Anyone's that's ever traveled with me has learned the equation: Elaina + travel= disaster. If something can go wrong, it will. It's just a matter of discovering all the ways it can!
I will never forget the very first time I flew by myself. I was traveling from New Hampshire to Virginia Beach to be a bridesmaid in my best friend's wedding. I had been preparing for months, I wanted everything to be perfect. I was somewhat nervous flying for the first time by myself... I just prayed that everything would go smoothly. I mean, really, what could go wrong? It was a quick flight with a short layover in Washington D.C. and the weather was great.
The flight from Manchester to Reagan went pretty smoothly; I thought, "Hey, this isn't so bad after all!" I flew into D.C. around noon and the flight to Virginia Beach was supposed to take off an hour later, around 1:30 pm. As I found my gate I settled in and started to read my book. I glanced up at the boarding sign and noticed it said the plane was boarding at 8 pm.
"Well, that's strange", I thought. "I must have the wrong gate".
I went up to the attendant at the counter and asked about the flight. She stared at the board and stared back at me and then stared back at the board, "Well, that is rather odd. I hadn't even noticed that. This flight is supposed to leave in an hour". She told me it must be some mistake and they would work it out.
I went back to my seat, a little more skeptical and nervous than I had left it.
By the time our flight was supposed to depart I had still received no answer from the airline.
Sometime mid-afternoon they told us in fact they did not have an airplane for us. Apparently they were going to re-route one from Chicago and hopefully we would be on it by 9 pm.
WHAT?
Did they know that Virginia Beach is only a 2 hr drive away by rental car?
I ended up sitting there all day in the airport instead of on the beach. After all, I had paid top dollar for my plane ticket and I intended to get my airplane ride!
Somewhere roundabout 10 pm they told that the plane they got for us was having technical problems (of course) and instead they were going to stick us on a bus to Virginia. So at 1 am we boarded a bus with a very chipper old man bus driver who insisted on thanking us for 'choosing T&S bus line'.
"Hey Mr, I didn't choose any of this!", I was thinking.
Thankfully the guy sitting next to me on the bus was a nice Christian young man who was being very flirtatious with me. I thought, 'You never know, maybe this will all have a good outcome after all!!"
That is, until he asked me if I wanted to hold his baby. I turned in surprise as he handed me his child and received the death glare from his little wife across the aisle whom I hadn't noticed until that moment. Awkward.
We arrived at our terminal around 4 or 5 in the morning-- and to make a long story even longer-- the bus ride didn't end well either. They made us wait around a few more hours. To top it off they told us all they had lost all of our luggage and naturally my bridesmaid's dress was in my checked baggage. (Hey, blame it the naivety of a first-time traveler).
In the end everything turned out okay and the airline gave me a $10 meal voucher, which of course totally made up for it :)

"Most travel is best of all in the anticipation or the remembering; the reality has more to do with losing your luggage".
Regina Nadelson