Adventures in Single Motherhood: The Trouble with Travel

By Jennifer Hudock on January 4th, 2010

• Share
• Link to StumbleUpon
• 12 Comments

Many parents groan at the idea of taking their children on long trips, but I have to admit, traveling over the holidays with the Squeenager was a lot of fun. I even had managed to entertain her all the way from Pennsylvania to Toronto, no easy task. We arrived exhausted, but in good humor ready to enjoy our Canadian holiday.

Since she had never been to Canada before, my fiance and I tried to think of things we could do with her that would make her trip not only fun, but memorable. We decided to tackle the Royal Ontario Museum the Wednesday before New Years. If you’ve never been to the ROM, it’s a five story extravaganza of art, culture and natural history that ensnares the architectural senses before you even set foot in the door. We only had time to explore two of the five floors, but all three of us were astounded and excited the entire day, even as we left the museum. I thought, “Wow, we really made some memories today that she will cherish.”

She had an amazing time in Canada, but sadly, the most memorable portion of our trip was the journey home. You can’t control who you travel with, whether you’re on a train, a plane or a bus, and sometimes those strangers make it incredibly difficult for everyone else aboard. It started with a confused woman who barely spoke a word of English confronting every driver about her tickets. No matter where we went, she presented each driver with her accordion of tickets and asked for help. They all told her the same thing, but it did nothing to quell her obvious anxiety. When we arrived in Syracuse, the confusion turned into chaos when they switched a handful of passengers, the Squeenager and I, plus the confused woman and her husband, to another bus under the notion that we would make our next connection more quickly.

Long story short, the confused woman spent an hour hassling the driver, and we never left the station until forty-five minutes after we should have. The driver threatened to leave the woman behind, but eventually we hit the road. I knew we’d never make it to our destination on time because it was a ninety minute trip, and we were scheduled to arrive within thirty minutes from the time we left. To make matters worse, once we did finally arrive in the town, the driver stopped the bus in the middle of the road not once, but twice to ask for directions. Yes, directions. On the way into the depot, we passed the bus we were originally on, and I wanted to strangle someone.

Needless to say, we missed our connection by fifty minutes, and wound up stranded in Binghamton, NY. There were tears. We were both so frustrated, it just seemed like we’d never get home. We caught another bus three hours later, but had to have my best friend drive ninety minutes to Elmira, NY, to pick us up, since the next bus from Elmira to our town did not leave until 11:45 AM, the next day.

I could have had a meltdown. We made the best of it though, and had a really great time together. As I reflect on it, I can think of a lot of people, that had I been with them, it would have been absolute misery, but we actually had fun. We raided the vending machines and nearly snagged some weird purple hippo from the claw game. We sang crazy songs about hamsters on pianos and played games, and though it would have seemed reasonable to cry to the heavens, “Why me?” it really wasn’t that bad.

As a parent, you can never be too prepared, and even when you’re not, you still have to make the best of it. While I tend to loathe the cliched expression about lemons, circumstances like the one we faced are a great opportunity to teach your kids how to turn lemons into lemonade. No matter where you’re going, or how you get there, if you’re in good company, even the craziest of circumstances can be turned into an adventure. I’m actually glad we went through it, together, and can’t wait for our next trip, but next time I’m driving!