Remember when traveling was easy?  You made reservations, packed a suitcase, grabbed a map or airline tickets, and off you went. Doesn’t that feel like light years ago?

For Mother’s Day weekend, my husband and I made a  jaunt to Niagara Falls. Our reservations at the charming little Airbnb were confirmed the Thursday before, and I took a screen shot of the information. Our bags were packed, our pet sitter arranged, we’d filled out our ArriveCan with vaccination, arrival and departure info, and off we went!

Our challenges started at the border. The only thing the border guard neglected to ask was our underwear size.

When we got to our Airbnb, I pulled up the door code on my phone’s screen shot and…it didn’t work.

But yay! Airbnb has a little button in their communications where you can contact your host. EXCEPT, that you have to double authenticate. After you enter the six-digit code they text, you have to enter the code they email you to ensure you’re not an alien from outer space. As soon you pull up your email to retrieve the code, the Airbnb code screen is irretrievably lost…FOREVER. No matter how many times you try it.

So we head to a hotel that boasts “only $600 per night for a Falls View Room” and I make them feel so sorry for us, that they let us to use the computers in their lobby business center. As I hit the send button on the SOS to our hosts, I realize the photo of the SECOND entrance to our Airbnb  shows up on a computer…just not on a phone. Oops! Wrong entrance, right code. 

I send second email: “Dear Hosts – Please disregard first message. You just have to be smarter than the technology”

When we get back to the car to return to the Airbnb, the MAPS of Niagara Falls would download, but the directions WOULD NOT. 

Fortunately, my husband has a better sense of direction than this woman, who went from Rochester to the Poconos by way of Erie, PA.  If it had been up to me, I’d have ended up sitting, crying on a street corner somewhere…BUT of course, since I am geographically challenged, and with my technology on strike, I couldn’t have been able to tell you WHERE.

Published in the May 26, 2022 issue of Beyond the Nest, a free weekly newsletter featuring arts, culture and recreation for the Greater Rochester, NY region.