What Else Could Go Wrong?

Last week I had a great trip to northern Indiana - nice, simple, relaxing... no problems. This week I took a trip to FL and it was a MUCH different story!!

It started out fine, I guess, with good intentions. I had a conference to go to in Naples, FL to get continuing education credits for my FL PE license. After that, I planned to go over to the east coast and see my niece and nephew and go to the beach with them. Did the normal airport thing - flew from IND to DTW to RSW. It was the late flight, arriving at RSW at midnight basically. And that's when things started going array...

I waited and waited, and my bag never came. Great. I didn't think much of it, though, because it's happened to me before. Only, I was normally on my flight back, so it didn't matter. I was just starting - not a good sign. Plus, I had to be somewhere first thing in the morning - no time to wait for it to come down on the next flight from DTW!

Well, the baggage claim attendant was nice enough to 'share the wealth' at 1am and said they'd reimburse me for up to $50 to buy things for the next day to wear. What's open at 1am, though??? Wal-mart. Eewww. But I had no choice.

For those who know me, I never go to Wal-Mart. I just can't bring myself to go there for any reason but a cheap oil change once every three months. The 'supposed' money saved isn't worth the hassle you have to deal with, including the insane amount of people, rude employees, and need I even start with the 'interesting' people you sometimes can't help but cross paths with? Besides... Target's closer to me. :) And there's a Meijer still closer than the closest Wal-Mart. So I avoid it, at ALL costs!

So anyway... after filing the claim, I got to my rental car and just wanted to get to the hotel. I was exhausted! There were very few cars left in the Alamo lot, so I picked the silver HHR that was closest to me, got in, looked quickly at everything, and left. And off to Wal-mart I went (joy). And I found something to wear the next day. Mind you, it was cute, but cheap - the freak'n dye bled on my arm throughout the next day and the insides of my arms were blue by lunch time!! So my first opportunity, I went to Target, which was way out of the way in Naples. But VERY worth it!

I didn't get to the hotel until almost 2:30am. I had to be up and gone by 7:30am to get to the conference. But this was my hotel. My always dependable, always a good sleep, always willing to go out of the way for me, Doubletree in Naples. I love this hotel. This is almost the only hotel we'd ever stay at during our constant travels when we'd be on this coast. They knew us by name when we walked in the door and would just hand us our keys. Room upgrades we virtually guaranteed unless they had something going on in the hotel. They just took care of us. Always. And this trip was no different. They did what they could to help me out in my time of distress with no luggage. And even called me after I left to let me know they were continuing to keep an eye out for it.

So the next morning, I get up and ready to go, head down to my car, and the Low Fuel light came on and dinged at me as soon as I started the engine. You've got to be kidding me!! I was so tired that when I looked at the fuel gage the night before, I thought it was on the 'full' end when it was in fact on the 'empty' end! I wasn't about to pay for an extra tank of gas!! I've never rented from Alamo before, so I wasn't sure how they'd handle this. So I called and, I'll admit it, whined about my experience the night before and basically made it clear how upset I was that they let me even have this car if it was never properly filled up. But they were okay about it and marked in my file that it was to be returned to MCO empty. Thank goodness - that could've been a quick $60 gone for nothing. As it was I was having to buy new clothes when I didn't want to.

I go do my thing and after my conference was over and I went back to the hotel, I came to find out I still had no luggage. So I called Northwest. They had no update to give me. They suspected that the baggage claim tag got ripped off somehow (which is more common of an occurrence than they let on, I think - have you seen how many tags are laying on the tarmac as they load bags??). They said it may come in on the late flight (the one I arrived on the night before). So I called back once that flight was in the air - there was no record of it being on board. So they took more info from me - certain identifiable contents IN my bag - and said they'd call me if it was somehow on that flight. In the meantime, I had another $25 I could get reimbursed for. Wow. How generous. Not really.

So Friday comes, and I go to Day 2 of my conference. This time, in slightly better quality clothing, as it's NOT from Wal-Mart. Since I was leaving for the east coast at the end of the day, I ended up playing phone tag all day with the Northwest Agent, trying to get them my new location info. Never actually talked to her... but it didn't matter. There was still no bag. It didn't come on Friday at all, either. Yay - another $25 to spend! Wait... I already spent it the day before because you can't really get anything for $25! I had to even get a new bathing suit since I had the intentions of going to the beach on Saturday and didn't trust or expect to see my bag before then. Plus, I bought a new suitcase, because you can't exactly haul all of this valuable new stuff back in the shopping bags they came in! Oh, and let's not forget the extravagant toiletries they gave me when I initially lost the bag - I shan't leave those behind!

