I'm a professional photographer and videographer. I was out on a photo shoot with my buddy Sean and friend Bridget. The shoot was in Bridget's home state so we were using her sister's 4-wheel-drive car to drive around and scout the area.

We'd been to a lot of mountains and forests. I started to get the sense that we were done with our work and got the instinct on our second-to-last day to head home early. I said that idea out loud to my team but wasn't sure. Later that night, my friend Bridget had turned to me and said, "I feel intuitively like you want to go home tomorrow" just as I was thinking, "I feel like I want to go home tomorrow." Ding!

So, on our last day in the mountain we made our way to a spot on a river close to town. We didn't head up the winding, precipitous mountain road that morning to the top, like we did the day before. We had to get to the Seattle airport by early afternoon.

We'd been driving in the mountains in the early spring weather and had driven on a lot of roads with potholes as snow was melting away. The potholes were really hard on the car and we didn't do the best job of avoiding them or going slowly all the time.

As we were leaving the mountain area on our last morning, we stopped for coffee. I stood in the sun, gazed at the car, and noticed that we had a bubble in the front, left tire wall. In fact, we had three. The tire was totally shot and probably not that safe to drive on.

I did some research and we were 31 miles from the nearest tire shop. I checked my intuition and felt we were safe to make the drive. I had lived in Brazil for three years and had experienced a number of tire issues on the roads near the beaches there. I just felt strongly we'd be fine.

With my nervous friend, Bridget, next to me in the front seat, we headed off down the mountain. Fortunately, my gut was right. We made the 31 miles without hitting any more bumps in the road or having any trouble.

Once the new tires were on, I said to my friend Bridget, "Isn't it amazing that you and I both felt such a strong sense to finish early, which kept our journey this morning so much shorter. If we weren't getting ready to head home, we could have ended up way down a longer road, much further from town, with a blown-out tire because we hit a pothole. I feel like we were kept safe by this instinct to go home early."

She agreed. We'd both received such a strong intuitive sense at the same time. I could back it up with logic - we'd seen enough mountains and rivers and made decisions on where we would come back for the main shoot - but it was mostly a strong feeling. And, I was so grateful because it made the trip home much safer and easier than a busted tire, far down an empty mountain road, far from cell reception.

Story by Barbie Wong

​In December of 2017 I was talking to my friends Kiki and Phil, they are my brother-in-law's parents. They're just wonderful people. They were planning a trip to Rome for the whole month in the month of May. They're so kind. They said, "Barbie, we'll be there. If you want to come join us for any of that time just let us know. It's a small, studio apartment but there's a couch that can sleep just you."
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​I have a sister who was not working at the time and is very generous. I ended up asking her to take care of the kids one day. My other sister took care of the kids another day. And, then, my father-in-law came and took care of the kids one day. It was just Jeff and the kids and everything just fell into place. I got to go to Italy, go on the accordion tour and stay with Kiki and Phil.

I had the best time. This town had more than 20 accordion manufacturers, an accordion museum, and art all over town celebrating accordion playing. Plus, I made so many wonderful friends. I'm so glad I listened to my gut and let the plan show itself to me.