Edited to Add: Contest is now closed. The winner is : Arianne
Congrats!
You’ve made it to the 2pm EST stop on the Tessa Dare Blog Tour to celebrate her release of A Week to be Wicked which releases today! (May reviewed it here).
Tessa is doing a travelogue for this blog tour. Our entry:
From the Journal of Colin Sandhurst, Lord Payne:
M advises me, strongly—and with a blunt object—to keep my own journal, rather than poking through hers.
Notes to self.
Remind self, sternly, of Personal Moral Code. Most notably, prohibition on virgins.- Reconsider Personal Moral Code. Contemplate reframing as “guidelines.”
- Remember what the girl is called. Marianne. Melissa. Millicent. Mara…
The prize for this stop is a “Record Your Memories” travel basket with journal, photo album, pen, disposable camera.
Colin and Minerva’s trip is one disaster after another. Tell us about your most disastrous trip to enter to win! (Open to US only). A random winner will be chosen from the comments at 3pm EST.
Be sure to stop by The Book Binge at 3pm EST to continue playing!
My worst vacation was in Ocracoke island with my parents. They took us camping on the beach , which was fun , but did not realize that plastic stakes in the sand would not hold….so with the first strong wind the tent with my sisters and I IN it blew away lol
My honeymoon…got hit by a tropical storm and lost 3 days of fun in the sun
Geez…lol, I have a few horror stories…but got layed over during a snow storm in Buffalo NY one time for 12 HOURS…it was AWFUL. Then when I finally got to MI, the hotel I was staying in literally was on top of a cemetery ~ I shit you not, I had a view of head stones out my window. I had visions of Poltergeist the entire time I stayed there, don’t think I slept an entire night through. It was SO creepy! Who DOES that, builds a hotel on top of a cemetary? Ewwww factor is WAY high there!!
I think that a truly positive person can always find something good about any trip. Of course, glitches do happen. I remember some that fit that category. My husband and I took a cruise several years ago where we flew to Barcelona and boarded a cruise ship for a cruise around the Mediterranean. The ship then sailed across the Atlantic back to the U.S. Although the timeframe was November and fairly well past hurricane season, we ran into not one but two tropical storms on our return trip across the Atlantic. Although we did not get seasick, I must say that it was very difficult walking around the ship and sleeping at night due to the intense rocking of the ship. With the anniversary of the Titanic coming up, I think I’ll stay on land for awhile. :-)
on my first vacation as adult went to Hawaii with friends and spent a week with floods and hurricane winds! Not what we planned after 12 hour flight!
lol cute! Hahah – although I’m not 100% sold on Minerva braining (or **Actually** taking a heavy blunt object to Colin…) and on the 3rd- I think Colin does know Minerva’s name, and it’d be more “must think of additional M names to torment her with.”)
Of course, that’s just me. :)
I can, however, definitely see Minerva telling Colin in strong terms to keep his paws off her journal. :D
Really loved this book – can’t wait for the next one!
I was 2/3 through a semester overseas, doing a two week trip on the continent and visiting Rome with some “friends” who had decided halfway through that the didn’t particularly like me. We had spent a long day traveling, I was beyond exhausted and just wanted to find our hotel. As my fellow travelers stopped, yet again, to check out a street cart, I suddenly felt something warm and wet on my leg. The dog I had been admiring only minutes earlier had decided to mistake me for a fire hydrant. Blergh.
In hindsight, it probably wasn’t the most disastrous trip I’ve ever been on but it’s certainly the one that made me feel the worst.
My most disastrous trip was to barbados. I won’t reveal where we stayed,
but they couldn’t find our reservations first of all. After about an hour our
reservations were found. We were taken to our room only to find out that the
air conditioning wasn’t working (This was at 10:00 p.m. at night) We called the
front desk and said we needed a room change because of no air. After about
another hour we were shown to another room. (Humidity in Barbados is also
unbearable with air conditioning.) Second room had air but barely. Lastly
we got a call the day before we were to leave that said our flight home was
cancelled. (Yay for my son, he was able to get us on another flight home.)
