Family, gardening, home, Travel, Uncategorized

Last Minute Rush

31 Comments

We  leave for Tacoma in the morning. Tonight we learned a credit card was compromised and had to be cancelled.  The tomatoes conspired to have a mass ripening, so I am putting up tomato puree. Why does this all happen when we have so many other things to do?

What preparations do you make when you travel?  What glitches have you experienced while travelling or preparing to travel?  

 

31 thoughts on “Last Minute Rush”

  1. For all the traveling I did, I had few glitches. Once in Orlando walked into the airport to discover my airline was out of business. Only took four hours or so to be transferred to another airline.

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  2. i have been pickpocketed in china twice where my wallet was taken with my money and credit cards
    both times after a trade show that ends may 1
    china shuts down may 1 like usa does for christmas so it was hard to get banks etc to accept the needed finish it up
    i had to hang out in china an extended period with no money.
    it was a more innocent time

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  3. A memorable glitch came a few years ago when I was in Chicago for work and the morning I was supposed to fly back someone decided to start one of the FAA facilities on fire (as I recall the story was that it was a suicide attempt…). All flights were cancelled. Eventually some airlines started to announce later flights were back in action, but good luck getting on one if you weren’t already booked with that airline. I was not. Thankfully, since it was for work, I could tap the corporate travel agency where a wonderful human typed and tapped and was sympathetic (and probably up to his eyeballs in travelers trying to leave or get into Chicago) – he booked one of the few remaining rental cars for me, providing I could get to Midway in the next hour…sure I could do that (next problem: getting a cab…oy). Stood in line with everyone else where they were just pulling cars up and you could say, yes, I’ll take that one, or nope (and hope for a better option). Since it was just me I really didn’t care what I got – though I was glad the pickup truck went to the person in line ahead of me. I got some Chrysler yacht sedan that had perfectly awful controls – nothing made sense, leaving me speeding down the highway through Wisconsin at dusk with nowhere to pull off oand no way to know where the heck the headlights turned on. That was…exciting. It was a long day of driving, not helped by Google maps sending me the wrong direction out of Midway airport to get out of town. The sunset in Wisconsin, though, was lovely and I’m sure enjoyed by me and hundreds of others on 94 heading west from Chicago in our rental cars.

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  4. Rise and Shine Baboons,

    Growing oodles of tomatoes and vacation in August are two situations which demand different things and might clash!

    Travel=complications which require problem-solving. Usually I find that to be part of the fun.

    Complications we have experienced while traveling:

    Leaving the front door open and unlocked as we left (yes, really)

    Getting our pockets picked in Rome

    Lou locked the car keys in the rental car as we prepared to leave for the airport

    Carrying bags of grapefruit through the airport, late for a flight, the grapefruit banging on our legs (before baggage restrictions)

    Last year on the way to Ireland, we were at O’Hare Airport awaiting our two travel assistants to help us from main terminal to the international terminal(we had two wheelchair bound particiapants) One of the assistants did not show up; time became short. I looked at the one who did show and firmly stated, “If we don’t leave now we will be late for the international flight. I am pushing Kae’s wheelchair.” I took the handles and pushed off. It took us an hour to navigate the path from the main terminal to the international terminal. We arrived in time, but they were boarding wheelchairs when we got to the gate. Phew.

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  5. Landed in Wichita towards sunset. Got in my rental car, drove out on Kellogg to drive all the way across town to a meeting at our motel. Then realized I could not find the light control. Pulled over to find it. Cop pulled up behind me to check on me. Could not find the control for the window. Finally found door handle to explain to him. He was very nervous by then. We laughed. With overhead light now on, we found all the controls.

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  6. This is like the Groucho Marx line about asking a man in uniform at the door to call him a cab. Man told Groucho he was an Admiral. Groucho said, “all right, then call me a battleship.”
    We were at entrance to upscale hotel on Miracle Mile in Chicago. My partner turned to tall distinguished Black man to ask him for a cab. At last second he realized the man was a Marine of some high rank. John covered himself just in time but we could tell officer was not fooled. John later said it was in insight into a racist point of view.

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  7. We made it to Bismarck without incident. We got the tomatoes taken care of last night. Of course, I made sure the house was spotless. We don’t want the cat sitter to think we are slobs.

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    1. “We don’t want the cat sitter . . .” Great line! Living here in this geezer hotel I have the option of having my room cleaned by maids every other week. She comes tomorrow, so tonight I’ll wash dishes and tidy up the apartment. I don’t want the maid to think I’m a slob!

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  8. Opposite of travel: sitting on patio in 68 degrees, sun shinning but I am in the shade, drinking coffee watching a goldfinch more perched than eating in one feeder and indigo bunting doing the same in the other.

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  9. I used to travel to do my work as an outdoor journalist. Most of the travel was by car or some kind of boat, and most of the terrifying moments were due to bad weather. There were occasions when travel put my life in risk.

