#4 of 20: Nightcrawlers

Adventure #4 is brought to you by Canadian Nightcrawlers.  What’s this all about (aboot), you ask?  Well, Chad challenged me to go fishing with him.  To someone outside of our home that may not seem like a big deal, but Chad knew it would not be an easy decision for me.  #1 Instant gratification is a must.  There can’t be any standing around waiting for a fish to bite.  You should drop the hook in the water and instantly be met with a school of fish competing for it.  #2 I like to believe that all of my meals grow on trees.  No harm should come to anything that I consume, therefore  I live in this blissful, naïve fantasy in which nothing is killed for my consumption.  And, finally, #3: Ewwww…worms and fish.

So, here’s how our adventure played out.  Thursday night we went to Cabela’s to purchase just the right hooks and bobbers and to scope out their live bait selection.  Sunday morning Chad eagerly headed out to Cabela’s to buy some fresh nightcrawlers.  When I asked him why he got so many, he kindly pointed out to me that they do not sell them by the individual worm.  What?  I had no reason to know that.

Chad loaded up the SUV with fishing poles, a tackle box, and a chair for me and we headed to a nearby lake to mark another adventure off the list.  My dutiful fishing caddy set up my chair and found just the right place for us to cast.  The weather was beautiful and I was ready.  Chad showed me how to put the worm on the hook and I quickly promoted him to caddy and bait manager.  No way was I doing that to that poor worm.

Chad cast the first worm and instantly got a bite.  I thought, “Wow!  I’ve been so mistaken.  They do eagerly jump on the hook.”  Even though the first one got away before he was reeled in, we were on the right track.  Chad cast it again and handed the pole to me.  Then nothing.  I waited.  Then nothing.  He cast it again.  Then nothing.  More waiting.  Impatience.

We decided to move to a different part of the lake and he cast a few more times for me before I finally landed a GIANT catfish.  See, I can at least grasp the theory of exaggeration for which this hobby is known.  I shrieked like a little girl as I reeled him in, named him George, and then let Chad toss him back in the water.

Knowing I was not long for this adventure, Chad suggested that we give it one more go.  Once again I caught a GIANT catfish.  This one was even more gigantic than the last.  One of the caveats for this adventure was that I had to touch the fish.  More shrieking ensued and then he went back into the water.  Truth be told, that poor fish was probably thrilled to get away from the crazy screaming lady on the shoreline.

As we packed up our gear, I was given the honor of freeing the rest of the worms.  And, as we headed back home, Chad asked me a question to which he already knew the answer, “Was the best part of your day releasing the worms?”  He knows me so well.

20 for 20

For our upcoming 20^th anniversary, Chad and I decided we want to experience 20 adventures together.  Some of them will be small – for example, eating a local restaurant that we have never tried – and some will be more monumental.  Big or small, we’re looking forward to them all.

That brings me to our 2^nd official adventure, which turned out to be about 10 adventures gloriously wrapped into one.  And shockingly did not result in either of us being harmed in the process as tempers flared and nerves were tested.  I don’t recall signing any releases, but there’s a very good chance our entire day was filmed for a revival of Candid Camera.  If not, it should have been.

It all started when we recently decided to spend a long weekend in LA.  Being winos, we learned about a dinner being held at a restaurant called Republique.  It was a wine pairings dinner with Lafitte Rothschild wines from around the world hosted by one of the Lafitte Rothschild representatives and the pairings were blessed by the winemaker himself.  In essence, it was too good to pass up.

We quickly swung into action booking flights and hotel and decidedly declared this would be our 2^nd adventure of the anniversary year.  Finally, departure day arrived.  We packed our bags and headed out to run a few errands on our way to the airport.

One of our stops was going to be to see my hairdresser for a quick bang trim.  Unfortunately, his car was broken into during the night and he was understandably sidelined filing reports and getting a loaner vehicle while his is repaired.  No big deal.  I hate it for him, but not having my bangs trimmed was definitely not an ender for me. 

Our next two stops were car-related and uneventful; except one of the stops proved that you never know who you’re going to meet.  We dropped into the tolltag store for a quick transaction and learned that our representative came over from Cuba at age 7 (she’s now 63) and her father was the chief engineer for Jacques Cousteau.  How cool is that?

Having completed our errands sooner than expected, we got to the airport early anticipating extra time to get some lunch and maybe send some emails before our flight departed.  WRONG!  Trouble was brewing the second we stepped through the sliding glass doors into Terminal D (remember this, because it will be important later).  There were people everywhere, but everything was at a standstill.  American Airlines’ computer system went down nationwide and clearly there are no emergency backup plans for dealing with an unexpected computer glitch.  Instead of being able to manually check people in and keep things moving, they grounded flights and passed out little bottles of water to try to keep the restless travelers at bay.

The interesting part was that the travelers began to find work arounds that AA had not even considered.  For some reason, if you have the AA app on your phone, it was working.  The catch was that you could get your boarding pass, but you couldn’t check a bag.  If you’ve ever travelled with me, you would know that I do not pack lightly.  Understatement of the year.  You never know when you’ll need that kitchen sink, right?  This is the bane of Chad’s existence when travelling with me and a frequent topic of conversation…especially yesterday.  If our bag(s) had been smaller, we could have passed through security with them using the boarding passes on our phones.  Unfortunately, our GIGANTIC suitcase would not make the cut and we had to wait until the systems came back online.

