sharing on Friday!
I am the Museum Girl. I want to get up early, to be there when they open, and I could happily stay until they close, especially if they have cool restaurants to enjoy. While this little trip to Detroit had been lovely in a number of ways, the schedules of my top choices were not cooperating with me.
If I’d had my druthers, we’d have been to the Motown Museum, the living museum of Greenfield Village and more, but they weren’t open when we had time to see them. Some of the things I wanted to see, like the Conservatory on Belle Island were being remodeled. What I had seen was nice, but it was secondary and tertiary selections, because the family events took first place and keeping Bill happy took second.
I had one non-negotiable though. If I did nothing else, I wanted to see the Detroit Institute of Art and finally the time to do that had arrived.
Remnant of a Glorious Past
About the time they were building The Guardian Building I enjoyed so much downtown, Detroit was almost the center of the world. Americans flocked there for vacation like we go to New York, Chicago or San Fran. It’s where all the best shows were performed, the shopping was wonderful and the Detroit Institute of Art reigned the cultural world. The men went to smoky offices to discuss commerce and the women spent their money after a visit to the museum.
The DIA retains all the beauty of her former glory and she’s making a comeback in the world of museums. The city of Detroit went through some pretty tough days. It wasn’t just the Renaissance Center and the Guardian Building which seemed like a ghost town. The whole of Detroit almost disappeared and her cultural jewels could have been up for grabs, but she held on and now her art museum is back to its former glory and bragging about all the improvements they have in the works.
The DIA is a wonderful place to go if you want to see classical art in America. They were one of those museums which bought all the good stuff up before later cities could get their share. I once heard a curator at the Dallas Museum of Art answer a question about their lack of important classical pieces, “How could an important, wealthy city, like Dallas, have so few recognizable classical pieces?” The curator explained that when the DMA started collecting art, those recognizable classical pieces already had home in Europe and a few American museums – museums like the DIA.
If you ever get the opportunity to go, I hope you’ll do so and leave plenty of time, so you can see it all. My husband took about 100 pictures and then he took almost that many more of the tags that went with them. I won’t show you all 100 or the tags, but I thought you might enjoy these portraits of women.
Heading Homeward
Far too soon, it was time to go. There were a number of unfamiliar variables, so I had allowed plenty of time in my schedule for trouble. I checked on the travel time from the museum. I added a little time for traffic, for finding a gas station, for fueling the car, for returning the car, for getting transported to the terminal from the remote rental car and so on and so forth.
Well, none of that happened. There was no traffic. Bill pulled off the road at an exit, found a gas station within a block and filled up without having to wait. We returned the car in moments and the bus took us immediately. We checked our luggage without a single delay and there was no line at security. Bill wasn’t happy, because he doesn’t like to wait. I was happy! After what we went through getting to Detroit, I was happy to be all checked in and ready to board. A vast difference in priorities there.
We got home safe and sound. Come back next week and see what we got up to next.
We’d started our day in an empty world headquarters, had breakfast in ghost town food court and taken a ride on an abandoned monorail. We were beginning to wonder if anyone actually lived or worked in Detroit. Still, finding gems off the beaten path is one of my favorite things to do, so this hunt for The Guardian Building was just my cup of tea.
It was Travel Advisor which clued me in on the existence of a pristine Art Deco skyscraper in Downtown Detroit. Once we got off the People Mover I asked Google Maps to find The Guardian Building and as I thought, it was just around the corner from the monorail stop. Instead of trying to describe it, I’ll just share some of the photos we snapped.
Gorgeous, right? Like the Renaissance Center, there wasn’t much in the way of human occupation. There was a security guard behind a desk in the central lobby and up the stairs was a large open area. A barista lurked behind a coffee bar and there was a tour company office on the other side and that was it. Where were the rest of the inhabitants of Detroit?
Campus Martius Park
While the Riverfront and Greektown are obviously popular areas in Detroit, we’d be seeing those with the family later in the weekend, so I wanted to focus on things we wouldn’t see with them, which took us to this downtown park.
It was here we finally connected with humanity. As we strolled along a well landscaped path between the skyscrapers, we happened upon a beach bar. Yes, I said a beach bar. Sand, lounge chairs and drinks with fruit in them. Don’t believe me?
