Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Cruising Without My Luggage by Vonnie Davis

Vonnie Davis
Fourteen years ago, a friend and I went on a seven-day Caribbean cruise together. Theresa was partially handicapped and used either a walker or two canes. Neither one of us had ever cruised before and since we were both single, we'd sacrificed and pinched a lot of pennies to pay the fares for our flights and cruise.
My baby boy

My youngest son drove us to BWI and hefted our luggage into the airport. "Mom, promise me you'll be careful. You can't be friendly to everyone you meet. You've got to be more aware of your surroundings." Now, who gave this kid parental rights over me? But to keep him from getting all spastic, I patted his check and assured him I would.

Neither Mike nor I ever mentioned the safety of my luggage. Somewhere between BWI and Ft. Lauderdale, my luggage took a detour. No, it didn't fall overboard, it just disappeared. Yes, I had a carry on, but having never traveled like this before, dummy here, packed it with pajamas, jewelry, make-up and a camera....oh, and two pair of high heels for formal nights on the ship.

Theresa's luggage was delivered to our room, but not mine. I waited and waited. Finally, I went to the concierge desk and asked. By then, we had sailed. She gave me a new suitcase and a stipend to buy some clothes in the ship's store. Too bad the ship's store only believed in women in small sizes. There wasn't one item of clothing that would fit me.

On one of our trips ashore, I bought t-shirts and some shorts. Meanwhile, I was hand washing my one pair of undies in the sink every night. Formal nights came and went without me. I was not allowed in without proper attire.

So, to add insult to injury, on the flight home, my new luggage got lost too. Yup, you're listening to the only woman who has lost her luggage coming and going on a cruise. My original suitcase went to Costa Rica, where it probably had more fun than I did. It took three weeks to reach me and it wasn't talking about what kind of partying it had done. The new suitcase went to Texas, realized it couldn't ride a horse and got to me two days after I got home.

Thank goodness Paisley and her pink-haired grandmother didn't lose their luggage on the way to a relative's funeral in Scotland. Gram got them in enough trouble as it was...
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8 comments:

Leah St. James said...

Oh, Vonnie, what awful luck! Were you able to have any fun?

Margo Hoornstra said...

Too much bad luck, Vonnie. So glad your fortunes have since turned around. Best of luck in your future!

Jannine Gallant said...

If you wrote that into a book, an editor would take a red pen to it and tell you it wasn't believable! Wow, a major lesson in carry-on only. Think of it this way--you've used up all your bad travel Karma.

Vonnie Davis ~ Romance Author said...

Leah, it made for interesting dinner conversation as to why I was wearing the same thing...again. And when I toured the Mayan ruins, I felt just as ruined.

Vonnie Davis ~ Romance Author said...

Thanks, Margo. It was an unbelievable trip and I got "mashed" by a Jamaican man who wanted an American for a wife. He had his arms around me before I knew what was happening. I mean at 54, you just don't expect such behavior!

Vonnie Davis ~ Romance Author said...

Jannine, I hate to tell you the next summer Theresa and I drove to the shore in her handicapped adapted car. Coming home, I drove the first half and a woman ran a stop sign and hit us. We spun 4 times before going down into a ditch. The knob on Theresa's steering wheel did a number on my breast. It was black and blue for months and I also had 2 broken ribs. One of the first respondents worked for the same county as my son and called him. I wasn't in the ER very long before I heard Mike bellow, "I want to see my mom and I want to see her now!" Big, bad alpha man rushed into the cubical, took one look at me and laid his head over my stomach and cried. "Don't you ever scare me like this again...and no more vacations with Theresa. You two are bad luck together."

Anonymous said...

I have managed to leave all my hanging clothes behind...TWICE! Luckily one of the kids was home and brought me my clothes for the RT Convention. The other time was for the beach, and I purchased t-shirts. Now I follow my packing list.

Barbara Edwards said...

I love to travel and try not to bring much luggage since i heard all the horror stories. I put big, colorful pompoms on the handle and a memo with my contact info inside. I didn't actually lose my luggage but it did end up in the lost office and had to be delivered to my home two days later.