Driving up the mountains with a baby and toddler. We got stuck in the snow and had to wait for traffic and then finally head home. Disastrous!
Mine is not so bad but we got lost and lost and lost on our way to a driving destination. We never made it and actually spend the 4 days of vacation on the road, just stopping at places trying to find our way.
We were with the kids but they remember it as being neat…
Go figure!
Hope
My best friend and I drove to Virginia Beach for the 4th of July holiday. On the way back, we made a wrong turn and ended up in West Virginia. It took us double the time expected to get home. We were exhausted.
Lost luggage for full week in Paris. Perfect excuse to shop, right? Not when you’re a curvy size 12 18-year old.
Thanks so much for hosting a stop on my blog tour!
Forgot to mention a horror story of my own. Oh, there are so many. When I lived in SE Asia, typhoons got the better of my travel plans several times.
But I think the worst was probably when I got horribly sick on my honeymoon in Maui. Let’s just say, I have motion sickness issues. Spent the entirety of a 3-hour snorkel cruise leaning over the side of the boat. Ugh.
When our kids were little we rented an RV and drove to Chincateague Virginia. It rained every day and got cold and windy so we were stuck in the RV until finally the rain stopped and the kids go to dig and the sand and start getting bit up by sand fleas.
Boy. I’m a positive person so not one trip stands out as a disaster, but within some trips there were things that at the time made things quite challenging. We were on a camping trip with the boys scouts across the southern california area to celebrate the 100 year anniversary and the wind was so bad that tent poles broke, easy-ups broke, couldn’t light the bbq, etc… Of course it will be one of those trips the boys will never forget and we always can joke about now…
most disastrous trip?
i flew overnite to Manchester uk arriving at 8 am exhausted. I waited 1/2 hr in the one & only queue for my ticket to fly on to the Highlands of Scotland only to be told they were no longer boarding for that flight. The next one was the next day…
Next I checked train. No help. Not leaving til late.
Soooo I headed to the bus kiosk. Purchased the ticket as the bus was arriving in 10 min. Only problem was, no one told me there was a connection where I would need to transfer buses enroute…
I ended up in Aberdeen at 10 pm without another bus leaving for my destination until the NEXT DAY!
I had to literally ‘layover’ in a nearby hotel for the night, then try desperately to recover my remaining journey connexion as I had actually paid for it. After being removed from the bus, the one intelligent agent led me back to the bus and firmly told the driver he would have one ‘guest’ travelling with him that day!! WHEW!
It was another all day trip, but I did actually make it !… worse for wear I’d have to say :))
Thanks for the creative giveaway opps … !
It has to be our road trip to the Grand Canyon–we lost air pressure in one of our tires WHILE we were running on a nearly empty gas tank. At 1 in the morning. With no cell phone reception. *rolls* Glad we got out of that one safe and sound!
No matter how disastrous the vacation, it’s a vacation! That means all I remember are the good parts. :)
Seriously, there will always be something that goes wrong but it’a all about the memories you choose to keep with you.
I did find having to run through the Atlanta, and then again through Houston, airport to catch both connecting flights on the way to our wedding/honeymoon in Maui has stayed with me. Not fun. But it did burn a few more calories before having to put on my wedding dress!
My most disastrous trip was going to visit friends in Vegas. I had a brief lay over in Phoenix but there was something wrong with the plan and we got stuck on the plane for over an hour. I had a window seat but a rather large man was next to me so I was squished against the window. When we finally got to take off there were severe thunder storms in Vegas and we had to land back in Phoenix for most of the day.
