The Dumbest Thing I Ever Did

The dumbest thing I ever did just happened yesterday. I'm still smarting from my mistake, but felt it best to blog about it now, while the wound is still fresh.
I've read some articles lately that say how when you plan an event in the future, that you are really looking forward to, that you actually benefit from the event several weeks prior to it actually occurring. I can attest that this is a true statement. Every summer, we take one week of what I call a real vacation. Not a "staycation" , where you take day trips, but a real away from it all vacation. We've been going to Cape Cod in Massachusetts on and off for over 20 years, since our kids were little. We are so familiar with The Cape, that it feels like a second home for us.

Usually in December, I start trolling http://www.homeaway.com and plug in the search criteria for the house we need and start emailing the owners who have listed their houses for rent. We bring our dog Newman with us, and searching for "pet friendly" rentals cuts down on the number of suitable places quite substantially.
I found a great place this year that matched our budget and needs and booked the house for a week before 2013 even started! Several emails and even a phone call were exchanged between myself and the owners and eventually they sent us the rental agreement and we sent them a deposit.
We were all set for the week of 7/14-7-21.

I'm not a last minute packer, so I spent about 2 weeks slowing gathering everything we need for vacation. I'm so organized that I've developed a "vacation to do/bring" list that I update every year, so we don't forget anything.  I notify our newspapers to suspend delivery, make sure the yard and garden are tended to before we're away for the week, etc. I research what live theater and music we might see during our vacation, and even search for new eateries that are highly rated on YELP. I buy our beach pass ahead of time too, so we don't waste a precious minute getting one in person. I arrange for our mail to be picked up by a neighbor, and lined up our kids (now adults), to water the garden during our absence.

Mentally, I start thinking about how great vacation is going to be, and how relaxing and wonderful the whole experience is going to be at least two weeks before we go. This year was no exception.

So Saturday night, we went to bed early, knowing we would be getting up at 4:30 AM for the over five hour drive to The Cape.
The car was already packed, the  GPS loaded with the vacation address, and our anticipation was high.  The ride up was easy and we were fortunate not to hit any traffic jams even as we took one of the two bridges which are the only means of entry onto Cape Cod. We were on The Cape before 11 AM, and knew we had several hours to spend before we could get into our rental house where check in time was three PM. We drove along beautiful Route 6A , and stopped for breakfast at our favorite place, the 6A Cafe.

As we neared the town of Eastham, where our rental was, my wife and I excitedly pointed out several destinations we would surely hit during our stay...Nickerson State Park, Villa Pizza, Cape Cod Natural History Museum, and many others. It was going to be glorious week, with even the weather cooperating. We actually showed up about 1:30 at our rental, but the owner told us he had just arrived to clean it, and that we should come back at the check in time of 3 PM, which we did.

I started to feel slightly anxious when we pulled into the parking area where there were now 2 cars parked. We really wanted to unload the car, settle our dog and go out for a late lunch. What was even odder was that there were several people sitting on OUR deck (well at least it was ours for the week), drinking ice tea and chatting. We figured they were friend of the owners, who had stopped over to chat. I grabbed a few bags from our car and my wife asked if was ok to go in the house and the owners said sure. My wife noticed there was a "welcome " goody bag on the kitchen table, with someone else's name on it. She went back outside on the deck to tell the owners, and that's right about when all us started to realize something was amiss.

The people on the deck chatting with the owners were renters just like us. They had booked the week of 7-14, just like we had, or so I thought. The owner quickly took out his iPAD and said something like, "I hope I didn't make a mistake ."  While he fumbled with his iPAD, I fired up my laptop, where
I knew I had copies of the emails we had exchanged regarding the rental. Before I could connect up, the owner showed me a copy of the rental agreement I had signed. It was for the week of 7/7 to 7/14. That was last week! While it was hot in the kitchen where I was trying to get my laptop connected, my own internal temperature spiked to the point where beads of sweat were pouring off my face.

No matter what emails I found, the owner had the proverbial smoking gun with the copy of the signed rental agreement.. Somehow, I had messed up the dates. We were a week late!  Still disbelieving I had made such a moronic error, I continued to try to get my laptop connected to the internet , still thinking that maybe the owners had screwed up the dates. When I finally was able to view my emails, I couldn't find one that supported this week as the week we had asked for. I told the owner I had committed a colossal blunder. He was as nice as could be, feeling badly for us, but what could he really do? He helped me find a realtor in town as I was thinking at this point that maybe we could rent another place for the week.

But as we pulled away from our short lived vacation house, I started to realize that finding another suitable rental at 4 PM on a Sunday afternoon, was probably not going to happen. We also hadn't budgeted any monies for such an occurrence. The wife suggested we drive a short distance to Ben and Jerry's were she would get us some ice cream, and we could decide what to do.

Before she even came back to the car with my New York Fudge Chunk ice cream,

I realized that the best alternative was to head home and cut our losses. My wife agreed and some tears were shed by yours truly as I realized that all of my planning, anticipation, and excitement had just been dashed to bits. We were not going to be spending the week at The Cape. I had killed our vacation by messing up the date. Even as I write this, I still don't get what possessed me to do so.

We had spent a grand total of about four and half hours on the Cape. Talk about a vacation that flew by!