When traveling, always have an alternate transportation option available...(a Mini-Lesson in Being Prepared)

I am beyond exhausted today. I didn't get to sleep until nearly 1:00 am and I had to be in the office by 8:00 am. (Oh, for shame!!!) This could have been avoided, had I been better prepared to travel last night. Here's what happened...

My sis and I had a class to take last night. Although the class was scheduled to be let out at 9:30, it actually went a little bit over. No one minded (and a lot of us didn't even notice) because we were enjoying ourselves so much. So, Sis and I knew that we would be home a little late, get to bed later than expected and be a little extra tired the next morning. Not too big a sacrifice for a class we thoroughly enjoy(ed). (I will be telling you more about our classes very soon...)

We were traveling via public transportation. (You pretty much never want to drive a car into Manhattan unless you have to. Traffic/parking can be a nightmare.) So, there we were, sitting on the train, when we hear over the loudspeaker that a police investigation is going on one stop ahead of us. That meant we had to wait for an undisclosed amount of time.

So, we waited...and waited...and waited...A half hour went by and then, all of a sudden, (in the usual worst-timing scenario), we both had to uh, use the powder room. You know when it hits you and you have no clue how long you're going to be able to last? At that point, we decided that we had no clue how long we'd be waiting and we took matters into our own hands. We left the train station. :-P

Our goal was to take a livery cab home. Sounds simple enough, right? Sissy-Poo dialed the usual car service number only to be told by the dispatcher that there were no cars in our area. Now what? You know the area we were stranded in? Neither one of us had traveled in that area without being driven through it. Great, huh?

Being very tired and not able to think 100%, we decided to try and walk home. (HA!!! We completely underestimated exactly how far we were from home. But either way,) we started walking. Another major problem? Neither one of us knew in which direction to walk.

So, I got the bright idea to use the GPS from my phone to try and guide us. The only problem with that idea is that Global Positioning Systems are set up for motor vehicles. (You try thinking straight after a full day at work, 3.5 hours of class and then getting stranded at nearly midnight!!! :-P It's not that I didn't know it's set up for mvs. I just figured we could use it as a guideline. Didn't really work though...)

We walked for about a half hour when I stopped and said, "No way! We are not going to make it! (Referring to (a) the fact that we had no clue how far away we were and (b) the aforementioned unfinished powder room business.) We have to find a bus or another train or something!" So, we roamed around, still attempting to go in the right direction (whichever direction that actually was, we weren't quite sure of), trying to find another form of public transportation.

We were desperately seeking a bus when, like a light shining down from Heaven to guide us, we saw a brightly lit awning that read "--- Car Service". We hurried on over there, where a driver was already waiting to be put on duty, and took one of their cabs home. Unfortunately, it ended up costing about twice as we would have liked to pay. But we had no choice, due to our desperate state.

We both got home, safe and sound. (As you can probably tell, being that I am okay to tell you this story today.) But we both determined in our minds with absolute resolve that we would never be stranded like that again!!! We will always have an alternate "alternate escape route" for when our "alternate escape route" doesn't pan out (more than one other option). If we had just used Hop Stop (NYC) and mapped out every alternate route possible, we would have been better prepared to find our way home.

Heed my words. At the moment when you're drunk with exhaustion and your body is working against you, you don't want to have to come up with a plan to get home!!! Do everything possible to "BE PREPARED" for the possibility of this happening to you. If you travel in big cities via public transportation, the probability of this happening to you is probably greater than you think.

(If you travel by car and you live in a rural area, you'll still need to be prepared. That's just gone about in a different way. AAA, maybe? Being that I don't drive, I'll leave that up to you and your "powers of research".)


{While in NYC, Chicago, (some areas of) Connecticut (and) upstate NY, Long Island, New Jersey, Boston, San Fransisco, Washington DC and London, you can use Hop Stop. Somewhere else? Use the internet to plan ahead. You can find whatever you'll need, right here on the World Wide Web. It's your one-stop-shop. :-)}

Has anything like this ever happened to any of you? If so, what did you do to resolve the situation? Did it push you to be better prepared the next time around?