How to travel when you have extraordinarily bad luck.

In February 2014 I bought a ticket from Washington DC to Wilmington NC, for the 8/2/14, at least I thought I did. I failed to check my ticket confirmation, I actually purchased a ticket for 2/8/14. Standing at the airport, with a suitcase and no ticket to NC I had to purchase a new one, ASAP. With no refund, and no change of date option on my $139 flight I was forced to spend another $280 with another airline. (I still have that flight in August if anyone wants it!)

After a whirlwind few days in Wilmington, I attempted to depart. My flight was cancelled, and being in a college town, this meant another night of partying. Far too many $1 drinks and just one bad mistake later, I was hungover and on my way to the airport again. I arrived, got in line, said goodbye to my friends and less than five minutes later they cancelled my flight again.

Now, you would think that's bad enough, but they only cancelled half of my flight. My connection wasn't cancelled, and that connection got me to Houston where I was supposed to catch a bus from to go to Dallas and depart America entirely. So I'm stranded in Wilmington North Carolina, being told that I'm not going to make it out of America. And I'm alone.

The flight attendant tells me that if I can get to Charlotte by 8pm that night I can catch my connection to Houston - because they've only grounded small flights, not the big planes. She tells me Charlotte is about 3 and a half hours away, and that if I hire a car I'll be able to drive and make it.

Here's the problem with that. I'm in America, in winter, with icy roads, and an Australian drivers license - I can barely manage driving in rain on the right side of the road, let alone on ice on the wrong side!

Logically I think hiring a taxi to get me there is a good decision. Four hours, one taxi rave, numerous eighties dance classics and $350 poorer, I got to Charlotte. Charlotte is 8 inches deep in snow, and the line for the airport is nearly out the doors.

My connection is cancelled. I paid $350 to sit in a taxi for close to four hours, only to get to an airport, have to stand in line for another four hours, and be told that I might be stuck there for 48 hours more.

If you have a track record of bad luck and your flight is cancelled, don't try to make your connection by taking a taxi to the next airport. It's not worth it. Not even for an eighties dance rave in the middle of winter, in North Carolina.