Travel Trauma Stories!

[RICHARD]

Since Tubby and Peanut's Mom is having a crappy vacation I thought we could make her feel better by telling some travel horror stories!! :)


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Let me start this off by saying this happened in February, right as winter has a nice tight hold on the Southwest part of the United States....the whole idea was to race a storm coming in from the north and beat it over the
Colorado Rockies.



A friend of mine was on leave from the Air Force...he was stationed in Omaha and was scheduled to drive back by himself - from Lost Angeles to Omaha in four days.- His parents weren't too keen on the idea so they asked if I would go with him and fly back......on their dime!!!

HOKAY!!

We left at about 10 p.m. on Thursday night....I ditched work so I could go on a 'road trip from hell"...


About 70 miles from home the car started to wobble....My bud asked me to look out the door at the back wheel...Yep, that sucker is wobbling....

We pull into a parking lot and lo and behold....A nissan dealership across the street!!!!

We get a room for a few hours....That was funny, two guys looking for a room in the middle of the night....the clerk was suspicious! :rolleyes:


The next morning we get the car to the dealership and the diagnosis is that the spindle that holds the tire is worn out. On the 280Z sports cars there is no back axle-just this spindle..

"Yes you are in luck, we have one in stock!!"

We figure about an hour wait and we can get back in schedule....outside the service bay I am watching this mechanic take the old one off, place the new one in, he takes the nut that holds the spindle in and puts the air wrench to it...

RRRRRRRRRRRRR.......nothing....

Again..

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR.....

He looks at the wrench then at the nut and takes the nut off....


BY NOT TIGHTENING IT BY HAND HE HAS NOW STRIPPED THE LIVING THREADS OFF OF IT.....This idiot has a befuddled look on his face then goes the service manager and explains what happened....


The manager comes over and tell us what happens but the good news is that
there is another spare part in Riverside - a 200 mile round trip.......This guy will drive down and pick it up. We spend the next seven hours in the desert trying to figure out what to do........

When we finally got back in the road it was late afternoon and we had to make up 19 hours of driving by racing across the lower southwest to get to Omaha by the time my flight left on Sunday morning. We find out that eh storm had shut down most of the roads over the passes....With some imaginative driving, map reading and navigation we made Omaha just in time for me to use the bathroom and get to the airport....


Otherwise Omaha was a neat place to visit- for about 20 minutes. :eek: :confused: :mad: :rolleyes:

So do not feel bad T&P....been there.....overcome that! :confused: :eek: :rolleyes: :D

[prechrswife]

Let's see...

My husband was being considered by a church in the Atlanta area to come as pastor. We flew from Louisiana to Atlanta and spent a few days, ending with his trial sermon and a vote by the congregation. Our flight was scheduled to get us back home in plenty of time for hubby to give his resignation at the church in Louisiana. We turned down an invitation for lunch with some of the new church members so we could make it to the airport on time. When we get there, we find out that our flight has been canceled and we've been put on a later flight. There are no other flights that we can take. (Our original plane was snowed in in New York state.)

Of course, we were planning to be back for the evening service, so now hubby is rushing around trying to make phone calls to figure out what to do with the church since we aren't going to be there, and to call my family and let them know that we were going to be late getting home. We had no cell phone, and no cash on us. That meant that all of these long distance calls were put on our credit card. (More on that later.) After all of that, we found a place to eat, and barely managed to find a place to sit down. (This was New Year's weekend.)

We finally got on our plane and in the air. We flew from Atlanta to Jackson, MS, where first we were told that those who were continuing to Monroe, LA needed to remain on the plane because there was some bad weather approaching Monroe, and we needed to get back in the air ASAP. Okay, that's fine. Then, a few minutes later, there was another announcement--all passengers needed to deplane. This plane was going no further. (At the time, the Monroe airport had no de-icing equipment.)

We get into the airport, and find out that the airline is putting us on a charter bus to get to Monroe. Then we had to figure out where to get our luggage, and wait for quite awhile for the bus to get to the airport. (Mind you, it is getting later, and all we've had to eat were those little bags of airline snack mix and cokes.) We get on the bus and head out. No sign of the snow that we've been told is coming, and it only takes a couple of hours to drive from Jackson to Monroe.

