For those of you regular readers, you will note in my October 29 blog about NCYC, I had the most interesting fortune to have my rolling bag (with medications and personal clothes) not make it to Atlanta (from Pensacola), but rather have it re-routed (read: misplaced) to Johannesburg South Africa.

Now, I was a little steamed…and concerned. I mean my bag flew 17, 260 miles without me and I was only allowed a small daily clothing allowance for my inconvenience. I swore I would approach the airline and ask for the frequent flyer miles my bag accrued instead of the clothing allowance.

Well, two recent developments:

• First, while traveling to Ohio, I was in a club room for frequent flyers when I heard an announcement for an outgoing flight to…Johannesburg South Africa. I grinned to myself and then decided to go to the desk to ask the airline people what tips they could get me to get more than the simple clothing allowance for my “troubles.” I started talking with a person who said she was a supervisor and could give me 5000 frequent flyer miles on the spot! Made my day. My clothes went to the homeland of Nelson Mandela but I will get miles that will help me go to Hawaii!

• Still relishing that there was a silver lining to this story, I traveled onward to Kentucky, Ohio and Texas since then. Returning to Lafayette (a day late due to mechanical problems), I arrived and went to luggage claim…only to find that my rolling bag (YES, the SAME ONE!) was re-routed to Newark, New Jersey (one of only 2 states in the country where it is illegal to pump your own gas).

Now I have come to conclude a few things:
a) my bag ( a Wal-Mart special purchased last month) has mafia connections; Tony Soprano must have talked to Nelson Mandela about the special aura of my clothing
b) Some days you just gotta laugh (Youth ministry friend Will F. sent me this cartoon…)

c) I ought to enroll my bag in an airline’s frequent flyer program.

d) I am retiring that bag upon its return home (hopefully before Thanksgiving)

d) Always carry some extra clothes in case of emergency.

My youth ministry friends who know about the Johannesburg saga say every time I re-tell the story means another year I will use it “on the road”. To those good people I say, sit down and get comfortable. I just got a few more decades out of this one.