SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
This summer we're collecting your travel nightmares - trips where whatever could go wrong does go wrong, and all you're left with is a good story to tell. Well, tell us. Today's tale is from Anne Fleury. She's a social worker from Milwaukee. She was traveling on a train to visit her brother in Saint Paul, Minn., when she realized that she'd boarded the wrong train and hailed the conductor.
ANNE FLEURY: I told her I was on the wrong train. And she looked at me and told me to not move, and she walked away. And when she came back, she asked how much luggage I had, and I told her I just had the one shoulder bag. So she told me to come with her.
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FLEURY: I followed the woman to the area between the cars with the conductor, with the door wide open going full speed, barreling into nowhere. And they told me what the plan was. They said that they would line up my train, which was going south, with the train going north. They would get as close to another car as possible. They would throw down the metal steps for me, push me - I mean, help me - out of the train. I would run across the rocks, and they would pull me onto the train going the correct direction.
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FLEURY: I did turn to the conductor and say, how often do you do this? And his response was pretty often.
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FLEURY: So the conductor gets on his walkie talkie. Chicago calling from Car 6. ETA for Car 17 please. Car 6, ETA - 13 minutes.
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FLEURY: Both the trains slowed. I was standing there with my bag over my shoulder, ready to jump. It was windy. It was cold. It was kind of getting dark. And so they finally lined up the cars correctly, and I was told to run across the loose rocks and jump on to the other train.
The conductor on the other train pulled me on to that car. Once I was onboard, another conductor came through the car, and she said to me, don't get up when we get to Milwaukee. What I heard from her was don't get up, or I will kill you. I did not move the rest of the trip.
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FLEURY: So I get to Saint Paul. I'm looking for my brother. He's late. So he gets there, and I ask him, why were you late? And he says, well, I checked the train schedule, and it said it was running behind. Oh, that was because of me.
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SIMON: A travel nightmare with a happy ending from Anne Fleury in Milwaukee. Send us your stories, please. Go to weekendeditionsaturday@npr.org. Click on contact. Put Travel Nightmare at the top of your message. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.