Mr. Rogers disapproves of such un-neighborly behaviour
This week, Shane
and I made plans to head down to Washington
and take care of a few errands. Since we
were going through the trouble of crossing the border, I contacted my brother
to see if he wanted to meet us somewhere between Bothell (where he works now) and
Bellingham (where
we were headed). We made plans for
dinner together at a local Thai restaurant in Everett.
Friday rolled
around, and Shane and I decided to do a bunch of grocery-shopping before getting out of town. By the time we left around 3, traffic along
the main thoroughfare was barely moving (FAIL).
We didn’t reach the border until 4:30, where we waited for another 45
minutes to cross (FAIL). While we were idling
in line, Ian called to say he had gotten off work early. I confessed that our dumb asses hadn’t left Vancouver in time to
avoid rush hour, so he offered to find a place farther north to meet us. He said he would call with new directions, and
I agreed without a second thought (ALSO FAIL).
Little did I know
that our Canadian cell phone plan (with Rogers Wireless) would cease to exist south of the border. Apparently, we can only make emergency calls
when abroad (though we suspect/hope this is only during our 3-month ”probationary
period”). News to me! So there we were: driving through the
mountain passes of northern Washington
with absolutely no means of communicating our situation to anyone.
Thankfully, Ian decided to just head to the restaurant we’d originally planned on (three cheers
for smart brothers!). When I finally was
able to call him – after convincing a cashier to let us dial a non-local area
code on a store's courtesy phone* - he was nearly there. We arrived about ten minutes later. And the
rest, as they say, is a great story about the calming power of alcohol paired
with amazing curry (and good company).
*Hey everyone, go shop at Sports Authority! They have things...and stuff that you need...at great deals! Or so I would imagine!
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