Your Best Or Worst Vacation

Lee

Lee

Senior Member
Location
Chatham, Ontario
I can laugh about it now, the vacation where absolutely everything went wrong. Hubby and I were doing a 3 week tour starting in Southern Ontario and going Northern Ontario with stops along the way. We had bought a used boat and truck camper.

We went in September as we were camping and parks were less busy that time of year.

First the tire rolled off the boat trailer and bent the trailer on the 401 highway and the delay caused us to miss our ferry. Our first night camping was the nearest motel.

On the ferry I discovered I was prone to seasickness. Never was I more miserable thinking about the $$$ wasted on the boat.

We landed in a beautiful park where payment was on the honour system and it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves, this was because technically the park was closed and no washrooms open. I swear that a bear took great delight in watching me tinkle.

Hornepayne Ontario, nothing there, in fact the whole town was central around one building. No grocery store open so we feasted on chips and beer.

Thunder Bay and civilization finally, a good meal perked up our spirits, hubby went fishing and caught a norther pike which the owners used to trap a bear. Trouble was that mama bear got trapped, two baby bears were still up in the tree. I was threatened with arrest when challenging the officers who wanted to cart mama away and come back for the cubs the next day. I made the front page of the paper.

Timmins Ontario, met hubby's relatives who did not speak much English and my Finnish was non existent. Spent most of my time patting the dog.

On to another park where the chipmunks stole all our potatoes and whatever else they could carry off.....hey this camping was a new thing with a sharp learning curve.

We ventured out on the lake, hubby assured me the lake was calm and I would be ok, and I was until we hit a rock, broke the propeller and came to a standstill.

Sat like that for hours until finally someone came along and towed us in.

And that was the final straw, our three week vacation lasted 10 days, we headed home.
 

awwww.. I didn't want to laugh but I suppose it's funny in retrospect for you..but it definitely sounds like the holiday from hell... :ROFLMAO:..I had to laugh at you standing up for the Mama Bear...goood for you...*yeah*.... but what chaos it must have caused to have got reported the papers.. Go Lee!!

I have had a few rubbish holidays..and a few great ones, but nothing worth making a story out of ...but yours was fascinating..thanks for sharing...(y):giggle:
 
Lee said:
I can laugh about it now, the vacation where absolutely everything went wrong. Hubby and I were doing a 3 week tour starting in Southern Ontario and going Northern Ontario with stops along the way. We had bought a used boat and truck camper.

We went in September as we were camping and parks were less busy that time of year.

First the tire rolled off the boat trailer and bent the trailer on the 401 highway and the delay caused us to miss our ferry. Our first night camping was the nearest motel.

On the ferry I discovered I was prone to seasickness. Never was I more miserable thinking about the $$$ wasted on the boat.

We landed in a beautiful park where payment was on the honour system and it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves, this was because technically the park was closed and no washrooms open. I swear that a bear took great delight in watching me tinkle.

Hornepayne Ontario, nothing there, in fact the whole town was central around one building. No grocery store open so we feasted on chips and beer.

Thunder Bay and civilization finally, a good meal perked up our spirits, hubby went fishing and caught a norther pike which the owners used to trap a bear. Trouble was that mama bear got trapped, two baby bears were still up in the tree. I was threatened with arrest when challenging the officers who wanted to cart mama away and come back for the cubs the next day. I made the front page of the paper.

Timmins Ontario, met hubby's relatives who did not speak much English and my Finnish was non existent. Spent most of my time patting the dog.

On to another park where the chipmunks stole all our potatoes and whatever else they could carry off.....hey this camping was a new thing with a sharp learning curve.

We ventured out on the lake, hubby assured me the lake was calm and I would be ok, and I was until we hit a rock, broke the propeller and came to a standstill.

Sat like that for hours until finally someone came along and towed us in.

And that was the final straw, our three week vacation lasted 10 days, we headed home.
Click to expand...
A movie is in the works, or should be!
 

