The plan was to drop my son Ben off at Colorado State University for a week of video game-making camp (oh, yes; this exists). Then my daughter Kaylin and I were to spend some time in , tooling around on , hiking Horsetooth Mountain, touring the Swetsville Zoo and checking out the local brewpubs.
A week prior to the trip, she broke her arm in two places, requiring emergency surgery.
Needless to say, we canceled our active itinerary in Fort Collins. It was replaced instead by some rest and relaxation at home, as well as a follow-up orthopedic surgeon visit.
Were we disappointed? Absolutely. Was it the end of the world? Of course not. In fact, with smoke in the air due to the High Park fire still raging nearby at the time of our planned trip, some outdoor activities might have been altered anyway. We’ll reschedule for this autumn, perhaps, to take in a CSU football game and enjoy the pretty fall colors. No big deal. Those brewpubs aren’t going anywhere.
At least that’s the attitude I try to take when faced with a disruption of travel plans — although it’s not always easy.
Last August, our 15-hour family road trip to was extended by more than four hours when we blew a tire just outside Blackfoot, Idaho. Because our Toyota Sienna minivan doesn’t come equipped with a spare tire (yes, we should have stuck a tire in the back of the van), we had to call an Idaho Falls tire store and ask one of its employees to drive a new tire out to where we were stranded on the side of the highway. Then we had to drive into Idaho Falls to buy and install three more tires to balance the car.
I tried to make it upbeat for the kids, then ages 11 and 9: “Oh well, these things happen! What an adventure we’ve had to tell Grandma! Let’s walk through the tire store’s sketchy neighborhood and find some ice cream! Fun!”
Of course it was anything but fun, and we arrived at our campground much later than anticipated. We missed an afternoon hike we’d planned, but so what? The rest of our vacation went off without a hitch. (Well, except for the part where I read the map wrong on the southern route home, directing my husband an hour out of our way to Jackson, Wyo.)
Another time, my family was flying home from the East Coast when delays and cancellations brought us to Denver International Airport too late to get on any flight to our Aspen home airport. At nearly 10 p.m., the car-rental agencies were closed. A massive Microsoft convention meant all hotel rooms were booked within 50 miles of the airport.
We spent the night on the airport floor, holed up behind the ticket counter at gate B48.
Airport employees were kind to lend us blankets. Still, we slept fitfully (at best), woke up to a crummy fast-food breakfast and caught the earliest flight home.
While minor travel misadventures like these generally stink, they do make the best stories. In fact, around our dinner table we continue to debate whether “the flat tire in Idaho,” “sleeping on the airport floor” or “Ben puking in the pool at ” is our family’s most epic travel tale.
For family bonding and memory-making, travel mishaps certainly do the job. In fact, I look forward to more.
Freelance writer Kara Williams lives on the Western Slope with her husband and two school-age children. She blogs as ColoradoGal at .