Coming home (US) from Europe a few years ago. The plane was cancelled. We were put up in a hotel and given vouchers for the hotel restaurant. My husband got food poisoning and was up all night running between the bed and the bathroom. The next day, we discover that our requested vegetarian meal orders didn’t get transferred to the new flight. Also, the flight was very full and I had to check my bag, meaning I had to pick out all the carry-on items I had with me that I needed on the plane. On the way home, we were stuck in the back of the plane near the restrooms. Siting not too far from us, there was a family who had some very upset children with them. At least we managed to make it home, luggage intact.
I spent a summer in Belize, once…with a number of side trips that were gorgeous, but honestly included huge roaches and snakes and all manner of bugs that I would prefer never to see again! It wasn’t disastrous, exactly, but it had it’s screaming moments!
Worst trip was with my now ex husband to the final four in Atlanta. I almost lost my job to take the time off, my team lost, and we pretty much broke up during it. But, the outcome ended up great!
Easy! How about being stuck in Belfast on a plane for 12 hours. It was too foggy to land in Shannon, so we were diverted. We were trapped in the plane until the bathrooms were a toxic waste dump, no water was left..you get the picture! They finally left us off but wouldn’t allow us to get food and our movements were limited because of the armed guards.
Did I mention I was a 23 year old stuck taking the trip with my parents?
Would lOv
Oh, my. Some of these stories are DIRE. I’m so glad you all lived to tell the tales!
Mandi, thanks so much for hosting a stop on the tour! xoxo
Most disastrous was when I was a lot younger and had flights from Austin to DFW to Omaha but instead did Austin/DFW/Houston/Denver/Omaha…. Arrived almost 12 hours late…..
When I got stuck at the airport for the whole night because of weather and flight delays.
I don’t travel much (if at all) so I will just use my story on one halloween. I wanted from Carne Asada Fries (only available in California? not sure). Anyways, it was halloween and me and my then-friends decided to walk to the nearest restaurant. Did I mention I was wearing a 3-inch+ wedge heels? Turned out someone led us through a long route, my feet were dying, and the restaurant was closed. We tried going thru KFC but the dine-in area was closed so we tried to go thru the drive thru. The person wouldn’t sell to us coz we didn’t have a car so we proceeded to get a shopping cart. They still didn’t sell to us. Jerks. Haha. Overall it was kind of a fun misadventure.
email: cruz042 at cougars.csusm.edu
My biggest vacation disaster happened when I was only 8 and I was really just along for the ride. My father had been transferred to Australia for work and had gone ahead to find a house. My mother, brother, and I followed a little more slowly with a stop in Hawaii for a few days before we jumped on the plane for the long flight out to Australia. My mother had her dates wrong and we ended up leaving Hawaii one day early. They were able to get us on a plane to Australia but we were stuck in the very last row of the plane up against the walls to the restroom so we were unable to lean our chairs back to sleep on the flight. Thankfully we had a row to ourselves so my brother slept on the floor at our feet and I slept accross the seats. My poor mom had to sleep sitting upright. And because this was in the time long, long, ago before cell phones were invented, we landed one day early but had not told our ride that we were early so we had to wait in the airport when we finally got to Australia for our ride. Mom double checks her travel dates a little more closely now.
Worst vacation had to be a road trip from Texas to Niagara Falls with my incredibly sour grandmother in the car. That is a long trip.
Camp canoe trip when I was 14 – I got the worst sunburn in my life, stung by horseflies, and then we caught the edge of a tornado (funnel visible over the shore on the opposite side of the lake). Luckily some people had a lower level on their cottage & invited us to join them.
Possibly needless to say: I have never been camping since.
Walking several hot blocks on blistered feet, turning my map this way and that, I found our B&B in old Rome. Check in at the restaurant between 4 and 8 pm. Okay.
“Hello? I have a reservation for a room?” Blank stares. Ah, no English. Should I take out my travel dictionary or mime it? … Mime wins, I’m too tired to look for the dictionary.
Ah, they see.. I want someone else.. gestures, gestures, fast shouting to someone in the back..
