"Third was a girl who stood me up on the first date, because she was at a friend's birthday party that was running late. This was after I had already driven an hour to meet her."
Over the years I've seen this happen to me several times. Either she lied about her actual location, or I thought she was an exceptionally good candidate, and I agreed to drive for an hour or more (the worst was 3 hours!) for a M&G with BCD built in if we both agreed at the M&G. The worst was that 3-hour drive. I booked a room for overnight. She told me she was attending a cousin's wedding with her family but would step out to meet at local Starbucks. Assuming that went well, I would check into the room, and we planned to hook up after the wedding party ended. Well, "planned" is just another word for "hoped" unfortunately.
I had been texting her throughout my 3-hour drive and she had been responding. I arrived at the Starbucks on time and let her know. She then told me she needed to wait until she could leave without her father knowing ... I waited another hour, before telling her I was about to bail. She told me she would be there in 10 minutes.
Fifteen minutes later, she arrived - with a female she called her cousin. WTF? We chatted for about 20 minutes, and I asked her if she wanted to meet later, after the party. She said yes but would have to keep me updated on when she could leave the event. I checked into the hotel at 4 pm and waited. By 7 pm she had texted me 3 times to say she was trying to get away... by 10 pm she had stopped replying to my texts. I gave up at 11 pm and told her I was heading home with the big stack of cash I had brought for her. No reply.
Three days later, she texted me to apologize. She said she really wanted to meet and asked if we could meet halfway between our locations to make the drive easier to handle. I found a hotel that would work and confirmed the day and time. She agreed and I booked the room. On the day of the meeting, I left work early to beat the heavy traffic and arrived on time at the hotel. Well... you guessed it....no show-no contact. So that was 1.5 tanks of gas and rent for two hotel rooms in the trash.
Never again. That was when I created my 30-minute drive rule. I will not drive more than 30 minutes for a M&G, even if BCD is included. I will note that I have the luxury that Papa Sweet does not have - dozens of viable POT's within 20 miles of my home. For Papa, he typically has no choice and must drive 1+ hours for most dates.
Life is good
The Cat