Tugboat's Texas Trip - Day 5, Picking up the Pieces

Day 5 started with remorse and pessimism. We made a list of all the things we were going to need to handle. Handle passport situation, get a different rental car, investigate other flight options, get phone chargers, and investigate hotel changes. Chef started by getting us a late checkout, they give you until 4pm there! After calling several emergency government numbers and being told to call back during regular business hours, Monday-Friday 8:30-4pm I finally got a person on the phone and she emailed us a list of what we needed to handle and what we needed to do where. Essentially we'd need to re-apply for passports after cancelling ours. So we needed passport photos done in the USA, which is not easy as our requirements are much different. We needed to get to the consulate in Dallas and we needed to see about moving our flight. Chef called the airline and found that to change our flight to Dallas would be ridiculously costly. I cancelled our San Antonio hotel, which we got to eat the whole cost of. Luckily it was a deal, we were only going to have to pay $95 USD for a $170 USD room. So we ate that, and had to book a new room in Dallas, for $136 USD. The costs are starting to add up quick, let alone what was literally stolen from us, not to mention the day and a half of vacation that was out the window. So those items seem to be lining up. Next we had to tackle the car. The credit card told us to go to AVIS, change cars, let them bill us and they'd handle it all from there. That was a nice turn. Even better was that the AVIS guy felt bad, both about a VW Passat being considered premium and also the robbery and gave us a Jeep Grand Cherokee. Things were looking up. We thought about going down to San Antonio to try and salvage something from that leg of the journey but time was not in our favour and our hearts weren't as in it as previous. We got our passport photos done at a Wal-greens, while getting new headphones and phone chargers, had lunch and started out for Dallas. We figured out that if we got to the consulate first thing with all our paperwork in order we'd need to be done with them by 11am to drive the four hours to San Antonio to make our original (and lowest cost) flight. We were both stressed all day. We quietly drove the three hours back to Dallas, listening to a true crime podcast called CaseFile covering the Silk Road story. I didn't feel like doing anything at all, Chef didn't want to let it ruin the rest of the time. After we were checked in and had our paperwork in order he went out to get food and drink and brought me back something to cheer me up.

They add up to 3.5 beers in total. I drank them all. He had a few Miller Lite beers and we ate chips and watched action movies until it was time to sleep, actually I just passed out at one point. He was trying to get She to provide some information for his forms but wasn't having much luck. I was content to go with what I had. I did get Admiral Bonesaw to sign as my guarantor and we contacted our other references before powering down. We also had to get She to find the spare truck key in my house and met us when we landed. A lot went on this day but it felt like we were still beaten. The next and hopefully last day was shaping up to be even more stressful.