I will start. When I was 15 I went on a wider opportunity with the Girl Scouts into the Bush of Quebec. They boated us about 10 miles in and said - see you in a week. We trained with canoes and did one short trip. Then they brought us more food and said, see you in another week. We did over 100 miles of lake canoeing that week, but my adventure was not over with that.
Before I had left my mother and I had discussed their vacation. They were going on vacation for 2 weeks and I always loved to go with my family, but 4 weeks of camping was a bit much. So we decided that a week after I left they would start on their vacation and pick me up at the airport in Regina. (We live about 150 miles south in Montana.) This was all fine, except they were supposed to pick me up on Saturday at the airport, not Sunday.
My plane was late, so when no one was there - I figured they would be later. By 11pm my hope was gone. We were supposed to stay at the home of a friend that night. I knew there son, my folks knew them. I knew the last name was Stevenson - but do you know how many Stevensons there are in Regina phone book? And my folks were in a campground somewhere. I had stayed there over night on the way up. I knew it was near the fairgrounds, as we had walked to the fair. So I caught a cab and went in search of the house. We drove around blocks and finally found the house, paid the cab, walked around back and it was the wrong house. Started to panic, but then I remember almost walking into a house just like it a block down from it. I can do this. Walked down a block and there was another house just like it, but it had a high wooden fence around the backyard - not the right house either.
These two guys in an old beater car, with blue smoke coming out the tail pipe drove up and asked me if I needed help throwing my pack over the fence. "No, I am at the wrong house." "Are you lost?" And before I could think about it answered, "Yes." Dumb thing to say!
"This street is .... and that street is ...." I didn't know the streets. Oh and at one point he says, "You can trust us, we are not perverts." Right..... "That's ok, I think I recognize the house across the street. Thanks anyways," and they finally drove off.
Walked down a second block to find the right house, but no one was home. 'Bars close at 2am, maybe they will be home then.' I said to myself trying not to be frightened. (I didn't know they didn't drink.) So I took my sleeping bad and rolled it out under the shade of the hedge. I had found out that if you are in a shadow, people who are looking for you won't see you, so no one would see me there who happened to walk by. Said a prayer and the next thing I knew it was a little before 6am and no one was home yet, and did I have to go!
Let's take assessment, 15, alone, strange city and strange country. I think I need to call the police at this point. I am not going to cry! Bundled things up and found a phone booth. "Hi, my name is Lee Ann and I'm lost," as the tears started to flow uncontrollable. They came and put me in a foster home for the afternoon until my folks showed up.
I actually felt worse for my mother. I knew I was ok, she didn't and when she realized her error... It was that bad for her. She had opened the paper to see if they were on time for the plane and could not speak for a full 5 minutes. All she could think was, 'I gave her an emergency $20 and she can get a room for that.' She almost killed me when I handed the money back to her. LOL
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