The plan was unorthodox — crazy, even — but it was better than nothing. We were already this far into the trek. Why go back? Why miss out on what could be?

Now, let me preface all of this with a caveat: I probably have some of the worst luck when it comes to traveling for work. The running joke on my five seasons covering the Marlins — a self-deprecating coping mechanism, really — was that at least one of my flights would get delayed on every trip. More often than not, it became reality.

A couple examples:

In 2019, I had a flight canceled in New York, had to stay an extra night (never a bad thing) and then take four flights (with the final connection in Tampa!) to get back to Fort Lauderdale.

After the first road trip of the 2023 season, my flight from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale got canceled (granted, the Fort Lauderdale airport was practically under water) so I ended up flying from Philly to New Orleans to Miami and then taking the Tri-Rail to Fort Lauderdale to get my car from the airport garage.

I missed out on Game 3 of the Cup Final — the only Panthers game I didn’t cover in person during the playoffs — because of bad weather in South Florida.

It makes me wonder what I did in a past life to have this type of bad karma with the travel gods.

This trip, though, is the leader in the clubhouse now.

But every time a disruption in my itinerary occurs, it brings me back to that cliche Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.”

The latest journey was certainly one for the memories.

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