I Feel Like I've Been Hit by a Truck: A Transatlantic Trip Report

[Witherbark]

We'll get to the title in a moment, but first I'd like to share a little background on what turned out to be an amazing adventure and wonderful vacation, full of new friends, good food, and new places.

Prelude
My DH is a reluctant Disney lover. I took him for the first time in March of 09 and he was definitely going to humor me. He had gone once as a child on a day trip to Magic Kingdom. He didn’t see the draw. But he loves me, so he agreed to a 5 day stay using the military discounts then in place. We did 5 day park hoppers (I had an AP) at Pop and he was shocked at how fun the trip was. He was, I may say, a Disney convert. We went in early March and it was warm enough to spend mornings in the park and afternoons at the pool. We didn’t rush but saw everything and ate at some great restaurants. I gave him ample opportunity to propose, but he failed to do so (he did eventually, just not at Disney).

We took a mini-honeymoon in September after our wedding (yes, he proposed in May and we got married in September). We had just moved into a house, though, and had neither the money nor the time for a real vacation. So we started looking at cruises for 2010 as sort of a delayed honeymoon. I liked the looks of Radiance of the Seas and the Emerald Princess, but before I could get carried away or book anything, my parents told us about the Eastbound Transatlantic and the great deal they got on that.

Well, we couldn’t do the EB, the timing just didn’t work and, as much as he likes my parents, I’m not sure DH was in love with the idea of spending 14 days on a boat with them. But we did look into the WB, and lo and behold the prices were reasonable and it seemed doable. So we booked.

Yup, booked a 14 night transatlantic cruise. The most either of us had cruised before was a 3 or 4 night Bahamas cruise years and years ago. So, you know, it seemed reasonable to think that we would enjoy 14 days on a boat in the middle of the Atlantic.

That was March. Over the summer, military rates were announced and we were able to take advantage of that. We also cemented 50 more years of Disney vacations by buying into the vacation club.

So your cast is me, 34, long time Disney fan and DH, 39, newcomer to all things Disney. Also three angry cats, but we’ll leave them at home.

 

[Witherbark]

Get Me To The Ship on Time (or what not to do the night before vacation)

I have bad day-before-travel or event karma. The day before I was to drive to Philly to catch a flight to Greece my car battery died, so I had to get it jumped, then drive to the shop and drop off my car, walk home, and walk back to get it. The day before our March vacation I got an eye infection on the very day that every eye doctor left Maryland for a conference in New York. The night before our wedding I sliced my hand open and spent the night in the emergency room.

So you can imagine how proud of myself I was at 3 o’clock on the day before we left for Barcelona. I had taken the day off work and cleaned the house, packed, and run my last minute errands. Gifts for the cat sitters were sitting on the counter, along with all the cat info. The car was gassed up. I had checked us on online for our flights. The plan that evening was to relax, order a pizza and watch a movie and be in bed early.

I was just calling the credit card company to make sure they knew we would be out of the country when a call from an unknown number came in. I let it go to voicemail. I almost didn’t check it, thinking it was something annoying from work, but then I thought I should since my phone would be off for 2 ½ weeks. It was a call from the lovely people at the George Washington University hospital telling me that my husband had been in a motorcycle accident.

The nurse immediately told me he was alert and oriented, so I didn’t panic. But so much was racing through my mind – did this mean the end of our trip? What was he doing downtown DC (he shouldn’t have been there)? Did this mean the end of our trip? What kind of shape was he in? Did this mean the end of our trip?

Oh, what? She said he was alert and oriented. I knew he wasn’t going to drop dead at any second, so I was worried about our trip. So sue me.

He had been hit by a truck. Someone driving a Jeep Grand Cherokee made an illegal lane change into DH, dragging him across two lanes of traffic and trapping him between his bike and the road, with the bike lodged under the front of the Jeep. Thank God a cop was literally 30 feet away when this happened and was able to call it in. According to DH, he said “don’t move” and DH was like “um, yeah. Not planning on it”. So sense of humor was also intact.

I rushed (as much as is possible in beltway traffic) to the hospital. DH was, indeed, alert and oriented. They were just finishing up his stitches when I got there, but he was still in a neck brace. After about an hour, they came to tell us that they would be admitting him and he would not be released until the next day. As in, the day we were supposed to leave. On a 9AM train. Oh good grief.

 

[Witherbark]

Barcelona Bound?

I stuck around the hospital until they put him upstairs in a room, by which time it was after 9PM. I impressed upon the nurses the necessity of getting out of there as soon as possible the next morning. They were less than helpful.

