Travel Trauma Stories!

[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.

[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!!!

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?