Did ya ever plan a trip and in the end it sucked?

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ziplock

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I'm working on my first trip plans of the season and I think it sounds pretty good.

Then I got to thinking how the best laid plans.............well, you know!

Anyone have any disappointing trips under their belt?

Maybe you thought something was going to be spectacular to see and it wasn't much...............
 
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This is a rather open ended question, there was that time my wife accompanied me to a work conference most of the way across the country in Idaho, and her father died of a heart attack the first morning we were there, which certainly counts as a trip not going to plan, and in the end sucked, though we did manage to make it home that same day, if you count getting home at just before midnight the same day. We also took an Alaskan cruise about 10-12 years ago, where we were caught by an early season winter storm 30+ ft seas and 75+ mph winds which kept us from making it to 2 of the 3 ports we had scheduled in Alaska, the saving grace of that trip was the return down the inside passage that was not planned, and a 14+ hour port stay in Victoria, BC with the first sunshine we had seen in a week, vs the planned 3 hour stop in Victoria.
 
I remember when out MH broke down on the Oregon coast - we got towed by the only diesel shop that had a tow truck big enough for out MH. We ended up with a fenced impound/junk car area to our left, broken down gazebo to our right and "in-process" vehicles all around. It was lovely, quiet at night, fronted on an estuary that hosted birds and other wildlife.

Moral: we were broken down and we had a choice; cry and lament of find the good.
 
My folks also have a motorhome. For the last couple of years, we have overlapped winter travel plans with them to stay together for a few days down near Palm Springs, CA. It's always great to see them in their element and spend some time together with our RV's.

A while back, we took a trip together that wasn't so great. My mom was saying how we don't do enough trips together, so I planned a weekend at the coast for all of us. Between birthdays, holidays, and their extremely busy schedule as retirees, and also campground availability, I somehow managed to score a weekend in the middle of May. I planned more than 6 months in advance.

The week before, the weather forecast wasn't looking perfect and mom said maybe we shouldn't go. It's May on the Washington Coast, it will (always has been) a mixed bag of weather, and always expect some rain. I said no, it will be great, we all know what the weather can be, and it doesn't have to be perfect. C'Mon...

Day of...we were en route. They had planned to meet us there. I sent a text asking where they were at, to gauge when they were going to arrive. They had left roughly the same time we had that morning. Some time went by, and then I got a message from mom. Dad had apparently torn the side off the rig leaving a shopping center parking lot, as they were leaving. He heavily damaged a bin door and the right side rear wheel skirt. She said they were still on their way, but dad was in a mood (obviously) and they weren't speaking to each other.

Oh, goodie!

Everyone arrived, got parked, tried to lighten the mood. And that's when the rain started. It poured all weekend. The trip just... sucked. It sucked donkey balls. Our RV (brand new) was leaking water through the front cap. The trip was boring because we were forced to stay inside and everyone was pretty grouchy. Sunday morning we all got up and packed up, headed home. Abort mission!

We laugh about it now, but it was a pretty cruddy weekend overall.
 
Our current trip started out sucking, the leveling jacks were failing so that made us miss the first couple days of the plan, so we drove 3 days straight to get back on track.

Don’t do that!

If it sucks, laugh about it, write it off and find something else quirky nearby. We’ve stumbled onto some pretty neat stuff that way.

We went to see Historic Fort Fremont (not so neat) and found St. Helena Chapel of Ease Ruins on our South Carolina trip in February. I’d post a photo but internet is pretty bad here(Lake Bruin, LA).
 
We've had a few occasions where things did not turn out as expected. Yes... unexpected family death has occurred a couple times.

We had to evacuate the State Park once due to high water flooding. Our departure was on Christmas Day. They gave us an hour to get our or we'd be stuck behind high and rising water that would probably get 10 feet deep where we were located. We just go ... had no where else planned to go. (that was fun).

Another time, bugs and heat was so bad we ended up leaving (it was Gulf Shores, Alabama in July!)

Our dog got sick and we rushed him to the vet. Before it was over (5 days later), we had a bill for $4500 and a dead dog was return to us.


Then there was the time we were over 1000 miles from home. I got a phone call from a hospital at home. They told me my mother had a fall, she's insane and needed me to put her in a nursing home after a very, very serious operation she had done on her hip and leg due to the fall. Her mind was gone and couldn't make decisions for herself! What the ****???? That whole trip ended bad.

Now, we've experienced engine failure, flat tires on the trailer, broken cable slides, broken jacks on the camper, brakes that went out on the truck or camper or both, furnace has gone out, water heater went out, power outages, downed trees, snow, ice, and even had to fly my wife home once while I stayed behind. We weathered it all.

RVing is an adventure! No one ever said "WHAT" kind of adventure. The important thing to remember under ANY crisis moment is to think-think-think-think and don't just fly off the handle and react-react-react and end up doing really stupid things that will cost dearly later! Always stop, take a deep breath, let the reality of the moment hit, and then work out a plan for recovery.

