Unhappy endings: Avoid a sad vacation finale

Oh, yeah. I spent a month in Turkey a couple of years ago. I hired a house/cat sitter - the mother of a friend of mine. I paid her in advance for the month, and left the country. The last couple of weeks, while I was on a sailboat, I could never get a in touch with her, by phone or email. When I came home, I found out why: she had left half-way through the month, and the cats had been using my guest room as a giant litter box. Not only did I have to rip out the carpeting, I had to go down to the concrete sub-base, and have the concrete sealed. Naturally, the floor boards were toast, as were the curtains and the walls. I had to gut the room and re-build it. And, she drank all my good wine from my wine cellar. I never did hear from her again.

Once when i was a kid, we came home from vacation and there were tons of ants all over the kitchen floor. I remember i had to stay outside while my mom vacuumed and swept them out of the house. Last year while returning from a week long trip to the beach at Gulf Shores Al, i wrecked my husbands van on the interstate. He was not happy and still teases me about it to this day.

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A friend of mine who lived in the northeast returned from a vacation during one very cold winter to find that a power outage had shut down their heating system. This caused a pipe to burst on the second floor, sending water cascading down into the basement. 14 days later, they came back to an ice skating rink in their basement. The ice had sufficient depth and weight (3-4 foot depth) to put enormous pressure on the house structure. The damage was unrepairable and the house had to be leveled and rebuilt.

When I was a kid, we got called home from a camping vacation by neighbors who had discovered our house had been broken into. The thieves completely cleaned us out, including the only things I had of value at the time - birthstone jewelry given to me by my deceased grandmother.

Re chris elliot's column - lessons learned: avoid pet tortoises, they may burn down your house; don't leave anything that can be harmed by a power failure such as food, wine or aquariums; be aware that you may be fired by the time you get back; don't separate from traveling companions as they may be killed; don't keep pets in their regular environment as they may be run over; be aware that house sitters may burn down your house; and in case of pending hurricanes, change your destination. Thanks for the tips, they'll really help.

As if Americans need more reasons NOT to travel -- thank you for that article; it was completely depressing and bordering on useless. Can't believe that the author included the story about the husband being killed. Now, how exactly do you prepare for freak accidents before you leave the house? But as a frequent traveler, I do have one tip -- I use a cheap webcam to monitor my house when I'm away. I guess that's going to come in handy in case either of my dogs decides to set the place on fire.

I can relate to this article. My husband and I have had several bad vacation experiences. Most recently, we flew from Baltimore to Arizona to go to the Grand Canyon; a few days later our pet sitter called to say our beloved dog Sam, a 10year old Sheppard mix was in the Pet ER and not expected to live. We were 6 hours from an airport and a five hour flight. He had surgery while we were trying to get home. He had his spleen removed and is doing well, but the tumor was cancerous. It also cost us to change our flights, and the surgery was over $5,000, we lost our two week vacation, and our dog is dying. Great vacation!

My wife and I bought a very nice condo (Nah Ha) on the island of Cozumel in Mexico.

We planned to make two trips to buy all the things we needed for the condo.

On our first trip, we bought all the essentials, pots and pans, TV's, stereos, etc. Inasmuch as none of our furniture had not arrived (much of it being custom made), we decided to stay in a hotel. We didn't finish all of the work we needed to do so we planned another trip to Cozumel for the next month.

Our second trip found us buying artwork and paintings and all the things we didn't get on the previous trip. Our mattresses had shown up, but the furniture was still on the mainland and or in transit. We decided to stay at a little hotel in town.

We again made plans to go back to Cozumel for a third and final trip to set our home up. It would be special as it would also be our 15th anniversary. We were scheduled to arrive on a Saturday. However, several days before we arrived, Hurricane Wilma hit and completely destroyed our home at the end of October. The good news? The furniture arrived just days before the hurricane.

We caught the first commercial flight back to Coz in December. The devastation was incredible. I had seen photos from friends on the island but nothing had prepared me for this. We hired some locals to toss all of our damaged items to the ground. We were on the 6th floor and hurricane shutters and we still lost walls and glass.

From the day we bought it until the day we spent the first night in it was 11 months. While I can't say it was "worth the wait". Our home in Coz is now absolute nirvana.

If you frequently read Hiss Elliott's columns, you'd know that ALL travel is miserable from the moment you even think about taking a trip outside of your home, and that you're lucky to live to tell about any of it given how the entire travel industry is out to get you, screw you over and strand you somewhere.

Honestly.

While visiting our Daughter, we received an early morning call that our home was burning to the ground. The Son at home left a candle burning all night, and you guessed it, the house was a goner. The good thing about returning from vacation to total nothingness, is you at least have 1 suitcase of clothes, makeup, and a hairbrush. Even if everything is shorts and flip flops, at least your not out buying underwear before you can even asses the damages. Life goes on- Even my Son escaped death twice. Once from the fire, and twice because we didn't kill him. We got rid of all the candles - ready to go again.