Of God, Novenas, and Buffalo: Part I: Delays and Overnight Stays

Last October my friend Dorothy asked me to go out to the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Indian Reservation to speak to their youth for a week for their annual novena. She had been a missionary with SOLT (Society of our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity) at St. Ann on the reservation for three years as the youth minister. I of course said yes and had been waiting for this week all year.

The plans for this had been set the previous summer. This novena has been going on for 132 years! Back in the day when the Chippewa were still hunting the buffalo the pastor would also go out with them. The day they got back the novena would start. The typical format for the nine days of prayer would be mass, dinner, speaker. Yet, the previous summer the current pastor and my friend had discerned an idea in prayer separately and had come to the same conclusion. They needed to have a youth portion to the novena. This is why she called me, to help put on the first youth portion to the novena.

These nine days would be a little more than just the normal novena. They had made it into more of a mission week for the youth. They would spend the day working on different projects then they would join the community for mass, dinner, then there would be the evening youth portion. But for me, for me the 8 days I would be there would be a journey with God showing how he orchestrated everything and that I was there for more than just painting with, eating with, and speaking to the youth of the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation.

I first realized this wasn’t going to be just a regular trip with the way I eventually got to North Dakota. Throughout the whole planning of my travel and getting me out there I had been told that I’d fly out on July 23. Once I received my tickets in my email I reviewed them for the time of the flights. The Wednesday before I left Dorothy texted saying she was so excited that I’d be there in 4 days. “She needs to work on her math,” I thought to myself. That Saturday was going to be a busy one. I had a car wash fundraiser from 9AM-2PM, plus I also needed to get ready to leave. Saturday came and we had a good time and a good number of teens came to wash cars. We ended up shutting down an hour early due to the rain and we cleaned up and went inside to eat pizza. Dorothy texted me again, “You’ll be in ND tonight!!!”. This got me thinking and worried. I checked the email with the ticket info again. My flight wasn’t the next day, it was today, in 5 hours! I was an hour away from home, hadn’t packed, and parents hadn’t even begun picking teens up!

I asked the parents that were there helping out if I could run because I had screwed up big time. They were awesome and covered for me. On my way home I spoke with Erika on the phone so she could gather all of the things I needed and I would throw them into a bag as soon as I got home and we could leave. Luckily there was no traffic on the way home and we got to the airport quickly. The next predicament was that my flight had been delayed and the new arrival time to Denver for my connecting flight was AFTER my connecting flight would have already left. I was told by the United employees that my best bet was that my connecting flight would be delayed also. I would just have to check with someone once I arrived.

As I waited for my flight, it got delayed again, and again, and again. Eventually due to bad weather in Houston the airport got shut down for an hour. So by this time I was in chill mode and realized none of this was in my control so I’d just ride this out and see what would happen.

I kept checking for updates about my connecting flight. It also started to get delayed to my excitement. It got pushed back a few times. But once I landed a new trend started to happen. The delays began to update and the time got closer and closer to our landing time until the new take off time was the exact time our flight would arrive at the gate. I figured once I got off the plan I’d just sprint to the next get with hopes that I could make it. When I arrived I was at gate 60. My connecting flight was leaving from gate 80. I started to sprint with my stuffed heavy backpack. I eventually flagged down a guy on a golf cart and he gave me a ride. He took me as far as he could and I’d have to run the rest of the way. I got to my gate hacking up a lung to realize I had missed my flight.

On my walk to the one customer service desk that was open I was pleasantly surprised that my flight had been moved to the next morning. This was such a surprise because I was told that that exact flight was booked and the only other flight wasn’t until that evening, after I was supposed to have started speaking, and as of that time there was only one seat open. So I had actually been worrying about not even getting to North Dakota until Monday.

I stood in line with many of the same people I had flown into Denver with who had also missed connecting flights and were trying to figure out getting a hotel and their next steps in their journey. It was not a very calm line. To make matters worse no one could find open hotels near the airport much less anywhere in Denver. There was an auto show in Denver and everything was booked. Luckily I was able to get two meal vouchers and a form they give to people who ended up staying in the airport over night due to the airline’s fault, so I’d get $150 for my troubles. This night, I would sleep in the airport for the first time with hopes that the next day would be smoother.

I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep on the floor at my gate. I got up to get breakfast and beer around 10AM because it was a New Belgium café (with a bartender that looked like Nick Offerman) and I deserved it. After my flight that morning was delayed multiple times I was finally in the air and on my way to Minot, ND.