Jamie Virden, Miss WestStar - Contestant #12

My journey to the Miss Rodeo USA pageant was an eventful one! Because Washington is overwhelmed with flooding, we were immediately forced to reevaluate our travel plans before departing. At 4am Friday morning, my mom, dad and myself rerouted to Spokane, Wash. because of pass closures and we were unable to make it to Seattle to make our original flight. After an hour of check-in issues in Spokane because of flight rescheduling, we were randomly selected for additional security searches! I will never fight someone sharing the wise words to arrive two hours before departure again! We needed all the additional time we had to make it through security, where they proceeded to chemically check all leather items and boots in my carry-ons. Thankfully they were very considerate in repacking these priceless items! After a near second problem once boarding the plane in Spokane, we were on our way to Seattle. 90 minutes on a small shaky plane was enough to make me happy to see the sights of SEATAC airport. Upon landing and finding our connecting flight gate, we were unfortunately informed that our connector through Chicago would be one hour late...enough to make us miss our flight out to Oklahoma City. One wonderful Alaska Airlines representative rushed to get us on the next plane out, which happened to be headed to Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. Texas here we come! Only they couldn't guarantee that our luggage would be arriving with us in Oklahoma City on time and they could show up as late as the following day. After a four hour flight to Texas, we were killing three hours of a layover before our flight out to OKC. Worried about my luggage, a long day of travel behind us already, and our boarding time was continually pushed back until 9:30pm, it had already been one crazy day. Finally, at 10:30am, after over 16 hours of travel we landed in OKC. After much praying and crossing my fingers, we watched joyfully as our first of four checked suitcases made their way around the carousel. Needless to say, we had an eventful day and were exhausted but thankful for the blessings in disguise. We may have missed our original flight through Chicago but we were able to miss a horrible storm rolling in, our luggage managed to follow our unpredictable route to OKC and we had three days to recover before the pageant got underway. Amazing, day one is already complete and I've had a wonderful time thus far. I would just like to take this opportunity to say hello to friends, family and sponsors who are reading this in support of my ventures here at the Miss Rodeo USA pageant. I appreciate you all more than you know! I'm signing off for tonight and be sure to check back for more blogs and photos!

Comments

[Alex Finkbonner]

Good Luck girl!! Ill be thinking about you and be checking back for more blogs!! I'm glad you got there. The weather has calmed down here!! Good Luck!!

Best Wishes
Alex Finkbonner

[Carolene Lund (Gramm)]

All my love and prayers are with you - knock them dead! What a trip you guys had getting there. Appreciated the blog- loving you,
Gramm