I drove home – thank God for GPS – and stopped at the 24 hour Walmart for icy hot, ibuprofen, and Gatorade. Incidentally, Walmart at 11PM? Not pretty. There was a guy there dressed like a pirate. In a Walmart. At 11PM.

Once home I made calls to the car insurance company, the health insurance company, and Amtrak to change our train to a later one. I reviewed our travel insurance policies. I finished packing DH’s carry-on and got him clothes and toiletries for the next day. I fed and watered three really annoyed cats. Somewhere in there it occurred to me I hadn’t eaten since breakfast and I had some toast. I put all of our bags in the car. I thought about having myself a good cry, but I’m not really a crier. I mean, I sat down and tried to have a nice good cry, but…nothing. Oh well. At some point around 1:30AM I set the alarm for 5:30 and went to sleep.

Why 5:30 in the morning? You only ask that because you don’t live in the DC metro area and are unaware of our awesome traffic. I was at the hospital by 7:00AM and talked the security guard into letting me upstairs before visiting hours started. When I got there, DH said the doctor had just left and had given him the go-ahead to get out of there. Yeah! I mean, obviously I was thrilled DH didn’t have internal injuries or anything, but he had strong vital signs and good color the night before, so I didn’t really think his injuries were more extensive than they appeared.

I went to the nurses’ station to see about his discharge papers and the fun began. They only gave discharge papers at the end of rounds, and they informed me that by the time the doctors finished and wrote orders, got everything together, it would be 1 or 2 PM. Um, no, that’s not going to work. I bugged them to point out his doctor to me and spoke with him. I cajoled a sympathetic-looking surgical intern. Eventually I told the doctor that if he didn’t let my husband out he would have another trauma on his hands because I would murder my husband. Then I told them I’d sign DH out AMA. Did I mention I’m a lawyer, so I was literally trained in how to be, um, strident. Anyway.

The fantastic surgical intern got the radiologist to read the scan and confirm DH was okay, then got the doctor to sign the order. Hallelujah! Only it’s 9:25, and our train leaves at 11:30. I still have to drive an hour to the MD train station, park the car, and get the tickets. Surgical intern tells me he’s asked the head nurse to come take DH’s ports out (IVs were already disconnected). I help DH get dressed, but by the time I’m done nurse still hasn’t appeared. So, discharge papers in hand, I head again to the nurses’ station and ask if one of them can come help. I know they are busy, so I don’t blame them when nurse says “I’ll get to him when I can.” “No problem!” I say “It’s just the port, I’ll take it out myself.”

Interestingly, she came right away when I said that. It took about 90 seconds to get the port out and bandage DH up, and we were good to go!

Well, good to hobble. DH basically could barely move from the pain in his leg and back, and transitioning from sitting to standing or vice versa was nearly impossible. I’m not a monster, I asked if he’d rather we missed the trip. But he insisted that we weren’t giving up until the train was pulling away without us!

So we hobbled out to the parking garage as quickly as we could and I loaded him in, handing him his goody bag of snacks, Gatorade, and ibuprofen. He had a prescription for Percocet, but we didn’t have time to stop. We also didn’t have time to stop for his wallet.

I’m trying to navigate DC traffic and listen to Cecily (my GPS) while DH talks to the car insurance agent on the phone. Somehow they do a three-way call with the impound lot and get the bike transferred to the insurance people. Then he’s on the phone with his mom who was supposed to pick us up at our house and take us to the train station. We’re cutting it too close, so now she’s just meeting us at the train station to transfer keys.

Somehow, we make it to the train station and I can’t find someplace to park! No doubt this is due in large part to the stress caused by the accident, no sleep, and no food. I finally park and while I’m trying to re-arrange carry-ons, DH pees in the corner. ‘Cause were classy with a K at this point. Sigh. Eventually I just say I hope we have everything, throw a $20 in the console to cover parking and wrangle the bags out of the back. Because of course DH can’t lift anything.

My awesome MIL is waiting for us at the train station entrance and she’s able to see that her son is banged up but okay. I hand her a note with my parking location on it and the keys to the car and ask her to please move it to our house before I have a $300 parking fee. Then I again wrangle the two rolling duffles into the train station and get our tickets. We still have about 10 minutes, so I buy DH a ham sandwich from the mini-mart inside. I would have rather eaten my own arm than one of those sandwiches, but since he had the “clear broth” breakfast at the hospital and nothing the day before, I think anything would have tasted good to him at this point.

In the moments before the train comes, I’d just like to give you an accurate picture. Neither of us had slept the night before (Wed night) – me at home or him in the hospital. We’ve both had a tremendous amount of stress thrown at us in the previous 24 hours, and he’s still in a great deal of pain. He hasn't showered since Wednesday mornng. We’re about to embark on a 24 hour journey that, under the best conditions, can make one stressed and cranky. I’m sure everything from here on out will be fine.

