At times it was as if I was competing on The Amazing Race…

As my friend Brenda and I ran through the airport in Jacksonville, Florida yesterday, I felt for a moment like we were competing on the reality TV show, The Amazing Race. If there were teams behind us, we would have smoked ‘em.

It was 10:22 when we checked in at the airport and asked the lady at the counter if there was any way we could take an earlier flight than our 4:40.  We had gotten off the cruise ship and had nowhere else to go so we hoped to fly standby on the 1 something flight. On the computer, she pulled up a flight that would leave at 10:52 and proceeded to tell us that we would never make it. We asked if we could try anyway. After all, we had nothing to lose.

We checked our bags and began finding our way to Gate C2. We were on our way, optimistic we would make it. Until we hit security. Hmm…. Too many people in front of us, our passports were in hand and my tennis shoes were unlaced. But we weren’t moving. Seconds ticked away and suddenly our hopes were crumbling. And then, with a stroke of genius and a bit of luck, Brenda asked if we could cut. Again, we were off and running through the terminal with my tennis shoes in my hands! We got to the gate just as the last person was getting on. Sweet victory!

Instead of going through our original connection in Nashville, we ended up in Philadelphia. Neither one of us had ever been there and thought it would be alright if we had to hang out there for awhile. We got out at E11 and talked to the gate agent. She said we were just in time to make the next flight if we hurried to E9. We ran over there to once again walk on the flight that was boarding. What luck!

We made it, but our bags didn’t.  Instead of getting home at our originally anticipated time of 10:30ish, we made it to Midway at about 2pm. We had no idea if our bags were on the flight that would come in at 4:30 or the flight that would come in after. Luckily, they were on the first flight and we were back in South Bend by 8pm.

If we had been on the show, we surely would have taken first place and been awarded some type of Travelocity trip to some exotic region. Instead, we weren’t awarded anything except that anticipation of another trip in two weeks to Charleston.

I have to say that during the Carnival Cruise to the Bahamas there were at least two other times I thought our actions resembled The Amazing Race.

If you have ever been on a cruise (maybe it’s just carnival?) you know that they take pictures all the time around the ship and then post them in a gallery for all to see. You walk from wall to wall with thousands of pictures trying to find yours to purchase.  Well, as Brenda and I were searching for our pictures, I thought that it would be a great challenge on the show to show the contestants a picture of two people and make them find the ten pictures throughout the gallery resembling the people. I should be a reality show challenge creator!

The other time was in Nassau when we were trying to find some places to eat with local food rather than the tourist type of food. We asked a lady in the store where we could go and she had a thick accent and some broken English. We got bits and pieces. Finally, we asked someone else who said to take the number ten bus to the fish fry and look for the restaurants. Better yet, we took a cab and asked him and he mentioned they eat at Fish Fry, which we later found out is an area of restaurants, and Twin Brothers is the best. It was a bit of a challenge and also reminded me of the show.

We had a great, quick vacation on the boat and with plenty of fun in the casinos and the different ports. If I ever make it back to the Bahamas I’m looking for the stand by Atlantis, located just off of the ferry boat where the lady made us a drink called Goombay Smash. Probably the best frozen cocktail I’ve had in awhile!

For now, we’ve not been eliminated from the race. We may not have won first place, but we’ve got another few vacations to look forward to. I’m lucky to have friends who like to travel.

My thoughts on the movie, Courageous

In the last six months I’ve seen the movies Water for Elephants and The Help, both movies were suggested by my friend Brenda. Both were good movies, well worth my time and money.

Today, I suggested we see the movie, Courageous. As the movie scrolled through the credits, Brenda and I agreed that I am banned from picking movies for awhile. It wasn’t worth the time or the money, in my opinion.

It was my understanding that the movie was about four police officers who were working toward finding a balance between work and home life. It sounded like a somewhat interesting plot, and I always appreciate the good scenery of men in uniform.

The writers introduce four officers and their family situations. All were typical representations of today’s family units, a family of four with a wife, husband, young son and daughter. Another was a single dad who hadn’t yet met his 4-year-old daughter because he was running from the responsibility of being a father. The third man had a wife and three kids and was new to the department, trying to fit in with his new partners. Finally, the last was a divorced husband who saw his young son every other weekend and was struggling to survive paying child support and his own bills.

As I relaxed in my chair, popcorn in hand, I watched as the story line unfolded as the one officer was faced with the death of his 9-year-old daughter. The death brought led him to question what type of father he had been to his daughter, what type of husband he was to his wife and the role model he was for his son. In his time of sorrow he turned to God for help.

Over the next hour and a half the men decided to write a resolution proclaiming their wishes to be honorable men and honorable leaders in their homes. Here’s where I had an “issue” with the movie!

The writers went a little overboard drawing direct conclusions between each man and his quest to acknowledge God in his life. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in God and I understand the need for religion, but a little Bible lesson goes a long way. The repetitiveness of their message that God makes all possible was overkill. I was thinking that this two hour movie was the equivalent of six months of Sunday sermons. For a moment I flashed back to the bad after school specials that I hadn’t seen since I was in third grade.

I won’t go into more detail about the various sub plots in the movie for those of you who may still want to see the movie and make your own decision about whether the amount of God references was too much.  I’m curious to know what others think about the movie.

As for me, I believe the overall message of including God in one’s life and being a positive mentor for others is a great message. I just wish the writers would have illustrated the lesson rather than beating me over the head with it.