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A week ago today I took an unexpected cross-country trip. Okay, maybe it wasn't totally unexpected since my husband was supposed to drive my son from Maryland to Boise, Idaho and I'd planned to fly out with my daughters. We were to meet up with the boys and take a few vacation days in the mountains of Ketchum, Sun Valley, Stanley, and McCall before attending my son's freshman orientation at Boise State University. I just never expected to be the one driving!
Unfortunately something happened at my husband's work that made it impossible for him to leave, so I had less than twelve hours to pack, sleep, and head out. That wouldn't have been a problem if I hadn't been doing laundry for days for the boys and not me. After all, I wasn't supposed to have left until Thursday. It also didn't help that the county was replacing the water mains and turned off my water from ten at night until six in the morning. Yes, you read that right--I not only had no clean clothes, but I couldn't even wash them.
Oh, and did I mention that I was on a deadline and a blog tour? Yeah, it just keeps getting better and better!
My husband thought he could have the problem fixed in time to fly out with our daughters. Wednesday night I found out he was wrong. The girls would be flying alone, which wasn't a problem except for the fact I was ten hours from Boise, they were arriving before noon, and my friend wasn't answering her cellphone so I had no way of knowing if she got the message to pick my daughters up at the airport.
I took off at four in the morning after way too little sleep so the girls wouldn't have to wait long in case my friend didn't get the message. I stopped to grab a cup of coffee, ran into a truck stop, only to be alerted by an attendant on my way out of the restroom that someone had just rear-ended my parked car.
Two hours later, I was duct taping cardboard over my missing rear window, and still dealing with the police. Did I mention that the boy who hit me had no insurance and was younger than my son?
The good news is that no one was hurt since no one was in either car (yeah, I still can't figure that one out either.), my dear friend picked up the girls from the airport, the car was drivable, if not a little windy, and we made it safely to Boise.
In between getting my daughter's tooth pulled (don't ask) and arranging to have the car fixed, we've enjoyed seeing old friends and exploring Boise. My son is loving college so far. By the end of his first day of orientation, he'd already made a friend (who turned out to be his roommate for orientation), met a girl, and got a date!
The bad news is there's a forest fire close to Stanley--one of the most beautiful places on earth--so our plans for a drive through the area where much of my books take place, is still up in the air. Still, we're headed up to McCall and Sun Valley/Ketchum for some mountain fun. I'll try to remember to take pictures to share in my next blog.
In celebration of Call Me Wild's release, I'm giving away a copy to a lucky commenter.
Just tell me about your last vacation disaster and be sure to include your email address spelling out at and dot so you don't end up with a mailbox full of spam.
Do things like this happen to everyone, or only to me? It makes me wonder if a plague of locusts can't be far behind...
Do things like this happen to everyone, or only to me? It makes me wonder if a plague of locusts can't be far behind...
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16 comments:
I've actually been pretty lucky with vacations. The worst thing that has happened to me (so far!) was that I missed a flight out of Miami once, which meant I missed my connection in New York. I did get a later flight to New York, but didn't arrive in to to make my connection, so I had to spend the night in New York. I really can't call that tragic. I found a hotel in Queen's and ordered in pizza. The delivery guy had the best New York/Queens accent, which thrilled my little Canadian heart to no end. As it happens, I had booked an extra day off work at the end of my vacation for the inevitable post-vacation recovery, so my "disaster" didn't even cause me to miss work. I'll just have to knock on wood that all my vacations continue in this vein!
Wow. If I were you, I'd never leave the house again. Did you break a mirror or something?
Wow. That's quite an adventure. I hope things smooth out for you soon. Congratulations on the new release!
This kid better turn out to be valedictorian of his class, and Idaho had better appreciate how hard some people have to work just to do a bit of sightseeing.
Good Lord, that is one heck of an adventure. I hope your trip home is much more pleasant. Congrats of the new release . . . I already have it and love it!!
Oh my oh my!! So glad no one got hurt but that sure was a lot of going wrong. There was the time my husband and I went to Europe for 5 days - we landed in Paris but his luggage didn't. I was so glad that it wasn't mine! A cabbie took a group of us to what we thought was a nice local restaurant and they wanted $300 for each bottle of wine (apprently that included the price of a girl). And then there was the time we climbed a mountain in Haiti and the laughing guides switched horses on me and shortly thereafter the horse fell - I got away with a cut under the arm but missed going over a cliff! Thanksfully most vacations aren't that exciting lol.
Oh, doll, it sounds like another day in the life! The best you can do is roll with the punches (and pick up a quick three pack of panties at Wal-mart for the unexpected trip). You know I'll be keeping the right and left together for you so things smooth out. (A date? Already? You need to rein that boy in!!! Hard to believe he was still little when we met.) {{{Hugs}}}
You already know my email (Had to use AIM again; Blogger STILL hates me), and I can think of nothing I'd like better than to dive into another Robin Kaye masterpiece. (I don't suppose the fact my birthday is coming soon would sway you?) *G*
I hope your trip home goes much better!
