Losing Cards

You stand to lose a lot of money at this game. Here's how it happened.

Thursday evening at 5pm i arrived at Chicago O'Hare airport from Seattle. My final destination was Grand Rapids, MI, however so I rented an Impala for the 4 hour drive around the lower part of lake Michigan.

Over an hour into the drive traffic was slow and I was hungry. So I stopped for a bit at an "Oasis" - those bridgelike structures over the highway that offer food and fuel as a quick stop. The traffic was simply horrible - 3 miles in 20 minutes. After another 2 hrs and about half way to my destination, the thought of a nice Macchiato or other Starbucks special got lodged in my mind, so I used my best instincts to quickly locate one a few miles off the highway.

Here's where the fun began. I reached in my back pocket for my card holder. It was gone. A quick search of every pocket was futile. I searched them over and over trying to convince myself I just wasn't quite all there. No use. A thorough search of the car revealed nothing as well.

Yes, now I remembered where I'd left it... sure, it was at that restaurant... oh, that's 2 hours in the opposite direction and it's 9pm. I had looked at the guy in line behind me - was he the type that would report it? i didn't think so. Maybe. Would the cashier have found it first? not likely. 3 credit cards, a debit card, starbucks card, and more - and this is I-294 in Chicago.

Ok, I don't have much cash with me, and this is a fine way to start out. I'll just get online somehow, place my cards on hold, and find the restaurant phone number. Next challenge, Starbucks has internet but I can't pay for it. The Starbucks manager kindly wrote directions backtracking to a Panera Bread. They have free internet. 20 minutes later I walked in the door at Panera. The manager appeared and rudely said they were closing and don't like loiterers. I briefly explained the urgent matter and even offered to pay him for the trouble. He simply said, "Ok, get it done and get out." Amazingly I was able to find all the numbers in a few minutes, stepped outside and made all the phone calls to place the cards on hold. The restaurant never answered though.

With that done, I decided to forget about it until the next morning and just drive the 2.5 hrs remaining. I finally arrived in GR at 1:30am.

....

Next morning. I made one more search of the car beforing I would phone the restaurant. I opened the car door, glanced around a bit and immediately noticed the card holder right in plain sight. How it completely escaped my search of the previous evening was baffling. It was simply a miracle - or so i felt. 20 minutes later I released all the cards again and everything was back to normal. What a relief.

I might not have lost a cent here, but just wait until you here the rest of the story.