The REST of the Story

I am so totally grateful to be raising resilient and optimistic kids.

Monster Jam was indeed fabulous. Then the show let out, as Garth Brooks' concert started a couple blocks away, and it was PANDEMONIUM!!

We took Detroit's delightful version of public transportation back toward the garage where our truck was parked. That meant walking a few blocks from Ford Field to the Broadway Station, then riding a very full train to Greektown. At Greektown, the platform was full of people trying to get on the train. So hubby and I each grabbed a kid and agreed to meet at the bottom. But hubby is much pushier than I am and got in front of us (I didn't see him and swore he was still behind us).

Maggie and I waited at the bottom of the stairs, not going outside because it was COLD. Soon, there were no more people coming down the stairs, and I had no idea which way hubby and Jack could have gone. I finally unbundled enough to dig out my nearly dead cell phone, and found a message from hubby that they were in the casino. Ugh. I'm known for my sense of direction. How bad my sense of direction is, I mean.

I finally heard a couple talk about going to the entry to the train. I knew this was in the casino so I grabbed Maggie and followed them. We finally reunited with our boys.

This should be where the story says 'happily ever after,' right?

We walked the block back to our parking garage and got in the elevator to ride to the tenth floor where we were parked. It was a full elevator, with stops on floors six, eight, nine, ten and eleven. There was a touching moment when a couple parents got off on eight, and their small son stayed with grandma and grandpa to go to ten. A nice off-duty sheriff held the door open for them as they said goodbye for the night.

There was a buzzing noise, but we assumed it was because he was holding the door. Until the door finally closed and he realized as soon as we did what the buzzing really was - the fire alarm. The elevator was on an express trip back to the bottom.

Yes, we were two floors from our truck a minute ago, and now we were suddenly at street level, ten floors from our car, with no operating elevators.

The heartwarming moment of the whole incident was about two or three floors up on our long walk up the stairs, when my daughter said, "This will make a great story for writer's workshop." Yes, honey, it certainly will.