 

[Witherbark]

How did you like the play, Mrs. Lincoln?

The Amtrak to New York comes right on time. Our plan was to take the Amtrak to Penn Station, then the LIRR /Air Train to JFK. Aer Lingus to Dublin where we would make our Barcelona connection. We would be in Barcelona by 11AM on Friday.

We made these plans thinking that we would have two able-bodied adults on the trip – one significantly taller than my own 5’3”. Again, DH can’t lift anything. So when we get on the train and all of the lower bins are full, I need to put two 40 pound duffles in the overhead. It’s not that they are too heavy, it’s that I can’t lift them and fully extend my arms/stand on tip-toe to get them up there. Also, all of the men around our seats are watching me struggle with this and doubtless thinking that DH is some sort of slug for not offering help. Normally I detest women who ask for assistance, but I thought DH would be able to do this. So I am forced to ask the man sitting behind us for help, explaining that DH is not allowed to lift anything. He graciously helps, and of course as soon as we go to sit down it is obvious that something is wrong with DH.

I’m able to get a signal on the train, so I email the necessary folks to let them know we are headed out, call my mother, text MIL with the details of how to reach us on the boat. Some of this is stuff I would have done the day before except for, you know, the accident.

Our train pulls into Penn Station on time – I guess the Amtrak gods smiled on us. With a little confusion but not much I’m able to get us LIRR tickets and we’re on our way to Jamaica station to the Air Train. This, too, goes smoothly. I know that a cab would have been easier on DH, but since I didn’t investigate costs and I don’t know what traffic is like at this time of day, I don’t want to risk it. Finally, finally, we’re on the monorail around JFK airport and getting off at our terminal.

We easily find the Aer Lingus counter and there’s no line! We head up and they weigh our luggage and look at our passports. Oh, dear. See, I ran into this when I filled out the advance passenger information. DH’s passport expired when he was deployed, and the new one got lost in the mail. So his old one was extended. By the Serbian Consul. When I saw this, I said “hey, um, have you travelled out of the country on this passport since then?” Because it looked fishy, and I wondered how much gruff TSA would give us. “Of course I have!” he says. And shows me the Pakistan entry stamp and visa. See, this is why I suspect we’re now going to be subjected to a cavity search by TSA. At least the airline rep waived us on our way and we dropped off luggage and joined the security line.

I had joined our cruise meet thread and I knew a ton of people were on 5:30 ish flights out of JFK. I was sure a fellow Disney cruiser was in front of us (the Castaway Cay carry-on was a dead giveaway). The TSA agent gives DH the once-over twice, but we make it through.

We still have about an hour, so DH goes to a restaurant to grab a quick dinner. I’m still so nervous I can’t eat, but we play battleship on the iphone while we wait. Eventually DH goes to take another ibuprofen and realizes that he’s left both bottles (I got the double pack) in the car somehow. So I go to the newsstand and pay $8.50 for 20 Advils. Ouch.

It’s time to board the plane, and I’m thrilled to see the configuration is 2 -4- 2 and we’re on a two. This is what I thought I’d selected, but I honestly couldn’t remember. DH takes the aisle so he can stretch out his leg and get up and down to the bathroom quickly. We’re both happy to see the back of seat personal entertainment centers. He settles in with a movie, I grab my book and the plan is to get him to pop an ibuprofen nighttime as soon as we’re airborne. We should be in Barcelona by 10:30 or 11 AM the next day, where I can get DH in bed with his leg elevated and a heating pad on his back. With a hot shower and some food, he’ll feel like a new person.

Which is when the pilot comes on to tell us that tornadoes are going through New York and we’ll be staying right where we are for a while. By the time we take off, over two hours late, I know already we’ve missed our Barcelona connection.

The flight is pretty pleasant, actually. I’m happy with the leg room that Aer Lingus provides, the in-flight entertainment is well-stocked, and the meal is fairly good (I had the vegetarian meal, which I always think looks and tastes better than the regular. Just FYI). There was also a sick child on the plane, which the crew handled with calmness and professionalism. If DH hadn’t been in extreme pain, with his knee swelling and stitches seeping, I’m sure we would have thoroughly enjoyed the flight.

As we land in Dublin the next morning, the mist is just burning off and the green hills are beautiful. We both mention how lovely it is and what a shame it is we won’t get to see any of it. Little do we know.

 

[iloverags2]

Oh my goodness! I'm so glad your DH is ok, but wow! What a scary incident for him. Like you said, at this point things can only look up. Right? RIGHT?

