Least Favorite Traveling Experiences

Least Favorite Traveling Experiences

We're the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time. We can't share our favorite traveling experiences without also sharing our least favorite ones. So here they are! We also talk about how YOU can avoid these not-so-great experiences

Transcript

 📍 We're the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time on this episode of travel Essary. We're going to get down into the nitty gritty and talk about our least favorite traveling experiences. Let's chat.  

Welcome and thank you for joining us on this episode.  I can't see that I'm excited about this episode, but it is something that needs to be talked about because not every travel experience that you're going to have is going to be sunshine and rainbows. There are going to be some times where it's going to be down. 

There's going to be some times where you're going to have a bad experience at a restaurant. At a theme park or just in general, . So we want to keep it real with you as much as we possibly can. And we want to share our experiences that. We didn't have the best time.  And some of the tips and tricks that we use now. To help us avoid as much as possible  bad experiences.

While traveling. 

 We're going to talk about R three. Least favorite experiences while traveling or children have a couple of these are in no particular order. It's not numbered one through three. We don't know each others. We're just going to talk about them and kind of see if maybe one or two of them match up. 

, we did a podcast that was our most favorite. And . Those happen to coincide with each other. On several of them. 

So let's jump off into our least favorite traveling experiences. Number one. Was I had a very bad experience. The last time that we went to six flags over Texas. I love six flags over Texas. They have some of the greatest rides in my opinion, in the United States. The Texas giant is iconic. The Titan is phenomenal. They have Superman and Mr. Freeze, which is one of my favorite rides. They have Batman. They have the Riddler. I mean, it's so many rides  But the last time that we went, I guess it's just because I'm getting old. That we served a young people. 

It was a youth group occasion. So we had like 15 young people we were going. And the first one that we came to, that they wanted to ride was the Titan. And I'm like, dude, let's do this. I'm all for it. And I get up there and we go up and everything is great. And we come down and we're going through the ride and it was a great and wonderful time. 

And, you know, we're laughing at people and we're making fun of each other, but at the end of the Titan, it has this triple loop as you come up and you're hitting such high GS, whenever you come up out of it. That one of our young people passed out. I almost blacked out. There were several people on the ride that just black out because you're pulling that many GS. And you get to the end point, it kind of jerks you. 

And so we get off when we make our way back down and it hits me like a  freight train. I am sick. I have made myself sick on the first ride. 20 minutes in to six flags over Texas, and we still have six hours to go. And I couldn't do anything for the rest of the day. 

 Which meant I had to pull double duty that day, as far as being chaperone and leader of all the young people, because he was sick and out of commission for the rest of the day. But I really think it's funny that you talk about how much you love six flags.  But it was one of your least favorite moments. 

When I asked the kids, Justin said his least favorite thing ever is six flags.  He hates going to six flags so much. 

Now granted, if you're not a thrill seeker, if you're not an adrenaline junkie. The six flags over Texas because of the theme park that it is. And it's all about roller coasters. If you're not a rollercoaster person, you're not going to have that good of a time, to be honest, especially if you go when there's no water rights, because after I got sick and after we  got something to drink and I  cooled down and the world stopped spinning around me. 

The only ride that I could ride was the water ride. And we rolled that sucker like six or seven times. And now granted, it was a hot day because you're in Texas, but it was enjoyable riding that ride over and over, but I could literally do nothing else. That whole entire day. 

Well, I do like the thrills and the adrenaline rush. 

So I love roller coasters. I don't get sick or pass out on them. But Justin hates six flags because when we go, I make him ride rides. Six flags is expensive and you're not going to go and not write anything.  So, if I'm taking you, you're getting your backside on a rollercoaster with me.  So he did not like that. While we're talking about Justin, one of my least favorite traveling memories.  Is whenever he was just a month old.  No, you can't do this. You can not take my number two worst memory.

Is there a really.  The same, one of the same worst memory.  Oh, it was awful. I was only a few weeks postpartum. Justin was our first baby. And we went camping with his family. We talk about it all the time on the podcast, the family reunion Jeremy's family has like every June. And.  We stayed in his parents' old pop-up cause  they had something new to stay in and we didn't have anything. We'd only been married a year. We had a newborn baby. We didn't have anything. We didn't even have a tent. At the time. And so they're like, Hey, we have this old pop-up, if y'all come, you can stay in it. 

