...and then drive 200 miles before you realize it's gone.
Funny, though -- it started out as a great day. That morning, I left Williams Lake, BC, to travel to Smithers, BC. The total trip was around 350 miles. I drove 150 miles or so up the Cariboo Highway (97), then arrived in Prince George, BC, where I had to turn onto the Yellowhead Highway (16). I stopped at a restaurant for lunch, which I rarely do on this trip, but I felt like it, so what the heck. I'll be driving for a week, right? Why not stop for lunch?
Anyway, I got seated in a corner table, and I remember putting the laptop behind my chair, and then I hung my purse on the back of the chair. I had a nice lunch, then left the restaurant and drove 200 miles westward to Smithers.
It was a great drive, sunny and clear, and the clouds were outstanding, like fluffs of cotton candy with blue, flat bottoms. I listened to music the entire way, and sang along, really loudly. I took pictures out the window, while driving. It was fantastic.
Just before 5pm, I arrived in Smithers and got out of my car to check into a hotel room, and that's when I realized my laptop wasn't on the floor in front of the passenger's seat, like it always is. At first, I thought someone might have taken it while I was in a restroom, but then I realized I hadn't stopped on my way to Smithers. And then, like a slowly growing but very virulent infection, I realized where it was....on the floor, behind the corner table, 200 miles away in Prince George.
OMG. What a f---up. I checked into a hotel, then called information to ask the phone number for the place where I'd had lunch. The operator gave me the number, and I called; the woman who answered the phone said that there was NO laptop behind the table, and that no one had turned one in, and that she'd asked every single server in the restaurant. I went pale, nauseated, green.
An hour later, I recalled the phone operator; she'd asked me if I'd wanted the "central" location or the "Vance" location. I'd said Central, assuming that was the right one....might I have been wrong? I called the operator again, got the other phone number, and called the restaurant: and hooray! They had my laptop! Oh joy of joys!
Only problem was, they wouldn't ship it to me, for any price. So yesterday, instead of driving onward and upward, I retraced my steps back to Prince George, back to the restaurant, picked up my laptop, and then went back again to Smithers.
So, I think yesterday is officially the LONGEST errand I've ever gone on in my entire life. Of course, it's my own fault, but still...
Interestingly, though, the weather was completely different. On Wednesday, it was sunny, bright, and hot (high in the low 90s). I got great views of those clouds, and the hills, and the mountains. But yesterday the high was only in the mid 70s, and it was gray and cloudy and humid as all get-out. No pictures yesterday, other than one of the mountains in Smithers (I believe this is Mt. Hudson). But still, behind every cloud is a silver lining, right? And mine was that I got to see the same terrain THREE times, and each time, it looked different -- and that was really cool.
You're getting up in to the part of the world where somewhere between Point A and Point B there's also a point Of No Return. Imagine you had a 400 mile range, and realized, after 250 miles, that you'd left your laptop at the last town. You'd have no choice but to go even *further* before turning back!
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