A Bad Travel Day

We all have bad travel days. Nothing major happened. No one was hurt or was put in jeopardy, but things did not come together as planned.

During the last three big vacations, I have gotten sick with some kind of cold. My first day in Paris was spent in bed last summer. This trip was not any different. I had a mild sinus infection and a cough, so I wasn’t feeling my best. We needed to meet my family in Miami for my parent’s anniversary cruise. It was leaving the next morning, so we couldn’t miss it. My family drove to Miami from all over Georgia, and we were the only ones who decided to fly to south Florida.

At the airport, we didn't notice our flight was canceled due to the weather in Florida. We arrived early to have lunch. After we finished our meal, we tried to re-book our flight, but all the flights going into Fort Lauderdale and Miami were booked. They put us on a flight to Fort Myers, Florida, so we had to rent a car to make the three hour drive to Miami.

When we arrived in Fort Myers, our luggage didn't make it even after we were promised that it would be there. It was missing. The airline helped us and eventually found our luggage, but it was still in Atlanta. We had to stop in Fort Lauderdale to meet a plane coming in at 10 p.m. At the car rental building in Fort Myers, there were hundreds of people waiting to get a car, so we stood in line for an hour. The drive was long, and there wasn’t much to see in the dark.

After arriving in Fort Lauderdale, we found out that the plane bringing our luggage was delayed. By this time, it was past 9 p.m., and we were hungry again. The problem at the Fort Lauderdale Airport was that the only restaurant was in Terminal 4, and our luggage was to arrive in Terminal 1, so we walked over to the other terminal. With the plane carrying the luggage was running a half an hour late, we were happy to know that one restaurant was open. It was after 11 p.m. before we saw our luggage, and we drove to our hotel in Miami to meet my family.

We were able to return the car rental the next day before the cruise. In the end, we made the cruise along with our luggage, so we were grateful that everything worked out. I would have been happy to spend the day in bed recovering from my illness.