100 years from now, no one will remember your plight anyway! ... not even YOU.
 
We planned a 4 day weekend getaway in February to an area we had never been before. State park lakefront campground reservation made. The few days before the trip, the weather forecast was intermittent showers. We figured we may as well go, even though rain was predicted.

We arrived and set up camp. The campground was completely empty except for us. We thought everyone saw the forecast and canceled.

Well, the forecast was wrong. It wasn't scattered showers. It rained solid without let up the entire four days.

Despite the rain, we had a wonderful time. Went to a local museum, toured the hydro plant at the dam, ate local cuisine, local indoor craft fair, and when the rain slackened somewhat we donned our rain gear and went hiking. During the heavy downpours we stayed inside and played cards or watched a movie.

No one else ever did show up in the campground. Even the campground host bailed for a few days.

There is no such thing as bad weather, only insufficient clothing.

We have had the usual assortment of mishaps during trips, but nothing that made the entire trip a disaster.
 
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I had to stay in a state park in Texas once while tent camping, we were trapped there as a tornado had came through about 32-33 years ago, knocking out power to the state park, and downing a number of trees between the campground and the highway, it rained much of the evening while we huddled in the tent and listed to the sounds of chainsaws clearing the downed trees, so we could finally get out of there about 9 am the next morning when the road was cleared, of did I mention we had a 10-12 week old puppy with us.
 
Discounting family emergencies that cut trips short, I can't say we've ever had a bad trip in the 18 years we've been RV'ing, including 10 years of fulltiming. We have had stays that were a bit disappointing though, but even those were learning experiences. Each year we've tried to include one or more new to us state or national parks in our itinerary, and only about 2 out of 5 have made it to our must return list. I won't say the others were bad, just not what we prefer.
 
Well, a few years back, we took the camper to San Antonio (from Houston). The stay there was actually fine. We stayed at the FamCamp at Lackland AFB, and while nothing spectacular, it was pretty cheap and adequate for our needs. The problem cam on the way back home. About 50 miles or so out of San Antonio on the way home, I had a blowout. Had my Allstate auto club come out and change the tire. All good to go. Then not 25 miles or so later, blowout number 2. Man, I couldn't believe it. And this one messed up the skirt and some of the stuff under the trailer. So now I'm really wary, and drove no faster than 55 mph (on I-10). I got just about 40 miles from home, and POW, I lost the third tire. By now, it's around 11 pm. And I have now blown through my coverage through Allstate, but they still found someone to come out with a tire, and change it. We finally got home around 1:30 in the morning. A 5 hour trip took over 14 hours. And I still had to back the trailer into my driveway. Yeah, that was a terrible ending to a very normal and enjoyable trip to see the kids and grandkids.
 
Our worst trip was in May 1982 for a week at the national seashore at Corpus Christi. That trip was the reason why we bought our first RV right afterwards. We replaced our old reliable canvas tent with a bigger new nylon/polyester tent. Of course a storm that wasn't forecast came out of nowhere the first night at 1 AM. The wind was so strong the rain came through the sides of the tent like a spray bottle. Then the wind and wet fabric flapping in the wind broke the aluminum poles and the tent collapsed. My in-laws were next to us in their brand new popup so we and our 2 kids aged 4 & 8 took shelter in the popup.

Then a seam in the popup canvas ripped and Its roof collapsed. We ran to the cars. We tried to leave the beach but the storm surge was too high. The rangers normally drove through every hour but not once that night. This was before cell phones so we worried all night whether we'd get swept out to sea. All our clothes and sleeping bags were wet so I had to run the engine for 10 minutes every hour to keep us from freezing.

By dawn the rain let up. All the hotels were full. Or maybe they just told us they were full because we looked like shipwrecked refugees from Cuba. So I had to drive back home without any sleep. Of course we hit Ft. Worth at rush hour and their never ending road construction turned the 7 hour trip into 10. I slept for 14 hours straight. I told the wife we'll laugh about this some day but 40 years later nobody's laughing.
 
While we've had some surprises from the weather, I can say that we've "dodged the bullet" a number of times. Rode out a couple of serious thunder storms in our conversion van many years ago and , lately done the same in our TT. Lots of adventures, but no catastrophes.
We'll just count our blessings and hope for the best.

Safe travels and all the best in your future adventures!!
 
Last fall my wife and I were in the second day of a 10 day stay at an a Ohio State Park. We were on a shakedown run for our new trailer. Second day, DW trips on a tree root while walking on the beach looking for a good fishing spot. She hit the sand and broke her wrist, then lost her engagement ring when she took it off before swelling set in (40 plus years of being an ER nurse told her to do that). Went to.local ER, then had to break camp and drive home with her in serious pain. Luckily only three hours from home. That probably qualifies as suck.
 
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