I just returned from a family vacation to the Canadian Rockies. We began our travels at the Calgary Stampede, billed as “The Greatest Show on Earth.” We saw bull riders, cattle ropers, and chuckwagon races. It was a great experience for all our kids, and we enjoyed it immensely. The midway food was delicious (footlong corn dogs and fried ice cream, anyone?), and it truly was a one-of-a-kind experience that I would recommend to anyone.
We continued our trip into Banff National Park, where we saw glacier-capped peaks, the bluest lakes, and plenty of wildlife. We didn’t see any bison on this trip, but we learned about how the indigenous tribes of Canada would stampede bison to a certain area, where the bison would run right over a cliff to their demise, providing meat and clothing to the people to survive the sub-arctic winters.
As we returned after a great week to our airport hotel, we heard of the massive IT disruption that left many travelers stranded. Our Delta flight was scheduled for the next day and was showing an on-time departure. We headed to the airport, anxious but hopeful that we’d make it back home after a long time away.
As we stepped into the airport, the previous day’s stampede caused our flight to be canceled, and we were rebooked for a red-eye departure 48 hours later. We still had our luggage, were able to re-rent our same car, and found lodging to continue our Canadian vacation. We were thankful that we weren’t stuck in an airport, had clothes and access to food, showers, and most importantly, a laundromat.
We saw people yelling, crying, blasting gate agents, and erupting on social media. Our kids were disappointed that we weren’t headed home, but they quickly rallied when we found a hotel with an indoor waterslide and promised to go horseback riding the next day. Our bonus vacation created some of the best memories of our trip. We got to visit another of Canada’s majestic national parks and the Calgary Zoo.
It’s proof that even when things don’t go your way, there are still opportunities to find the good.
There was also a stampede of political and economic news while we were away. Between the Trump assassination attempt and Biden’s declaration to exit the Presidential race, my news feed was filled with massive amounts of information while we were in the Great White North. The NASDAQ bulls were in for a big shock when the index dropped almost 10% in 13 days.
Avoiding these stampedes is always the best strategy, but sometimes that’s not possible. It wasn’t the gate agent’s fault that Delta used a company that forced a Microsoft Windows update, paralyzing their computer system. We found the safest and fastest way for our family to get home and made lemonade out of lemons. As I saw the beauty of sunrise from my plane window as we approached Atlanta, I thought to myself, if we weren’t booked on this flight, I wouldn’t have seen this. Each day that you can see the sunrise is a good day.