So you can stay the week with us. And we're like, okay, fantastic. It rained almost that entire week and that pop-up leaked. Everywhere. And I had a one month old baby.  And I was not filling it. Being very freshly postpartum.  Definitely one of the most miserable times I've ever had at the lake or on a camping trip. 

I can tell you I have camped so much in my lifetime. And I have camped in rain. I have camped in the cold. I used to be a boy scout. I used to be on the military. It camping was just something that we did.  Rain sunshine. Snow. It didn't matter. We went camping. This was absolutely the worst camping experience I have ever had. 

It was. Horrendous Misty. Doesn't do a justice. Now, one thing that I will say is.  Yes, the pop-up was old and it leaked in a few places, but it didn't leak all over the place, but it was still enough to make an absolutely miserable. And to have those. Late spring, early summer rains in June makes it just that much worse because it'll rain for like an hour and a half, two hours. 

And then it's just hot, humid and muggy for the rest of the day until you finally get a reprieve. But whenever you get a reprieve, it's because it's raining again. 

We were, I don't want to say young and dumb, but we were young and  we did not do the planning that we do now. We did not have everything together.,  I'm not even sure how we survive, to be honest,  that whole entire week. Now there was some good times, but as an overall experience, it was absolutely horrific. 

We didn't get to go out on the boat hardly at all. , some of the stuff that we discussed in our episode where we're talking about our favorite memories we didn't get to do in this one. We didn't get to have the time with family because we were all in our individual campers trying to stay away from the storms or because it was so hot. Those that had a CS. That's what they went to, but the part that I remember.  Being the worst. Is going camping with a one month old.  And the eating schedule they have, whenever you're trying to do all the activities with the family and  you're up three or four times during the night while it's crane and you're trying to feed it and you're trying to keep the baby awake enough to, for it, to get its bottles, to. You know, fully be fed. 

It was just, it was one thing after another, trying to clean the bottles. I mean, oh my goodness. I'm not a hundred percent sure what we were thinking. At that time, like I said, we were young. , maybe a little naive, but.  In our first season, we talk about. Traveling with, children.  You know, are kind of how you can travel the different stages of traveling. 

Go listen to that podcast. Tips and tricks of what you really need to know. For traveling with one month or six month old. They do go check it out because you do not want to experience what we experienced. And it was a beautiful lake. I can't remember what lake we went to but this week, I don't know if the weather just wasn't.  What we thought it was going to be. I don't even think we check the weather before we even went. That was before the time of smartphones. And our internet was dial up. 

And so you didn't just like jump on and look at the weather. We were very young and  we weren't going to check the news like news. Why. But, you know, what's funny. We talk about how miserable of a time that was. But two years later when we had another one month old, we did it again. With the two year old. One month old.  Because both of our babies were born in may and by June, mid June, we're camping again both times. But the second time we had a class C trailer, not the pop-up. But yes.  One of the worst traveling memories, hands down. 

We'll since that's your second one, I'm going to go ahead and talk about my second one. Okay. Which kind of goes along with the, what we just talked about, but it's sketchy hotels.

 I couldn't just like I tried and tried to think of one single hotel.  You cannot tell this story, do not tell this story.

Well, I couldn't. Okay. I could not think of. My absolute least favorite.  Because to be honest, there's three.  There are three instances that stick out in my mind.  More than any.  And. I'm going to share with you guys some tips to avoid this.  Because of these three experiences specifically, I am hardcore when it comes to picking my hotels now and where I'm going to stay.  

I'm not sure which one's, Jeremy's talking about of not sharing. Um, but I bet it's one of these three.  Why don't you share we'll see if it's one of my three.  Okay. We were coming back from a wedding . . It was so late and it was such a long trip. 

We stopped in Meridian and there's this little light that's there. And , at the time there was a honky-tonk bore. Right off the highway and just adjacent to it owned by the same people on the same lot. Was a  motel. But we were so tired. And we still had an hour and a half, two hours before we even got back home and it was going to be super late. I was already falling asleep at the wheel. 

Misty was falling asleep as a passenger, which she usually doesn't do. But. Long story short, we stopped at this hotel. And we turn the lights on and immediately turned the lights off and said, it's only for six hours. We laid on top of the blankets.

We shut her as got as much sleep as we possibly could. 

And we left the next morning without ever turning the lights on again. Because the place was so sketch. It was so scary. We were really hoping that nothing would happen in the bar that was adjacent to the hotel or motel. I'm not sure what the other two she's going to talk about, but that one for sure is embedded into my mind. 

