I should've been a detective

Saturday, September 18, 2010

After we put the kids to bed tonight, Mike got on the computer to book a hotel room for us tomorrow night.  We decided to drive all the way to Amarillo and stay the night there.  As he went to finish booking the room he looked at me and asked the question that makes your heart stop when you're on vacation, "Have you seen my wallet?"

We searched everywhere.  All of his pant pockets, our luggage, the cars he'd ridden in today, the couches, and all over the house.  It was nowhere to be found.  The last time he remembered having it was at the pizza place in Leadville.  I hurried to find the number of the pizza place and then waited on the phone while the employee checked the grassy area around the picnic table where we ate lunch.  Nope.  Not there.  Where else could it be?  Where else did he go today?  Arg.  Willis Gulch! 

We hiked around Willis Gulch for hours this afternoon.  He said that his back pocket is kinda shallow and if it doesn't get buttoned all the way it'd be easy for the wallet to work it's way out.  He and Ben talked about all the rocks that we climbed around and over...and the river that we walked through.  Julie and I finally convinced the guys to get their headlamps and go retrace our footsteps from earlier today.  If they didn't find it, they could go back in the daylight, but if they did find it we'd all sleep better tonight!

After they left I started looking at some of the pictures I'd taken today.  I was viewing them on the camera, so sometimes I'd zoom in to see details better.  All of the sudden I remembered back to the time that Brody lost his hat at Cabela's.  I was able to use pictures I'd taken of the boys in the store to see exactly where Brody'd lost his hat!  I started looking back at pictures of Mike throughout the day today to see if I could see his wallet in his back pocket.  It was most definitely there when we were eating pizza at High Mountain Pies.  The next pictures were of us hiking around Willis Gulch.  I could see it in his back pocket (if you look back at the pictures from Willis Gulch you'll notice that I was following behind the guys most of the time...so no, I was not taking tons of pictures of Mike's butt...but if I zoomed in on the picture of him hiking up the trail I could see his back pocket!)

I could tell that the wallet was in his back pocket after we crossed the river and that it was possibly still there while he was skipping rocks (but couldn't tell for sure).  After that I could tell that his pocket was empty.  Just as I picked up my phone to call and tell them where to look, I got a text that said, "Found it!"  I called to ask where it was and it just so happens that it was on the other side of the river (remember me telling you about how cold it was to cross the river while the sun was beating down on us?  I'm glad I didn't go with them and have to cross that river in the dark!  Brrrrr!).  When they got to the other side of the river, the wallet was lying on the ground by where the guys were skipping rocks! 

Am I good or what?!?  I should've been a detective.  Of course, I'd have to work on my timing.  If I'd gotten a hold of them before they found it, I'd've looked like a genius!  Instead, we'll praise the Lord and thank him for helping the guys find a wallet...in the dark...in the middle of the wilderness!