by Anne Have you ever had a nightmarish road trip? This story will be focused on the more negative events that occurred long ago during our road trip, but are ingrained into my head. My best friend, brother, and I decided we'd drive from Southern California all the way to Seattle, Washington and then head up to Vancouver, Canada. We planned well enough in advance so I thought we'd be fine.
The Nightmare begins...
The Car Gets Towed:When we got to Seattle after 18 hours of driving, we were exhausted. My friend wanted to park near our hostel (Yes, there are hostels in the States. I get that question all the time), but I told my friend I didn't think it was safe to park there so he found a parking garage. Little did I know, to be nice he re-parked the car in the morning to a spot closer to the hostel so we wouldn't have to walk so far. But when we left the hostel, we realized the car had been towed!
Locating the Car:After a bunch of phone calls to his parents for the license number of the car and the help of the friendly hostel staff, we were able to find out where the car was and hopped on a taxi to retrieve it. We didn't let the incident ruin our trip and spent the rest of our time in Seattle exploring.
The Car Gets Broken Into:From Seattle, it was about a 2 hour drive to Vancouver, but we didn't actually get to cross the border for 4 hours because of the line going in. Despite that, we loved Vancouver. Our road trip seemed like it was going smoothly from there, but on our last day someone had broken our window (our car was in a garage) and stole all of our belongings! I mean, everything was gone, everything! My friend filed a police report, the garage attendants taped plastic over our non-window, and we tried to enjoy the rest of our last day in Vancouver.
Horrible Drive Home:On the drive home (roughly 20 hours), we didn't have a radio. To top it off, all we could hear was the flapping of the weakening plastic that was keeping the wind from coming full blast inside the car. After a while, it completely ripped off and we were exposed to the cold winds driving back home in the middle of the night. It was freezing so I stopped the car and put on every piece of clothing I had.
Mother Nature's Sense of Humor:I didn't think anything worse could happen until it started hailing somewhere in Oregon! I seriously wanted to cry, but I held it in. I let my friend take over the wheel and took a nap in the back. I woke up sweating because we'd reached the sweltering heat of day in California. We couldn't use the air conditioning because we had no window to keep the cool air inside. It was the most uncomfortable ride ever.
Home Safe and A-Okay!We made it home safely and that's all that matter. When people say things like "You can look back at this and laugh about it," I totally believe it now because we do. Our road trip still ended up being memorable, but these negative events only added to a better story. I'm glad we made the most of our trip because with those challenges we still managed to see all we wanted to see.
Have you had a trip where you kept running into difficulties? How did you deal?
by 
Comments (53)
Well that sounds like one miserable trip. I have never had any road trips go anywhere near that badly. I'm glad that you can look back on it and laugh.
Oh, okay...great...you're home now
.
I have not been on a road-trip for that long, so I can't say that I've gone through anything as hectic as your venture. But, you know, with these things that happen, there are good lessons to be had :).
Mine wasn't that bad, but I went on a trip to D.C. and we badly underestimated the amount of time it would take to get out there, which meant a couple of sleepless driving nights. Then when we got there, we stayed at a campground, and all people wanted to do at night was talk and laugh LOUDLY until dawn!! But otherwise, it was awesome.
I'm still waiting! I'm planning on doing the trip from the okanangan all the way to california my graduating year, so the total opposite. :) funny story though!
It wasn't really a road trip as it was a short vacation. My friend and I went to Canada, and on the way back across the border, we were really frustrated with the traffic, because it was stop and go all the way from Toronto. When we got close to the border, we stopped to get something to eat, and my friend ended up locking her keys in her car. I was freaking out, because I had to be at work at 6am the next morning. We ended up having to wait 2 1/2 hours for CAA (Canada's equivalent of AAA) to come and unlock her car. It was a nightmarish trip back, but we made it back okay.
This isn't nearly as horrific as yours though, but at least you made it home okay! =)
nice to meet you! who are you?
Nice photo ....
Actually who are u?
Thank you for subscribing to me. :] Wow, sorry to hear that your road trip was bad...but I'm sure somethings were worth it. =) I always wanted to go to Seattle. =D
Awww, bummer. XD At least it's funny in retrospect.
haha my bf recently took me on a road trip last fall. twenty minutes in he gets the first flat tire of his life. the tire fixer he has in his trunk doesn't work so we roll on the donut and go to the nearest garage. they tell us we have to replace all four wheels cos they're all pretty old. so we reach our destination really late, at like 3 or something. the next day i wanted to go to a concert held by my favorite artist but we somehow ended up being late and missed it completely =/
Thank gawd I havent but after watching a few gory movies on road trips, and from the picture here .. I don't think I'm up for it. Maybe a short one is fine, but 18 hours of driving is no joke manz! I'm glad you guys got home safe and sound. I once got stuck in Japan for over 13 hours on the road with no food and water due to a snow storm and it was horrible but nothing compared to your case! =)
i like this photo =)!!
lol qood bloq i love roadtrips but ur sounds krazy' hahaha would be fun to been there haha
NICE...but who're you-3-?
Hi~ Sorry but do I know you?
Just wondering why you subscribed to me. Please let me know.
who are u ?and where are u come from?
hello.....
how are you.....
welcome to see my home.....^^
eventually you are safe to home ~
that's great ~~
nice to have your subscription, however, did i know you before?
May I know who are you?
How didyou find me?
Why did you subscrip me??
ahahah oh gosh that sounds horrible..
well my family and i took a road trip from
toronto ontario to daytona beach florida..
as soon as we got into tennessee our air
conditioning broke! [this was during the summer]
so by the time we got to georgia we were pretty
much dying of heat stroke.. we couldn't stop
and get it fixed though because we had hotel
reservations, so we had to wait until we got there.
about a 21 hour drive or so.. haha.
not as bad as yours though!