When you decide to take a road trip, I can almost guarantee you will daydream about all the great sites you will see and what you will do. Nobody wants to daydream about a road trip gone wrong. That ruins the fun of a vacation, doesn’t it? Of course it does. But there is a chance that something can go wrong, whether it be lost luggage or a broken bone from trying to ski down the highest mountain at the resort. Then what? Do you just sulk and head home or do you handle it and continue on to finish your vacation?

My three-week cross-country road trip to WrestleMania 39 was incredible. I realized after the fact that it was the happiest I have been in several years. The weather was practically perfect and almost everything went exactly as planned. I said almost everything. So what went wrong?

Rental Car Chaos

This part of a road trip gone wrong was my fault, but it reminded me how important it is to read every line of every rental contract. My car is older and I didn’t want problems on the road, so I rented a car through Hertz (by the way, it was a Toyota Highlander and the best car!). The morning before we were due to leave, I went to pick up the car only to find out that they don’t accept debit cards for the deposit. I didn’t have my credit card on me and, to be honest, it was pretty full at the time. I had enough cash in my checking account, but they didn’t care. It was a credit card or nothing.

They said they would hold the car until morning. That was pushing it so close because I knew how many hours we were going to be on the road that first day. Now we would arrive even later than I had planned. After racking my brain, I realized that I could go home and make a payment toward the credit card bill. That would free up the room to use the card. I was dependant on the fact that the payment would clear in the morning. My credit card company said it would, but now I was in a panic because what would I do if it didn’t.

I did try other things:

• My son was willing to give his credit card for the deposit and I would pay him. No go, said Hertz. The person with the credit card had to be there in person. I was in New York and my son was in Arizona. My daughter was closer, but couldn’t get there in time.
• I asked my credit card company for a temporary bump in my credit line. Like many other people, I wasn’t eligible for it that time.

Luckily I came up with that solution or I wouldn’t have been able to go on the trip. Like I said my car is older and would not have made that trip.

Road Trip Gone Wrong Lessons Learned: Read all of your contracts and try to have some room on a credit card when you travel in case of emergencies.

Unexpected Knee Trouble

I packed a foldable cane because occasionally my lower back aches and walking long distances can be an issue. A cane helps me to power through those moments. But I had some unexpected knee trouble on the trip and the cane pulled double duty.

Background info on this part of a road trip gone wrong, and I’m sure many of you can relate: I sleep with a pillow between my knees. If I don’t, I find that my knee pulls a bit and can feel almost sprained. I brought my small pillow with me, but sleeping in the RV caused a bit of a problem. The mattress was really soft, so my legs sunk into it, causing my knee to pull anyway. When I woke up, I felt the ache and by day two, my knee was killing me.

The good news is that I had the cane. The bad news is that my son and I had plans to walk around two museums and then walk around So-Fi stadium for WrestleMania 39. However, nothing was going to stop me from doing any of these things, especially WrestleMania.

I admit that walking around The Grand museum was difficult. It was the first day after my knee starting hurting and after about an hour of trying to get around, with many stops and starts, I had to stop. My son is so patient and understood. He felt bad, actually. I also felt bad because this was his trip too and I didn’t want my knee to ruin it. I knew from past experience that it would be better in a day or two. I rested when I could and brought my Advil with me and made sure I took it.

By the time WrestleMania came around, I still brought the cane, but was feeling much, much better.

What did I learn here that I can pass on to you for your trip? As sucky as it sounds, you should anticipate what could go wrong and plan for it just in case. Do you get seasick? Make sure you pack your medication, even if you never use it. You don’t want to be without it if you need it. Do you wear glasses? What would happen if they broke? I packed an older backup pair of glasses, just in case.

Road Trip Gone Wrong Lessons Learned: You can’t pack the kitchen sink, but you should be prepared for some emergencies, just in case. (This is also my PSA for buying travel insurance before you go.)

Measure Once, Measure Twice

I am a professional writer so reading is a huge part of my life, so you would think I had that part about the trip down pat. However, as we already saw with the car rental contract, I needed to do better. And it caught up with me again.

In this case, I did read the measurements for a bag you can bring into SoFi stadium on their website. And I looked at my bag and thought that it fit the requirements. Nope. I got to SoFi stadium and it was ever-so-slightly larger than what they allowed. My son and I had taken an Uber to the stadium and it was too late to take one back to drop off the bag at the hotel. They offered lockers but by the time I got there, they were all gone. We were pretty early, actually, so it stunk that they were already filled.

And so was my pocketbook. I emptied my bag and filled my pockets. Then I threw away my pocketbook. Yup. Luckliy it wasn’t a fancy bag, but I did like it. But I repeat that it wasn’t worth missing WrestleMania.

Road Trip Gone Wrong Lessons Learned: Measure once and then measure again! Read the stadium requirements before you go and invest in one of those clear bags they let you take in. I have one now.

Food Poisoning

My son texted me in the middle of the night after WrestleMania was over. “I hope you’re not as sick as I am.” I wasn’t. But it broke my heart to hear that he was. After some time, we figured out the only thing that could have made him sick was the fish tacos he had at SoFi stadium. We had shared a sausage sandwich from a vendor outside of the stadium, but since that didn’t make me sick, it couldn’t have been that.

We were due to hit the beach and just relax the day after WrestleMania, but it didn’t matter. My son was really sick. He rested for the day and came to my hotel later that evening and we watched Monday Night Raw together. My son felt really bad that the plans changed, but after we talked we thought about all of the things we had done together and were content with that. Things happen. His health came first and we still spent a little more time together before I had to leave.

Road Trip Gone Wrong Lessons Learned: No matter what you plan, something can go wrong. You might miss out on a museum or an excursion because of illness or injury. You don’t want to think about it. But your health is most important and if you can reschedule, do it. If not, enjoy what you did do. There will hopefully be another trip in your future.

Has anything like this happened to you? Let me know in the comments.