Patience Pays Off

I will be the first to admit that patience is not my greatest gift. I'd like to share a story that illustrates why it is indeed a virtue, and something we should strive to exhibit.

My family took a trip to the lake in August. It was a 3 generation trip- my mom, my siblings & their spouses/significant others, and my nieces and nephew. We booked our cabin and boat in December (remember this, it becomes really important soon). We arrived Friday night and had a dinner and a bonfire at our awesome cabin. Saturday morning we headed to the marina to pick up our boat for a fun filled day on the lake. I went to the rental desk and gave my information. I very quickly could tell something was wrong. The person was looking around a lot, and then consulted with others. I was eventually told the problem- our boat had accidentally been rented for 2 days the previous day. This particular weekend was a very busy one at the lake as there was a large gathering occurring. Our group was 11 people, and only this particular style of boat would fit our family. Thus, no boat. They told me they were checking with their sister marina to see if we could get a boat from them. When I inquired how long that would take, they said at least an hour. I was not happy already since, as you may recall, we'd reserved this boat long ago. Of course, the other marina had no boat. I wanted to lose my cool so badly, but I didn't. I said "I made this reservation in December. I have 11 people here, including 3 little kids who've been told they're going to boat." I then stopped talking. Thankfully, by this point, the manager was involved. His first question was "How far do you live from here?". My answer was "2.5 hours". He then said "How long are you staying?". I informed him we were leaving the next morning.

The manager was good. He said "This is our fault, and we're going to make this right". This guy was speaking my language. He offered us three smaller pontoons at no charge. We said 2 would be fine. We had also planned to rent a tube. They threw that in for free. I asked if these boats would pull a tube. He said they wouldn't. He then offered us a jet ski to use for free. I asked if we could tube with this. He said the person who rented it didn't recommend it, and left it at that. I asked about gas charges for all our watercraft, and they told us that was on them. Yes, you read that right. We got 2 pontoons, a tube, a jetski, and the gas for free. 

We had an awesome day on the lake. We boated to a nice cove, ate lunch, swam like fish, and took turns both riding on and tubing behind the jetski. My entire family from my mom to my 2 year old niece was on the jetski at one point or another.

All of this cost us nothing. The jetski rented for around $400/day, and the boats were at least $100/each. Had I lost my cool, I do not think for a minute they would have given us this deal. Patience does indeed pay off. My mom said "the look" I gave during the situation also didn't hurt.