And that's why Missy's like, oh, Hey, we're going to stop, stay at this hotel. And I'm like, okay, does it have a breakfast? Does it have this? Cause I'm looking for the amenities to make sure that it's going to not going to be some type of hole in the wall.

So to our defense, this is when we were really young. It was before we had children. If we would have had children, I would not have stopped there. But it was so dangerous. , there were several times that Jeremy had fallen asleep while driving and I was asleep too. And it got to the point where we had to pull over because it was way too dangerous to be on the road. 

We were so exhausted. We had such a long day in such a long weekend. And that was the first place that we saw. We didn't think we could make it anywhere else. And we were just praying they had a room available. But I think that is probably the number one, like worst. Place we have ever stayed. Like Jeremy said, we didn't even crawl under the covers. 

We . Put like jackets and stuff down on the bed. And we slept on top of those covers. I think we only slept for like four hours. So we got up at the crack of Dawn and was out of there, I think before I think it was before the sun even came up. There was hollering and yelling outside of our window all night long. 

I just knew at some point someone was going to come break into our room or a gunfight was going to break out. The bar area was. There's something. So, so, so sketchy.  But then I remember our honeymoon as well.

This one. Definitely wasn't as bad. But I think compared to the first half of our honeymoon. So the first several days of our honeymoon, we stayed in this amazing bed and breakfast in downtown San Antonio. , it was just beautiful. It was top notch. It was high class. It was amazing. And then to save money the last three days, I think. The last two or three days, we didn't even book it again, because this was when we first got married. 

We were so young. We hadn't learned how to do all of this yet.  I got married at 18. You guys.  We were very young. We hadn't learned how to do all of this. And so we just grabbed any hotel that we saw. , we just started driving around San Antonio. We're like, oh, look, there's the hotel. Let's stay there. 

And again, this is before the times of smartphones. So you couldn't just, you know, jump on to Google and. Check the ratings, but.  That was another really sketchy place. I think someone did try to come into our room at one point in the middle of the night. 

So it was evening time. We had already ate, we were already back in our room and. Our door jiggles. And of course the first thing I can think of is like, okay, we about it's about to get real up in here.  I was still in the military at the time, or just got out of the military at the time. And so I was on high alert and I started yelling at the doors like. I got a wire. 

What are you doing? And the next thing I know is a diamond nose.  Brochure come sliding through the doorframe and I'm going, are you serious? Someone's going around jiggling on doors and then sliding in advertisement. How bad can this place get? It definitely was not as sketchy as the motel. We stayed at. But it definitely. I also was not a very nice.  Either.  That was a motel too. Was it a motel two? That's before we learned the difference between hotels and motels.  Our young days. But the third one. , is more recent it's whenever. We went  to the east coast. What was that? 

2021. Oh, yeah. In 2021. So I actually had done some extensive planning this time. I literally plan like our guests to ups. On our road trip. Dan Barry, extensive planning. And one of the places that we stopped at. I think it was right inside of Georgia. Like we were barely across the border. Into Georgia. And. The reviews were good. And so we were really surprised. But, um, definitely one of the more disgusting places. I've ever stayed at. When we walked into the hotel room and, um,  Flipped on the light.  Roaches and water bugs scattered everywhere.  To the point where we almost.  Just completely lost $150 and went to another hotel, but it was, I think it was later in the evening, we had just spent 10 hours in the car.  We had spent a long, long, long time in the car with three teenagers that were very cranky after spending 10 hours in the car. And we didn't know, it was a very small town. 

We didn't know where else to go, what was booked. And we would've had to spend another 150 $200. I, I regret it to this day. I wish we would have just left and went and got another hotel, but we told the kids just shower. Don't leave your luggage open. We took every precaution that we could, we were killing everything. 

, I went down to the front desk and complained and said something, but it, it didn't do any good. I imagine they were all over the hotel, but what floored me was the hotel itself was really, really nice. When you walked in like the lobby and the outside, very nice, picture perfect of what a hotel is supposed to look like. And you went into the rooms and they're just covered in water bugs. So I am very, very, very. Very particular now about where we stay when it comes to hotels and overnight stays.  

Which brings us to my number one.  I've said in our previous episode  where we talk about our favorite traveling memories.  That this is going to be an oxymoron because it 100% is.  But  my favorite memory while traveling and my nutso favorite memory while traveling both have to do with the same place. And let me explain.  The first time that we went to Disney world.  Was an absolute nightmare and the greatest thing that we've ever done.

