You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy™
The lost bag.
My daughter is in the Navy ROTC.
On June 5th she flew out of Nashville, Tennessee to Chicago. From Chicago she flew to Hong Kong.
From Hong Kong she flew to Guam.
She was a human pin ball, bouncing off major cities in multiple time zones.
When she got off the plane a day later, she was disoriented and tired.
She was supposed to meet up with the rest of her group, but for whatever reason, they were all gone.
So she goes to baggage in a foreign land.
She stands at the carousel and waits as everyone else’s bag is taken.
Finally when the conveyor belt stops churning, she goes to the office and reports her bag missing.
After some computer clicks, she is told that her bag went to Newark.
12,770 miles!
How the hell does that happen?
It doesn’t matter, it did.
So she gives the baggage people all her pertinent information and goes to the hotel in Guam.
The only problem? The next day she gets on a naval destroyer and steams out into North Pacific.
Her naval vessel is headed for Australia, and she will be out of communication range for a couple of weeks.
I get chirps, and little texts here and there that her bag is missing.
But I have no info. I have no flight info, no confirmation numbers, nothing.
So I wait.
Then on June 21st, fathers day, she texts me from Australia.
Hey dad can you call United in Guam and see what you can do. apparently they don’t know where it is.
And so it begins.
I call United Airlines.
He is a nice guy and he asks me all the right questions.
Unfortunately, I have very little information about her bag, when it got lost or where it went.
He is patient and cares about the problem. He apologizes numerous times, especially once he learns she is a sailor and she has been without her bag for 3 weeks.
He puts me on hold 3 times while he calls all over the planet.
He eventually arranges a 3 way call with a United employee in Guam.
The connection is rough like a hobo’s beard.
The sound is scratchy like a burlap thong.
The woman on the other end has a dialect that is sing-song foreign. I say excuse me 35 times.
I’m getting agitated, but everyone is trying hard to find the bag.
“It’s here in Guam,” the woman says.
She proceeds to tell me that the bag will be put on a plane to Tokyo. From Tokyo, the bag will fly to Denver. From Denver she says the bag will come to Nashville.
I thank her and hang up.
Wow.
2 days later, my receptionist at work rings down to me.
“Do you have a daughter who lost a bag?”
“Yep.”
“It’s here.”
“I’ll be right up.”
I enter the lobby and the driver is all smiles.
“I heard you were looking for this?”
“Yep.”
He hands me the 50 pound green duffel.
I throw it on my shoulder and throw it on the floor next to my desk.
People will stop by all day and ask me “what’s that?”
I laugh. it’s got tickets stamped on it from Guam and routes to Tokyo.
My daughter has been asleep for 14 hours, jet lagged like a tranquilized vampire.
When I finally hear from her, all I get is
“YESSSSS”
I guess that’s good.
I feel good, knowing that my girl asked me to help and I got something done that nobody else seemingly could.
After traveling 15,000 miles around the planet, the sea bag is now 26 miles from ending this journey that it began almost a month ago.
Soon it will be reunited with the girl who packed it.
Nothing has been opened, nothing has been worn.
Perhaps the only good thing is a little girl’s faith in her daddy has been renewed.
Life’s Crazy™