In an effort to look the part, we made a smart purchase of a Camelbak...meaning, small backpack and water...cold water, all you have to do is open up a handy little tube. Hey, they may not be the cutest accessory you'll ever purchase, but believe me when I say, they do serve a purpose.
Water, Tylenol, energy beans :), dry socks, phone, bandanna, we are good to go! Tiffany and I head out last Sunday (we waited for the temperature to reach the high for the day) and have our little "cabbie" Mother, Nana, aka Danny DeVito from Taxi, drop us off at 183 and Avery Ranch for our approximate 8 mile walk. We chose this particular route because it has sidewalk access almost the entire way back to Tiffany's house, our stopping point...home sweet home.
The route was actually pretty good, things went well, except this little camel ran out of that cold water about 4 miles into the walk! It's at that point I realized I had forgotten to pack one very important item...money! I did try at one point to get some water, but something about that sink in that little bathroom in the back of a not so clean utility room at the corner store made me re-think that in a hurry. It was in that moment I decide that Neil Diamond was right, money does talk and my next trip would include not just money for water, but a $20 should cover anything you could need on a walk! Right?...
Tuesday...Kristen rolls to town and we decide to get in another tough training day. Good deal, and we'll start early to avoid some of the heat. Great idea (and it was). We roll out of the driveway around 8:25 am and much of the walk was not only pleasant, but productive.
Productive...how so you ask? Well, we managed to walk past a possible site for Kristen's wedding reception. Yes, you heard right, wedding reception, and no, she's not dating anyone...it was just for fun. Big Daddy...breathe. And then about 3 miles down the road we visited with someone from the Chapel she might use for the wedding service. That was harder since we met the sweetest woman, she invited us in (yes we went in silly!)...we had to NOT make eye contact when she smiled and said he must be a very special young man! Yikes...we're taking a different route next time, but she was very nice. As you can see, we were very productive and then back to business. And...we're walking.
Back on track, several miles down the road and sun beating down on us, we decide that we will finish our walk at about the 8-9 mile mark, take a load off, call for a ride home (something we didn't actually plan out), and hey...we have $20, we'll eat lunch at Waterloo since it's conveniently located at our stopping point. We're not totally stupid when we plan these routes. We were actually thinking we were pretty smart...for about 5 minutes!
We situate ourselves on the patio, order our drinks, start tossing around our ideas of what sounds good, and it's about that time that we realized a "little" something...either 1) their prices have increased significantly in the past couple of weeks or 2) we've never really paid much attention to how much it costs to each lunch at Waterloo!
Faith...it's all about faith people! We've done our mileage, we're tired, deserving of a break and some grub, there has to be a way. We sort of went with the attitude of it will work out somehow. We plan to call "DeVito" to pick us up, surely she will have some cash. I guess it was on our 3rd attempt to reach our ride that we realized we hadn't actually mentioned needing a ride, we just assumed she would be available. I'm not sure the exact moment we acknowledged that we were approximately 10 miles from our house...by foot, $7 short of paying our tab, and didn't really have a plan B...but I think we were both borderline "concerned"
Enter Tiffany :)
The call went a little something like this:
Me: Hey Tiff, we're in a bit of pickle...you may have to "get sick" at work and come get us
Tiff: What...where are you guys? What's going on...did you walk the 10 miles?
Me: Yeah, we're at Waterloo, but we can't reach Mother, we have no ride and we don't have enough $ to pay for our food...IDEA!!!! Hey, could you maybe twitter and see if anyone is in this area and could come get us, bring us some money??
Tiff: Which Waterloo?
Me: Parmer and Avery Ranch
Tiff: OMG...that's awesome! Send me a picture. Me, okay, don't leave your desk, my phone is almost out of battery!
Me: (to our waiter)...um, could you take our picture (with the phone that's almost out of battery)...and can you be sure to get the food in it...we are trying to twitter and get some money because we don't have enough to pay you!
We eat, start throwing around names of people that might be able to come get us, bring cash and not judge us too harshly! Susan Bennett, Leslie Curlee, The Loj...she was actually the reason I reached out to twitter! Gotta love the people that actually look at that thing.
But...all's well that ends well! DeVito finally turned on her cell phone...turns out my dad had been (still was) on the phone with his brother. Our little "cabbie" came to the rescue! She said she wanted to be our coach not our taxi - we love her!
I guess American Express was on to something when they said don't leave home without it! I know I won't, even if it is just a walk in the park :)
xoxo,
Vicki 
Um...does anyone think that Camel pack makes my butt look big?!? WHY do you people take pictures of my backside???? Why don't you just tell me to bend over so it will spread out even more!!!
ReplyDelete