Monday, January 05, 2009

HONESTLY....

Sometimes I've thought I don't blog much because I don't have anything to blog about. But today I decided it's because I have too *much* to blog about. For days I've been thinking, blog about getting to New Orleans, blog about dehydrating food for my AT hike, blog about the thunderstorms, blog about finding a hill to hike in flat, flat New Orleans which lies 8 feet below sea level. Or the aforementioned dehydrated food spending the night under the one place where our storage enclosure leaks, and the ziploc bags leaking, accidentally re-hydrating some of it. Thankfully I only had a few days' worth of food in that bin and I was able to re-dehydrate some of it.

And as I was thinking about all this today while returning to the campground from walking/hiking/hill-climbing, trying to decide how and when to organize it all into a blog post or several, I saw a driver's license in the sandy grass by the side of the road. I picked it up and noticed a credit card a couple feet away. Same name. Hmm. What else is here? Did someone's wallet blow off their car roof or something? Found another credit card. Then I saw a soggy PlayStation box nearby and thought, did they lose a PlayStation too?? No.... inside was the purse that the cards had fallen from. More cards with the same name were in the box with the purse.

I picked it up and carried it the remaining quarter-mile or so to our camper. I started feeling nervous... I hoped the woman wasn't missing and the perp had dumped her purse. I found a business card belonging to the owner of the license and called. She was alive and well. Whew, relief. The purse had been stolen last week. Amazing to me that her credit cards were still in it.

Long story short, she came to the campground, the local police came to the campground, took my info, took her info, she got the purse back. The policeman was very nice and made the whole issue sort of fun, actually, believe it or not. The lady pushed a $20 bill on me; I refused. I said "Give it to the March of Dimes or something." She stuck it in my pocket and said, "I'm giving it to you; you give it to them if you want to."

Actually I guess if my purse was stolen and someone found it and called me and I got it back I'd probably give them twenty bucks, too. It certainly wasn't necessary.

4 days here and already I've gotten involved in something weird. First the transmission in the truck, delaying our trip by a day; then the broken hanger under the camper; now an encounter with the police over stolen property. This is going to be an interesting winter.

4 comments:

Dee said...

Sounds like your adventure has started before you ever made it to the trail. I would love to read your posts about how you dehydrate adn rehydrate and take a few photos to go along with it. Tell about what it is like to always live in an RV- the ups and downs, likes, dislikes, what you miss and don't miss, etc. And about the post you left on my blog. I will soon post about the Bible study I am doing about changing your attitude- whew...so convicting

Ann (bunnygirl) said...

I hope things quiet down for you and you've gotten all the excitement out of the way.

I live in a flat area, too. If you can find a parking garage that doesn't prohibit it, try running the ramps on days and times when there's not a lot of car traffic.

Dianne R G said...

Hey Ellie. That writing muse can be an elusive thing. In my head, I know the more I write, the more the muse will come to me, but translating that to action can be tricky. I love reading your posts, and it doesn't matter what the subject. I just enjoy seeing into your thoughts, and the pleasure of noticing how you express them.
Dianne

Jade Lady said...

Hello Ellie - glad to hear you were able to get back the purse to the rightful owner. I've had a purse stolen also, and one day, a year later, someone mailed me all my credit cards and DL.