Nora Ephron famously said “Everything is copy”.

On Thursday morning, I awoke to a text message from my sister Carry asking:

“We’re not flying Wow are we? They shut down.”

I liked Wow Airlines. We flew it to Iceland a couple of years ago. The prices were great, the planes were new and the staff was fun. I was sad to hear they couldn’t make a go of it.

When the cobwebs cleared, I had to tell her, yes. We did have tickets booked on Wow from Paris to Detroit.

What followed was a couple of stressed-filled days trying to convince one airline to give us a credit for a connecting flight (my sister successfully negotiated this), trying to convince my card company to give us a refund (still awaiting a decision) and trying to find a new flight which fit the exact criteria we needed. Yesterday, after hours of online research and a 51 minute conversation with a travel agent, we were finally afforded the opportunity to pay for the tickets a second time to secure a return trip to the US.

Do you enjoy irony? Yeah, me either…

Earlier this week I actually shared with someone that along with inspiring other Gen Xers to see the world, one thing I hope to do with my travel writing is to help them not step in the same puddles I have. Little did I know I was about to do a cannon ball into a great lake!

BUT… everything is copy.

My hard-earned advice for dealing with hiccups (great and small) while traveling can be distilled into two words.

Don’t panic.

My sisters and I are not independently wealthy. We are not trust fund babies, nor were we born with silver spoons in our mouths. As Lorelei Gilmore would say, our house was more “spork city”.

I say that to say this…yes, it’s painful to be out hundreds of dollars and yes, I understand we have had to work hard for that money, but isn’t it more of a waste to let it ruin the rest of our trip?

So, with our newly minted (if twice paid!) tickets in our hot little hands, we’ll set off for a trip we have been planning for over two years! TWO YEARS!

We’ll put this craziness behind us and enjoy this amazing opportunity to see the world together!

Photo blitz coming soon to an Instagram account near you…

Bon Voyage!