Curveball No. 1: Off the Pavement and Airborne

“When God throws a curveball, don’t duck. You just might miss something.” – Will from Extreme Days

One of my favorite lines from the movie, Extreme Days, and very fitting for the latest development in Piggy’s and my road trip. On July 4, I will be driving off the pavement, into the air, across the ocean and onto the ground in Tel Aviv, Israel, for my younger sister’s wedding. Quite a curveball for the road trip and the first of many I’m sure.

I’d love to say that I got an amazing deal on the flights, but with the timing of things, when push came to shove, I had to shove United Airlines my first couple paychecks. Even though I wish my hours of searching would have resulted in better prices, I am so incredibly happy that I bought the tickets and that I will get to be there for my sister’s big day. With my new job, the money I’ve saved thus far for the road trip and my parents taking care of the expenses once I make it to Israel, I had the flexibility and means to go. Without question, family is definitely more important than any dollar amount and any road trip.

The original wedding plan, whatever “plan” actually means, took a serious shift. Once you get older, you start to realize that all plans are loose plans because anything you think you have set in stone ends up being on a stone on the edge of a cliff ready to free fall and break into a million different pieces that go flying in a million different directions. For my family, that stone fell in March of this year when we found out that it was going to be easiest for my sister and her fiance to get married in Israel. The plan had been  for them to have a quaint wedding in one of our favorite parks here in Colorado Springs on June 23; however, with an opportunity opening up for them to begin missionary work abroad, the timing no longer worked with that wedding plan.

Working with the new plan, my parents and I, along with a few of our soon-to-be in-laws, will watch my sister and her fiance take their vows on July 7 on a boat in the sea of Galilee. I sure am glad I didn’t duck out of the way of this curveball. I will definitely fill you in on all the details when I get there. Who knows, I may even stumble upon some deals in Israel. I mean other than the best deal of being there: getting to see my sister marry the love of her life. That’s priceless. If you’d like to find out a little more about how they met and/or if you are interested in supporting them as they begin serving as missionaries at a school in Prague, click here.

So, what does all this mean for Piggy’s and my epic, near 21,000-mile, budget-conscious road trip? Well, for now it means staying at my parents’ house for a little while longer than originally planned. I have to do some more saving to make up for the hefty plane ticket price. Piggy and I are still planning and preparing for the road trip; that much has not changed, just the timing of it.

All that’s left to say my friends is: “When God throws a curveball, don’t duck. You just might miss something.”