Voila!  The systems were up, Chad was hangry, and I was not in the best mood myself.  Chad rushed the line to get our steamer trunk checked and then it happened.  The AA rep asked for Chad’s identification AND HE DIDN’T HAVE IT.  When he was travelling earlier in the week, he inadvertently left it in a carry-on bag instead of putting it back in his wallet.  Panic set in.

In what I believe was an effort to avoid being caught up in a domestic dispute, the rep suggested that, since it was a domestic flight, the TSA might let him through security by showing other things with his name on it (e.g. credit cards).  Frankly, I don’t think he cared if it would really work and just wanted to get rid of us.  

  

Well, it turns out the AA rep was right.  For the low, low cost of your dignity, you can in fact get through security without a valid ID.  Chad was put through the paces and I believe that his security screening also qualified as his annual physical.  Thoroughly humiliated and stressed out, he found me waiting impatiently for him.

Then the race was on.  We ran around to gate D37 to board our flight.  Alas, D37 was boarding a flight to San Francisco.  My first thought was that all of the delays had shifted things around and our flight would board there after the SFO flight took off.  Wrong!  Taking a closer look at my boarding pass, it said gate C37.  Yes, we were in the wrong terminal. 

And the race was on again.  We ran to Skylink and caught it as the doors were sliding shut.  Convinced we were going to miss our flight, we waited impatiently as Skylink followed its route to the E terminal and eventually to C.  Chad was looking pretty sheepish the entire way and reluctant to make eye contact with me, because he was the one who told me the flight was in terminal D and I never questioned it or double-checked.  My trust was in him.  “Arriving at C Terminal.”  Aah, those sweet words…and then the race was on yet again.  We ran through the terminal to our gate and made it in time to board.  What a relief!  We’re finally on our way.

As we took a moment to catch our breaths, Chad said, “Now you know why you’re always in charge of logistics when we travel.  I travel for business and do absolutely fine by myself, but today you would think I’ve never travelled before.”  Remember these key words.  He also took a moment to call my parents to ask them to Fedex his driver license to him in LA so that he would not have such an intimate TSA encounter on the way home.

The flight was smooth and we arrived in LA almost on time, which was a miracle in and of itself.  We would have time to get to the hotel, take a short rest, and freshen up before dinner.   Or not.  After watching many suitcases roll by on the baggage claim carousel, it became painfully apparent that our suitcase did not make the flight.  Chad checked with a representative who confirmed that our bag was either on a flight to Minneapolis or would arrive LA on the next flight.  It was a mystery.

Not knowing where our bag was in these glorious United States, we decided to make efficient use of our time to fetch the rental car while we waited.  We got the car without incident, though there was another couple on the same rental car aisle who we thought might kill each other before selecting a mid-size sedan.  The woman was screaming at her husband in a foreign tongue I did not understand, but their body language did not need translation.  Perhaps they had experienced a similar travel day to ours.  Seeing their tempers flare higher and higher, we got out of there as fast as we could.  The very last thing we needed yesterday was to become witnesses to murder.

Good news!  Our suitcase was on the next flight.

Bad news! Traffic was an epic nightmare and we got to the hotel 15 minutes before our dinner was scheduled to begin.  As I traversed my way across LA to the hotel, Chad kept reassuring me that the restaurant was merely .5 miles from the hotel.  He knew that because he confirmed it when he booked the room.

We raced into the hotel, threw our bags down in our room, hastily changed our clothes and summoned an Uber.  Our Uber driver, who actually turned out to be a very funny, nice guy, had trouble finding our hotel and ended up on a one-way side street.  In lieu of waiting for him to wind his way through traffic around to the front of the hotel, we ran.  Once again, for what felt like the 10th time in less than 6 hours, I found myself running behind Chad to get transportation, but this time I was in heels.  Oy vey!

We threw ourselves into the back of the car and were on our way…at the snail’s pace of 2 mph in the snarled traffic, which Justin, our driver, declared was “above average.”  Justin sensed our tension and tried to ply us with riddles and candy.  Yes, he offered to share his Dr. Pepper flavored jellybeans with us on the 6-mile ride to dinner which was estimated to take 35 minutes.  Six miles?!  I thought Chad was going to melt into his seat.  I don’t know what restaurant is a ½ mile away from our hotel, but it’s certainly not the one where we were going.

After such an incredible journey, we arrived at our destination late but before the first course was served.  The dinner was phenomenal, the wine was phenomenal, and, most importantly, we were there to experience it.

Coming out of the restaurant feeling pretty good about how things turned out, we hopped in another Uber and began making our way back to the hotel in what was significantly less traffic.  As we sat at a stoplight chatting with our driver, we saw a war between two BMW drivers raging across the intersection.  People were out of their cars and one of the men was banging on the hood of the other guy’s car.  As the BMW moved to get out of the way, the guy ripped off the side mirror and leapt into his car to chase him.  Huh, that was strange.  While we were curious to see how that story ended, our frayed nerves and thoroughly exhausted selves couldn't wait another minute to get to the hotel.

We were thoroughly spent.  Whew, what a day!

With adventure #2 in the books, we look forward to see what today will bring.  And we’re ready for it…I think.  But we’ve both agreed that I’ll be in charge of the logistics.  Stay tuned.