The worst one I can think of is when we went to Disney back in 2008
It was my husband and our 2 kids. None of them had ever flown and I hadn't been on a plane in 25 years. I ended up the day before our flight at the doctors with a double ear and sinus infection.
My flight was hell. I was in so much pain I had tears pouring down my face for most of it and I was a nervous wreck about flying. Everyone else was fine.
Our first day there I sucked it up and dealt with it because I didn't want to spoil our dream vacation. By the 2nd day I was in the infirmary with a ridiculously high blood pressure after I almost passed out.
It was 95 and humid every day that we were there and I was just miserable.
Kristi
For some reason every time I fly some type of national weather disaster is happening. It's gotten to where my friends and family will not fly on the same flight with me.
One time 2 girlfriends & I had a Vegas trip planned. We were flying from different states so I booked the rental car and they booked the hotel. I was suppose to arrive 20 min before them. Get to airport and it's fogged in. Sent them a message saying I would not be arriving on time. When they received the message they just laughed and said as usual she's having flight problems. After much haggling with the service rep figured out that the only way I could get to Vegas by 4pm instead of 1am was to take multiple flights. Had to fly to Salt Lake City, LA then finally to Vegas.
Now in the meantime they have been in Vegas since 11am. At each airport I tried to call them and would get no answer. The hotel would ring the room so I could leave a message but since the room was int there name I didn't have the room number. Finally I arrive in Vegas pick up the rental car and try to call them again. Still no one answers. So I figured to heck with it I would just get to the hotel and get a DRINK and hit the casino's until I could find them.
After walking around the casino for a little over an hour I run into them. They said OH we've been looking for you. Get my luggage out of the car go to the room, freshed up a little and say I'm starving. Of course, they had a late lunch and are not hungry. So I take off and go to dinner by myself. The rest of the days we did have a good time.
Last Christmas I was flying home for the holiday, my BIL and I were both getting to Houston about the same time but were on different flights to Louisiana. When I arrived I checked, found out there was room on my flight. Sent my BIL a message, his reply I'm not getting on a flight with you, have rough flights.
For some reason every time I fly some type of national weather disaster is happening. It's gotten to where my friends and family will not fly on the same flight with me.
One time 2 girlfriends & I had a Vegas trip planned. We were flying from different states so I booked the rental car and they booked the hotel. I was suppose to arrive 20 min before them. Get to airport and it's fogged in. Sent them a message saying I would not be arriving on time. When they received the message they just laughed and said as usual she's having flight problems. After much haggling with the service rep figured out that the only way I could get to Vegas by 4pm instead of 1am was to take multiple flights. Had to fly to Salt Lake City, LA then finally to Vegas.
Now in the meantime they have been in Vegas since 11am. At each airport I tried to call them and would get no answer. The hotel would ring the room so I could leave a message but since the room was int there name I didn't have the room number. Finally I arrive in Vegas pick up the rental car and try to call them again. Still no one answers. So I figured to heck with it I would just get to the hotel and get a DRINK and hit the casino's until I could find them.
After walking around the casino for a little over an hour I run into them. They said OH we've been looking for you. Get my luggage out of the car go to the room, freshed up a little and say I'm starving. Of course, they had a late lunch and are not hungry. So I take off and go to dinner by myself. The rest of the days we did have a good time.
Last Christmas I was flying home for the holiday, my BIL and I were both getting to Houston about the same time but were on different flights to Louisiana. When I arrived I checked, found out there was room on my flight. Sent my BIL a message, his reply I'm not getting on a flight with you, have rough flights.
Wow, what an adventure you've had! Fortunately for me, I haven't encountered any vacation disasters (thank goodness!). The only time I've been close to having one was almost missing a connecting flight, but good thing we made it after I practically sprinted through the length of the airport to make it to the gate!
chibipooh(at)gmail(dot)com
I just had a great vacation to California to visit my sister and we went to the RWA literacy signing as well. It started out a bit rocky as my friend who picked me up at the airport couldn't find his car. After we walked back and forth at LAX from parking garage to parking garage, lugging my suitcases, he finally had me sit and wait while he figured out where the car was, as he got more and more stressed (and I was glad it wasn't me who lost the car). When we finally made it to the car his battery was dead. Luckily he had a stick shift and had backed in so was able to pop the clutch and get it started. After we stopped to buy a battery and install it, we went to my hotel who had assured me I'd most likely be able to check in early - no such luck. After some fast talking, I finally got checked in and then things started going more smoothly from there. So it wasn't a disaster, but didn't start out too smoothly. :D
Sorry forgot the email part:
Barbed1951 at aol dot com
I've actually been fortunate enough to not have have had a vacation disaster... just a few planning issues and the like, but nothing that's been a disaster. I do pay attention others' disasters so I can keep informed of what to avoid or do as much as possible. Hopefully I never encounter a vacation disaster.
yadkny at hotmail dot com
Congratulations, Winnie! You won a copy of Call Me Wild!
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