when things don't work out how you planned

we went to the beach this weekend. and when i say "we" i mean paris and myself and 19 other people.

one of paris's coworkers planned a beach weekend for their department and obviously i tagged along. i was really looking forward to this trip because we haven't been to the beach in a long time and i was excited to go to a new part of the country that i had never been before.

unfortunately the weekend did not go as well as i was hoping. first off, what should have been about a two hour car ride took us nearly four hours because one of paris's tires blew out and we had to ride on a spare tire. next, another car's battery died .. twice. finally we arrive to the rental and before even going inside i knew that we were in trouble. to make a very long story short, after the first night the house was no longer inhabitable and we had to either find somewhere else to go or pack up and go home. luckily, the maintenance man who tried to fix our house offered us another rental right down the street that was much bigger and much cleaner.

sometimes things don't go right when you are traveling and trusting other people to plan for you. thankfully, in the end, our second night was much better and more comfortable than our first. i think i have learned to be a little more weary when it comes to traveling with other people, especially 19 other people. most of our troubles could have been avoided this weekend if there had just been a little bit more planning and discussion before decisions were made. however, i think everyone needs to go through experiences like this so that they learn what to do next time.

do you have any traveling horror stories??