Must Ride

it’s 11:00pm, I’m just back to my hotel room after spending almost all day at the airport trying to locate my one and only bag, my expedition pack that has all my gear for the Alps trek.  I left Unalaska / Dutch Harbor on time at 8:30pm  I had a dog going to the vets, a harbor seal going to the Sealife Center and I had a backpack coming with  me to Seattle.  At check-in ‘Must Ride’ stickers were placed on my pack because my connecting flight was an international flight.

When we got to Anchorage, I noticed that Blue (the dog) was there, Antigua (the seal) was there and I figured that my pack was checked all the way through to Seattle.

Imagine my surprise, anger, shock, disbelief and pre panic feeling when at 4:40am no bags were left on the baggage carousel and I was left standing there wondering… and wondering.
I went to the baggage help and asked if they knew where it was.  They looked it up and said no, it’s not in the system yet.  I figured that our turn around in Anchorage was too quick for the bag to get on the other plane.

However not in the system started to make me worry.  I spent the morning downtown checking on a few things, hoping that in the few hours my bag would show up on a flight from Anchorage.  I went back to the airport to check.  Nothing.  I got there at 5:00 and started get upset.  Changing my flight to Geneva was too costly, buying all new gear was just as costly, and I can’t figure out what is so hard to understand about MUST RIDE.

But come to find out, the bag didn’t even leave Unalaska.  Aaaarrrrgh!  What happened to Must Ride?  the stickers didn’t say Should Ride, Can I ride, Maybe Ride, Dont Ride, they said MUST RIDE!

Well I do have my bag now, my trekking poles were taken out though.  I’ll be claiming them when I get back.  yep you guessed it too – the must ride stickers are still on the bag.

See you in September.