It would have suited me fine to take a load off and sample their wares, but Bill was not in lounging mode. He was doing his best to play tourist, but he was distracted. Not only were most of our credit cards compromised by hackers, but the market was open and we’d just turned over our real estate photography company to the new owner. We were supposed to be celebrating that last bit, but after nursing our enterprise to success for six years, we were having some separation anxiety. Was this guy going to be able to handle it? It’s not that we weren’t happy to see it go. We just didn’t want it back!
At the end of the park is One Campus Maritus, the Compuware headquarters, famous for this 14 story waterfall.
And that left one final stop along Woodward Avenue we wanted to visit, The Grand Circus. It’s not a circus with a tent, but a park in a circle. It was a much quieter venue than Campus Maritus with its beach bar and perhaps we would have skipped it altogether had we known, but it was right next to a People Mover station, so it turned out to be quite convenient.
On to our Next Accommodations
The People Mover took us back to Renaissance Center, where we claimed our rental car and headed to Pontiac/Auburn Hills. That was the location of the Residence Inn which would be our home away from home over the next few days. It was close to all the family events and had just what we wanted.
Certainly the Renaissance Center Marriott was more glamourous, but the Residence Inn offered a comfort the swanky hotel did not – a separate sitting room I could escape to each morning. I wake up so early out of habit, but Bill knows how to sleep late and I like to give him that luxury. On the way, we stopped at a grocery store to get some items to enjoy during our stay – wine, bottled water, fruit, protein bars etc.
I’m a pretty easy-going traveler. I don’t think I have ever rejected a room, even though there have been a few times I should have. Bill on the other hand is a little harder to please. He will go down to the desk and complain when he doesn’t like something. At the Residence Inn, he didn’t like the view. It’s a suburban Residence Inn, so I didn’t expect a view, but he did. We got a different room and don’t tell him, but I sort of liked the first one better. It seemed a little more convenient and not quite as dorm-like, but Bill did like the view better, so we stayed.
The Family Weekend
Over the next few days, we were involved with family. We had a get together at a local restaurant Friday night and the big Gender Reveal at a Country Club Saturday. Sunday we hung out at the Riverfront, had lunch in Greek town and a game of golf in the afternoon. On Monday, the main event was an absolute feast, fit for a Pharaoh with all our Egyptian favorites. While it was a lot of fun, it wouldn’t be of much interest to anyone outside the family. (It’s a boy by the way. Our Grand Nephew will arrive in October.)
After the feast, we went back towards Detroit and stayed at the Smithfield Westin. It was a nice hotel, but we were just there to sleep. In the morning I was finally getting to do something that had been on every version of my itinerary the Detroit Institute of Art. Come back next week and enjoy our visit.
Confession, Bill and I are happy when it’s just us two. It’s not that we don’t love our family and friends, nor does it have anything to do with not wanting to spend time with them. We just like to find the right mix of time for us and time with them.
Our weekend in Michigan was going to be full to bursting with family time from a happy hour on Friday evening to a family feast on Monday evening. So, Friday morning we decided to play tourists on our own.
Plans Are Made to be Changed
I cannot count the times I rearranged our itinerary in the months before our trip, but I thought I had a pretty good plan put together a few weeks before our arrival. Then I did some double checking, just in case – and it was a good thing! The hours posted in March for my chosen attractions had changed in May! I had to completely revamp my schedule in the days just before we left.
My plan, when we departed on Thursday, included getting up early and heading off to Greenfield Village at the Henry Ford on Friday morning. Well, after the bumps in the road on our travel day, getting Mr. Bill up early the next morning to go to a historical amusement part, didn’t sound as good as it had back in Dallas.
If I had been traveling with my bestie, we’re both early risers by nature, so it would have just been another day of fun for us. However, getting an exhausted Bill up early and out of our hotel room, to go to an amusement park, wasn’t going to kick off our vacation with the right foot.
Because of the accumulated travel difficulties, we’d missed out on a walking tour of Downtown Detroit I’d planned for Thursday evening. So, I changed my plans again. We’d take our time getting up and checking out of our hotel room and then do our Detroit walking tour, beginning with the People Mover.
Breakfast in Renaissance Center
In 1996 General Motors opened the first phase of Renaissance Center in homage to itself. This was to be, and still is, their world headquarters. It is a beautiful grouping of buildings, but it is also a ghost town. On a Friday morning it should be abustle with the comings and goings of the world, but it seemed virtually empty. It was us, a few maintenance people and a group of rambunctious children meeting for a field trip.
