…That time we thought gail was dead!!!

It was actually the end of a tour of the Wild Atlantic Way, and after an exhausting day of travel we were gathering for a final good-bye dinner when one traveler approached me with,”Erin, I think Gail might be dead!” “Dead,” I said, “Why would we think she’s dead?”

“Well, I knocked on her door and she doesn’t answer and you know she’s had a couple of strokes over the years and I haven’t seen her for a few hours and she’s not here. We need to get the hotel to open her room.”

Okay, some perspective. Gail was part of group traveling and yes, she was slower than the rest so I’d spent a lot of time with her myself and knew her medical history. But dead???!!!

The hotel manager obliged, unlocked the room and no Gail. We fanned out in the hotel trying to figure out where she could have gone. Could she have wondered off? Was she doing some last minute shopping? Was she already headed to the restaurant on her own?

Well, I gotta say as we scoured the area, I didn’t think anything bad had happened, really. But it did cross my mind that losing a traveler on a tour would be really bad for business.

And then Paula, one of my two valuable helpers on trips, back to our gathering spot and said…”Follow me, You gotta see this.”

There, in the bar of the hotel. sat Gail and Betty, that tour’s oldest traveler with mai tai’s topped with fruit in their hands and emptied glasses to the side, showing they’d been there a while. They buddies up earlier and had been sitting there in the bar discussing the adventures ad hand. And they couldn’t have been more alive!