7 Things That Should Not Happen When You Travel with Your Adorables

January 19, 2011

Yesterday was a comedy of errors for me. Unfortunately, the crying kind. And here’s the thing of it: the adorables were good. For the most part, really good.

The Running Man flew back Monday night but the adorables and I took advantage of some cheaper airfares flying Tuesday from Fort Myers, FL to New York LaGuardia.

1) When the plane landed at 11:40 am (7 minutes ahead of schedule), my boys and I whooped it up! Early? In a driving hail/sleet rainstorm? Unimaginable! But then we parked in no man’s land on the tarmac and I knew I was in trouble. My darling adorables have this mental contract with me that they are really good until the plane lands. Then that’s it, their contracts are up. Anything extra is double overtime. By the time we pulled into our gate 75 minutes later, we were DONE – my 3-year-old was a regular caged bobcat.

2) Schlepping aboard 3 backpacks (with my computer in mine), 1 bag of 2 Leapsters, my purse, 2 booster seats, and a roll-on luggage is not advisable for a momma traveling alone with 2 boys. Good thing my 5-year-old helps me with half of it. Poor kid.

3) We ran for the “green” Rental Car bus to retrieve our car at their Long Term Parking. But when the Enterprise driver pulled into the Enterprise lot, I realized I had parked at National. *&!# As I sat there astounded with myself, the driver offered to take us over to National and only 10 minutes was wasted, so no biggie.  Hugs and kisses (and $20) to the Enterprise driver!

4) Remember that driving sleet/hail rainstorm I mentioned earlier? We had left our coats in the car so we didn’t have additional baggage to cart to Florida, but now outside in 2 inches of rain/slush/snow, that didn’t seem like such a good idea. Our feet were sloshing around and we were soaked through. Which wouldn’t have been a big deal but…

5) I had the keys out and was fairly concerned when my sliding doors wouldn’t open. Could it mean? NO! So I slid the key into the driver keyhole, opened the door, and yes my worst fear – no sign of life! Back we trekked through the 2-inch rain, down the stairs and (lucky again!) a very nice man offering to jump the car battery who wouldn’t even take the money I had out to offer him. Oh the kindness of people!

6) I decided to immediately get the DVD going to keep the adorables entertained and quiet (!) while I got busy on #7.  However, curses to the Honda people – when the battery sputters dead, you need to input a code to revive the DVD/radio/CD/navigation system. I usually keep this sacred code in my wallet, but alas, I searched everywhere to no avail. So no DVD (or even music) babysitter for me.

So finally,

7) Before we left, I had packed a shovel in the trunk because the NYC area got a whopper of a snow storm during our trip. So in addition to a dead battery, I also had 18 inches of snow packed around and on top of the minivan to contend with. Since I wasn’t that excited about getting back into the rain, I waited in my car while the defrost did the work. I hit reverse and just decided I would run over the remaining snow behind us. It worked pretty well with my rear-wheel tires (it is after all, rear-wheel drive), but I got stuck when my front tires wouldn’t jump the snowpack. So I sat there very quietly and decided enough had gone wrong today and I was going to make this work. So signaling the Great Powers that Be to give a little girl a little help here please, I put the car in reverse again and backed out without an issue. Hallelujah!

Then we drove directly to the nearest drive-through Diet Coke provider and drank those troubles right away (well just me, not the adorables).

And yes, I do realize I might not get the sympathy I’m looking for since, after all, I did get a week in Florida out of it.

But here’s to wishing that NOT ONE of these 7 things will happen to you!!

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Category: Family Trippin'
Tags: travel disasters, Traveling with kids |