This is NOT meant to be a negative/bash the parks post! We were just reliving a trip from about five years ago that was a “what can go wrong, will go wrong” adventure. We laugh about it now, but we were definitely not when it was happening. Anyone else?? Forget something super important? Just a run with bad luck? Let’s laugh together!

Here’s a long story short version of ours:

We headed down for the Wine & Dine Half Marathon in 2015. It was a split stay trip and both times (Magic Express and bell services) our luggage took 6 hours to get to our room. I almost had to run a half marathon in casual clothes. When we got off the plane, I looked at my phone to see my check in info for a flight....three hours from then!? Not even sure what happened there, but the next hour was spent on the phone trying to get plane tickets for the trip home. This is when W&D was still held at night...well we get to the race after some major traffic issues (over an hour on the bus) only to enter the corral, standing around for a looooong time, then being guided by volunteers elsewhere. After much talk amongst ourselves in the corral, we figured out it was because of an incoming storm. No one really told us that till much later. After what felt like quite a few hours of sitting around at WWOS, we were given the go ahead to start the race, but it would be shortened. At that point, I had no water or fuel in me and it was SO hot and humid. I somehow made it through the race, but come the end I was damn near dead of dehydration. So we had to skip the after party and go back to the room. I was all out of whack the next day and a little bummed from it not really being a half marathon, and then we ended up missing a dining reservation because of bus issues. Our neighbors at the second resort basically were the loudest people on earth. No sleeping was happening at all. Our Magic Bands were constantly not working. Then, our journey home was a nightmare. Usually, we have a two hour plane ride back home to PA. Because of the last minute cancellation and switching, there were no direct flights back. We had to fly to Atlanta, then Baltimore, then home to Pittsburgh. It was over 10 hours of travel, because of course delays were involved. Then we finally get home and...my suitcase did not. I cried the whole car ride home lol.

Out of all my trips, that’s the only “bad” one! It absolutely never deterred me from going again. Like it said, it’s just a funny story to us now!