However, it's July in the Southeast, so some rain is to be expected, n'est-ce pas?
We'd even made a pitstop at Buckee's, south of Jacksonville, to gas up us and the vehicle.
The little blondes liked that -
they got their picture taken with the mascot!
Smiles all around!
Then back onto the road again, as Willie Nelson would say!
(smile!)
The good thing is that we made good time, even after we hit the bottlenecks on I-4, and even though the rain got harder.
My first niece's goal was to arrive at Orbit One by 4 PM, and we only missed that time by about thirty minutes.
Very good!
(smile!)
Then it all went straight to hell.
I went inside to check us in, with my veteran ID in hand, just as the Armed Forces Vacation Club had recommended.
Brittany B. checked the reservation number... and told me it had been cancelled.
What the fresh hell???
Brittany B. informed me that it had been cancelled by RCI, "at member's request", to which I had responded that I had not made the reservation through RCI, I made it with AFV.
That's when I called the phone number for AFV, only to be told that no one was there to take my call, as it was Sunday, so to leave a message and they would call back.
Brittany B. gave me the phone number for RCI, and all they could tell me was that the reservation had been cancelled at 4:20 PM - just minutes before our arrival - and that no one was there to straighten it out because it was Sunday.
Seriously?
Note to self: never, never, never, have a Sunday check-in again.
Brittany B. also gave me the phone number for Orbit One reservations, to see if they could help salvage this bad beginning to our vacation.
Their remedy, after my being on the phone with them for almost an hour, was to have me reserve a 2-bedroom for the night - in other words, to use the resort as a hotel - and to wait for things to get straightened out in the morning.
That cost me $171.80, for the one night, but they had assured me that the money would be refunded once the error with my AFV reservation was resolved.
What the fresh hell???
Note to self: never, never, never, have a Sunday check-in again.
I followed that up with a call to Jose at RCI, with us on the phone for almost 30 minutes.
Brittany B. sent him a screen shot of the cancelled reservation - made by someone named Perrine at RCI - so that gave him a starting point to find the error.
By that time, it was after 8 PM.
I'd had Christina and Miyah and Chloe in the lobby of Orbit One with me during this ordeal, with me getting out my computer and pulling up my AFV account to show Brittany B. that I had not cancelled my reservation, as they still showed it active.
We were there in the lobby for over two hours, then the security guard had escorted us to our condo for the night.
Where was the manager of Obit One?
At home, as the resort doesn't have a manager there on Sunday.
What the fresh hell???
Note to self: never, never, never, have a Sunday check-in again.
Now we were all starving and I had been crying.
How about Sickie's Garage?
We had noticed it through the rain, and it was just around the corner from Orbit One.
It looked fun and local and was brightly lit.
So that's where we went.
That was definitely a good place to go and the best thing to do.
What an incredible menu!
They even had tater tots...
(smile!).
Right place, right time.
Not even a call from Orbit One about our condo keys finally being ready could dispel our relief at being in this bright and cheery place.
I'd never heard of anything like it:
waffle fries mixed with buffalo chicken, then smothered in nacho cheese, and topped with sour cream and banana peppers - amazing!
I managed to put a huge dent in it, then took the rest to the condo.
That would serve well as breakfast, to sustain me through a morning round of phone calls with RCI and AFV.
For tonight, we had a place to sleep.
i thank You, God.
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That Monday morning, we had until noon to resolve the issue with the reservation or find somewhere else to go... or return to Hinesville.
Only the first of those options was palatable to me. While Christina went in search of a bank, I made phone calls.
AFV never was useful, at all.
I was on the phone with RCI for almost an hour, first with Linsey (as Jose was not there, but had documented the problem very well), then with Lori, the supervisor. Lori reinstated my week-long reservation status and spoke with Emily, the manager at orbit One. Emily, in turn, refunded the "hotel" charges to my credit card for last night - as that was back to being the first night of our rental.
By the time Christina returned - she'd gotten lost - I had the refund done, I'd signed the new reservation contract, and had the new keys in hand... and all for the same 2-bedroom condo we'd checked into Sunday night, so we had no moving to do.
Our vacation had truly begun!
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