A nice lady with broken English comes out and takes me next door. Two security doors and a locked bedroom door later she shows me our room. Bathroom down the hall. Everything is very clean. “Do I pay now?” “No, no, later” She has to get back to work.
My daughter arrives. We eat. We take turns with the shower. “Did you have hot water?” “No, I couldn’t get it any warmer than lukewarm.” Hmm. Collapse and enter dreamland.
Knock knock knock. Knock knock knock. “Signora. Signora.” unintelligible Italian.
“What?” “Who?” “What?” Stumble stumble stumble. Open the door. I am a mole. A sleepwalking mole. Our padrona de casa stands waving a card around.. “What?” It is 2:00 in the morning. She wants me to fill out a registration card at 2:00 in the morning.
I have to get my passport, and she guides me through the entries (which are in Italian) in broken English. I can hardly focus as I sit at the little desk in the lobby. We are supposed to pay in cash. She does not take my money. We are to be here most of the week. She gives me a few little coupons for breakfast at the cafe. Which cafe we don’t know, not the one next door.
We are the worst example of savvy tourists. We are friendly. We pay in cash. We don’t get receipts. We buy hats we later regret (after we see our pictures).
We did find a grocery and ate most of our meals in our room (the cute little fridge did not go below ‘cool’, so no perishables). We had a lovely time riding the tour bus here and there, hopping off and walking about (even with blisters), even though we were talked into buying passes on the wrong tour line. We figured out that the metro was not running due to strikes except for the rush hours in the morning and evening. We walked all over the city at night because the buses were on strike. We ate lovely food and drank mixed drinks (very fruity please, I don’t usually drink alcohol) and laughed our way home to the B&B.
Our stay is up. We haven’t seen our hostess. We haven’t paid. We go into the restaurant.. “We need to pay?” “Go to this other cafe down the street (turns out this is where we were supposed to get breakfast – which is just coffe and a roll anyway). “No we haven’t seen her.” Someone takes us to her building and buzzes. No luck. Finally after neighbors are involved and phone calls made we are told, come back at noon. Ah, there she is. We pay. May I have a receipt? Ah, she looks about for something to write on. No receipt. Ah well.
A few summers ago, my family and i were going to visit so other family who lived out of state. When we got to the airport to get our tickets, they had given some of our seats away. So we had to spend hours to work it out. Then they booked some of us a 6am flight and the other a 8am flight for the next day. and the airport we were at was hours from our houses, so they gave us a hotel room.
My worst trip was a family vacation in Costa Rica. My dad rented a really tiny car that we bounced along in over pot-holled roads for hours. Now this would have been bearable if my dad hadn’t started arguing with his mother over a half-full orange juice container. They bickered over whether his driving was disturbing the precious juice while my siblings and I jounced along with fifty pounds of suitcases on our laps. So finally my dad gets so frustrated that he slams on the break. Getting the breath knocked out of you over orange juice….royally sucks.
I highly recommend A Week to be Wicked! I enjoyed it tremendously!
Definitely Miami. Got so sunburned we could hardly move and that was on the first day. Still everyday was full of things to do. Then when we got back had to immediately go back to work due to an emergency. No fun.
Hmm. A disaster trip? My family went to a park and it was fun, excerpt for the part where we got sun burnt and later were feeling a little sick. Then our car died, about 8 miles from home. Its about 12 am, maybe a little later. We start walking home, its getting chilly, then my little brother decides he has to go to the rest room and ends up peeing his pants. But after everything, a mile or two in, a nice man stops and gives us a ride home. It was a bit of a pain in the butt. I cant say that i had a trip quite like that again. :) Thanks!
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One is a tool box, the other side is the battery box.
My God, i figured you are about to chip within some decisive insght at the end there, not get forced out with ‘we allow to soak you to decide’.
This is the most informative blog on vending machines that I have ever come across I will definately like to read even more.