przed

This subject header precludes an interesting story that, in hindsight, is a lot more amusing than stressful.

Yesterday, we got home from our journey around 3am, and crashed. Around noon, we got up and went to the local Co-Op for lunch and some groceries. Blair texted her mom saying we'd be around to get Velma somewhere around 1:30. No response, but we didn't think of it. We decided we wanted to go to another store first before picking up the dog, and Blair texted her again saying "Hey, it'll be closer to like 4pm probably, there's some more stuff we want to do."

At this time, Blair frowned, texted some more, then looked at me and said "It says my mom is only connected via satellite. My text didn't go through." She decided to try her dad. Same thing. She reached out to her sister to see if she knew where they were, or what was up, or if she could contact them. No dice.

I left the table to go upstairs and use the bathroom. When I got back, Blair was looking very worried. She said "We're packing up our lunch and leaving right now. Something isn't right."

Turns out that not only are both her mom and dad impossible to reach (texts not going through, calls going direct to voicemail) but she checked their phones (the whole family has iphones) and it turns out that her mom, her dad, and the dog, all last pinged about two hours prior. Which means after that point, all devices were either dead or deactivated. The ping? A deserted lot in the middle of nowhere.

It didn't seem great. Why would they have last pinged in an abandoned lot in the middle of nowhere? Maybe it's the true crime fans in us, but we couldn't help but let our minds wander. Were they robbed? Were they lured there? Were they dumped there? Their phones destroyed?

We got in the car and started to make our way to Sparta, where her parents live. We got in touch with her sister and her sister's husband, who live only minutes from their parents, and her sister said they would drive over. We got another call back letting us know that neither mom or dad were there. Purse, gone. Jackets, gone. Dad's car gone, mom's still there. Dog, present and accounted for.

No one knows what to make of any of this. They left of their own accord, but that seemed weird, since they were expecting us to come pick up our dog. We're all on speaker phone; we all four decide to go and meet at the coordinates of this abandoned lot. We're all confused and scared, but like, we need to find their parents?

We're about to head to the lot, when finally a bunch of texts come through.

Of course. The simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

Their mom and dad had been asked by a friend to come help with someone, and had gone. This friend lived in a blind spot; neither of their phones worked there, because they don't have cell service. They don't even get internet up there. Everything is fine. Everyone laughs about it.

But good lord, we all had to admit that all those details put together didn't look good, and that it was weird. I kept telling them, when we showed up to get our dog, "I'm really glad you guys are still alive!"

Anyway. I'll write up my trip later. I just wanted to talk about this first, hah.