As soon as we crossed the Mississippi River, the snow started to fall. This was not just a little bit of snow, either. The bus is now crawling down the interstate. We had to stop a few times for the driver to clean ice off of the windshield. It was an endless bus trip, and most of us were tired, grouchy, and hungry. Thankfully, my husband and another man on the bus were able to keep the mood somewhat light-hearted.

Sometime around 10:00 pm CST, we arrived at the airport. We had left our car in the airport parking lot, but it was a Saturn and living in the deep south, we had no snow tires, chains, etc. We called my father to come and pick us up. We pulled some comfortable clothes out of our suitcases and changed in the airport restrooms. (I think I forgot to mention that we were still dressed from church that morning. Not the most comfortable or warmest we've ever been...) We then settled in to wait for our ride. Normally, it would have taken him about 15 or 20 minutes. It took at least twice that with the weather. We decided just to stay with my parents that night. Our cat and our second car were at their house anyway. We ate supper around 11:30 that night.

The next afternoon when we went to pick up the car at the airport, we found out that the credit card company had flagged our card for unusual activity, so we had to get that straightened out. Thankfully, he had some cash on him that day. It was an exasperating experience all the way around.

And that's our travel trauma story!

[Corinna]

After 13 years of marrige we had enough sved for a vacation.Loaded the 17 passange van one kid in each of the 2 bench seats. They each had a cassette player(withhead phones), cooler and food pack. (none of the usual she touching me) Heading from Washington to Iowa (hubby's family lives there)
Trip going just fine until we hit Wyoming a thunder and lighting storm hits and fallows the whole way across the state. The kids and hubby are all wow look a double . They then look at me and start laughing ,as I'm sitting there with my pillow over my face humming to my self. You see I can not stand lightning I like all my dogs hide under the bed.
Not a good trip for me that night.

[RICHARD]

. They then look at me and start laughing ,as I'm sitting there with my pillow over my face humming to my self. Not a good trip for me that night.

Thank God you weren't driving!!! ;)

[Edwina's Secretary]

Does my 17.5 hour direct flight this summer from Long Beach to NYC count?

[RICHARD]

Does my 17.5 hour direct flight this summer from Long Beach to NYC count?



The judges need more detail in order to award you the "Croix of the Abused Traveler".....



Please? :)

[Allecto]

Hmm... I've had a 13 hour flight begin with someone passing my seat right before me and vomiting profusely into it :eek: . And things went downhill from there. It is a disaster every time I travel, though.

[AlleyCat]

Let's see, the summer I was 18 I went on a final road trip with folks before I was off to college .. We flew from Minnesota to Seattle, WA. Rented a car and drove all around the mountains in WA and OR -- St. Helen, Rainier, Hood, etc. On our 2nd to last day before flying home .. This is how the day went:

We had our suitcases packed and *I* threw them all into the rental car trunk *including* the rental car keys. That was locksmith #1.

In the mountains, Mom is very afraid of heights, so she never got out of the car while Dad and I did to take pictures. About half-way up, Mom DID decide to get out and stretch her legs. Dad left the keys in the ignition, assuming Mom wasn't getting out. Not a problem, but Mom had to lock the doors when stretching her legs? That was locksmith #2. For some reason, it took quite some fiddling with both the passenger and driver locks, but the locksmith finally got the door open.

This is still the same day .. moving on .. We are at the top of the mountain. We stopped at a chalet for lunch. We locked the doors, Dad had the keys firmly tucked in his pocket. We finished lunch, back to the car for the return journey down the mountain. Now, remember, Locksmith #2 had to fiddle quite a bit with the doors for some reason. Unbeknownst to us, the locks were effectively ruined. Here comes Locksmith #3.

(Way up in the mountains, getting a locksmith is no easy task. We had to call the forest ranger not once, but twice .. we spent much of the day with the him, probably much to his amusement!)

