Planes, trains and automobiles: Vacation disasters

“The kids settled down around 11 p.m. About 2 a.m., there was a good thunderstorm and downpour. It continued to rain very heavily for the rest of the night.

“About 5 or 6 a.m., one the kids said their sleeping bag was wet,” Colt said. “As it turned out, we were flooded from the rain and the entire tent was sitting in about 3 inches of water.”

They broke down a very wet tent and gear and headed back to New London. The kids, now in their 40s, still won’t forget that trip, he said.

Kevin Zobrist, of Everett, said his family has a legendary story. When he was a small child, they took a family vacation from Everett to Colorado.

“My parents thought it would be great fun for us kids if we took the train rather than driving or flying,” Zobrist said. “They booked us a sleeping car and everything. It was going to be great.”

Early in the journey, the shocks or suspension on the train car went out. They were bouncing all over the place.

“I thought it was great, but apparently we were in danger of derailment,” he said. “We had to stop, I think in Salt Lake City, to disconnect the car.”

They spent the remainder of the trip crammed into coach, and the incident caused a significant delay. They arrived in Denver in the middle of the night.

“We were supposed to take a rental car to our hotel out in Colorado Springs, but by the time we got to Denver, the car rental agencies were all closed. All the hotels were booked, except for one really seedy place nearby. If you have ever been to the Denver train depot, you know that this is not in the good part of town.”

At the seedy hotel, they rang a bell and were greeted by a drunk manager.

“He was very surprised to see my parents with their two small children, as he said he usually rents out rooms by the hour.”

They were told to keep the curtains shut and told about restaurants they should try to avoid, and what restaurants they should not go near.

“The trip became family lore for a couple of decades,” he said.

Lindsay Williams, Edmonds, took her 3-year-old son, Julian, on an adventure to every Six Flags in the continental United States. She drove cross-country with a friend, then she planned to catch a flight home in North Carolina.

Uh oh.

She found out she had a fear of flying.

The pair hopped a bus to get home. They stopped in six feet of snow in Fargo, N.D.

“It resembled a city bus stop,” Williams said. “A pole with the Greyhound symbol. The nearest place to get a bite to eat was about a city block. It didn’t seem so far, until you started trekking your way there.”

In Idaho, at midnight, the bus hit a pothole.

“Julian went flying and landed on the floor. A gash above his eye started squirting blood. I am freaking out. A passenger asks the driver to pull over so we can attend to him.”

The driver opened the first aid kit and it was empty.

An hour down the road, they got to a real town and called 911.

“They sent an ambulance to stitch Julian up. All 15 passengers rallied behind me and refused to board the bus without a first aid kit.”

The bus company sent an employee with the kit and they left for home, she said.

Her sister, Tracy Williams, who lives in Edmonds, said a year ago in July, her family was camping at Blue Lake in Eastern Washington.

“The weekend started great with beautiful 90-degree weather,” she said. “Early Saturday evening we see this black cloud coming from behind the mountains towards us. It took about 10 minutes to reach us with golf-ball sized hail, heavy thunder and lightning.”

Folks scattered for cover. Williams grabbed children and dashed inside her car.

“Every one of our tent poles broke and the tent collapsed,” she said. “The tent next to ours actually flew into the lake.”

They were one of several couples who surrendered tents to Blue Lake that year, Williams said.

Julie Denoma, who lives in Edmonds, stayed at the Eldorado Hotel in Reno. On checkout day, she checked her luggage at the bell desk for safe keeping.

“When I went to retrieve my luggage before heading to the airport, it was not there, even though I had my claim ticket,” Denoma says. “When I contacted them from home, they told me to keep a list of everything I could remember in the luggage.”

She kept a list for two weeks, thought she listed everything she lost, and sent out a claim form.

“Of course, after sending the claim, I would go to a closet or drawer to retrieve an item — oops, not there, in the luggage,” she said. “If your luggage is lost, don’t be in a hurry to file your claim. You would be surprised how much stuff one packs for a trip.”

Sue Stickland, who lives in Everett, said she and her husband, Bob, were on a long road trip on I-90.

“We were in the middle of a really deserted area in the mountains of Wyoming when our car stopped,” she said. “Hardly any vehicles passed by in either direction.”

After much head-scratching and searching, she said, it turned out that one of the spark plug wires had become loose from its connector.

“Older Volvos do not like that,” Strickland said. “Being the inventive folks that we are, we were able to fix it with a large paper clip and that ‘fix’ actually lasted a couple of years.”

David Welton, who lives on south Whidbey Island, took his family to a conference in 1995 at Lake Louise. Their son, Nathan, 15, was the age when kids don’t accept parental advice.

“The temperature in Santa Barbara was 78 degrees when we left,” Welton said. “Nathan dressed in a bathing suit, a tank top, and zories. We reminded him that we were flying to the far north where it would be very cold, and that we would arrive at night. He told us that he could handle it, thank you.”

They landed at the Calgary airport and it was 20 below zero, and there was a blizzard.

“The cop at the airport rolled his eyes when he saw Nathan. The four-wheel drive we rented was parked outside, a hundred yards from the terminal.”

The lock was frozen, he said. Nathan hopped up and down while his parents cracked up.

“I hate to say it, but I told you so, you got what you deserved,” he told his son.

This story isn’t funny at all.

Sandy Ward, who lives in Lynnwood, was camping at Lake Powell in Utah when she was bitten by a rabid coyote.

“Earlier that same year, Robert Redford was bitten by a rabid bat at Lake Powell, so apparently bats were biting coyotes,” Ward said. “While trying to get help, the boat we were in began to sink at a marina where we had just gotten the last fuel, which they had to siphon from the sinking boat to another boat so we could get to the truck and trailer.”

It took 24 hours to get her help.

“It was back in the day when rabies shots were administered in the stomach,” she said. “I am now immune.”

Roger Gable, who lives in Everett, shared a non-disaster story.

“I remember in 1966 rushing down to SeaTac to catch a plane,” Gable said. “Ten minutes before departure I’m pushing through one of only four doors at the airport.”

The agent took his ticket information and told Gable to run to the tarmac before the plane left.

“As I was running to the airplane the engines were starting up. The steward shut the door as I was climbing up the stairs, then opened the door to let me in.”

My travel experiences have been pretty good, he said.

Have a great end of August. I’ll see you after Labor Day, if we don’t bump into you at the fair.

Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.