cancelled

It's the word you never want to see on the "Departures" board at your connecting airport.

Alas, it was our fate today in the Dallas airport.

Instead of coming on the later flight five hours later, we rolled the dice on an earlier flight to Montgomery, intending to top off our trip with a one-way rental car drive back to Birmingham.

In a random twist, however, a complete stranger offered my colleague and me a free ride from Montgomery to Birmingham, in lieu of the $150 rental car.  She was traveling there anyway, and appreciating the kind gesture (and knowing I was not alone, and accompanied by a male), we accepted.

I admit we got off to a rather comical start.  The husband-chauffer had apparently not been forewarned of his wife's invitation to transport two strangers (awkward).  The 1980-something BMW had no air conditioning and those wicked hot, furry seat covers (who uses those?).  And, I worried that our hostess might not ever stop talking.

But to her credit, she was generous.

She was so generous, in fact, she said if we wanted to eat at Whataburger, they didn't mind stopping.  We also made a quick stop at her son's school, so we could switch out vehicles with him, and ditch the BMW for a four-door pick-up truck with air conditioning.

How many times today did we say, "Oh gosh, no, we're great.  We're just happy to get back to Birmingham as soon as we're going to!"  (Yi-yi-yi.)

But in the end, we were beneficiaries of genuine kindness.  In fact, when we met her son, she introduced us as "some more hitch-hikers I picked up!"  And her son cheerfully responded, "Again?" and hugged her neck.  They were a sweet family, and Elizabeth was delightful.

Miraculously, we got back to the Birmingham airport only two-and-a-half hours after our original flight would have landed.  Not too bad, considering the memories made between Montgomery and Birmingham on interstate 65.

I'm so glad I got to be on the receiving end of someone's kindness today!

And that my preconceived judgments about this woman and our drive were, well, cancelled.