Holiday Travels, Part 2

The day after Christmas Derek and I were scheduled to take off to Canada for the Bell Capital Cup World Tournament.

It's a week-long tournament, with about 500 teams from all over the world coming to compete. Team New Mexico was entered! It's only PeeWees, too. And it's held in Ottawa, Ontario. Our itinerary was to fly into Buffalo, New York, rent a car, drive to Niagara Falls for the first night, then drive on in to Ottawa for the tournament.

My trip so far has had some really weird MAJOR glitches...



At 5:00 a.m. the day after Christmas the Super Shuttle was at the door to pick us up to take us to the airport. Okay, fine. The next passengers we picked up turned out to be con artists, trying to get out of paying the full fare. *groan* Cops were called at the airport. Really felt sorry for our driver. Kind of rattles a person to have all this going on before you've had your first cup of coffee!

Sat next to an old guy on the plane who farted the whole way!!! ...was blaming Derek at first, of course...

At the Buffalo airport... wellllll... *sigh* Went to pick up my rental car...

Now, before I continue, when anyone leaves on a long trip, on your list of things to do for a trip, do you ever check when your driver's license expires??? Well, do you?

Ha! *I* don't. And guess what? My license expired last friggin week!!!!! We don't get notification in New Mexico. BUT we also have 30 days to renew it, too... and we can't renew online, either.

So they wouldn't give me my rental car without a current driver's license.

The next four hours I spent crying -- no -- SOBBING -- on the phone to my mom, my brother, every single "info" person and ticket agent in the entire airport, while Derek sat with all our luggage ready to just turn around and go home.

The airport literally shut down, so no planes out for the rest of the night, no buses for the rest of the night, etc. etc. etc.

Lots of ideas and NOTHING panning out.

*&%@^%*&%$#!! along with Excedrin Headache #401.

Then a girl came running up to me. "My brother can't get across the border to pick me up and I understand you need to get across!"

Uh...

"I have a license! You can use my license if you'll drive me to Niagara!"

Uh... *blink blink* well, yeah, sure, okay...

(uh, God? May I have a word with you?)

So we used her license to get the car (and I had to pay another big amount for stupid insurance since they wouldn't let us go without insuring her because they "knew" she wasn't on my insurance), and she drove us to Niagara in my rental car, where I dropped her off with her brother.

So Derek and I cruised Niagara at night, seeing the Festival of Lights and the Falls at night, and then went and collapsed in our hotel room.

Now, in Niagara the next morning when we woke up it was pouring rain and very foggy. It took us a good hour to find our way out of there and to the highway heading to Toronto. But we did manage to go up the Skyliner (humongous tower) that overlooks the Falls, and got to really see them! BEAUTIFUL!!

Now, that rain and fog followed us ALL THE WAY to Ottawa. Took us 8 hours instead of 5, so we missed our "exhibition" games and pizza party that first night. Which I didn't really mind, because it was like an ice rink outside from all the rain. Plus I was physically and emotionally exhausted with huge puffy eyes from all the crying I did at the Buffalo airport.

And then our hotel here in Ottawa charged me for parking and internet. Pooey.

And then my credit card was declined for the room. Pooey again.

Have an email in to Mom. HELP! ...again...