Honestly, I have never had incredibly bad travel experiences. There have been bad hotel neighbors, that one terrible layover at O’Hare, and a few bad luck moments with weather but overall it has been rather tame. My one and only one taxi ride was crazy. The guy was in such a hurry that he kept repeatedly shouting at us. It was after midnight and I was out of it after twelve hours of travel. I wanted to get from the airport to our hotel and we rolled with it. He was quick and efficient. Trying to organize our luggage and our kids was difficult.
I guess rental cars have probably been the most hit or miss for us. The reason we had to get a taxi was because there was nobody manning the car rental kiosks at the airport. The website said 24 hour pick up and we told them what time we would get there. When we got there they said that one person manned all the car rentals during the night, but he was nowhere to be found. My partner had to go back to the airport in the morning to pick up the rental car. Luckily, he was able to take the hotel shuttle to get there.
The last time we had gone to that city we rented a car and it was a piece of junk. It could not accelerate at all. Highway driving was terrifying and we had to do a lot of it. In town, it was fine. It was our first time in the city that trip and we did not know how to get around. Google maps kept getting confused because a lot of the streets overlapped in the downtown area. We drove in circles forever until we finally got a feel for the area. Did not have that problem the next time we visited because we knew to look out for it. Then a hockey game ended and we were in the traffic on the highway for that. There was this tunnel and apparently the home team won. It was bumper to bumper honking all the way to our hotel. That same trip, we were caught in a downpour that I have never experienced before. It was a super monsoon. That crappy rental’s windshield wipers had no chance to keep up with it. Luckily we had pulled off the highway to get some food. We sat in the parking lot for nearly an hour waiting for the rain to stop so we could drive back to our hotel. Absolutely crazy. My partner is used to monsoon rains and I have dealt with all the wintery rainy conditions around the mountains and neither of us had experienced anything like that. It was horrendous.
Always a memorable time when we visit our friends in Pittsburgh.
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