Last night we had a burgers on the barbeque get together with the folks that will be going diving with us in two weeks. We were all connected in one way or another but we had not all met everyone else. It was a good evening and we should all enjoy our time together.
J and A own a ski shop and they have been very busy up until the close of the shop for the summer, that happened 2 weeks ago. So, last night J says, “Can you email me the info on the car rental place? We haven’t got around to that yet.” They are leaving on Friday, a week before the rest of us so they can get in a some kite boarding. It’s time to get things together I guess.
This morning I am going through my emails trying to find confirmation from the truck rental place to pass along to J. It wasn’t in my Bonaire folder. Debbie’s email was the next likely place. Her folder had all sorts of emails to and from the rental establishment but no confirmation.
One of the emails told us two trucks had been reserved, go on line, fill out the registration form and things would be good to go. We could not remember specifically doing that so we thought we would go to the web site and see if we could recall filling out that particular form.
PANIC!!!! The domain name and web site had expired. We figured maybe the company had expired along with the web site. Indicating, of course, that we did not have the vehicles reserved as we thought we had.
OK, breathe deep. We’ll just phone and find out what’s up. Debbie dials the number and the answer on the other end is ‘hello’. Not your standard business address. Angst not alleviated. After a couple of pertinent questions Debbie finds that the proprietor has the number forwarded to his mobile. So, Voyager Events Car Rentals still exists. John could not check the records because he was perched on the side of the pool celebrating father’s day. He seemed to recall my name, the name under which we reserved the trucks. He assured us that there would be someone at the airport to meet us and that we would have vehicles to use for the duration of our stay.
As for the missing website, it all came down to some Caribbean stuff. ‘Oh yeah we are getting a new web site so we let that one lapse’, said John. The lady that is doing it is now Canada, it will get done; sometime. (like it’s not happening now but soon, or maybe later or maybe it will or maybe it won’t). We are so anal in North America.
Panic is part of travel. A trip that flowed evenly from start to finish would not only be boring but frankly is an unrealistic goal. Glitches will arise and the solving of the problems that do arise is all about learning, leaving one’s comfort zone, and keeping you sharp.