Sunday I got up to get ready for my day of driving to Tegucigalpa to pick up Annette and Carol from the airport.

I should have known I was in for some kind of a day when as soon as I began to dry my hair the power went out. It is not uncommon for the power to be turned off and Sunday is a typical day for this to happen, more people are home, not as many businesses are running...but it was only 8:00 and I wanted to dry my hair.

Well there would be no hairstyling that day!

I headed out about 9:00 to go to the airport. I made great time there, met Carol and Annette and we decided to go to Chili's for lunch.

So we went there, had a wonderful lunch and sat and visited for a while. We left....drove through the city and got on the highway and out of the city almost 3:00.

The traffic was barely moving and all we could see ahead of us was a long line of cars. Not normal! Especially not on a Sunday. So we kept putzing along wondering what is going on.

Well about 10 minutes out of the city is a very large cemetery up on a hill...and as we came closer to the cemetary we could see cars and cars lining the side of the highway. There must have been a very important funeral going on because there were tons of cars and people and that had caused this long line of backed up traffic. It picked up a bit when we passed the cemetery, but there was still bumper to bumper traffic for quite a while.

We finally spread out a bit...but still there was so much traffic to try and pass and get around, more cars than normal it took so long to get to a point where you could just drive!

We finally made it and I felt good...looking at my watch because I knew I wanted to be down out of the mountain before the sun set.

We had a pretty good trip the rest of the way home...only having to make our way around the road construction....and then...boom!

I hit something in the road and it sliced my tire.

We pulled over and got out of the car to see the tire...it's dead! Now I have a spare tire but no jack (I must buy a workable jack!). Annette sees within walking distance up the road a little shack on the other side of the highway with a sign for tires. So she walks up there....they have used tires, and they say they can help me if I can drive my car over to their little place. About that time the sky opens up and the rain pours out of the clouds!

We all get back in the car and I slowly inch up the road on the shoulder, and wait for a break in the traffic so I can wobble across the highway.

I make it...and we sit with these guys to try and wait out the rain a bit. It finally lightens up enough that they decide they can put my spare tire on. Now this is a place that sells used tires, but they do not have a jack! They are in worse shape than I am. But somehow they changed the tire...we decided we were better off not knowing!

They put my spare on, threw the slit tire in my truck and put back all our luggage and we were back on the road...in the downpour!

We did make it home....I was so happy to finally see Comayagua!

With the funeral and the traffic and the tire incident, it took us almost 3 hours to get home! Double the time it should take!

What a day! But we had many things to be thankful for....

...I got down out of the mountain before dark and before the downpour of rain
...we got the flat in a safe part of the road where there was a shoulder to pull off on, not just the edge of a mountain
...we got a flat near a place where they could change my tire

And as Elaine just reminded me...another praise....I was not alone, but with Annette and Carol. Makes things like this much easier to handle when you are with friends!

It was a long, stressful, drive home, but I am thankful that even in the midst of the craziness God was taking care of each one of us! He never said we would not have any trouble, or life would be smooth and easy, or that we could just skate by without a care....but He does promise that he will always be with us...and yesterday He was!

We had troubles, and we had difficulties, but nothing that we couldn't handle!