I spent three days packing and re-packing for what felt like four different trips. First, the twelve days in New Mexico and Colorado to camp and do some training hikes while acclimating to altitude (increasing my chances of summiting Kili without the dreaded altitude sickness). Then, it’s off to Tanzania! Trip #2 is hiking Kilimanjaro, trip 3 is the safaris in Ngoro Crater NP and Serengeti NP. These portions are with a travel group. The last “trip” is my two weeks in Zanzibar on my own. Each part of the trip has its own requirements and packing list, but the Kilimanjaro part is the most intense. Sleeping bag, sleeping pad, multiple layers to prevent freezing to death, clear snow goggles for summit night, etc. etc. The list is long and forgetting essential gear would be catastrophic.
The safari list and Zanzibar list are mostly identical but with a few add-ons for the solo part in Zanzibar like my “coffee system”. I wanted to keep my Africa bags pre-packed and ready, so the New Mexico/Colorado portion required a completely separate list.
Did I mention that the New Mexico/Colorado part of this journey involves picking up Rosie (my camper van) out of storage in Albuquerque, NM? (I left her there at the end of my Spring break road trip)
So…here’s where the thing I forgot to pack comes in…I remembered everything else (I think), except for the KEYS to the VAN!
Yup. I. Forgot. The. Keys!
I realized this disaster at SFO, right after checking my bags and walking towards security. For those that don’t know, I live 90 minutes from SFO. Getting the keys from home before boarding the plane wasn’t going to happen.
I immediately spun into my classic blend of shitting my pants and problem solving at the same time. By the time the plane took off, the keys were already sent to Albuquerque by Fed-Ex (thanks to my loving husband). But they would arrive on Tuesday. I was arriving on Saturday night and was scheduled to reunite with Rosie at 11am on Sunday morning at the storage place.
I had a hide-a-key hidden on the van. I knew it contained a fob in case I locked myself out. I believed it might have a key and/or that I had hidden one in the van in case I lost keys on a hiking trail somewhere. You know how you think of and discuss multiple options and scenarios with your spouse…and then you can’t remember what you actually decided on much less what you actually followed through on? Yeah, it was like that.
I hoped it was going to end up totally fine…but I wouldn’t know for sure until I got there.
Since I arrived in Albuquerque at midnight, I stayed Saturday night in a cheap hotel near the airport. I must have been even more freaked out than I realized, because my sleep that night was riddled with stress dreams. Most of them were versions of me at an airport with my husband, but I kept walking away and forgetting my bags. I would suddenly remember the bags in my dream and go running through the airport, desperately hoping they would be there. Over and over, I walked away from my bags, remembered them, and ran back to find them. The nightmares of an adult with ADD.
Believe it or not, I slept pretty well despite all the awful dreams. Without a cat who wants love every two hours, a dog who needs to pee at 3am, or a husband to roll over twenty times in the night…nothing woke me up and I slept through the night! Sometimes I think I should stay in a hotel just so I can get some uninterrupted sleep.
The next day, I got a Lyft to the storage yard.
YES! The hide-a-key was there with both the fob and a key!
NO! The key did not start the van. It was some random non-van key. Why the %#$(%*&#$(%@# is there a key with the fob that doesn’t actually start the #%#$#^%* van!!?!?!?!?!
I spent the next two hours sweating and tearing the inside of the van apart, looking for the key I believed I had hidden inside. I checked everywhere, took everything out, looking in every nook, cranny, and crevice. TWICE. But there was no key.
I was stuck.
Until I called a locksmith. Why the hell didn’t I think of that sooner?
An hour later and $290 poorer, I drove Rosie to Costco to stock up on supplies.
The up side…I found an AMAZING campground just North of Albuquerque overlooking the Rio Grande!
