Tom and Dianna Coulter knew they were in trouble the moment they landed in Cabo San Lucas for their honeymoon.
"Cloud nine until we got a message saying we shouldn't come," Tom Coulter said, "but we were already there."
Hurricane Odile joined the Chicago-area couple, who were married Sept. 12, on their first night. Windows started shaking, doors were rattling, and the couple said it felt like buildings were coming down. Then it got worse, with no cell service and no power.
"Everybody at the resort boarded buses," Coulter said.
They joined 120 people, including infants, family and elderly vacationers, for 900 miles on a lumbering bus along winding mountains roads. Sometimes they were forced to stop because the road headed out of town was washed away.
"It was essentially a river," Dianna Coulter said.
That night, they slept on the side of the road because they needed to conserve fuel on the buses. On the third night of their honeymoon, they found themselves sleeping on a concrete slab with about 20 other people.
It wasn't clear how much longer they would be stuck there, and there were reports of another hurricane on the horizon.
"Every time the bus stopped, my anxiety went to an 11," Tom Coulter said.
The couple described more washed-out roads, downed wires and military checkpoints they needed to cross. People were looting food and water out of necessity.
When they arrived in Tijuana, the bus broke down and the passengers had to find another bus to get to San Diego. The whole trip took 75 hours, and the couple said they owe their lives to the guides and escorts from the resort.
The good news? Tom and Dianna Coulter say they're confident about having a great marriage.
"I'm pretty confident in our marriage," Tom Coulter said. "Not that I wasn't before, but we are fortunate we had each other."
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