Shelter in a time of Storm

So, in my previous post I stated that as we drove away from the village of Buckie the snow was coming down by the bucketfuls. I of course was the driver. Just before we drove out of Hunter and Elaine's driveway, the boys and I said a prayer that we would be safe and that God would protect us and watch over our drive. The roads in this area are very narrow and one lane goes each way with only the paint on the road as the divider. There are no street lights when you are not in a village or town. So I could only see as far as my lights would shine. The snow bank on the side actually was a decent guide. I tried to say in second and third gear for the 25 miles that we travelled that night. We had heard that the worst stretch of road in this area was the 10 mile stretch between Keith and Huntly Scotland on AB96 heading to the Aberdeen airport. I was getting a little nervous about running out of gas even though we had a full tank I was worried in case we got stranded that we might need more. So when we made it to Keith, I pulled into the first station that I saw. We had seen many people broken down, stuck and many people fishtailed out in the road, but I still had pretty good traction in second gear. I thought we could slowly still plug along the next 25 miles. After leaving the gas station, I realized that not only were we driving on snow, but we were now driving on black ice under the snow. The realization of this made me somewhat apprehensive to continue. We got to the center of Keith and there was a very steep hill to get up and then there was a sharp curve at the top of this hill on a two lane road. I was still doing just fine in second gear. In front of us though, there was a big semi-truck struggling to get up the hill. It made it to the top of the hill and stalled. We stopped and after a few minutes I realized that it was stuck so I started trying to turn around and find a different way. I then realized that stopping the car had lost our traction on the road. I saw that all of the cars behind us had backed way up. So, I decided that maybe I could go in reverse. Earle and I managed a little ways back down the hill. Out of no where, a random man, came up to my window and told me he wanted to help me get backed up and see if I could turn the car around. He managed to help us get most of the way down this hill in reverse. Just as we were still facing forward, and were getting close to trying to turn the car around, a big tour bus came quickly around that sharp curve at the top of this hill. It fishtailed out and lost control and started sliding. It slid straight into the spot that we had just backed out of and was sliding straight at us. I threw the door open and Earle jumped out of the car. I started yelling, "Get the boys out of the car!" But I was sort of frozen and was not doing it myself. The people on this tour bus were just standing up looking out of the front window in horror as this thing kept sliding straight at us. The bus was able to stop about 10 feet in front of us. I threw us into second gear and the man helped us get turned around and we drove straight back to that gas station passing the long line of cars that were behind us. I asked the lady to use the phone so that I could call Elaine because we did not have a cell phone.  "Hello, Elaine? Well, the good news is that I am at a phone calling you, the bad news is that I don't think we are going to make it past Keith. Could you help us look up a place to stay here for the night because I don't think there is any way I want to get back on that road to your house...."  Elaine was frantically trying to help me figure out if I should go back to theirs and chance it or if we would find a room. 
  Out of no where a couple of men walked into the gas station. A minute later I heard someone saying, "Right then. You will stay at the Ugie House Hotel. I've got two rooms."
"Pardon me?" says I. "Are you talking to me?"
"Yes," says the kind man.
"Seriously? You are talking to me?" I ask again.
"Yes, Quine. It is just up the hill, to the right..." says the man.
"Oh my goodness. Thank you so much, " I said, "Do you see that man in the car out there," I said pointing to Earle, "could you tell these directions to him because I know I will not remember right."
So he went out and I saw him briefly chatting with Earle, as I was getting off of the phone with Elaine. Then he got into his car and drove away. Earle and I started going the way that he told us, we had to go back up that hill, but before we got there, there had been another wreck or something and we could not get by. So we decided we would park on a side street and walk to the hotel and carry the boys. We turned off and started to park and an SUV came up behind us. A man in his late teens or early 20's said, "Aren't you all going to the Ugie House Hotel? I was in the station then you were talking to Robbie. We were behind you. Follow us, we know a different way."
And so we followed him. And it was a very steep way, but we managed to get there about 10 minutes later. We parked and as soon as we were parked we knew we were stuck but did not care because we had made it to this place.
 We carried the boys up to the door and went in. There was no one at the reception desk. It was an old hotel and it looked as if there was a lounge and eating area. We rang the bell and a few minutes later a teenage girl came in and said, "Are you the lady on the phone that Robbie told me about?"
"Well, I was at the Shell station and a man said he had two rooms. Am I the right person you are talking about?", I asked.
"Yes, you are. He told me about you. He owns this place. And he told me not to give that room to anyone else that comes in because he promised it to you. And I'm not to charge you more than 60 pounds. This is our last room and it is a family suite, there are two bedrooms and a bathroom with five single beds all together. There is tea and biscuits for you in your room for tonight and you will have your breakfast downstairs in the morning." says the girl.
Earle and I just stood there shocked and amazed and pretty much speechless.
"Thank you so much," I said. "We had no idea where we would be able to stay and we have these two little boys, this is an amazing blessing."
Earle and I continually uttered thank yous up the stairs to our room, and through the very windy hallways of stairs. There were only ten rooms at this hotel. Our room was quaint and comfortable. The keys were the old keys from the 1800s with the round end at the top and a thin metal cylinder with the tooth that hung down at the end as the actual part that unlocks the door.  We got in and started trying to get our flight situation figured out. Earle and I were both on and off the phone with Elaine, and airports. We managed to figure out that our morning flight had been cancelled and we were able to switch it to 5:15 pm. the next day out of Aberdeen, then we would have to stay the night in London and fly out of London Sunday morning.
We started settling in for the night and I got the kids bathed. Something to know about me is that I am a little freaked out about things like ghosts and haunted type places. I started asking Earle, do you think this place has ghosts? Should I be a little scared? Look at these keys."
Earle said, "Carrie, this night can only be described as a night of Divine Intervention. I don't think God brought us here to be killed or taunted by evil spirits or ghosts," he chided. "I'm pretty sure you are fine and if you think you see one, it is a good one."
He had a point. How very blessed we were that night. Random things that happened only to be explained by Divine intervention.
We slept well. We woke up and had breakfast. The owner, Robbie, came down as we were eating and grabbed a shovel and he and Earle shovelled the car out so we could leave. We made our flight. An experience I think that we will never forget, and we will go back to when our children ask about the power of prayer and of the Lord's provision. If you look really closely, you can see the owner, Robbie standing up on the deck.

~CB