 

[TotallyAngelic]

Your poor DH, I had no idea. Makes my problems before the trip seem very trivial. I hope he recovered enough over the next few days to enjoy the trip. I am dreading to think what happens next in Dublin ....

 

[MagicMe]

I love having another WBTA trip report to read!!!!

OMG, I can't believe your luck!! What an experience. We did at one point expect to fly Aer Lingus (leaving on the 16th and arriving on the 17th) out of JFK but grabbed tickets on US Air directly out of Phila when they had a great sale. We were delayed out of Philly by 1-1/2 hours but interestingly, they diverted us over JFK to fly across the Atlantic.

Can't wait to hear what happens!!

 

[TraceyDisney2008]

OMG I can't wait to hear the rest, it has to get better.

 

[tigger2on]

I am soooo hooked.

 

[HermanTriplets+1]

What a story Please continue! What happened in Dublin????

 

[JKSWonder]

I went to the nurses’ station to see about his discharge papers and the fun began. They only gave discharge papers at the end of rounds, and they informed me that by the time the doctors finished and wrote orders, got everything together, it would be 1 or 2 PM. Um, no, that’s not going to work. I bugged them to point out his doctor to me and spoke with him. I cajoled a sympathetic-looking surgical intern. Eventually I told the doctor that if he didn’t let my husband out he would have another trauma on his hands because I would murder my husband. Then I told them I’d sign DH out AMA. Did I mention I’m a lawyer, so I was literally trained in how to be, um, strident. Anyway.

As I started reading this section I was thinking to myself "Threaten to sign him out AMA!" And then you said it yourself. And then you said you are a lawyer. I'm a lawyer too. Apparently, we do all think alike!

It's a great report. I feel badly for your DH (and you), but I have to say, the situation does make for an interesting read!

 

[bunny]

Awesome report. I can't wait to read more, but I need a picture of you two, so I know what you look like. Loved the part where DH peed in the corner! That is totally something my DH would do. Of course, my DH grew up on a farm. Is your husband Serbian?

 

[jane2073]

Your trip report sounds interesting! I can't wait to read more.

He has the passport, but is your husband going to have trouble traveling abroad without his wallet??

 

[granmaz]

I'm really enjoying your report, though not all the content. Goodness, your poor hubby, and you too. How stressful. Yet, you make it all amusing and interesting. Looking forward to more.

 

[tea for girls]

Hi Erica from DC,
I am the nurse (along with my husband and 2 DDs) you and your husband met on the Madeira tour (swimming in the lava pool will be good for his leg. Glad you can look back at that difficult time now with humor. Hope all is well with you in DC and your hubby is back to full health.

Look forward to reading your trip report. (Catchy thread title-btw.)

 

[cattrix]

WOW, you need a cuddle!!!

Can't wait to read more!

 

[Witherbark]

Wow - I have readers! This makes me so happy I'll post another installment on Wednesday.

You know, this did make me put stuff like dining rotation and Palo brunch reservations in perspective. However, I would never want to travel with bladder issues! I can't imagine what you went through with having to stay hydrated while traveling, keep an eye out for public restrooms, etc. That sounds terrible, and kudos to you for going ahead with the trip. I hope you felt better after a few days of antibiotics.

 

[Witherbark]

Hi Erica from DC,
I am the nurse (along with my husband and 2 DDs) you and your husband met on the Madeira tour (swimming in the lava pool will be good for his leg. Glad you can look back at that difficult time now with humor. Hope all is well with you in DC and your hubby is back to full health.

Look forward to reading your trip report. (Catchy thread title-btw.)

Oh my goodness! It's so good to see you, Amy. How did your girls like the trip? I am sure it has given them some amazine memories.

 

[tea for girls]

Oh my goodness! It's so good to see you, Amy. How did your girls like the trip? I am sure it has given them some amazine memories.

Erica,
We truly had a fabulous time. Alexa, my youngest, is still doing reports at our co-op about some of the things we saw at the Louvre Museum in Paris on our way to Barcelona (Mona Lisa and the Law Code of Hammurabi are some of our favorites). We are going to work on Gibralter and the seige tunnels soon.
We took 3 cameras on this trip and have a few pictures to print yet. Hoping to get that done during our Christmas break.

 

[anna08]

Hopefully your day before travel karma turns into great vacation karma!! Great start to your trip report and can't wait to read more. As a physician, I had to chuckle about the lawyer/AMA part. Next time (hopefully not one), make that surgical intern pull out the IV himself while he's in the room, and good for you to make them get you out of there early! I'm sure you know we medical types call motorcycles "donorcycles" for a reason... just so glad he escaped a worse injury!! Thanks for the entertaining read!