It was a little spooky wandering around in the vast empty lobby of the Renaissance Towers. Just outside the Marriott lobby, a sign promised several dining choices, but we just wanted to grab a quick breakfast, not have dinner at a steak or seafood venue. The People Mover Food Court sounded like what we needed, especially since we were also looking for the People Mover, but getting to it was a new challenge.
With a little direction from the cleaning crew, we took an elevator to a lower level and found the epicenter of the ghost town. The ambitious plans of the designers were evident, as were the resulting disappointment. An attractive seating area for hundreds of patrons with spots for many food vendors filled a large portion of the lower level, but it echoed emptily with a few orders from the field trip participants to the last food vendor standing.
Their menu was a cross between a short order grill and a gyro stand. The menu offered schwerma that didn’t actually exist, so Bill settled on something else from the Mediterranean menu and I got a grilled cheese sandwich. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t all that good either. Time for the People Mover.
The People Mover
I missed the People Mover in my initial Detroit research, but our family mentioned a free monorail in some of our correspondence, so I looked a little further because free city transportation sounded like a great thing. The sign announcing the presence of the People Mover Food Court led me to believe the Food Court and the People Mover would be adjacent to one other, but after breakfast we discovered my assumption was wrong.
The signage in the building is awful and as I mentioned, there were hardly any fellow humans walking around in it. The cleaning people, who had sent us to the Food Court, seemed a little vague about the People Mover’s location, but then we ran into an elevator repairman. He got us going in the right direction, but it was still hard to find. We went through a little trial and error before we actually found it.
Bill was ready to just walk where we wanted to go, because it wasn’t far, but I wanted to include a report on the People Mover here, so I pressed on. We did eventually find it, but the discovery was like happening up on an abandoned amusement park. As we waited, we’d just about given up again, when a security guard arrived and assured us we were in the right place. The monorail would arrive shortly.
To my dismay, I discovered the monorail traveled in only one direction and that direction was in the opposite direction of where I wanted to go. However, the circular route isn’t all that long, so we boarded the car when it came and took in an aerial tour of Downtown Detroit.
It wasn’t long until we’d made it all around and were arriving at our stop. I got my bearings and headed to the Guardian Building. Come back next week, because you’ll want to find out about that Art Deco beauty.
TRAVEL THERE: LOST LUGGAGE, COMPROMISED CREDIT CARDS AND OTHER DISCOURAGEMENTS
Disappointment at Dollar
OK, so after we left the Lost Luggage Office we had to find the bus to the Remote Rental Facility. At Detroit, that involved going up and down on a series of escalators, walking across a pedestrian bridge and reading a whole lot of signs to figure out that Dollar Rental customers were supposed to take the Hertz bus.
At the Hertz office we were informed that we must stay on the bus so they could take us around to the Dollar entrance. Talk about much ado about nothing. We obediently rode the bus to the other side of the building and discovered it was merely another entrance to the same space as the Hertz office. We were not amused. The counter help was merely adequate. Nothing to brag on, but we’ve certainly run into worse. Our rep told us to choose any car sitting in the 5B area.
We headed out to the lot and to section 5B. There were several black SUV’s lined up in the 5B area and Bill had a couple he wanted, but before we could make our move to enter the cars, other folks had beat it us to it. We ended up with a Chey Trax. It wasn’t the car of my dreams, but I wasn’t too concerned. Bill was devastated and he spent the rest of our vacation complaining about it.
But What About the Lost Luggage
To my great joy, Ms. Number Three had called me as we rode to the Remote Rental facility. The young man who had picked up my bag by mistake was on his way back to the airport to make the switch. I was thrilled. $3500 is a lot of money, but I just wanted my stuff. I didn’t have time to mess with shopping for replacements.
From the Remote Rental facility, we made our way back to the terminal and I went to the Lost Luggage counter. Mr. Switcheroo had not made it back yet, so Ms. Number Three was outlining my options.
Option One – I could wait, but they had no idea when the guy would show up and they would not compensate me for parking. Bill would not have liked that option.
