Yeah Pam, that happened to me back when I first got WA and wasn't yet familiar with all its quirks. My original sim, Dexter, who was traveling, went to Egypt first and then the other locations. When he went back to Egypt for the 2nd visit, the main shop to buy all the supplies wasn't open then. I figured that maybe he could only buy from that store on the 1st visit and that I should have stocked up on more supplies. Needless to say, I was a little perturbed that there was no warning to stock up on your first visit. It stayed closed the entire time he was there, but then it was open the next time he went.
Has anyone else noticed that the day of the week does not show when you're traveling?
I actually just noticed that yesterday. (yeah I'm a little slow) The only way to know how long you've been somewhere is to look at your main sim panel to see your vacation time.