In a bizarre turn of events, a group of 13 strangers hired a minivan and took a road trip after their late-night flight at Orlando International Airport in Florida was cancelled.
It all happened when the group of travellers from all over the US and beyond needed to travel that same evening in order to be at their destination by the morning.
The spur of the moment decision was followed by hours of fun and took along hundreds of thousands of TikTok viewers, too, when one of the travellers started to document the trip.
CNN Travel reported that the “crazy” road trip idea started brewing after one couple saw their daughter’s face crushed at the idea of missing the tour of her dream college. She had tears in her eyes.
In the end, 13 stranded passengers agreed to joined the unexpected road trip. They hired a 15-seater minivan, dumped their luggage in and headed off onto the windy open road.
The group numbered themselves one to 13 so that whenever they stopped at a filling station for a bathroom break, they could make sure they'd rounded everyone back up again.
“In the back, some of the passengers talked about their lives, families and jobs. Other travellers attempted to sleep. But something was happening online – TikTok was gaining traction. People were commenting in droves, intrigued by the strangers who’d banded together to drive across the country. It was like a Hallmark movie, they insisted. The TikTok community was keen for an update,” read a part of the CNN story.
Several hours later, the group arrived in Knoxville, Tennessee – tired, but happy and went their separate ways.
A couple of days later, members of the group are still processing what happened. One of the ladies, Laura, says every time she thinks about the way the 13 strangers came together, she finds herself tearing up with gratitude.
The online article read: “She does caution that it’s important to follow your intuition and exercise caution in this kind of situation. ‘I don't want to make people think they can just get in a car with strangers’, she said.”
But she's heartened by the experience.
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