Worlds Unluckiest Traveler: Winners Gallery

	October's winner: Lost in a Cave In 1961 two friends and I decided to explore the limestone caves of West Virginia. I had a map that caving friends had given me and so we headed south from Pittsburgh. Sure enough we found an entry hole just where the map said it would be. We had carbide lamps, rope and provisions for a few days. Early Saturday morning, we rappelled down the hole and set out through the slimy cave mud. The cave kept branching into amazing rooms filled with stalactites and other formations. But there were many tiny passageways that we could just slither through. Although we marked our way carefully, somehow we got terribly lost. The fuel for our lamps was the limiting factor. We only lit one lamp, since otherwise it was absolute darkness. Luckily we had left a note on the windshield of our car indicating we were in the cave and expected to be out by Monday. When we finally found the entrance it was late Monday night and we emerged to see a line of torches being carried to the entrance by a rescue party. Hugs all around!
	September's winner: Dazed and Confused It happened in Granados, Mexico Summer 1997. I was 13 and visiting relatives. After a feast with family, laughing together, we got into the back of red pick-up truck. Seat belts in a truck bed - don't be ridiculous! Bright stars in a clear sky filled night. Suddenly a brilliant light obliterated the stars and then - crash! Hit head on by a drunk driver. I flew straight forward and hit my head on my cousin's head, fracturing her skull. Then my head was flung backwards and it slammed into the bed of the truck. I woke up hours later in a small clinic dazed and confused. I was sent home, but in unbearable pain from head to toe. So I was taken to Hermosillo, where X-rays showed a C4 vertebral fracture. I had to return home to start eighth grade wearing a neck brace. You would think that my classmates would be comforting - hah! All got was laughter and teasing. The only consolation was that I got an A on my essay about what I did that summer - I survived!
	August's winner: IV in a taxi?? While visiting our family in Porto Viejo Ecuador my 3 yr old daughter got sick. On the third day of our trip, in the middle of the night she started going to the bathroom out of both ends, if you know what I mean. After several hours of this, I was worried about her deteriorating condition. Porto Viejo is a small town where every one knows each other so my parents made arrangements for us to go to the pediatrician's home at 5 am where he confirmed our fear that she was dehydrated. He ordered an IV for her, and instructed us to go to the local clinic, which did not have bed space for non-life threatening conditions. The attending physician inserted an IV and gave us instructions for monitoring, and removing the IV once the dose was complete. To our horror, they sent us home. We took the baby in our arms and the IV hanging out of the window of a taxi! Fortunately she recovered enough for us to take the next flight out, back to the U.S. and the traditional health care to which we are accustomed.
	July's winner: A trip south of the border heats up! Our family traveled for an unlucky reason: a reunion to commemorate the premature death of my father. Right after the funeral, the relatives still needed to be together, so we agreed to meet in Mexico to hug, cry, and wind down. We were traveling with four children under the age of five. In Mexico City, where it topped 100 degrees, the customs line moved slower than they are plugging the Gulf oil leak. We wilted in the heat and used up our energy entertaining the small children in the hours long line. We finally cleared customs just as our connecting flight was boarding. We sprinted all the way to the gate. The agent was in the process of giving away our seats to standby passengers. She would not give us our seats back! The next flight was 8 hours later, so she offered us a meal voucher for the airport restaurant. While we knew not to drink the water, my daughter and I ate the table salsa and paid for it by vomiting all night. Our vacation to honor a dead relative nearly killed us.
	June's winner: Target of tenacious teen boys in Africa Driving on the bumpiest road towards the Serengeti, I spotted a crew of teen Masai boys along the way. Stopping to take their photo, they told me they wouldn’t allow it unless I gave them... my watch! After I handed it over, they then explained they wouldn’t allow the photo unless I gave them some candy! Searching my bag for anything, I gave them some Tic-Tacs. On my third photo try, before they even requested anything, I gave them a fistful of singles. I then took my photo and realized that our capitalistic American spirit was alive and well on the African plains!