Option Two – I could go on to my hotel and if the guy returned the bag that evening, the airline would deliver it to me sometime the next day. Well, I was checking out of the hotel the next morning, so that wasn’t a particularly good plan either.
Option Three – They could call me when it arrived and I could decide then what to do, including having someone else pick up my bag.
I was discussing Option Three with Ms. Number Three, because I had nephews & grand nephews arriving later that night. I thought they could pick up my bag and it would be easier to connect with them than with the airline. I might be a little inconvenienced, but it would do. I was texting my claim ticket to my niece to send on to her son or brother, when a very humble young man came in carrying my bag.
It was the first time he had traveled alone and he hadn’t even packed his own bag. He understood what he’d put me through and he apologized numerous times. About that time Ms. Everything’s-All-Right came by and looked at me as if to say, “I told you so.” I wanted to tell her just how NOT ALL RIGHT it had been, but turned her over to God instead.
I turned with my rolling bag and ran to where I had left Bill, hoping he was somewhere near by. He was, but of course, I was just looking for a black SUV. It seemed as if every car in the pick-up area was a black SUV, and I really hadn’t paid close enough attention to know what car it was that Bill already hated so much. We eventually connected and headed to the Marriott at Renaissance Center, which had been arranged for us by our niece, a Marriott employee.
The Egyptian Part
I adore my husband and many of the reasons I do can be traced back to his Egyptian heritage, however when worlds collide things can get lost in translation. In the Egyptian culture, hospitality is job one and nothing shows that more than their eagerness to receive visitors with pomp and circumstance. I have gone to Egypt twice and each time I have been received at the airport with much ceremony and courtesy. When I visit those Egyptian relatives that now live here, they are also very anxious to make us feel welcome – especially in those first few moments of arriving.
So, our niece who works for Marriott wanted very much for us to stay our first night at the famous Marriott at Renaissance Center. She also wanted to be there waiting for us in the lobby when we arrived, in spite of the fact that she actually lives and works about 45 minutes away.
I really just wanted to stay somewhere close to the airport and regroup after our flight, but she would have none of that. This was her uncle and his first night in her state had to be at what she considered the best place and she wanted to be there to great him.
In the same manner, I am a very practical person. I know travel is always a hassle and nothing ever happens as you want it to. I was having none of her driving 45 minutes into Detroit, just to say hello and then turn around and drive another 45 and report to work, when chances are we wouldn’t make it in time for her to do that. Nope, I wasn’t putting up with that, but if she insisted, I could stay at the Renaissance.
So, that was the deal. We’d stay where she wanted us to and she wouldn’t drive down to Detroit to see us for 5 minutes. Good thing, too. With the lost luggage, she would have driven an hour and a half for nothing.
GPS Woes
As if we had not endured enough that day, getting to the hotel was almost an impossibility. The GPS knew nothing about all the construction going on in the Waterfront area and even less about all the streets which were closed due to the preparation for a Grand Prix which would be the next weekend.
Now, the Renaissance Center is highly visible for miles around the Waterfront area. We could see it. We just couldn’t get there. I will save you the details, but when we did finally pull into the reception area of the Marriott we felt like refugees from some disaster. I stayed in the car and Bill went to check us in.
Parking Preferences
Then we had to find someplace to park. The Marriott lot was $29.00 for anything over 3 hours, so Bill wanted very much to find an alternative. He left our luggage with the reception desk and we zoomed off to find cheaper parking.
About a mile away in a sort of remote area with very confusing signage, Bill thought he’d found some free parking. The construction had the street partially blocked off and there were signs saying everything from “Do Not Block Drive” to “No Parking” at certain times to “No Standing” at others. We actually looked up the difference between parking and standing as we discussed whether we could leave the car there or not.
Bill had just about convinced me to leave it there and we were actually walking away when I saw a less confusing sign which said “Towing Enforced No Parking or Standing 10PM to 6AM.” Bill still thought it might be OK, because perhaps the sign partially closing the street for construction might override everything else, but I put down my elegantly shod foot. After the day we’d had, chances were not something we should take.
Grabbing a Bite
We paid our $29.00 to the parking gods, picked up our luggage at the desk and went to find our room. It was elegant as hotel rooms go, with a nice bathroom, but a little tight. However, the view made it worth all our niece’s trouble. It really was remarkable as you can see above.
