For many years I took a group of students to Florida during Spring Break in March.  One trip was particularly memorable.

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While we were in Florida in 1993 a major winter storm was developing in the northeastern US, with the center of it in Pennsylvania. On Friday, as we prepared to start driving through the night toward home, we learned that all of Pennsylvania was getting so much snow (20-40 inches) that the Governor had declared it to be an emergency situation, state-wide, with no vehicles except emergency vehicles (snow plows, ambulances, police cars, fire trucks, etc.) allowed on any of the roads until further notice. But it seemed we had no choice but to try to drive home as planned. I could only pray that the Lord would keep us safe, guide our steps, and provide for our needs.

 

We first met the snow storm in North Carolina, and by the time we got to Washington, DC, the highway was covered with many inches of snow and the driving was difficult. Then, as we approached the last exit from the highway in Maryland before we would be entering PA, we found that all vehicles were being forced to exit from the highway.

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What to do? After getting gas, we went to the only nearby hotel to try to find a place to stay that night. While I waited in line in the lobby, I heard the desk clerk tell the Manager that their last room had just been taken. Then he turned to me and asked how he could help me. So I told him I had a group of 27 people who needed a place to stay that night! The Manager overhead me and told me that, if we wanted, he would supply pillows and blankets and we could all sleep FOR FREE on the carpeted floor of a banquet hall that was part of their complex. We gladly accepted. The next day we learned that the travel ban in PA would not be lifted for another day. At around lunchtime we heard noises of activity on the other side of a partition which divided the banquet hall. After awhile we learned that the activity was that of the food caterers setting up the dinner for the guests after a wedding. But the roads were so bad that very few people attended the wedding. Since all of the food had been prepared and had already been paid for, our group was invited to eat all we wanted FOR FREE!