with laughter

Well, I'm safe back at home from the onething conference in K.C. Not that the conference was unsafe but we sure had an adventure last night. Long story will follow but firstly, the conference was tremendous ....actually it's still going, we had to leave early. I got a good dose of God's presence over the weekend and got my passion aroused more for Him. Excellent.

So, adventures.... yesterday, we went into downtown K.C. and found a parking garage first thing in the A.M. which is no small feat, especially with 3 cars. (daily rate was $14 - not cheap but it's big city life, right?) Found one that was underground, 2 levels. We went up the stairs and discovered a nice little food court and several businesses on the next two levels.

Fast forward to about 10:45pm. Our group of 7 went back, exhausted and hungry, to jump into our cars and quickly find a bite to eat before we went to our hotel to crash. As we walk up to the building, we notice that inside the building it is dark. We try the first set of doors and yes, the doors are locked. No problem, you must just walk straight into the garage on the other side of the block. We round the corner and see a closed garage door.

Hmmm, well, maybe at the exit of the garage on the other side of the block. So we all walk around and discover yet, another closed garage door. We continue to circle the building, checking every door and even find a sign that says "For after hour assistance, push red button". We try the button, annoyingly, on both sides of the building - nothing.

Trying to make a long story shorter, we circled the building many times, talked to a non-English speaking janitor, a lying security guy, a nice lady who really tried to help us but couldn't reach anyone at security in that particular building, a couple police officers that were clueless, a homeless man who got a kick out of our predicament, another homeless man who had his eye on one of our guys' cool shoes, more than several people who walked up to the building hoping to find an open place to eat and finally a man who panicked about being fired if he let anyone into the building.

God bless his soul, he did let the 2 drivers (the 3rd had left earlier in the day - lucky her) into the building and down into the garage to bring around our cars...just as it started to rain.

Following this ordeal, we got slightly lost and ended up eating pancakes at an IHOP (the other IHOP) 20 minutes out of our way at about 12:30pm. So much for getting to bed early. But that's OK, no one was tired anymore after such excitement.

Wowsers, what a time of bonding for our little crew. Undoubtedly not one of us will forget our first experience down to onething. A year from now I'm sure we'll be remembering the tale with laughter.