I don't travel often but when I do I seem to have the same problem each time. I can never seem to get home. Something always happens to delay my return.
Those who know me know that my personality is pretty quirky and my mood shift sudden. I love vacations and I enjoy going on trips but when I am scheduled to go home, I want to go home. I want to get there as soon as possible and not delay the end to my trip. My curse however will prevent that, the Gods punishing me by throwing everything at me to prevent me from coming home.
Sometimes the challenges are simple. On the way home from a girls weekend someone remembers they left a phone charger at the hotel causing a 40 minute driving excursion back to the hotel. Driving home from Branson my friends decided it would be a fun idea to take an hour long break at Bass Pro. Who stops at Bass Pro during a four hour drive? Really? Driving back from Chicago we drove down every road in Illinois that was under construction as though someone planned our route based on the construction.
Other challenges are more frustrating. On the way back from Vegas with my mom we were informed that the plane we were on was broken and that we were delayed until they found another plane for us. Having spent a solid week with my mother this is not what I was wanting to hear. I had enjoyed my trip but I was ready to go home. I lost it. I started bawling my eyes out in the middle of the Vegas airport. The clerk gazed at me amazed that a grown woman was crying about a delay. To this day my mom references this experience as the most embarrassing thing I have every done to her. I just couldn't contain myself. That hour long delay threw off my entire plan for getting home and that was not to be tolerated. But that was not even close to my worst travel experience.
The worst challenge was more of a duel. To this day I insist that someone was out to get me. I made it home that day but the ridiculousness that ensued was traumatizing. I had just spent a week in California with my mother, a friend from school, and her mother. I would never speak to this friend again after this trip. The trip itself if another story but lets just say that I desperately wanted to get home and away from these people. This was by far the worst vacation that I have ever taken. We arrived at John Wayne Airport in California and were informed that there would be a delay in our flight. It would be a few hours at least. We were scheduled to have a layover in Arizona and the president had conveniently decided to fly there himself causing the entire airport to shut down. Our flight would be delayed until the president had landed and vacated the area. Great! We settled into the uncomfortable airport waiting area seats and proceeded to glare at each other for what seemed like hours. That is when we got our second bit of news. Our flight to Arizona was canceled completely. A monsoon had struck and the Arizona airport was closed. Yes, a monsoon! Since when do monsoons hit Arizona? Still think no one was out to get me? It gets better.
The airline was very apologetic and offered to put us up in a hotel overnight if we would wait to fly out the next day. Everyone was scrambling to get flights and they were desperately trying to get rid of some of us. But I was having none of it. I wanted to go home and I wanted to go right that second. After a lot of checking and cross checking the clerk with the airline found a flight for us through Colorado with another airline. The problem....the flight was leaving out of LAX....in less that an hour. They immediately shoved us into the back of a cab with our luggage and told the cabbie to book it to LAX through L.A. traffic. I have never been so terrified in my life. I have also never made it from Anaheim to L.A. in 30 minutes before. The cabbie screeched to a halt in front of LAX and we ran with our luggage shoving past people waiting in line. Thankfully we got to cut right to the front, check in and make our run for the gate before the flight took off. We barely made it and were on our way to home. Finally!
I just planned my anniversary trip for this year. We are approaching five years so we planned a big trip to Michigan to celebrate. We are making the eight hour drive ourselves and I am already anticipating the adventures that await attempting to drive home.
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