An Exercise in Patience

 

As in regular life, when travelling this can go wrong - and at times - drastically wrong. 

Recently, we had a travel day that challenged us - physically, mentally, and required us to dig deep to find extra patience.

It was in January.  We were taking some back-to-back cruises - one of which left us with a day between the end of one cruise and the start of another.  As we were in Miami we thought we would rent a car and use that time to explore the upper Keys and the Everglades. 

All went well until the next morning when it was time to drop off our rental car and head back to the port. What we didn’t know was there was a marathon that was happening in that area of Miami and was ending in a park right by the bridge leading over to the cruise ports.

Challenge One

Our first challenge came when we were trying to make our way back to the car rental centre. Many streets were closed for the marathon - and closures were happening in a very fluid manner. Streets were opening and closing as the marathon progressed.  Waze would send us one way, only to find out that a street had just been closed, then rerouting us, only to find out that street had been closed as well.

After about 45 very frustrating minutes (when it should have only taken 5), we pulled into the car rental  centre to find line-ups out the door of  other frustrated people either trying to return or pick-up.

Challenge Two

Once we were able to complete our return, about an hour later, we tried to find transport to the cruise port - either by Uber or taxi.  The car-rental agent let us know that it would take about three hours for a taxi to arrive to pick us up.

With no other alternatives we had to walk - with all our luggage - through the crowds, to try and make it to a spot where a taxi could reach us.

After walking more than a kilometer, and passing the park where the marathon ended, we reached a spot where we were accessible.

Challenge Three

Once in that spot, we discovered that no one was coming for us - no Ubers, no taxis.  Now the problem was that there was such a back-log of people waiting for transportation.  On top of that, the bridge going over to the world’s busiest cruise port - where, on that day, tens of thousands of passengers were either trying to leave the port or trying to get to the port - was clogged with traffic going no where.

Challenge Four

We knew that trying to walk across the bridge with all our luggage was going to be a challenge so we opted to try and get on the free shuttle that went from where we were to the cruise port.

We made our way to the shuttle stop to find many people trying to do the same thing.  While we were waiting  we continued to try and order a taxi or an Uber - to no avail.

Time was starting to become an issue and we were starting to get nervous. 

After waiting there for about 45 minutes, We began to think our only option was to walk over the bridge and down to the cruise terminal.

Challenge Five

While we were debating, an Uber pulled up for a young man that was also trying to get to his cruise - and it was a big vehicle.

John asked the young man if he would mind sharing the Uber and we would pay the fare.  He was happy with that so the three of us loaded all our luggage, jumped into the wonderful, air conditioned SUV, and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Challenge Six

Oh, it doesn’t end here! Now we had the horrendous traffic on the bridge to deal with.  It creeped along.  We definitely could have walked faster.  By now we were really worried about getting to the cruise port on time.

After another 45 minutes, and dropping our young friend off at his terminal, we finally made it to ours. We had about 30 minutes to spare.

Challenge Seven

When you drop your luggage outside the cruise terminal, they always remind you to make sure you have all your documents with you.  We politely said thank you (we’re Canadian after all - and we’ve done this many times before.). We made our way inside to check in.  No documents.  John thought he had given them to me.  He hadn’t and they were still in his luggage.  

Now, we had to run our own marathon, praying the whole time that our luggage hadn’t been taken away.

Fortunately it was still on a cart outside.  Great.  Documents in hand , and sweat dripping from our foreheads we went back in to check in.

Challenge Eight

Somewhere between leaving the luggage area, helping two older ladies with their many bags, and the security checkpoint I lost my phone.

Time to run another marathon back outside to see if our luggage was still there.  It was not.  The kind luggage handler, who now has seen us for the third time, assured me I did not place it down on the cart, nor had he seen it anywhere else.

After checking everywhere else, we discovered it in one of our bags. Whew! After a very brief discussion over how it even got into the bag, we made our final dash to the ship.

As we boarded, we looked around and realized there was no one coming behind us.

I’m sure we were the last ones to board. 

We made it! Nothing else mattered.

 

The whole day was an exercise in patience.  It was a big reminder that in travel a lot can go wrong.  As much as you plan, you have to be able to pivot at a moment’s notice. I’m sure this won’t be our last travel mishap and in the future we will be sure to bring along extra patience.

What about you? Have you had any travel days that pushed you to the limit? I’d love to hear about it.