The Story of the Bad Start to the Symphony Tour

Some of you have asked about this so here is the story of my pre-trip disaster. Mind you,  I still can’t laugh about it unless I have had a drink or two. 

First, you must understand that when I travel, I am extremely organized and plan far in advance and start packing early.  You are all aware I am sure of the travel advice about, “pack everything that is essential to you in a carry-on, so if your luggage is lost you will have it.”  I always spend a lot of time thoughtfully packing my camera bag and carry-on with essentials.

On the day of our departure, the car was coming to pick us up at 2:45 pm.  I was all packed and ready to go by 1:00.  Somehow, when I went into the garage, I dropped my phone on the cement floor and the glass cracked. I have never ever done this before.  I knew I had time, so I jumped in the car for the 10 minute ride to the mall where there is a repair service. 

As I was riding along the interstate highway to go the distance of about a mile, I heard this terrible noise as if something were dragging.  I pulled over to the side, and sure enough the whole under piece of my front bumper was dragging, probably some damage from the recent snowstorm.   I was able to pull it up and resume my ride, but it happened two more times.  I then realized that I had to drive slowly, because the air flow was causing it to come down.  I got to the mall, got my phone fixed ($$$!), and then drove home quite slowly over the back roads.  Do you know how hard it is to go slowly when you are in a hurry?  

I got home finally with a little time to spare and we started to put all the bags at the garage door while we waited for the Uber car.  The car was delayed by traffic and so came about 10-15 minutes late.  We were feeling quite tense at this point.  When the car arrived, the driver had all kinds of junk in their trunk so we had to do some major reshuffling which took another 10 minutes.  We  had to make room for three large bags (one with medical supplies) and 2 carry-on’s, 1 camera bag and ourselves.  I threw my camera bag into the back seat and went to the back of the car to help the driver reshuffle things.  My husband was putting things into the back seat including one of the big bags, while I helped the driver put things into the trunk.  When we got to the airport, I discovered that my black carry-on wasn’t with us. It was still in the garage. This was the bag that had all my medications, toiletries, 2 pairs of shoes (in an effort to make the checked bag lighter), all the power cords, plug adapters, chargers for laptop, phone & cameras, all my hair products and clips etc. (the women will understand this).  There was no time to go home to retrieve it and here I was about to embark on a trip with 100+ strangers for 3 weeks!  I had to pull myself together and suck it up and not throw a hissy fit or burst into tears.  

After checking in, we were able to stop at some of the airport electronic shops and get chargers and cords for the MacBook and iPhones ($$$!).  In the Frankfurt airport, we picked up a universal camera battery charger ($$$!).  In Madrid, I picked up a couple of pairs of shoes and some toiletries.  The local pharmacy was quite obliging about providing me with some Thyroid medication (I had my thyroid gland removed about 7-8 years ago so this is an essential medication for me).  I text messaged my good friend and fellow blipper WRPerry to tell her what had happened.  Unsolicited, she offered to go over to the house and get the rest of my medications and FedEx them to me in Vienna ($$$!).  Austrian customs didn’t make it easy either ($$$!) but ultimately my package was waiting in our room at the Intercontinental when we arrived. 

Just before we boarded the plane in DC, realizing that I was a basket case, Husband reached into his carryon-medical bag and offered me 1/2 of a Xanax tablet. I never take this kind of medication but it was most welcome and along with a glass of wine, I was able to settle down a bit once we were airborne.  It took me several days to really pull myself together and ultimately I had a wonderful and memorable adventure.  Of course, my hair never looked good during the entire time.

So that’s the story.  Nothing but first world problems for sure but it turned out to be quite a costly mistake.…. it’s still not funny and we will continue to debate as to who is to blame….. :-)