Our 28 Best Foulups, Bleeps, and Blunders

As wonderful as the trip was, there were lots of moments that, let’s just say, were not worth blogging about.  We’ve decided to document them all in case we ever start to romanticize the trip too much.  This list will also remind us that we can overcome a LOT.  Some of these were not our fault.  Most of them were. But in true Carpenter family spirit, we follow up each mistake by looking at The Bright Side (TBS).

Enjoy!

1) The trip started with a 7 hour delay in Austin, causing us to miss our connecting flight to Madrid:  TBS: We got to spend a full day in NYC!

2) Marcy broke her expensive camera lens on the first day on the trip in NYC.  TBS: We found a camera store down the street that had the same lens, for only 30% more than we originally paid for it.  What a deal!

3) Ellie left her purse at a NYC restaurant, which we realized on the way to the airport for our Madrid flight. TBS:  We got to spend an extra hour in NYC traffic (but we still made our flight!)

4) I lost our apartment key running along the Seine in Paris. TBS: Our phone number was on the key, and a nice Parisian bar owner called our landlord and told me to come get it.  So I got some extra exercise by running all the way back to the far end of my route. In the rain.

5) We got up early to go to the Louvre, but didn’t realize we were going on the one FREE day of the month. The line to get in reached all the way to Dusseldorf.  TBS: We punted and spent the day doing something else spectacular that I can’t remember.

6) One afternoon in Paris we were riding bikes through beautiful and famous Bois de Boulogne park, then took a left turn and ended up on Prostitute Row in broad daylight.  About every 50 meters stood a lady of the night (or day) in full regalia.  There was no mistaking it.  Kids had no idea (I think).  When we got home, I googled the park to find out it’s quite a popular (and legal) area for ladies of the night (or day).  C’est La Vie.  TBS.  It was a lot of fun explaining the situation to the kids afterwards.  It’s good to flex those muscles occasionally.

8) We almost got killed by buses multiple times as we foolishly rode our bikes through the busiest avenues in Paris during rush hour.  TBS: Made for a good blog post.

9) I scraped my leg pretty badly on our first zip lining tour in southern France. TBS: I have a small scar with a good story.

10) My sister fell off her stand up paddleboard while trying to moon me in cinque terre.  TBS: I have a story that will someday appear in my sister’s obituary.

11) Chris got a stone lodged in his foot while on a beach in cinque terre.  We had to pull it out with tweezers.  It was pretty painful.  TBS:  The snack shop actually had tweezers.

12) I fell in our bathroom in Florence (which for some reason had four different steps at odd places that made no sense), and got banged up pretty hard.  TBS: None, really.

13) While on a remote island in Croatia, I tried to withdraw cash from an ATM and was denied.  After an hour on the phone with four different Chase managers  (with long distance international phone rates),  I finally learned that they had “semi-cancelled” my card for “security reasons”,  I had told them in July I was traveling overseas, but guess that got lost in the shuffle.  Semi-cancelled meant I could not pull out more than $100 a day, and that in two weeks the card wouldn’t work at all, and that couldn’t be reversed.  Wow!  Thanks to Alana and several hundred dollars in Fedex charges, I was able to get a new card the last day before I left Capetown, on the last day my old card worked.  TBS: For about an hour, I was forced to brainstorm how we would survive on no access to cash for the rest of the trip.  It’s good to flex those muscles occasionally.

14) When returning our rental car in Croatia, I put the wrong type of gas in when I filled it up.  Hertz-Croatia charged me $600 for that.  TBS: None, really.

15) After a long flight from Dubrovnik, our connection in Johannesburg was delayed 6 hours.  TBS: They bumped us up to business class (without telling us), so we had fully reclining seats and free booze and ginger ale all the way to Capetown.  Sweet!

16) Marcy cut her finger badly while zip lining at the cable water ski park in Capetown. It took over a month to heal. TBS: She has a small scar with a good story.

17) Marcy lost her sunglasses she had bought in Monaco while on safari in Africa. TBS: It made my Xmas shopping for her much easier (I got her the same pair).

18) Chris threw up three times on a boat on a whale watching tour in S. Africa.  TBS:  The crew was super prepared and very helpful. Apparently this is a regular occurrence.