We left. On a Saturday morning. Because it was right after graduation. On a Friday night, we left Saturday morning Brighton early. We picked up Jason, which is Misty's brother. We loaded up the in-laws. We loaded all the kids  all the packages, all the suitcases in our car. We were all in one vehicle and we drove. For 14 hours. Almost non stop. And every place that we stopped on the way over there.

If we were trying to order food from a restaurant, those people had a bad attitude. 

, we had to stop in Mississippi. To pick up a phone charger for Jason.  And we did not have a good experience there at all. And we got to Disney world and we had one of the greatest experiences. But we wanted to see everything that we possibly could. In four days. For individual parks in four days. And it was impossible to do, and we ran ourselves ragged. We were so tired. We'd come in dragging our feet or carrying the kids that have been asleep for an hour and a half. Before we even got back to the hotel and then we would just crash out until we got up at, the next morning. 

And then we'd go back out and  it was nonstop the entire time. And the fatigue hit us so hard every single night on the way back, it was horrific how tired we were. And it literally took us two or three days after we got back. Just to get our bodies and to get our minds and our sleep schedule back on to some type of routine, because we were so dog tired.  I like to refer to our first time at Disney world as our trial run. Because we had a really great time. We didn't know how to use the dining plan. We were still trying to figure out their transportation system. It was way too much that we planned out into, you know, a single day. And I could tell you some stories about Mississippi alone.  I'm still waiting to have a positive experience in Mississippi. So. For all of you Mississippian.   Tell us where we can go. So that  mississippi can redeem itself. Every single time we have been through Mississippi. It's been a bad experience we've gotten pulled over for absolutely no reason in Mississippi, some of the worst highways we've ever driven on. I've been in Mississippi. The rudest people we've ever had to experience have been in Mississippi, which Florida is MI Mississippi, such a beautiful area, too.  But I, I want to have a good time in Mississippi. 

So if you're from Mississippi or you've been to Mississippi and you can tell us of where we need to go. To enjoy Mississippi. Please let us know, send us a message or put it in the comments somewhere. Email us, let us know. We can go in Mississippi. To not feel the way that we currently feel about Mississippi.  So my least favorite traveling experience. 

Is multiple experiences, but the same thing.

And then I'm going to tail off on Jeremy and I for a moment. So Jeremy and I rarely. Argue or fight.  And we very rarely do. On travel. On vacations or trips or something.  And when we do have those moments where we disagree, , we like to do it away from the kids. 

And we have learned from this mistake that we have made many, many times. , in the early years of us traveling. But.  It's navigation. 

So I am the navigator.  I am the one who I checked the GPS. I do the maps. I plan the routes and Jeremy is the driver. , he handles that better and I handle the navigation better. But one thing that we have had some heated arguments about.  While on vacation is piking and destinations. Once we get to where we're going. 

And the one that sticks out in my mind the most is 4th of July, 2021.

We went to Hilton head, which is funny because it's also one of my favorite moments too. It's funny how you have those moments of Disneyworld Hilton head. Wherever it is camping, where you have your favorite and your least favorite experiences like in the same place. But.  I wasn't sure where to park so that we could have the best view on the beach because there was going to be some flyovers from some different jets and military planes. 

And I don't even know what else maybe Jeremy can remember, because I never know the names of those kinds of things. I just like watching them.  But it was an air show that was going to be on the beach. Of Hilton head. And I told you, Jeremy. The very beginning, like, I don't know where to park, like look at this map because when you're on a GPS, it'll get you to your destination. 

But then parking's always scattered, like whether you're going downtown somewhere or to a specific location where like flea market Canton, like there's so many different places to park. And I never know what the ideal place is. I never know. What that parking situation is going to look like, because I've never been to that place. If it's a new place I've never been there. I don't, I don't know what the parking's going to look like. And you can Google and look online and some places, their websites just, they don't, they're not helpful at all. 

When it comes to parking.  And so we got there and I was like, I don't know where to park. I don't know. You know? I don't know what to do. And I'm, I'm trying to tell Jeremy, like, you need to look at this. You need to, I don't even know where to go from this parking spot. Well, it always becomes a little heated. When we get to that. And especially that 4th of July, I think by the time we made it to the beach, I was in tears. And Jeremy was like, Red in the face from being so upset and we never fight in front of the kids. 

