September 6, 1997
Gold Beach, Oregon, USA

After taking me out to breakfast, Jack dropped me off at the beach. When my boat was all packed and I was ready to go, I realized I was missing my booties. I couldn’t leave without my booties. I called Jack’s house, but he wasn’t home. I then persuaded a man to drive me the 7 miles back to the beach I landed on, to look for my booties. When I didn’t find them, he drove me to Jack’s house to look for them. They were not there either. I was very upset with myself for being so careless. I was sure I left them at the beach, so I asked the man to drive me back to check one more time. It seemed like I was testing the man’s patience, but he drove me back to the beach again as requested. Finally, after another thorough search I found them. I jumped for joy and let out a "Yahooo!" as I ran back to the man waiting patiently at his truck. I would have kissed the bottom of that man’s shoe if he wanted me to.

Shorty thereafter, I was back on the water and my kayak was sea-worthy as a whale again. At the present time, I’m sending this email from a super-market where I am picking up a few groceries.