What To Do When Your Trip Goes Wrong

If you saw my last post, I hinted at a bit of a disaster during our trip to New Hampshire. The fact of the matter is if you travel often enough, you're bound to have a trip or two go horribly wrong. Ours definitely took a turn for the worse, but it wasn't the end of the world.

Let's start at the beginning. My husband and I wanted to take our dogs on a fun hiking and camping trip in the mountains of New Hampshire. It's about a 13-hour drive from our house, so it was a bit of a time commitment. We decided to leave Thursday night, drive 5 hours, stay with my aunt and finish the drive early Friday. We would drive home all day on Monday. We arrived Friday afternoon and all was well. We set up camp, confirmed our hikes and enjoyed the campfire.

That night we slept with our dogs in our tent and our little guy, Miles, was uncharacteristically restless. He was also shivering a bit which was unusual. He had his sweater on him and it really wasn't terribly cold so it seemed a bit odd for him to shiver. I ended up pulling him in my sleeping bag and cuddling him. Unfortunately, the next morning, he got worse. We kept thinking he was just cold, but NOPE.

We made our way to the trail head (about a 15 minute drive away) and after a bit of stressful parking, started our hike! We barely made it up the approach trail when Miles threw up. Normally that is a concerning sign for dogs, but Miles has a long history of eating too fast and throwing up. We had brought extra food in our packs so we weren't toooo concerned about him. We paused, gave him water and waited for his tummy to settle. We figured we would feed him a repeat breakfast in a little while to keep his energy up.

As we hiked, I noticed he wasn't up front all eager and tugging like he normally is on a hike. That was another warning sign. It only took about a mile and a half before he just stopped on the trail. That was when we knew he was NOT feeling good. Poor guy. We rested for a few minutes and tried again to no avail. He would not walk any further.

 

Walking back down the trail holding Miles

 

As annoying as it was to turn around on our 8 mile hike so early, we needed to take care of our little guy. He is 12 years old and only 10 pounds so he's not exactly a rugged dog. We ended up carrying him down the trail and calling my sister, a vet. She recommended we take him to see a local vet to make sure it was just a bug and not something more serious. Unfortunately, our phones did not work well so it was hard to get directions etc. and by the time we got to a vet, it was closed (It was Saturday). We then got in touch with my sister to see if we needed to take him to an emergency vet. She had us buy a thermometer to take his temperature (yes, in his butt. FUN). She also had us do a few other basic tests and decided he likely had the doggy version of the flu. We babied him and kept a close eye on him, ready to rush him to the emergency vet as needed.

By the end of the night it was clear he would not be able to hike the next day. This was incredibly disappointing. We had driven all that way only to hike a total of 3 miles. But that's just life. Sometimes things happen and plans go awry. We decided rather than just hang out in camp the next day (it was raining) we would drive home Sunday instead of Monday.

Fortunately, Miles was much improved the next day, but he was definitely not up for a hike. I think we made the right decision to just come home. It was unfortunate and heart-breaking but the right choice for my dog.

Trips don't always go smoothly. Sometimes they can go downright horridly. Fortunately for us, Miles has recovered and it was all just a huge inconvenience. We handled the situation the best we could,  talked through every possible solution and made the decision that was right for us. The most important thing to remember is to keep a positive attitude. We still got to camp, spend time outside, enjoy the beautiful leaves, spend time as a family and above all Miles is OK. Always put your safety and health first and look on the brightside. Unplanned events can really stink (and cost some serious $$$) so remember that travel insurance! Especially if you go abroad.

We are hoping to go on a "do-over trip" in a few years. Fingers crossed we'll actually get to hike that mountain the next time around!

If you'd like help planning your next big adventure, check out my website at MilesIntoMemoriesTravel.com.