August 28th-taking off

Getting to Europe did come with a specific plan.  My Aunt Sally asked me just a month or so before if I wanted to be her escort/travel companion for a trip she was taking starting August 28^th.  Her adorable corgi, Maverick, had qualified to participate in the World Championships for dog agility.  She would pay for my ticket and provide accommodations if I would handle the travel aspects of the trip such as getting the plane tickets, rental car, driving, making sure I got us to the location which was just under two hours outside of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.  She was joining about 16 other members of the US team to compete for a week in a town called Eerbeek.  This was a small town and the accommodations where about 10 minutes outside of it.  It was what they call a bungalow park and it had what seemed to be at least a hundred bungalow duplexes scattered throughout the hills and trees.  Each felt very private.  The park also had a ton of amenities, making it seem like a little village itself – indoor pool area (overflowing with children L), small grocery store, restaurant, pizza place, bike rentals, and. Lots of hiking and biking trails. My aunt and I shared a small room as we were sharing the bungalow with another woman from the US team and her terror of a terrier named Rush.  More on that later

We gave ourselves plenty of time at the airport as all reports are that lines are long and luggage and or people are not making it on the plane but we found we had plenty of time.  I selfishly dropped her off at the regular security line with her dog and made my way to the TSA pre-check with my Global Entry card.  I usually now pack for this meaning I don’t always have my liquids on top and I wear lace up shoes so I didn’t want to go through the normal security line.  Well, I should have stayed with my aunt because after we both got through our lines and were walking to find our gate to wait the next two hours, we hear on the speakers…. Bob Slade, please come back to security to retrieve your left items.  Bob Slade.”  We stopped and looked at each other with the same expression of a mix of  “that’s weird that there is another Bob Slade here right now” and “ did we really hear the name Bob Slade”?  Legitimate question on my aunt’s part because she is pretty hard of hearing.  So we carried on and shortly heard it again. This time we were sure we heard Bob Slade and it made my aunt think a second and then she realized she had left her phone and iPad back at security when they asked her to take it out and put them in a separate bin. She also walks with a bit of a limp and has her dog so I sat her down in a chair and had her look after my luggage and I took her passport and hurried back to security.  I found the “manager” and told him that our items had been left behind for Bob Slade. He looked at me and said “Are you Bob Slade (obviously, not) and I said that no, the items belonged to my aunt that just went through and I showed him the passport for Sally Slade and tried to explain that the items were registered in her husband’s name.  To be honest, I have no idea how they got his name either or how they were able to identify whose they were but I assumed there must be some way they look at the settings or something.  Anyway,  he asked how I could prove they were my aunt’s items and that I had permission to get them. Well, I can’t. Call her because you have her phone…. Hey, how about I call the phone and you can see that it is me calling?  So he looks at the calller ID and asks me my name, I tell him and he gives me the phone.  Then he says, “what about the iPad, can you unlock it?” Shoot, we didn’t think about that and she didn’t give me the code to unlock it… I tell him this. Then he asks if I can identify/describe the screen saver…. Crap, I don’t know that either but I do know my aunt so I say.. “I don’t know…. Dogs?”  He smiles and asks how many.  “Three – a golden retriever, a corgi and a border collie.”  He hands me the iPad and I am so grateful that my aunt is predictable.  I meet back up with my aunt and we have a good laugh and then a really sad grilled cheese sandwich at an airport restaurant as we wait the rest of the time until our flight leaving at about 9pm.