We have had many travel experiences over the years... Tons of camping trips of many sorts...
7 Days at a music festival in a tent with a 5 and 8 year old... Non stop rain from arriving to the last day...
Everything was wet and muddy, but still had a blast....

Most stressful has to be a trip to VT many years ago... Picture this if you will....
Us leaving from WNC driving to Vermont to visit the MIL and family... had always driven straight 14 hours through.
This is our 1st trip since the 2nd child... about 6 months old, big brothers 3....
So in a brilliant flash of wisdom WE decide that this is an opportunity to quit smoking
We get up in the morning... Share the last cigarette we have and hit the road....
Arguing before we get out of NC... Talking divorce mid VA... Contemplating Murder in Southern PA...
Stopped and got a room in Hazelton PA.... went out to eat and got the WORST pizza in history....
We kissed and made up somewhat and struggled on the next day....
Get to the MIL... and get talked into re shingling her house with the foster kids that lived there...
And before you ask.....
No one was killed during the trip...
We stayed quit for a couple years.... DW picked them back up, and I did again for a few years....

Best... the next one..LOL
 
our worst was in kafalonia Greece -end of sept- stayed in a farm house apt - was booked for 2weeks '
every night we froze no extra blankets we put towels on the bed to keep warm ' then after 4 days of mild sunny days
the weather came in with vengance - it never stopped raining and the temp dropped -we was going into taverna style café to keep warm through the day ' brought a hot water bottle -then tried to get booked on a plane back home .. we had to wait another 2 days

the old farmer and his wife owned the apt and lived on the farm' I asked if we could sleep in their living room by the fire' and payed extra never again ......…...…..(n):cry:
 
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My worst holiday was many years ago in Madeira, weather was not great, the locals the rudest people I’ve ever met and the small quiet hotel, recommended by a friend, turned out to be a ‘Knocking Shop’, :oops: we didn’t find out until the end of out stay but we did wonder why we were the only guests in the dining room for breakfast and why the sheets were changed every day ......:ROFLMAO:
 
The most memorial vacation we ever took and the only two week vacation ever taken, we drove from Lubbock, Texas one July morn to Oklahoma City to my wife's family reunion. We were driving a pop-top Volkswageon camper. A good time in OKC and after a big breakfast together at the Holliday Inn where we all stayed, we drove to Tulsa and then on over to the Ozarks where we camped Sunday night in the hills
above Eureka Springs, Arkanas. That was back in the day when hippies was a prominate word and hippies were much in the news.

Monday morning I crawled out of the camper and put on my coffee pot over a fire I made at the campsite. Nearby in another campsite were two motorcycles pulling camping trailers set up. I hjad heard them come in and set up their tents in the night and I wondered who these campers might be. I had seen many hippies in owns and on the road hitchhikling and had given some rides as I traveled around my sales territory. I wondered if these might be hippies.

An elderly gentleman was the first to crawl out of his tent. We waved to each other and he started a fire. I invited him over for a cup of coffee while his fire heated up. He and a friend and their wives, recently retired from a manufacturing plant in Eugene, Oregan had traded in one of their vehicles for new Harleys and they were in route to Disney World in Florida. They all came over for coffee and I fixed breakfst for all of us. We had a good visit and each went on their way. It was a coincidense in a way because I had done business for years with their company as a purchasing agent for Gifford Hill and Co. They made sprinklers and fittings equipment for the Irrigation Industry.

We spent a day in the Ozarks checking out this, that, and the other and not knowing really where we wanted to go so we headed up toward Kansas City, Missouri. We meandered around taking the back roads where possible, spending a night in KC, then driving on up to Portage, Wisconsin I had a brother living, and where we stayed a couple of nights. We had no destination, travelled by the seat of our pants and meandered back home. It was a fun trip and made more so by the people we met at small camp sites along the way. We stopped and shopped at Amish stores, second hand shops, large and small, and visited out of the way locations, where one or the other of us expressed an interest. Our two kids had spent two week on the farm with their grandparents. We stopped by Davidson, Oklahoma and picked them up, then headed back upon the flat country around Lubbock, Texas, both saying it was the best vacation ever.
 