The rest of our problems solved, dinner was next. We’d seen a restaurant/bar downstairs and decided it would have to do. However, as we neared it, the noise reverberated inside our heads. We asked at the desk if that was the only restaurant and the careful answer was, “It’s the only one in the hotel.” That meant there were others, but we’d have to go on an adventure and adventures weren’t very appealing at this point.
There was one other choice, a kind of snack bar/convenience store. We ordered a turkey croissant sandwich and a half bottle of wine to share. Don’t you just love to pay $38 for fast food?
And I’ll leave it at that. Our first full day in Detroit was just a sleep away. Come back next week and see how we spent it.
TRAVEL THERE: THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE, MEN AND WOMEN ARE AT THE MERCY OF THE AIRLINES
Why Detroit?
So, with a world of destinations to choose from, why go to Detroit? The short answer is family. Another short answer would be Great Niece/Nephew Gender Reveal. My answer would be, take me anywhere, I’ll find something to do.
Anyway, our nephew and his wife in California are having a baby, most of Bill’s family have immigrated from Egypt to the Detroit area and many others immigrated to Canadian cities not far from Detroit. We do have some family here in Dallas, but we are few. Instead of taking everyone out to California, the expecting parents joined everyone else in Michigan.
Anxiety Free Departure
I love to travel, but for the last few years, leaving home meant taking along our business. The added stress before we left, and managing things remotely while we were gone, took a real dent out of my fun, but just before this trip we sold our real estate photography company. There’s a certain amount of stress that comes with travel for anyone, but compared to those days when I also had to carry the burden of the business, I was blissfully un-harassed.
The day of the trip, we discovered our flight was running about 30 minutes late, but that didn’t faze us. In fact, it gave us just a little extra wiggle room. Things went like clockwork at the Park N Fly lot and their shuttle delivered us at the terminal. We dropped off our one checked bag and strolled up to security. Things were great!
At security, something went awry and they closed down our line. They gave us two choices. One was to go outside, walk 10 minutes to the next entrance, go through security and then walk back down to our gate, which would be about another 10 minute walk. Or we could wait. They weren’t sure what the hold up was or how long it would take, but we had time and we were next in line, so we took our chances.
In less time than it would have taken us to walk down to the next entrance, they opened things back up and we sailed through security. So, we were running into some problems and issues, but they were so minor they didn’t even count. We grabbed some lunch at Smash Burger and by the time we were through, our flight was boarding.
The Real Trouble Begins
One we were in our seat, we discovered the flight was having some maintenance issues. They started with an announcement that it should be about 10 minutes before we would take up, but they kept pushing that further until we were about an hour later than scheduled. We’re not thrilled at this point. I had hoped for a little sightseeing in the Riverfront area when we got to Detroit, but we’d still be fine, right?
As we sat at the gate, Bill tries to set up the free wi-fi on his phone, so he can watch the a movie. I was a little concerned at this point. A young man behind me was helping out a couple of older ladies get their phones set up to do the same and their experience was not sounding at all like Bill’s. His connection was asking for a credit card and when the first one didn’t work, he put in another one. Very, very bad move.
Almost immediately, he gets a text from one of the credit card companies letting him know his credit card had been compromised. This is not good. It was even worse when we got to our hotel room and they informed him the second card had been hacked. While this was inconvenient and would interrupt our bookkeeping, we were OK. I had another credit card with me which I use for limited special transactions, so we were still in business and even if that were not so, we had debit cards.
The worst thing was yet to come. The message boards in baggage claim were not working and by the time we figured out where we were supposed to be, the only thing riding around on the carousel was one purple bag, but it wasn’t MY purple bag.
The Lost Luggage Saga
There were three individuals at the Lost Luggage Desk. One was a young man who had already pissed Bill off with his cavalier attitude about the deceiving message boards. We had been standing by the carousel which promised to deliver our bag, but of course, it was not the right one. Bill was not happy, at all, that we’d been wasting our time waiting at the wrong carousel, but the guy didn’t even pretend to care. In sort of a sing-song nanny-nanny-poo-poo voice he chided Bill for not hearing the multiple announcements they made. In Bill’s defense, there were some announcements, but they’d sort of sounded like, “mwah bwah napa bwah mwah nwah…” You get my drift.
