If you've been a member of this amazing community for very long, you know about the value of friendships. Since joining Active Rain way back in 2007, I have made some amazing friends across the nation. Many are people whom I've never actually met in person, but whom are more supportive and provide better counsel than folks in my own company and/or community.
This past week I was in Durango, Colorado for a week long High School event with some kids from our church. Needless to say, Colorado is not only gorgeous, but June Colorado weather rocks compared to June Oklahoma weather. While there, we enjoyed lots of fun activities, including a day of shopping in downtown Durango. As we walked around, I noticed a couple of Real Estate companies and advertising by the "big dog" agent in town. But I didn't go in the Real Estate shops since I was sort of on vacation and also, since I was there with the kids. High school kids don't have much interest or patience for Real Estate talk and time frames, so I was good with laying low.
When the week was over, we got up early (4 a.m.) and loaded the trailer to come home. We were going to drive from Durango to Oklahoma in a day, so we needed to hit the road and make good time. Once the boys rolled out of their beds, I went and pulled the rental van and trailer over to their dorm. After loading their stuff, we were going to pull over to the girls dorm and load them up. So we get started loading, do a last minute check of the rooms and get ready to roll over to the girls, who were waiting on the curb with all their stuff.
That's when we discovered that the van keys had gone missing. And I mean missing. They weren't in my pockets. They weren't on the back of the trailer. They werent' in the trailer. They weren't in the van ignition. They weren't in the dorm rooms. They were literally gone! Poof! Vanished into thin air! Needless to say, this is a very bad situation!
Now, there is a very long story that played out over the next couple of hours, so let me shorten it up and give you the Reader's Digest version so I can get to the Active Rain part of the story. Oklahoma is an hour behind Colorado. The van rental company isn't in Colorado...only in Oklahoma. Lots of messages were left on lots of answering services and cell phones. The locksmith people in Durango weren't awake at 4 a.m. so they weren't answering their phones either. Once we did start getting to awake and living people, we figured out that the answer to resolving our situation was one of three options:
1. Get the van towed to the Chevy dealership where a new key could be made.
2. Have the rental company overnight a key to us.
3. Find the keys.
It seems that new rental vans now have a chip in the plastic part of they key. Most locksmiths don't have the equipment to program the chip. And even if they do, you have to have the super secret code that only the van rental company can give you. So that meant either find the keys or figure out how to get a key and fast! Since I had a connection to the Internet, I found the Chevy dealership online. I also found out that they didn't open until 9 a.m. and that their service department was NOT open on Saturdays. That meant I needed to find someone who knew the owner personally, so we could ask them if they would help us out.
You know what my first thought was in order to accomplish this task right? Find an Active Rainer from Durango! Because Durango is a small town, surely they would know the owner or know someone who would know the owner! This would be our most likely lifeline to getting that stuck van moving towards Oklahoma. So I jump on Active Rain, pull up Durango and find...NOBODY! Now remember, this was around 6 a.m. under a highly stressful situation, with little sleep. Out of my weariness, I missed Durango in the list! When I pull up Durango today, I find Marlene Gebhardt, Denise J. Storm and several other agents who are Rainers! I swear, Durango wasn't in the list that morning! So Marlene and Denise be glad I couldn't find you! You would have been getting a desperation early morning phone call!
Why didn't I call any of the other agents from Durango whose marketing I had seen earlier in the week around town? The answer is simple. Because they weren't Rainers. They wouldn't have known me from a hole in the ground. Calling someone up early in the morning and having a connection like Active Rain is a powerful thing. I know this because any time someone calls me from out of town and says they are a Rainer, I immediately feel like I'm talking to a family member, even if I've never met the person. Calling another Realtor up early in the morning who has no connection to you and pleading your case to have them call someone just isn't the same.
When you are on Active Rain, you have a connection to other Rainers! And that connection crosses state lines and Real Estate companies. It brings a closeness and support that you don't often find in life. For some reason, my AR friends are some of the best friends I've ever had. I love that about Active Rain.
The lost keys story ends when my wife said a little prayer, tore apart the trailer and found the keys. Somehow or other the key ring had become attached to a laundry bag. Ask anyone who was there that morning and we will all tell you that those keys weren't there the 16 times previously when we all searched the trailer. We took off a little after 9 a.m. and arrived home around 2:30 a.m. Along the route we came across a major 18 wheeler truck wreck. It was very apparent that at least one person lost their life.
Had we left on time, we calculated that we more than likely would have been at the scene of the truck crash a couple of hours sooner. Somebody told us that that was about the time the wreck happened.
I read somewhere that all things work together for the good...
Bob...
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