That Time I Cost My Family $200+, My Girls Learned 3 Valuable Lessons, and I Saw Grace in Human Form

Every time I imagined the end of our fall break trip to Washington, D.C., let me tell you what I never pictured...

This.

Yes, that is the sight of Megabus. In our REAR VIEW MIRROR. Almost to KNOXVILLE.

But let me back up. We left last Saturday for a family vacation to Washington, D.C.. We are trying to save money for one or all of us to go to Cambodia next summer (and, let's be honest, we are cheapskates), so we did this trip on the cheap. We travelled via Megabus ($162, total) and stayed in Alexandria (thus saving lots of money on the hotel). The hotel ran a shuttle to the airport, so we took it to catch the metro every day. (This part wasn't so bad, though it sounds it.) The best money-saving part of any trip to DC is that the attractions are... you've got it! .... free! 

Of course, if the government shutdown that hasn't happened in 17 years happens to coincide with your trip, you're in to spend a bit more money. However, it ended up working out just fine and we had an absolutely fantastic trip. And then....

We left this morning with time to get to Union Station about 45 min early. That way we could go to the bathroom, get breakfast, and then get in the front of the line for Megabus to ensure that we picked our seats. All went well and we got to the line by 9:17, a full almost 30 min early for our bus! We were excited that no one else was in line yet and even joked that perhaps we would have the bus to ourselves. If only.... ;) 

Instead, we checked to make certain we were in the right line, only for the Megabus employee tell us, "Oh, that bus left at 9." Yes. Please imagine for one moment: You, your husband, and your two children, fresh from a fabulous family vacation, loaded down with luggage and checked out of your hotel, hearing these words... Certain that he was confused, I quickly pulled the email on my phone... Um, yes. Very clearly, plain as day: 9:00 AM. 

What do you even do in that moment???

Well, we walked to an open area rather in a daze and I had Kraig and the girls sit down while I figured out our options and called Megabus. (They ate their breakfast, in fact.) I hated to have to pay another night's hotel and even more so, I hated for Kraig to miss work and for me to miss a (much-needed) fall break day at home, but options were rather limited. Bad news? We lost the $60 (total) for today's tickets. Worse news? Tomorrow's bus had only two seats open rather than the four we needed. After sharing that info with Kraig (who had yet to say anything negative to me at all), I took off to the Greyhound office. There was a bus leaving for Knoxville in 15 min with seats-- at $130 per ticket and not arriving until tonight at 11 PM. I was shaky talking to that agent but still largely in control of myself (though starting to get extremely fearful that we were never getting home). From there, I headed to the Amtrak counter, by which point I was weeping openly. Amtrak was $170 per ticket and would go to Atlanta (our van was in Knoxville). My next (and last) option, since I knew airfare would be through the roof, was the rental car agencies. I cried to multiple agents (telling one, "I don't even cry in front of people I know, much less strangers!") and found the best rate was $213. I called Kraig and the girls to come to that counter and presented him with all of our options, explaining that rental car seemed most cost-efficient. I promised to pay out of my fun-money and also that I would drive the entire way so that he could rest. 

We got the car and headed south toward home, with Kraig at no point ever berating or fussing or even saying a single negative word to me about the entire situation. We had a lovely (private) ride, stopping when we wished, eating at Cracker Barrel, getting incredibly good gas mileage, and finally reaching the point where we could joke about the whole thing. Emma said, "Well, we didn't have wi-fi" and I said, "It didn't work anyway" and she said, "But we could charge our Kindles". I responded by saying, "We couldn't have eaten at Cracker Barrel" and Kraig finished with, "But we could have had Christmas." HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Even leaving two hours later and stopping for a long Cracker Barrel meal, we still caught and passed Megabus. I have to say, it was kind of a surreal and hilarious moment. On the way from the bus station to the car rental place, I told the girls that they learned three valuable lessons:

1. Always check and double check tickets. To anywhere. All the time.

2. If something does go wrong, there's no point in crying in a corner. You can cry, but take action. Step forward, come up with a Plan B (or C or D or E or F) and make it happen. 

3. If another person in your life makes a completely stupid mistake, show grace. Kraig certainly knew how terribly I felt about the whole thing and he was so kind. He also can read me well enough that he knew at what point it was ok to joke about it. I have probably never in all of my life been so grateful that I married him than today. I cannot think of another man (other than maybe my dad) who would have been so gracious and I know of several husbands of friends (you know who you are! haha!) who would have gone absolutely crazy. ;)

So thanks to my stupidity, our cheap DC trip cost a bit more than we had planned. Kraig said on the way home that he thought the entire ordeal only cost us about 20 min, to which I replied, "at a rate of about $10/minute, I guess". 

It's just another situation in a long list that feels so desperate at the time but turns out to be rather trivial in the grand scheme of life. This trip was a perfect five days for our four, and I include today in that perfection. It will be part of our family lore from this day forward, no matter how many tears it caused me this morning. 

Just one more look... A view I will never forget. :)