The second person, a woman, pissed me off. Because all that was left on the carousel was a piece of purple luggage about the same size as mine, it led us to assume mine had been picked up by mistake. At first, the lady took several appropriate steps to contact the owner of the bag. That made me feel better.
Then she started in on her everything’s-all-right mantra. The first 10 or 12 times she tried to convince me of that, I figured it was just her job, but it became irritating. My luggage was a virtually new American Tourister bag. What had been left behind was a beat-up off-brand. When she said, “They don’t want your stuff,” I figured she had no clue. I have good stuff and whenever I do leave an item behind in other situations, it is way gone, even when I return fairly quickly. Comparing the left behind bag to mine, I thought there was a good chance they might actually want my stuff.
The third person came along about the time I was ready to punch Ms. Everything’s-All-Right. She talked to the lady whose contact information was on the bag and discovered it was her son who had picked up the wrong bag, but he was somewhere on an Uber and his phone was out of juice.
Ms. Number Three acknowledged that everything was not alright and gave me a form which entitled me up to $3500 worth of replacements, were they unable to connect me with my bag before the evening was over. She suggested we go ahead and get our rental car while they figured out how to contact the young man in the Uber.
And that’s where I will leave you for now. Come back next week to discover if I actually got my luggage back or whether I went on a shopping spree with my $3500 replacement money!
So, I was away from home for five days and attended a Christian Women’s Conference for three of them. Sure, I discovered an amazing restaurant in Little Rock, saw a presidential library and ate the best BBQ in St. Louis (maybe the world?). But did I bring anything home with me from the conference which would change my life.
Hope
The best thing I brought home with me was hope. I confess my summer had been rough and it had shredded my hope. Just getting out of the house and away from the business was a blessing, but it was more than that.
Everybody makes mistakes. I know that, but in the day to day of it, I sometimes feel like the stupidest person alive. How exactly did I get here? Why do I keep making the same mistakes over and over? Where is my joy?
The first night of the conference Joyce faced this issue. She confessed her own mistakes in life, but also pointed out there are hidden treasures in what we may consider our mistakes.
If someone like Joyce Meyer can own up to her mistakes, then I’m encouraged to own up to mine. The next morning Lisa Harper and Christine Cline chipped in and confessed their own ability to screw up royally. Now I was feeling even better. I was reminded all us humans can make mistakes. I could leave that burden and guilt right there on the floor of America’s Dome.
Then Lisa Harper talked about the God of second chances and third chances and fourth chances – in fact, as many chances as I need until heaven comes. God’s not even counting. He created a clean slate for all of us on the day His Son died on that cross. All I have to do is get over myself and accept it. I knew that, but Satan does everything he can to keep that fact from being in the forefront of my mind. There was another burden to leave behind me.
Just in case I had not gotten the message, Christine Caine got up there on Saturday morning and told me the pandemic was over. How many times have a blamed something on the pandemic or wished for the good old days? If I don’t keep my face and my heart directed toward what God has ahead of me, I am in danger of being as useless as the pillar of salt Lot’s wife turned into. So, I left my pandemic mindset in the trashcan and headed home.
The Imagination Station also gave me hope. At the ripe old age of 67 you begin to feel as if the best things in life are behind you. I dared to write dreams on a piece of cloth and tie it to the grid on the wall. It felt kind of silly and I almost didn’t do it, but I figured I had little to lose and everything to gain. I was barely home when God gave me a taste of what He could do when I let go of wishing and turned my hopes into prayers. Lesson learned – my best days ARE still ahead; it’s not too late.
Merchandise
The most important thing I bought at the Joyce Meyers’ Love Life Conference 2022 was tickets for Love Life Conference 2023. It’s going to be in San Antonio – one of my very favorite places in the world – October 19-21 in the Alamo Dome. I bought two tickets, because this is my bestie’s birthday month and I couldn’t imagine a better present. If you’d like to come too, here’s the link: https://brushfire.com/joycemeyer/wc2023/537511.
I also bought some books. I’d never read Battlefield of the Mind, which is her classic work, so I picked it up. It is so good I think I may read it annually or perhaps quarterly. It’s not anything I didn’t already know, but everything I need to be reminded of on a daily basis. If you are looking for something good to read, start there!
Great Memories!
