Adventures & Airports

Santa Vaca, do I have a story for you! Last night I went with my friend Nancy to pick up her parents at the airport. They are visiting until Monday. Usually when we go to the airport (I have only been once, aside from when I was being picked up), we hire a driver and van to take us there and back.
BUT, this month some students were able to rent a Jeep Cherokee from another missionary who is in the States right now. Let me give you a few clues about this Jeep - to roll down the windows, you push the electronic lever UP, the spare tire is flat, and you never know how long it will take for the engine to turn over. Sometimes it helps to put the jeep in nuetral, and then it SHOULD start, but every time is an adventure. Also, the shock system is nonexistant. OK, got an image? So, we get into the jeep (which for the first time in my experience, starts up on the first try), we have our verbal directions from a missionary couple, our seatbelts are buckled, doors locked, and we are READY!! The only concern we really had was the four major rotundas that we would need to navigate.
Well, thankfully the rotundas were not a problem. HOWEVER, we ended up back-tracking twice on one road trying to get to an exit, driving around the airport twice trying to enter the parking garage, and then the party really started. We found her parents just fine, they had only been waiting about 20 minutes. As we start home, we drove for about 20 minutes, and suddenly had no idea where we were. NO IDEA. Nothing looked familiar to Nancy or myself (of course nothing looked familiar to her parents either). We drove a little longer and hit the toll road back to the airport (without turning around at all! How does that happen?) So, the lady in the booth directed us back to San Jose, but somehow we ended up downtown (about 9:30 - not a good time to be out). Every once in awhile we would see a familiar landmark from our many bus rides, but everything is different when you are driving. We all kept praying, Nancy's dad kept trying to make helpful suggestions (one which I appreciated was to occasionally remind Nancy to slow down).
Finally, somehow God led us to San Pedro (an area that Nancy is very familiar with, and I am becoming so), and we were both so happy!! We made it back to San Francisco de Dos Rios and she dropped me off in front of my house. I have never been so happy to be there in my whole 3 months!! So, good story, good experience, and I praise the Lord nothing bad happened!