The Mystery of the Lost Cell Phone- Solved!

It's been so crazy-busy lately that my posts are now all out of order!!! Like my life. . . . Anyway, After Rob and Dale installed the stage in Baker, OR (last Thursday, Friday) and after the Agape event (last Saturday, Sunday), our family took a short road trip back to Baker to recover the lost cell phone on Monday (of last week!). Rob had his every-third-Monday Community Planning Meeting on Monday until about 5:00 so we couldn't actually get on the road until 6:00. We were trying to arrive before the 7:00 concert at the high school (where the stage is) but obviously didn't make it- even with the hour time change in our favor. While we waited for the concert to finish, we ate dinner at Sumpter Junction. This restaurant has a model train that runs completely around the dining area! We sat right next to the glass-enclosed "station" and watched the train go 'round while we ate.





We caught the tail end of the concert at the school just in time to hear the band director tell the audience about how great the orchestra pit stage turned out. He didn't even know we were in the audience, so that was pretty cool.

In my recent post about the stage, I left a cliff-hanger (hey- it's my blog, I can call it whatever I want!!) about the cell phone. When Rob and Dale exited the high school in the middle of the night, the door had locked behind them when Rob realized he didn't have his cell phone. The next day, he called the custodian of the school, who had become a friend by this time, and asked him to call the phone and find out where it could be. . . . . turns out, it was under the stage. Before the last stage deck was tucked firmly into place, Rob had crawled around underneath checking for who-knows-what and, at some point, his phone had fallen out of his pocket. Eventually, the stage will have a couple of handles so that it can be easily removed by just about anyone but at this point in the project, no one but Rob and Dale knew the secret to getting under the stage. When the concert was finished and people were mulling about, Rob brought up his high-tech, stage deck-lifting aparatus: a clamp and a small piece of wood that is drilled into the deck with a wood-screw.

When two of these fancy-schmancy apparati are attached, they become "handles" that pull the deck up and out, leaving a space big enough for someone to crawl into and under.

Gloria volunteered for this dirty job and soon disappeared under the stage with a flashlight.

The phone was dead by this time so she just had to shine the light around and look for a dark colored cell phone in a very dark space.

It wasn't long before she emerged, victorious!! The only mishap was that she almost lost her britches!

I was very impressed with the way the stage turned out. It was absolutely perfect.

I was amazed at how exact they were able to match the edges of the stage to the curve of the pit and how tightly everything fit together.

It turned out to be a fairly painless, family road trip with a happy ending! We arrived home Monday night around midnight and on Tuesday morning, we packed up the van and headed to Salt Lake. . .