God has blessed me in many ways, but one of his best gifts is my best friend, the sister of my heart, Deborah Shera. We tell folks we could go to a mud puddle and have fun. The hotels we stayed in during this trip probably prove that point. Instead of being aghast and bawling me out for choosing such awful hotels, we laughed. But it wasn’t all bad hotels by any stretch. We shared great food, cherished some of our best memories, created some new ones and came home with our hearts stitched together a little tighter – if that is at all possible.
So today is Wednesday, October 3, 2022 as I write this post for Wednesday, September 7, 2023. As of today, the only travel plans I have are for Joyce’s conference in San Antonio which I just mentioned.
Will the travel gods grant me another trip before that? I have no idea, but I hope you will come back next week and find out!! I promise there will be something there to entertain you!
OK – I confess. We didn’t make it to every single session of the Love Life Conference. For instance, we totally blew off Friday night. We were praise-music-ed out. Even though it would mean missing one of Joyce’s teachings, we just couldn’t face a “CELEBRATION” and concert. Can I pay less to get less music? Or could I pay more and get less music? Asking for a friend…
We also skipped Joel Olsteen. My theology doesn’t line up 100% with Joyce, but I just overlook those places where we diverge and enjoy the rest. Anytime I hear Joel Olsteen, he’s so far down another path I want to throw things. I’ve been known to talk back to the TV when he’s sharing his opinion on something. I didn’t trust myself to behave.
What We Did Instead
So, walking back and forth between our parking lot (remember the BROWN level) and America’s Dome, I noticed a trailer with an amazing aroma coming out of it. Then I figured out that it must be the smoker for the restaurant next to it. The name of the restaurant was Sugarfire.
Deb loves BBQ with a passion, so as they prepared the stage for Joel to come out, Deb and I scooted to the streets, headed for BBQ. Little did we realize we were about to enter epicurean heaven.
It had barely turned 11 and there was already a line of locals waiting to order their ‘cue, as Sugarfire calls it. It was obvious everyone was a frequent flyer and as the server chatted with the regulars, he would do a little upselling, giving them samples of the more upscale meat choices. Then he saw us, obviously not regulars, with our women’s conference badges on. So, he gave us samples, too.
The sample worked and Deb was all about some French Dip style Brisket sandwich. If it’s BBQ, I want ribs, but most places want to sell me a half rack, which I can’t eat on my own, so I either end up eating far too many ribs or I just get something else, which wasn’t what I wanted. Sugarfire sells a Four Rib plate and I could get excited about that. I also got excited about the cornbread, which was more dessert than bread, and the cold beer.
Deb’s judgement? Best BBQ brisket she’d ever had. I don’t know if I’d go quite that far with the ribs, but they were pretty darned good and certainly rated up there among the best.
The Sugarfire has long community tables in the center of the restaurant and booths around the edges. If you sit at the community tables, you’ll be cheek to jowl with the regulars and as far as I am concerned that’s part of the fun.
Shortly after we were seated, huge waves of ladies from the conference began to line up for their ‘cue. Was Joel’s talk that short or are there others who have a problem sitting quietly while he’s talking? The line went all around the restaurant and then out the front door and down the sidewalk. CRAZY! Well, not so crazy. It is really good ‘cue.
I would like to remind Christian ladies they are a witness, good or bad, of their Savior at all times, but particularly when they have a huge sign around their neck proclaiming they are attending a Christian Women’s Conference at the Ameridome next door. With the huge crowds it draws, Sugarfire has numerous signs requesting patrons get their food BEFORE they start taking up spaces at the tables. As we sat having our lunch, a lady got up several times to make that announcement.
Then a Love Life Conference attendee plopped down at the table next to me with about five handbags wrapped around her arms. Thinking she may have missed the signs and/or the announcement I said, “They are requesting you wait until you have food to sit down.” Her response was not nice. I don’t think Joyce or Joel would have approved.
After lunch, it was time to head back to the convention center, because Lisa Harper was up and no way I was missing her. While we’d been in Sugarfire, it had started to rain. I have very independent hair and if it gets rained on, it begins to protest. I found a book bag down in my tote and used it as a rain hat. Not my best look, but I headed off the frizz, which would have been my ‘do, had my hair gotten wet.
Lisa was great, as I had anticipated she would be. There was another break before the evening’s “CELEBRATION” & concert, but we headed out for our second dose of hooky. Come back next week and I’ll let you know how that went!
jane sadek 