Planes, Trains, Rental Cars and at least one deranged murderer

The title is not misleading. In 1997, my friend and I embarked on a trip to San Diego. While we expected the warm California sunshine, seeing an old friend, and playing some golf, we ended up experiencing more. Much more.

Our plane landed in San Diego in the early evening, and we rode the shuttle to a car rental company. While there, the rental agent who was obviously having a bad night proceeds to berate my friend when we arrived at the counter. Twenty minutes later, with nerves moderately frayed, we hopped in the car and drive for thirty minutes before realizing that our hotel was next door to the car rental place.

After checking in, we proceeded to our room and discovered that the window screens were too small (allowing many bugs to get in). Closing the windows, we turned on the air conditioner: The noise was deafening, and only eclipsed by the train that ran right outside our bathroom window. Alerting the motel management, we requested and received another room. And so ended our first night.

We spent the following day seeing the San Diego Zoo and other attractions. That night, we met our friend and played night golf (the course is lit with stadium lights). Upon returning to our motel, however, we discovered that the entire block had been cordoned off. A police officer instructed us to wait at a nearby gas station with other motel guests: A convicted murderer had escaped prison and was holding his girlfriend hostage there.

While waiting at the gas station, we drank coffee provided by the Red Cross and met other guests and nearby residents. This latter group included topless dancers who worked in a bar next to our hotel. We also met a young couple (more on them later). Hours later, the situation was resolved (without violence) and we were allowed to return to our rooms, and ended up being interviewed by the local news on our ordeal.

Early the next day, we ran into the young couple again and they asked our room number. Assuming nothing unusual, we provided it and left for our day's events, which included a road trip to Tijuana. Now, this little adventure merits another story, but suffice it to say we had a great time and returned to the motel around 6:00 PM.

The young man knocked on our door soon after our return, and just after our pizza and some beer were delivered. We invited him to partake with us, and as we watched a football game, he began to thank us for our hospitality. In fact, he was so grateful that he pulled out three new knives as a gift. They were the kind that stay hidden in your hand until a push button is pressed: Gangster Stilettoes. We tried to act cool about this odd gesture, and told him repeatedly that we had to fly back that night and could not carry weapons on board (we were actually scheduled to fly back the following day).

He did not seem too happy about our refusal and early departure, however, and kept our guard up until he finally left around 9:00...with the knives. My friend immediately called the airline and booked us on a red eye flight back to the East Coast. We packed hurriedly and, as we pulled out of the motel lot, we saw our young deranged friend running after the car. Since the car rental agency was next door, we drove around the block for 30 minutes in the hopes that our odd acquaintance would be gone.

An hour later, we boarded our flight home and as we sat down, both of us sighed a very deep sigh and thanked our Creator. It was a crazy trip and certainly worthy of the title: Planes, Trains, Rental Cars and at least one deranged murderer.

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