    The most exciting travel was flying in and out of wilderness lakes in pontoon airplanes. On one trip in Ontario the pilot kept trying to take off but couldn’t reach liftoff speed. We eventually returned to shore to jettison some heavy boxes before trying to take off again. And that worked, but it dramatized how close we were to being too heavy to fly.

    Another time I flew in a pontoon plane that was obviously not well maintained. Just looking at the plane proved it and its young pilot were risky. But like the obedient, accommodating Midwesterner I am I got in and hoped for the best. The week after that flight the same airplane with the same pilot crashed on takeoff. Two of the passengers drowned.

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  10. I can think of only two travel glitches I’ve experienced. The first involved my luggage not making the transfer from the plane in Tucson to my second flight to Hermosillo in Mexico. This was unfortunate since it was in February, and I was traveling in clothes suitable for Minnesota in winter. My bathing suit, shorts, sandals, etc. were all in my luggage. It took five hole days for it to catch up with me; I was not a happy camper. The ironic thing was that as our plane was taxiing out of the gate in Tuscon, I looked out the window and commented to my seat mate that there was a single suitcase left sitting on the tarmac. Little did I know it was mine; didn’t discover that until we arrived in Hermosillo.

    The second incident involved a missed connection in Chicago to a flight to Copenhagen. The departure of the flight from Minneapolis to Chicago was delayed first because of a severe thunderstorm, and once that subsided there was another delay due to Joe Biden, flying on Air Force Two, was departing after attending a fund raiser in the Twin Cities. Apparently that necessitates halting all in and outgoing traffic. I was fervently hoping that the departure of my SAS flight was also delayed, but no such luck. I was stranded in Chicago around midnight. Luckily, I was able to get on that same flight the following day. Six of my travel companions from that first flight weren’t so lucky. They missed their connecting flight to Miami where they were supposed to board a cruise ship. They were told that since it was their responsibility to be in Miami for the departure of their cruise, there would be no refund if they missed it, and they had opted to not carry travel insurance. None of us were very happy with Joe Biden that night.

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  11. HI–
    Seems like there’s always a list of things to finish before one can travel. With the farm the crops are a priority; can’t travel far during planting season.
    Still, have to have the grass mowed and prepare the chickens for whomever is taking care of them and give that person instructions. Shut all the buildings and take the keys out of tractors, ATVs, mowers.
    This summer before going to PA I was trying to get the roadsides baled but the weather wasn’t helpful. Oh well. It just laid there. Baled it when we got back. It wasn’t very good quality in the first place so the fact it was worse a week later didn’t really matter. Course if there was 100 acres and it was milk cow food it would have been a much more serious issue.

    I must have bad travel issues but I choose not to remember them. 🙂

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  12. Being in the travel industry I’ve had a few. I had luggage follow me around Africa for 4 days once. I had to wash out my unmentionables every night and the pair of shoes that I wore for 5 days straight through Africa I never wore again. I’ve had several occasions where a flight has been late and I missed the next flight and then the replacement flight is late and I’ve missed the one after that. Last time this happened was in May trying to get to Barcelona by 4 p.m. I got on the ship at 2 minutes to 4 and they shut the door behind me. If I’d had checked luggage I wouldn’t have made it.

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  13. I do seriously sympathize with the tomato problem. I’m in the same boat right now with probably 30 tomatoes on the counter and at least a hundred quickly ripening in the backyard.

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  14. In September, 2001 my mom and I were visiting relatives in Iceland. We were supposed to fly home on the 12th but the tragedy on 9/11 put the kibosh on those plans. US airspace was closed so we were “stuck” at my cousin’s house at Keflavik Airbase for a couple of days. When airspace opened, we got to the airport quickly and got seats. While flying over Greenland, the pilot announced that US airspace had closed again and we would be landing in Winnipeg. People heading to points west of here had to scramble to find flights. The rest of us were driven to Minneapolis by bus the next day – arriving at the airport at 1AM. Luckily the Park ‘n Fly was still open so I could retrieve my car. That was one LONG travel day!

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    1. I have two friends who got stuck in Iceland due to the volcano a few years back – for them it was about an extra week!

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  15. Lately my preparations for travel have to do with getting help for the people who depend on us frequently – first my mom for visits every other day – I write her a card or short letter for each day we’ll be gone, leave them where her attendants can find them to give her daily when she starts to get anxious. Sometimes I include photos, or other visual aids…

    When we travel at end September to Georgia (road trip), we’ll also have to line up people to visit our friend W. at his apartment. I’ve already begun composing the letter…

    I’ve told before of losing my plane ticket somewhere in SFO (in 1969, when there were only paper tickets…), and some kind soul from the airline believed me and reissued my ticket.

    OT: My sister is here from Berkeley area this week, and then we’ll be out of town for the weekend – see you sporadically the next several days, baboons.

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