19) We got up at 4 am to catch our flight to Kangaroo Island, but the flight was delayed for 12 hours then finally cancelled. TBS: We did get to Sydney that night (halfway there).  got to see their bright lights one more time at 1:00 am, and see them again at 5:30 am when we had to leave to catch our flight.  Rough one.

20) Ellie wiped out and scraped her leg while trying to pet a dog in tasmania.  TBS: At least the dog didn’t bite her too.

21) Marcy left her camera in Port Douglas prison requiring a 2 hour detour.  TBS:  I got more practice driving in Tasmania.

22) I hit multiple animals with my car in Tasmania. One of them was living at the time, I think. TBS: None of them were endangered.  I think.

23) Chris and Ellie got stung by multiple wasps while touring the Botanical Ark.  They each got 3-4, but our guide got over a dozen,  he was the first to yell WASP!  RUN!!   Mom and Dad somehow escaped without a scratch. Guess we can still run faster then our kids.  TBS: It didn’t hurt as bad or as long as “American” wasp stings, but it still stung!

24) We only had an hour and a half between our landing in Brisbane and catching an international flight to Queenstown, NZ.  Not enough time.  For the first time in my life, I had to SPRINT about half a mile in the airport to hold our plane before they shut the doors.  I felt like OJ in a Hertz commercial.  PLUS, as I was sprinting, I reached for and couldn’t find my wallet, so for about 15 minutes, I thought I was wallet less and we would be stranded for at least a day in the airport.  TBS: We caught the flight, I found my wallet, and my thighs were sore for three days from the sprint.

25) Chris got the worst haircut of his life in Hobart Tasmania. TBS: He got a much better one in Cooktown two weeks later that fixed most of the damage.

26) Chris left his go-pro camera at a restaurant only accessible by helicopter in New Zealand.  TBS: Some extremely nice pilots chased us down before we took off and gave it to us. This made Chris quite happy.

27) I almost got arrested in New Zealand. On our third to last night on the entire trip,  I had one adult beverage at the beginning of dinner, ate a big meal, then we walked to a park and played there for an hour. Then, as we drove home, there were policemen blocking our road checking for drunk drivers. I knew I was fine, but the policeman asked me if I had been drinking and I said, “I had one drink at dinner.”  He said, “No worries, speak into this little machine.”  I did and the word “alcohol” popped up on the machine.  Uh oh.  He said to please pull over to the side of the road.  My mind started racing……what’s the legal limit in New Zealand?…..how long will I be in a New Zealand pokey?…..can I get a refund on my Hobbit town tickets for tomorrow if I am in solitary confinement?

The policeman came over and I repeated, “I only had one drink over an hour ago” and he said, “no worries, that machine sometimes picks up mouthwash.  Blow into this one, it is more accurate.”  For a LONG 5 seconds, I blew.  It came up negative.  Whew!

I said, “I sure am glad I only had that one drink!”. The policeman looked me straight in the eye and said, “No worries Mate, go have another!!”  That’s New Zealanders in a nutshell.  TBS:  This is my favorite story to tell people about the culture of New Zealanders.  They are awesome.

28) On our final day, we drove five hours to reach the Auckland airport. We got there three hours early, and when we went to check in, the guy said, “Flight to San Francisco is canceled for today. Go to customer service.”  Arghhh!  At that point we were ready to be home!  We got in line and there were 6 people ahead of us.  It took an hour and a half to get to the front.  Finally, we arrived, and she said, “Maybe I can get you on the flight to LA tonight. ” 45 tense minutes later, we were in!  I turned around and there were 100 people in line behind us.  As we walked off, the lady came from behind the desk and announced that the LA flight was now full (we got the last four seats!), so everyone else should stand by for their hotel and meal vouchers.  WHEW!  Once we got to LA, we booked a flight to Austin (hoping insurance reimburses us, but not crossing my fingers), and made it home an hour earlier then we would have otherwise.

TBS: A great reminder to stay calm, flexible, and remember that anything can happen when traveling!!!

Make sure you read the post below to see the people we will never forget on this trip!