Kelly dropped me off at Mark Keating’s house in Barrie, ON at 3 pm on Wednesday. The plan
was to take an Uber to the airport for our 8 pm departure. Mark ordered the Uber; the first ride
cancelled. The second ride picked us up and drove us 500 m before the driver said that the
ride had been cancelled. Not sure how or why it happened, but he dropped us back at Mark’s
house. Ride three was arriving as I realized that my fanny pack, containing my passport and
wallet was left in the back seat of ride two. Panic set in.
We tried frantically to call Uber but any and all listed HELP numbers have been discontinued.
We couldn’t find any contact information on the app either. An Apple Air tag in the fanny pack
was broadcasting its current location so we set off to track it down. After three fruitless
locations we realized the Apple Air tag only updates location every 20 minutes or so. We
drove back to Mark’s and I phoned the Barrie Police.
The only identification we had for ride two was the driver’s first name, a car description, and
his license plate. The police officer put me on hold and called the driver. The driver agreed to
return to Mark’s after his current ride, in 15-30 minutes.
By 5:40 pm, ride two returned with my fanny pack. With panic in our eyes, he agreed to take
us to the airport ‘off the books’. At first we weren’t sure he understood the gravity of the
situation, but as we hit 150 km on the 400, we started to have hope. We thanked him quickly
as we jumped out at Terminal Three at 6:40 pm.
There was no line to get our boarding passes or to go through security. I even had time to be
chosen for a random luggage examination. Ten minutes later we were sitting at Gate 32
waiting for boarding to begin.
Before the call to Police I honestly thought my trip was over. Almost 48 hours, two flights, and
two high speed trains later, I find myself sitting on a well worn couch in Hostel Quartier Leon
Jabalquinto in Leon, Spain. Tomorrow Mark and I start walking north on the Camino San
Salvador. We both hope the rest of this trip is less exciting than our first five hours.