We returned the rental car that evening to fly home. Needless to say, the rental car agency was not thrilled to hear that no door locks were functioning, keys or no keys. :eek:

[RICHARD]

Here comes Locksmith #3.



NOW THAT'S A HORROR STORY.....so far you are winning!!

[Alysser]

ITALY HAD IT'S HORRIBLE MOMENTS!
Like when we were going to Rome. It was tuesday and we had woken up REALLY early to get dressed,eat,ect. My godfather had taken 36 people to Italy for two weeks so it was hard to drive to Rome. So we rented a bus. We were all waiting at the gate and I was petting the German Shepherd Dog, Bear! AS usual. I LOVED HIM! Anyway, the bus finally arrives. The guy was so stupid. He pulled into a small part of the driveway where CARS could barley turn in and started arguing with my godfather. My godfather fought with him for about 15 mintues. So we couldn't go to ROME! We drove to Piza. Of course, we had trouble parking and then we had 3 fights with people. My dad got pretty rough in one of them. Also, some old friend of my Moms was treatiing me like her daughter. Saying " go get me a coke""Go get my bags!" UGH! It was so annoying. Bear got hurt to. He cut his paw on the glass left by the pool where SOMEONE(I suspect the lady who was treating me like a baby.)left a broken wine glass! She went to the vets. My cousin also got stiches!

[RICHARD]

now we are getting somewhere - But not Rome!!! :( :confused: :eek:

The judges wre still waiting!

[Suki Wingy]

Not as mucha horor story as just a bit frightning.
I have been flying UM since I was 7, but with recent events they keep bumping up the age you can stop flying UM. This whole summer I lost my cell phone that my dad had bought me mostly for use when traveling. (It ended up being in my BARN BAG!)
This summer, coming home from Ames (Des Moines airport) visiting my dad I decided to go as an adult, I hate the flight attendants bothering me (I know they mean well) durring the flight, but I don't like waiting at the gaits, especially at O'Hare.
My flight was delayed, then canceled. On the monitor screen, after the scheduled take off time my flight number dissapeared! So my dad and step-mom went home. My little brother is VERY allergic to a lot of things, and deathly allergic to peanuts. He was having a minor reaction to something unknown, nothing more than a little bothersome. When I went to call my dad to tell him my flight was canceled, the pay phone wasn't working. (Remember I'm afraid of phones) I went out of security to get them, and they wern't there. I tried to get back behind security but the attendant wouldn't let me, my flight was the last scheduled. (It is a very small airport, luckily)
When I finally reached my dad the airport was basicall closed and he was 1/2 way to Ames in his Toyota Matrix with my stepmom and my little 2 year old screaming brother. My mom called to see when I could make it home because she saw online my flight was canceled.
I made it out the next morning and missed most of my first day of summer school. That way I couldn't take a day off to go to the county fair youth rabbit show later because I already missed a day which is worth a week of work because the class is 4 hours long. Luckily, I had taken the class like 3 times so I got 100% on most of my quizes and they let me go if I served a detention!

[Suki Wingy]

anyone else have one?

[areias]

Not so much traveling, but moving down to FL from MA, we traveled through the Maryland area, at the exact time that the sniper was shooting everyone. That night we stayed in a hotel, and we were hiding the dogs, but I would walk them in a big open field. We also went to Dennys, I think it was...the next day we heard that the sniper had shot someone walking out of that restaurant. Very very creepy. The other time we were traveling to NH from MA...we had our suitcases on top of the car, and one flew off going down the highway.

[Suki Wingy]

That is horrible about the suitcases! My mom lost my sister's pacifier that way a few years ago

[Maya & Inka's mommy]

About 10 years ago, we planned a long trip through Florida and the Keys. Our niece was travelling with us. When we arrived at the airport we found out that our travel agency had forgotten to confirm our seats. The plane was fully booked, so we were told to go home..... .
Of course we didn't give in and asked to look again. That's when a man told us that there were 5 seats on the "CONNAISSEUR" Class. If we were intersted?? No extra charge
Ha ha, lol, the nightmare turned into a party here:that class was luxurous, and with champagne for free!!

[Suki Wingy]

What luck!