Martz Family Mottos: The Spain Edition

In Santa Barbara, buried deep in our storage space, we have a custom-made pillow with our family mottos on it.  Among the words we live by are:

• "Roll with it"
• "Suck it up, buttercup"
• "Experiences are more important than things"
• "We bring our own fun"

We are certainly putting all of these maxims to the test in this adventure. We had an opportunity to test one recently in Spain. 

"Roll with it", Mike and I said to each other. We had just been told that the 11:00 am train from Sevilla to Malaga was sold out. The next train was scheduled to arrive in Malaga at 2:45. Our flight was at 3:45. Under normal circumstances, this would be an extremely tight connection. Given the fact that our train to Sevilla arrived 30 minutes late, we simply couldn't take the risk of missing our flight.

If we caught our flight as planned, we would be arriving in Munich at 6:20 pm on Saturday, December 23. Grocery stores would be closed on Sunday, December 24 and Monday, December 25. (Some would also be closed on the 26th for St. Stephen's Day.) If we wanted to have special holiday meals, made from fresh ingredients, we had to get to Munich well before the grocery stores closed at 8:00 pm. If we didn't make the 3:45 flight, Christmas would be ruined. (Well, I suppose if we missed the flight, and missed the grocery store, we would invoke another motto, but I just wanted to make my plan work!)

What to do? The train is full, the next one is risky timing. We asked the man at the train ticket counter if there was a rental car agency at the station. Thankfully, there was.

Out the door and to the left we found Avis/Budget. (When did they merge?! I missed that headline.) We waited patiently behind two customers, The Avis Preferred window was unstaffed. Mike mused that it really shouldn't take so long to rent a car to someone. I privately thought they should check out the renters even more closely -- they're giving these people, us included, a car, for goodness' sake. But it didn't seem like a good time to have that discussion. 

It was finally our turn. While Mike gave the agent our specifics, my phone rang. Colin wanted to know where we were. I told him we were renting a car, and directed him to Avis/Budget. He and Mason came in a few minutes later, full of questions. I told them that the train was full. We were renting a car. We had plenty of time to get to the airport. No, I didn't know what kind of car we were getting. No, I don't think we're getting a Porsche, a "Lambo", or a Range Rover. We were just going to roll with it.

We found our tiny car, loaded up, and headed out. We invoked our second motto of the trip: "We bring our own fun."  Naturally, we had an Audible book loaded on my phone. We linked it to the car's Bluetooth and the two and a half hour drive passed by without much more incident.

Just as we were arriving at the airport, Mason felt sick. Mike quickly and deftly pulled the car over and Mason hopped out to "get some fresh air."  Once inside the airport, with time to spare, we discovered that all the restaurants but one were closed due to a workers' strike. We managed to find something to eat, but not ideal. I guess I could add two mottos to the list:

• "Never be stuck in the middle lane on a road trip with Mason."
• "Always pack your own snacks."