Where's our car?



It was a typical Christmas morning in Orlando Florida. Since I am Jewish I never had a very strong connection to Christmas, but I have always enjoyed the festive music, cheesy movies, and happy atmosphere that surrounds me everywhere. Also, a fun fact is that oftentimes flights are cheaper on Christmas day because many people want to spend time with their families instead of wasting their day at the airport. So, just like always, my family and our friend Yael headed to the Orlando airport and boarded our flight back to Indianapolis. That is where this story begins.

While we were flying my mom asked my dad if he booked a shuttle from the Indianapolis airport to the hotel where our car was parked. Pause. Rewind. Before our trip to Florida, my dad dropped my family and Yael off at the airport then parked our car at a hotel, and then proceeded to take a shuttle to meet us back at the airport. Pause. Fast Forward. My dad, being the laid back one in our family, said not to worry about it and that he remembers exactly what shuttle he took and where the car was parked.

After we landed and retrieved our endless amounts of luggage we boarded the shuttle to the hotel. We arrived at the Wyndham hotel and were ecstatic to get off the shuttle and go home. All of sudden my dad started to sweat a little. “I could have sworn I parked right here” he said, and that’s when we knew he had messed up big time. Fun fact: there are A LOT of Wyndham hotels in the Indianapolis area. After checking every single car in the parking lot my dad decided to call every single Wyndham in the area in search of our beloved red 2010 Toyota Sienna.


What felt like hours later we finally called a Wyndahm that said they had our car in their parking lot. Great right!? Now all we had to do was a take a shuttle between the two hotels! Wrong. We had to take a shuttle all the way back to the airport and then wait another 30 minutes for the shuttle to come pick us up and take us to our car. Needless to say, when we saw our car for the first time in a week it was as if we had just won the lottery. We all simultaneously sprinted to the car while screaming and gave it one big hug. People probably thought we were crazy but to us it was the best Christmas gift we could have ever imagined.

Comments

  1. Abraham HanSeptember 13, 2018 at 9:30 PM

    Haha! Very nicely done. This was a very entertaining story to read, both giving me a little insight into you dad's personality, and pushing your unique voice through. I especially liked the last sentence of the post. I'll keep your tip in mind if we're ever in Indianapolis, and also lodging at Wyndahm.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael MooreSeptember 14, 2018 at 11:36 AM

    I can hardly imagine a better way to spend your Christmas. This sounds like a typical father move, and you described it wonderfully. I got a very clear image of your family running around Indianapolis like crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Emi L.September 16, 2018 at 5:44 PM

    I like that your family is the type of family that collectively hugs a car after a long and frustrating day instead of a family that argues all day and rides home in sullen silence.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Gloria SunderlandSeptember 17, 2018 at 12:57 PM

    I love this story and how it ends with a funny, happy moment even after a long day of travel problems. I feel like a lot of times if families have travel problems they end up having a stressful day that ends in arguments and not happy hugs. Also I love the title it truly drew me in to find out where your car went!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Pomona Carrington HoekstraSeptember 19, 2018 at 7:24 PM

    This story is great! I love the "oh shit" attitude that is conveyed by your dad's comment (any comment that begins with "I swear I [verb]ed..." will end badly) and the feeling of eventual relief at finding the lost item is one I've experienced many times!

    ReplyDelete
  6. KatSeptember 25, 2018 at 12:49 PM

    I love your voice in this post because I can imagine you're telling me the story. I also loved how you described your search for the car as an adventure and how excited you were to find it.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Matthew JinOctober 13, 2018 at 2:10 PM

    The casual tone of this blog post made it very entertaining to read. I love the "Pause."s in the second paragraph. It's like we're reading your mind. Going on vacation to other parts of the country, in my opinion, always makes you realize the importance of a car.

    ReplyDelete

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