So I've apologized to the kids, like, I'm sorry, like. Let's switch just a unpleasant moment. And it was the very beginning of our beach vacation. Like we had just got. Ned. And we pulled up to the beach and it was not a, not a good time for about 30 minutes. But, you know, we, we made up and it was fine.  So that's going to bring me to my first tip. And that is. One plan your routes, know what highways you're taking. , Have a designated navigator.   If possible. Check on parking. There are several places that their websites will give really good. Parking.  Like for the state fair, whenever we were looking at parking, they had a really good.  Map, of where the parking was compared to the, where the gates are. 

If possible, where you're going check on the parking. To gather whether you're the driver or the navigator.  Everybody that is involved in that process needs to do it together. And figure out the best thing to gather. And remember whenever you're you're in that moment and you're completely surrounded by cars and everyone's honking and everyone else is trying to figure out the same thing as you, that you're not going to get heated at each other in those moments. Uh, try to keep it cool. 

And those improvements and just, just let it ride. 

Now one thing that I will say about that unpleasant experience, because it was unpleasant. Is.  Misty.  Asked everyone in the family. Hey, where do you want to go? Do you want to know? And we all said, make this a surprise trip wherever you take us. That's where we go. Now, granted, I have traveled before. It's not uncommon for me to get on the road and you say, Hey. Churn this way. 

And I know we're heading west. I can start narrowing down where we're going to go.  But that day, specifically that day, while we're driving, we went and we ordered something and she was like pulling here. 

Oh no, pull it over here. Oh, it doesn't matter where you stopped. And I'm like, I don't even know what we're doing. Like other. I don't know the plan. You you're the planner. You tell me where we're going and what we're doing. And finally, she kind of broke it down to this. We are to me cause we didn't want the kids to know. 

Cause it was a surprise and we finally found a parking spot. And then we didn't bring any beach stuff because the place that we were staying at was gonna provide all the beach stuff for us for the rest of the week. And so we didn't have anywhere to sit. We barely had a blanket and it was just one of those unpleasant things. 

And whenever you add parking into it, so yes, I mean, I totally agree with Misty. 

The pilot and the copilot need to come together and be like, okay, Hey, this is where we're going. Especially the state fair it. I studied it for like two days, just to be like, okay, Hey, look, if we're supposed to come in off of this highway. Then this is going to be the premier spot because we're going to want to see X, Y, and Z inside the state. 

Fair. . So come to an agreeance, come to an understanding. And sometimes you park in the best spot, sometimes you don't and you just live with your choices that you, I mean, there's really no reason to get, , hot and heavy about it. 

But unfortunately we were traveling for a lengthy period of time. , we were a little bit tired and so yes, our attitudes kind of float over. Which brings me to my number one tip to help you avoid bed. Traveling experiences. And that is avoid travel fatigue. Prioritize sleep. Get rest. You don't have to go, go, go, go, go all the time. You know, you might be there for a limited time and go see as much as you possibly can, but whenever you're tired, take a break whenever you're hungry. I get something to eat. 

Whenever you need time to stretch your legs, stop the car, get out, stretch your legs because the longer you prolong arrest or a little rest pipe. You're going to regret it later. Maybe not that day, maybe not the next day, but the longer your trip goes, the more you'll regret it because the more days that you're going to have, where you're just going to find yourself, just worn out. All day. 

I also feel like that's when we're the most irritable to. Because you are fatigued and you're exhausted. And if it's the summertime, you're probably dehydrated because you never drink enough on vacation when it's hot. And.  All of our. Good memories happened whenever we were slowed down.  All of , our favorite  memories happened when we were slowed down. 

And so if you are go, go, go, go your entire trip, your entire vacation, whether it's a one day. Road trip or, you know, a month long vacation. If  you are not slowing down enough to create those core memories that you're going to remember forever. Those good core memories. 

I have some bad core memories from when we went, headstrong and.  Try to take everything by storm, , 10 hour travel days and trying to do everything at Disney world in four days, which is impossible, by the way, you can't even do it all in a month. But yes. Slow down. 

Plan your hotels plan, your stops. 

We've talked about a lot of this before.  

Once again, some of this stuff we probably could've avoided. Well, we didn't have the technology we have now. 

 📍 Which brings us to what we're going to be talking about next week, we are going to talk about. Planning your pit stops how to plan your pitstops. , How to make the most out of your pit stops. , different websites and tools that we have used throughout the years

so join us next week.  

  Let's go home. Na-na-na. Let's go home. Na-na-na.