Our trip from hell started with a wedding invitation. Dave knew the groom through his work. Just FYI, both bride and groom were in their 40’s or better. The wedding was in St. Louis, a thirteen hour drive from our house. So we planned to spend the night in Joplin, Missouri. And it’s a good thing, too, because when we stopped for gasoline a more than an hour into the trip, Dave discovered he had forgotten his wallet. I said we should just go on, but he would have fretted the entire time, so we turned around to get his wallet. I should have known it was a bad sign. So that put an extra two and a half hours on an already long drive.

The next morning we set out from Joplin, planning to stop at a winery before getting to St. Louis. We lived in SL years and years ago, and we used to visit this winery and enjoyed it, so it was supposed to be a trip down memory lane. Well, it turned out to be a trip down some terrible gravel roads. There had recently be flooding that had washed out some parts of our route. We finally made it to the winery, but not before chipping our windshield. Well, I thought, no biggie, we can get it fixed easily when we get home. As it happens, the next day, the day of the wedding, the weather turned very cold and very wet. The chip had turned into a two foot long crack! Oh, hell.

Getting dressed, I realized that a button on my brand new wedding duds had fallen off and was nowhere to be found. I looked everywhere. It was a very large, decorative, but functional and necessary button. So we had to stop at a fabric store before heading to the wedding. I sewed it back on my jacket in the car.

So we go off to the wedding, which was supposed to be held in Forest Park in a gazebo. It was pouring rain. And cold. Really, really cold. I figured, at least in a gazebo, we’ll be out of the rain. Wrong. Gazebo was small, and intended only to fit the wedding party. The seats were out in the rain. The pouring rain. So we get there before noon (the intended time for the nuptials.) The guests are all huddled under umbrellas. There is no one to greet us. We’re not even sure we’re in the right spot. Someone from the bride’s party arrives, and yes, we’re in the right spot. And where are the bride and groom? They are late. Thirty minutes late. They left us all standing in the rain, when they lived only a few minutes away. No one to wipe the benches off, no one with extra umbrellas, nada.



Finally the wedding party arrives. They are dressed like they just attended a Renaissance Festival, which I found out later was indeed where they all got their garb. The groom is wearing a kilt. Not a real kilt, which would have been cool. No, he is wearing a sad polyester imitation of a kilt, with none of the appropriate accessories. The bride is dressed like a serving wench in a bad medieval movie. They are led to the altar by a bare-chested dude wearing hairy pants and a horned Viking helmet, and beating a large drum.

The officiant was a Wiccan priestess. She invoked a lot of spirits, and also wolves, which I’m pretty sure haven’t been seen in St. Louis for a long time. Not exactly clear how wolves had anything to do with marriage. It was certainly a different ceremony, which I might have enjoyed more if it hadn’t been pouring and freaking cold.

After the ceremony, we were invited to a different, larger gazebo for the reception. Their house was close by, and as there were only about 20 people there, we could have adjourned to the house. But no. And there’s no food. We were assured it was on the way. Neither was there any hot coffee. Or hot anything. What there was, was a can of mixed nuts, which we passed around. We were all starving. They did provide bottles of water, which had been thoughtfully kept on ice.

I had to excuse myself once to go sit in the car, just to warm up. Eventually the food came. It was also cold. Cold, congealed pulled pork that tasted like sadness and despair. And never once, not once, did the bride or the groom come over to us to thank us, or anyone, for coming. Eventually, we left. I went back to the hotel, made a cup of hot tea, and crawled into the bed. I napped, curled up in a ball, until dinner time.

On the positive side, we had a nice dinner on The Hill that night. (The Hill is the Italian section of St. Louis.) And we made it back home safely. Now, I never leave the house on a long trip without asking Dave to show me his wallet. You just can’t be too careful.
 
