Almost everyone has a vacation site – the beach, the Ozarks, the mountains. I’ll bet there are even families that go every year to Dollywood.  When you are in the military, it’s hard to find a local spot, because we move every few years.  We locked in on Disney World and went more times than I want to tell you.  We took our children, we took our parents, we took our children and their children.  We took ourselves.  You can’t get too much of Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.

After we retired, we had our two girls come out each summer.  They were both schoolteachers, so the summer worked out great and we would make a trip to the outlets in Lancaster or Ocean City to buy clothes for the next school year.  The COVID epidemic wiped out one of the outlets in Lancaster.  So, we started spending a couple of nights in Ocean City and running up to Rehobeth.  When Carole passed on, the girls continued to come and my granddaughter, Kristin, joined Becky and Missy.

I would make the hotel reservation early, early.  I’m old school.  I always call the hotel, because I want to talk about room selection and things only the hotel would know about.  So last year I called the Courtyard Inn and reserved two rooms on the Boardwalk.  Then seven months later, after driving three hours, we attempted to check in. The Courtyard receptionist advised that we only had one room.  The general manager advised that our other room had been cancelled the day before.  And, of course, they were fully booked.  Then the general manager told me I had booked with a third party, and I needed to talk to them about getting my money back. I think that was when I lost it.  My girls calmed me down before the police were called and Kristin called the Holiday Inn (two blocks down) and got us rooms.

The people at Courtyard were unsympathetic, unapologetic, and totally unhelpful in getting my money back.  I called Marriott.  They said all the right things, opened a case number for me and I never heard another word.  Fortunately, someone advised me to call my credit card provider and contest the charges. I called the Pentagon Federal Credit Union.  The lady advised me the charges were from January and here it was August and I only had 60 days to contest a charge.  I did not lose it. I simply explained that I did not know that I had been cheated until we checked in in July.  She understood.  I got my money back thanks to PenFed, but I’m still unhappy.  I want someone to suffer for my indignities!

Guess what?  This year we stayed at the Holiday Inn.  And all went well until someone stole my credit card number.  I can’t be certain where it happened, but we had lunch the first day on the Boardwalk at the Brass Balls. I was notified by the PenFed Fraud Division. They texted me to find out whether I had charged $143 for pet food in Colorado.  When I texted back no, then boom, the credit card was cancelled.  You probably all know that helpless feeling.  Then there are all the companies I need to notify of my new credit card number.

I finally decided that I could solve a lot of my problems by staying off the Eastern Shore.  But then, what would I write about?