Wednesday, July 27, 2011

My Vacation From Hell


After eleven years of being separated from a close friend whom I had worked with, we reconnected on Facebook in October, 2008. After two and a half years of communicating through Skype, e-mail and the occasional phone call, we'd become close as ever and when she'd told me she wanted to sell her house in Texas and had planned on moving back to Arizona, she'd invited me to visit her after she was settled. She hadn't planned on her home in Texas taking almost a year to sell, but eventually, they sold the house and had finally settled in Lake Havasu City, Arizona in December, 2010. I decided to give hr a few months to get settled into her home, get through the holidays and plan to take a trip out there in mid-February, 2011. We'd planned this trip for several months and were both excited at the prospect of seeing each other again. To protect the identity of this person, I won't use her real name, so I'll refer to her instead as "Melanie."

We'd planned this trip for three months; what to do, places we'd go. Melanie had told me she had a lot of fun stuff in store for us and couldn't wait for me to arrive! I also couldn't wait to get there as I had anticipated it would be the vacation of a lifetime, since I'd never been out west and was looking forward to exploring the vast area with my friend. So when the day finally came and it was time for me to leave for the airport, I was excited to finally fly out to see my good friend. Little did I know what lie in store for me, beginning with the trip from the airport. That should have been a clue as what was to come.

The plane had left Detroit Metro airport at 8:25 p.m. on February 13th, (bad omen) and landed at the McCarren International Airport in Las Vegas, the closest major airport to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. I'd been on a plane before, but never alone and flying solo was more than a bit unnerving, but people do it all the time, so I squashed my instinctive nervousness and tried to relax and enjoy the trip. Little did I know it was soon to become the vacation I'd never forget, but not because it was the dream vacation I'd envisioned for months. I had no idea what was to come, or what a huge mistake and lack of judgment I'd made (but I'll get to that later.) Unforeseen events prevailed and my dream vacation soon turned into a nightmare that would have long-lasting effects in ways I couldn't even begin to imagine.