Thursday, November 21, 2013

Oh Texas...

Texas. One state I always wanted to go to, and once I finally got there, I hated it. Maybe it was just the city I went to.  I got an extremely bad first impression. Let me start from the beginning. 

My husband recently got deployed, and I went to visit him for a few days before he left. I had to fly from North Carolina to Texas. Alone. I left my kids with my mom and his mom. Mind you, this was my first time flying and I was terrified.  I had everything planned, or so I thought. I had my rental car booked, hotel booked, flights booked and money to spend. My mother in law dropped me off at the airport about 7a.m. Sunday morning. I got all checked in, walked around for a minute. Yes, I took some nausea medicine and some pepto tablets. Ha ha. I was taking all precautions. So, i'm sitting there and it's 8:05, the time we're suppose to be boarding. One of the staff members comes across the intercom and says that our flight has been delayed due to mechanical issues! MECHANICAL ISSUES!! That's not something a first time flyer wants to here. Well, while they are working on the issues, the staff member was working on rebooking our flights and connections that we were going to miss. He called me up 3rd and gave me my new tickets. He had me on the next flight out of that airport, by now was about ten minutes away. We had already been sitting for 2 hours. My layover at the next airport went from being 1 hour, to 8. Yes I said it, 8 hours!! Although, i'll be honest that didn't bother me much because I was terrified of the airport, it's huge. So, now I had PLENTY of time to explore, find my gate and eat some lunch. My first flight was awesome. Take off was my favorite part. It was a smaller plane, an express jet, so it was kind of cramped, but it was only a 40 minute flight. 
I had finally made it to the next airport, just in time to see the plane I was suppose to be on take off. Lovely, right? Well, I decided to play it smart. I went to a customer service desk and asked where my next gate was and how to get there. Once I found my gate, I explored around the area, found somewhere to eat some lunch, and sat down at my gate..with 7 hours to spare. So, what did I do? Pulled out my handy-dandy book and started reading. I got up for the occasional bathroom run, moved a coupe times to use the outlets for my phone, and I even snuck in a nap or two. FINALLY, 7p.m. rolls around and we're getting on the plane. It was obviously dark outside, so the city lit up like Christmas. Gorgeous. By the time I landed at my final destination, it was 8:33p.m. there, but back home it was 10:33p.pm.  That time change kicked my butt!
I got my reservation papers out of my bag and headed for the car rental place. This is where my real issues started. I got signed in and all my paperwork done and the keys..to a dodge AVENGER!! I was supposed to get a chevy Aveo....total opposite sides of the spectrum here. I didnt think anything of it. Once she added in all the fees and insurance, it came to be $549 for the week. It was suppose to be $220. Bur it with the way she described it, it would take the money out that Friday when I brought it back, and Friday was pay day so I didnt think twice about it. So I got the keys and went to baggage claim. I finally called my husband to let him know I was walking to the car. He wanted me to come see him on base before I checked into my motel. I finally made it to the base and his barracks after driving around for 15 minutes. By now he only had a few minutes to sit and talk to me. I told him about the extra fees and yada yada, he was okay with it too, since the lady said it would come out on Friday.  I went ahead and checked our bank balance, just to make sure.......DUN DUN DUN, they had already took the money out and DRAINED out bank account. I didn't have the money for my hotel room or anything. So, I took the car back to the airport and raised some cain. I gave the car back and they refunded me...$400 out of the $549, and said i should get it the next morning. They charged me over $100 to drive that car for less than an hour. Ridiculous right?? Well, I called my mother in law, I was in tears. She had to call and pay over the phone for one night at my motel so I could check in that night. The motel sent a cab for me and I finally got settled in about midnight. I didn't even change into my PJ's, i turned off all the lights, plugged up my phone and I was out. I didn't move all night long. I got a text from hubby about 7:30 saying one of his buddies was dropping him off and he was on his way. So i hustled to get up and dressed before he got there.
I'm going to skip the intimates. :) it had been 3 months since we had seen each other because he was in Texas training, so you know how that goes :)  Well we finally got the money squared away and the $400 put back in the account. I made reservations at a different motel because the one I stayed at that night creeped me out. I ended up making reservations at the wrong one and had to tell a fib to get my money back for that. I finally got us reservations at the Motel 6 for the week at a decent price. Later that week we went to hang out with some other military couples for bowling and drinks and dinner beforehand. We went to pay and our card was declined. Embarrassing. Anyways, I called the card and the car rental place had waited two days to take out the $100+ for my 1 hour.I was livid. Thank the Good Lord that we had enough cash. So, on top of the $200 my mother in law wired to our account, she added another $50 to get us to payday. Embarrassing. I don't like to borrow money, but I kind of had to. 
Well, everything else that week went okay. The goodbyes were hard, but we have talked since he has been overseas and he is doing good, and i'm keeping occupied with the kids. Time should pass fast :)

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