I head over to Palm Bay, just trying to keep positive at this point. The trip up to this point hadn't been all bad. But the lost bag really preoccupied my mind, so the dinner I had with some friends and the little bit of pool side time I got at the hotel just wasn't as relaxing as it should be. But there were other nuances, too... like the forgotten SunPass. However, I was heading to see family and go to the beach. These were good things. And that was justified when I got huge hugs from my niece and nephew upon arrival late Friday night. I almost forgot about the lost bag... until I had to get ready for bed.

The next morning we woke up, had breakfast, and got ready for the beach! Nothing was going to keep me from enjoying this! I made one more call to Northwest before we left and left a message since the attendant I needed to talk to wasn't in yet. Then we head to Target to get some sunscreen (since mine was in my bag). Finally, we got to the beach around noon. Unfortunately, it had just finished raining, so it was a little overcast. But the kids could care less, they just wanted to play! Finally, the sun came out, and I relaxed a bit. I checked my phone to see what time it was about an hour or so into the day and saw I missed a call. From Northwest. They found my bag!!! I immediately returned the call and confirmed it was my bag! There was no way to get it to me before I left the next day, so we made plans to send it back to IND where I'd pick it up the next day. Yay!

Around 2:30pm or so came more rain, so we went and ate a late lunch at one of the restaurants on the beach. I was just happy they found my bag! This was a time to celebrate!! Not that I really needed to, but I was happy. :) We went back out when it cleared up again, around 3:30pm. Just as I was getting to the relaxing point, leaning back on my elbows and watching the kids, my top came unhooked. I stayed covered, but it was annoying! So I reached back to re-hook it... Oh, Sh** - the hook BROKE! So I pulled my t-shirt on real quick and ran up to one of the shops right there and bought myself a cheap new suit (which turned out to be a real good suit on sale!). But this was the 2nd suit I bought in as many days - I had no plans on buying ANY suit!!

Damn you Northwest!

So despite the swim suit debacle, it was a good day. The kids had a blast and wore themselves out and Northwest found my bag. If only it could talk and tell me where it had been. Regardless, there was no way I was going to check my NEW bag the next day. So I made sure that it was able to be carried on - I followed the 3-1-1 rule!

The next morning, I headed to MCO after a late breakfast. There were some major idiots on the Bee Line, though - one guy totally came over on me and I had to slam on the brakes to keep from hitting him, and in turn, a huge Tahoe honked at me cause I had to slightly swerve into his lane. The guy that cut me off had NO clue, either - completely oblivious to it all! But the last thing I needed was to wreck the rental car only about 5 miles from returning it!

I actually made it right on time... but I'm used to that being the case. Walked right on the plane and, thankfully, had been upgraded to first class. Threw my bag up and sat down. We pushed back and what sounded like a loud cell phone started ringing. The flight attendants reminded us that cell phones should be turned off, and it stopped. But then a few minutes later, it went off again! They got pissed at this point! Turns out, it was the smoke alarm in one of the bathrooms! So they had to stop taxiing. Dammit! Luckily, the pilot was able to just come out of the cockpit and make the call that there was no fire and it was safe to take-off still. But it still put us a half hour behind schedule. It's my luck.

When we landed in DTW, I had three frantic voicemails from some guy trying to deliver my lost bag to my house and it needed to be signed for. HELLO!! I'm still on a plane!! Apparently, they failed to see I wasn't home from the very trip they lost my bag on. And he ended up leaving my bag with a neighbor I never talk to! Unbelievable! Luckily, she was listed with information, so I called and asked her to put my bag on my porch - I was getting in too late and needed it first thing in the morning. She was nice enough and I thanked her. But why would they do that??

My final leg ended up taking off late, as well, because we were missing a pilot. So I ended up getting back to IND about a half hour late. I was so glad I didn't have to wait for a bag. I just wanted to go home. And I did. And my bag was there. My house never seemed more welcoming than it didn't coming back from this trip.

I guess, all in all, the trip wasn't THAT bad. It really just had a lot of mishaps that eventually corrected themselves. And I, being laid back and able to roll with the punches, probably took this better than a lot of people out there would. But it sure wasn't as relaxing and enjoyable as I had hoped. Especially finally going back to work Monday - this would be my last trip for awhile.

I still have to deal with getting my reimbursements from Northwest. I have to send receipts in. That kind of worries me. I'm still debating if this warrents a complaint email, as I've done in the past. This is a pretty different situation, though...

Oh well. At least I got to go to the beach. That's my serene place. :)