	May's winner: Tippy canoe and a tropical storm too! After a semester abroad in Costa Rica, I traveled with a friend through Central America. We missed the last ferry from Guatemala to Belize, so we hitched a ride on a large canoe that was filled with at least fourteen people, piled high with cargo, and equipped with an outboard motor. Everything started out well, but far from land, the motor cut out. The crewmen tried to start it, but nothing happened. Suddenly, I noticed what looked like a black wall in the distance approaching us quickly. It was a wall of rain! To top it all off, my friend started to have food poisoning, with no opportunity for relief in sight short of jumping overboard. I started getting really frightened, imagining our overloaded canoe, which now seemed dinky in the vast ocean, getting tossed and sinking in a tropical storm. When the torrential downpour hit us, my friend and I had no protection. We huddled together and prayed that we would survive. We did, but I tell you we both kissed the ground gratefully when we reached Belize. Then my friend ran off to find a much-needed bathroom.
	April's winner: Trip Cancelled We planned the trip for 14 months. Family & friends from 3 states would independently travel to meet in London, visit English friends, then cross the channel to visit French friends. We paid for the flights, an apartment in London for two weeks, an overnight channel crossing, tours of Paris, et al. After thousands of coordinating emails to the other travelers, my wife and I boarded the O-Dark-Thirty van shuttle to Phoenix and got in line at the ticket counter. I had just laid down our tickets and passports on the counter when the announcement came over the speakers: "All flights within the United States are cancelled." The date: September 11th, 2001. We were never able to plan the trip again.
	March's winner: Our Short, Stressed-Out Honeymoon We married on Valentine's day and left the next day for Texas. Our first flight out was delayed for de-icing. We made it to our second stop but the plane we were to get on had a problem with the door: it wouldn't open. We had to take another flight only to have missed the flight to Texas. After several hours of waiting, we finally got a flight to Texas but not to the airport we wanted. We were very tired and just wanted to get to our hotel, only to find out they lost our luggage. We had no clothing and and lost half a day on our honeymoon. The next day at about 1pm, we received our luggage. We did make the most of the 24 hours we had left of our honeymoon.
	February's winner: Cliffhanger I am a geneticist who was invited on a medical mission to Saigon. On day three of my month-long trip, I stopped on a remote mountain road to photograph a beautiful valley below. Taking advantage of the solitude, I stepped to the cliff's edge to relieve myself. Suddenly the seemingly-solid edge disintegrated, and I fell straight down, screaming in terror. If not for a ledge that caught me at 30 feet, shattering my leg, I would have hurtled to my death 400 feet down. (Many have asked - I had not yet unzipped my fly.) It took 10 men and lots of morphine to rescue me. A 14-hour excruciatingly painful ambulance ride to Hanoi and an airlift got me back to Bangkok. Ten screws and a metal plate fixed the multitude of leg fractures, but I was annoyed to find my ankle was still not reattached straight. Unfortunately, the second operation led to a life-threatening infection, which subsided only after massive antibiotics and a 3-week hospitalization. I arrived home practically on my original return date, never seeing a single patient except myself. Medical missions usually take a lot out of me, but this one put a lot of metal into me.
	January's winner: Grand Canyon Tour My wife and I went to Vegas for our March break and decided to tour the Grand Canyon by helicopter. We took off from Boulder City and things were going great. The pilot was giving us the history of the area and showing us the sights. As the helicopter came over the ridge of the canyon, the view was breath-taking as the ground seemed to disappear. All of a sudden, alarm bells started going off and the pilot got really, really serious. The alarm stopped and everything went back to normal...then they started again. The pilot then told us to brace ourselves because we were going down! Our pilot crash-landed the helicopter on a small patch of grass between the Colorado river and the wall of the canyon. The pilot told us it was a complete engine failure, but all 6 passengers and pilot walked away without a scratch. We were stranded on the floor of the canyon, taking pictures and waiting to be rescued by...another helicopter!! We were then brought back to Boulder City in another helicopter...the scariest ride in all of my life. I don't fly anymore because of the events of that day.

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