The Honeymoon Story

The following is what I refer to as "the honeymoon story."  Not very many people know about this, and that's mostly because I never wanted to speak of it.  But it has a pretty good ending, and you'll see why.

So most of you probably don't know that Donald & I did not have a proper honeymoon.  We were SUPPOSED to, but it was ruined.  Donald planned for us to take a cruise to the Bahamas.  He spent months planning the trip without my knowledge, and it was all paid for & ready to go.  The day after the wedding, we flew to Florida where we would board the ship.  We went to the wrong rental car office & it put us way behind schedule.  When we finally figured out where we needed to be, we rushed over there, then rushed to the dock.  Donald was SPEEDING, I mean he was BOOKING it. Well then we were delayed AGAIN when the bridge went up to let a boat pass.  It seemed like an eternity, and I could SEE the ship in the distance.  It was killing me that we had to just sit there.  So the bridge finally goes back down, and we take off speeding again.  Once in the parking lot, we practically jumped out of the car before he put in in park, then literally ran to the dock.  But it was too late, and they wouldn't let us on the ship, even though it was right there.  Donald pleaded with them to no avail, then got on the phone with Carnival.  No luck, we were screwed & no amount of bawling was going to get us on that ship.  There was another family in the parking lot in the same predicament, and we commiserated. 

Fast forward to that evening.  We went to Hooter's where we could just sit, drink, & feel sorry for ourselves.  We decided to stay in a hotel that night, then fly back home the next day.  I figured we'd get slapped with a fee for changing the return date, but I didn't want any parts of being in Florida for another second.  At least we were entertained by our ditzy server, who not only went the wrong way with our food, but also thought that there were innings in football.

Fast forward again, we are at the airport. Donald is making the arrangements at the counter, & I am sitting on the floor, still crying, and now I have to decide who to call to pick us up from the airport.  Donald didn't want to call his parents.  We wanted someone who would understand our devastation.  I decided to call my brother, Eddie.  It was the best decision I could have made.  Eddie was great enough to pick us up on such short notice, and he made the car ride home so much fun.  In fact, what is normally an hour to an hour and a half drive took about 4 hours because of Eddie's crazy antics.  At one point he got out of the car in a parking lot, and ran around the building with an orange cone on his head.  I'm not sure if this was before or after we stopped and got tanked, but Donald & I were rolling!  When we hit Charles Town, Donald saw A&W and got excited, so we went through the drive-thru.  I was partially dozed off in the backseat, but I came to when I heard Eddie telling the cashier that he just farted.  I was laughing so hard that I couldn't even speak.  And Donald...wow.  He was so buzzed that he was demanding root beer in a mug, and wouldn't settle for anything less.  He wanted root beer in a mug, or he didn't want it at all.  Well he got his wish, and they even gave him extra root beer in a cup, and he acted like it was Christmas or something, he was so happy!

To this day, I am still so grateful to Eddie for turning our disastrous experience around.  What could've been a sad car ride was instead a fun & memorable experience.  Oh, side note...the airline was kind enough not to charge us a return date change fee.  Donald told them what happened, and they understood that it was out of our control.  Thank you United Airlines!  We still hate Carnival though, and I don't know if I'll ever be able to take a cruise.  If I do, then I plan to be at the docks about 10 hours before it's scheduled to leave.