I passed this situation onto our prayer group.
Result - I had the best journey EVER.
When you live in the Lord and for Him - when you have problems, prayer will sort out so many issues.
Why do we opt to carry on carrying our burdens?
Still. Our atheist friends will need to claim one of two things: either I am lying or it was just a string of coincidences.
Ah, multiple coincidences - where would we ever be without them, I wonder?