Wow.  What a long, strange trip it’s been.  My thoughts are still a jumbled mess.  Will post more details on my forum soon, I promise!

The second day in Niagara Falls was rainy, as predicted.  It was beautiful to see, as we have had this terrible drought (it is finally raining here this morning, BTW!).  We never had to go out in it, though, because of the walkway connecting our hotel to Fallsview Resort.  These photos aren’t very good because they’re taken from our window, but you get the idea.

Fallsview Casino and Resort

Walkway connecting the Hilton to Fallsview Resort

To say that Roger’s management took care of us is really an understatement.  We had two opportunities to meet with Roger, one before he left for soundcheck and one after the show on Saturday.  When we saw him before the soundcheck, he asked us if we had any requests.  I knew Randy wanted to hear “Child of Vision,” so that’s what we told him.  He said Aaron had a cold and that he had to share a piano with him…so we told him not to worry with it, as we certainly didn’t want him to get sick.  (Of course, he ended up doing it anyway, timing it strategically so he would not have to get back on the grand piano afterward.)  I told him how impressed I was that he and Aaron had done “Fool’s Overture” the night before.

Saturday’s set list (not in order):

• Give a Little Bit
• Logical Song
• Take The Long Way Home
• Dreamer
• Don’t Leave Me Now
• It’s Raining Again
• Rosie Had Everything Planned
• Along Came Mary
• Lord Is It Mine
• Sister Moonshine
• Breakfast in America
• School
• Fool’s Overture
• “The Tim Hortons Song” (do a blog search here for more on this! LOL!)
• Oh Brother
• Child of Vision
• Hide in Your Shell

I also forgot to mention he did “Hide in Your Shell” Friday as well.

Again, more about the day itself will be posted on my forum.

The next day, reality hit hard when Mother Nature reared her ugly head.  We left Buffalo with extra fuel on the plane, expecting a “strong head wind.”  Three people had to give up their seats due to the plane being overweight.  Chicago ended up closing all but one runway due to storms, then they canceled all arrivals at one point.  We had to fly in a holding pattern for about an hour before we were allowed to land.  In the meantime, you could see nothing but gray outside the window.  I had a small meltdown and had to take a Xanax.  Me, not Randy!  I looked out the window thinking we would never land while crying and I told Randy I was sorry and that it was all my fault for agreeing to go on this trip.

We finally landed at O’Hare and spent about 5-1/2 hours in the airport.  Of course, we had already missed our connecting flight on American to Dallas, so we ended up being booked on United.  People were piling up in the airport due to all the delays and cancellations.  Randy called Hertz and rented a car one-way from Dallas to Abilene so we could get home, as flights do not come into Abilene as late as we would be there.  Randy drove us home while I crawled in the back seat and slept.  I had to work the next morning, and thankfully, Randy did not.  He’s a saint!  We got home a little after 1 a.m. and I could have kissed the ground had I not been so exhausted.

I’m not sure why we always have such bad luck when we fly.  Maybe God really is trying to tell us something.