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Best vacation was going across country by car to see our daughter who lived in Oregon at the time. We had plenty of leeway time wise so enjoyed many national parks, Teddy Roosevelt was one of the best for wild life and of course I'll never forget the Redwoods.
We also Casino hoped when possible. Stopped in and got the free slot play. Fed the slots until it was gone or we won a little and then we were on our way.
Worst was camping with our kids. We bought a tent that was suppose to sleep 4,Probably did if you were a midget. When one turned we all had to turn. I got up during the night because I heard a noise and found raccoons feasting on our breakfast for the morning. They managed to open a heavy metal cooler with a latch That gave me trouble.
No more camping after that.
 
One “memorable” incident when we traveled (with 5 kids in tow, ages 10 Years to 6 months) from GA to Virginia for my mom and dad’s 50th wedding anniversary.... I had packed a picnic hamper. As it got close to lunch time, started watching for road-side parks or picnic areas. Nada. At the same time, the ‘lovely’ smell of a pulp mill was getting stronger and stronger. Murphy’s law being fully in force, the only picnic area for miles was right next to the mill. Talk about an appetite killer!
 
We bought a folding camp trailer. The upper part was canvas. We drove from St Petersburg to the Seattle area starting out on Sept 1st.
The tough part was in Yellowstone where it went down to 21F. My wife wanted to go cuddle with the buffalo that was sleeping across the way in the campground. The heater would not work in the trailer. We left early the next day.
 
Lee said:
I can laugh about it now, the vacation where absolutely everything went wrong. Hubby and I were doing a 3 week tour starting in Southern Ontario and going Northern Ontario with stops along the way. We had bought a used boat and truck camper.

We went in September as we were camping and parks were less busy that time of year.

First the tire rolled off the boat trailer and bent the trailer on the 401 highway and the delay caused us to miss our ferry. Our first night camping was the nearest motel.

On the ferry I discovered I was prone to seasickness. Never was I more miserable thinking about the $$$ wasted on the boat.

We landed in a beautiful park where payment was on the honour system and it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves, this was because technically the park was closed and no washrooms open. I swear that a bear took great delight in watching me tinkle.

Hornepayne Ontario, nothing there, in fact the whole town was central around one building. No grocery store open so we feasted on chips and beer.

Thunder Bay and civilization finally, a good meal perked up our spirits, hubby went fishing and caught a norther pike which the owners used to trap a bear. Trouble was that mama bear got trapped, two baby bears were still up in the tree. I was threatened with arrest when challenging the officers who wanted to cart mama away and come back for the cubs the next day. I made the front page of the paper.

Timmins Ontario, met hubby's relatives who did not speak much English and my Finnish was non existent. Spent most of my time patting the dog.

On to another park where the chipmunks stole all our potatoes and whatever else they could carry off.....hey this camping was a new thing with a sharp learning curve.

We ventured out on the lake, hubby assured me the lake was calm and I would be ok, and I was until we hit a rock, broke the propeller and came to a standstill.

Sat like that for hours until finally someone came along and towed us in.

And that was the final straw, our three week vacation lasted 10 days, we headed home.
Click to expand...
I’ve had a few miserable camping vacations but nothing compared to yours, I’m glad it’s over for you, but I’ve never laughed so hard, thanks!🤣🤣
 
Worst vacation ever...Country Stampede up by Manhattan Kansas. 100+ degrees every day, no a/c in the camper, 60,000 other campers, someone got stabbed, then a tornado headed our way, so we went to Milford Lake where a man was suspected of being murdered and tossed off his houseboat. It was horrible.
~*~
Best vacation ever: Went to New York to visit a pen friend I'd been friends with for 20 yrs. Stayed a week with him and we ran all over NY. It was amazing. Got to fly home with the same pilot that safely landed that plane in NY (Capt. Sully).
 
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