Celebrating anniversaries, birthdays and any special days whenever we can is just the way we do things. With Mac’s travel schedule, life bumping into us along the way and Tater’s school schedule, we make time for events as we can fit them in.

Which is why we were celebrating our April anniversary in August. Mac surprised me with tickets to see The Charlie Daniels Band, a favorite of mine since I played “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” every day for a year on the 8-track player in my 1974 Toyota.

We dropped the dog off with the pet sitter, packed Tater’s bag and left her with one of my best friends and her kids, and headed up the mountains an hour and a half away. We stopped and shopped along the way, thoroughly enjoying our little anniversary getaway.

Checking into our hotel was adventurous to me, but routine to Mac, who travels every single week. I was gawking at the lobby (BREAKFAST!!!), the signs, and trying to listen when the lady at the front desk was telling us the password for the WI-fi, but Mac was already headed down the hall, assuring me he knew how to get online.

The room was big and beautiful and I wanted to take it all in like the non-traveler I am. THE Bathroom (yep, I’ve seen a bathroom honey), THE Closet (uh-huh….), THE King Sized Bed (wiggles eye brows), THE Desk, THE little soaps and shower cap! (WAIT…shower cap? Who uses a shower cap?). I was a country bumpkin come to town and showed it in every step.

But there was no time to dawdle…I had to change, glitter up and head over to the theater to see CDB! Our seats were great, we toe tapped, clapped, sang and cheered and after almost 2 hours of non-stop playing, our concert was over.

Thinking we DEFINITELY needed a night cap, we drove to a little local sports bar, ordered the obligatory wings and pretzels, had a drink and decided at 11:00 pm that we had been out WAY past our bedtime.

We headed to the parking lot, got in the truck and when Mac turned the key, heard that familiar click-click-click of a dead battery. Calling AAA meant we had a new battery installed and paid for, and the truck running in less than an hour. A minor setback, but thankful it happened when it did, instead of on the way to the concert or in the morning.

Arriving back at our hotel around midnight, we remembered to park close to our door and away from the front of the hotel. When Mac put the credit card looking key in the door lock and it switched to green, he pushed on the door to get it open BUT it only opened about 2 inches.

WTH?

Mac tried it again. Same result (Shocking, I know). It appeared the safety lock was on the door FROM THE INSIDE.

My FIRST thought was, ‘they have given our room to someone else and they are in our bed’!!! Fast asleep, they didn’t notice our bags, my makeup (AND GLITTER) spread all over the bathroom counter, the towels messed up and my pocketbook in the frig (I didn’t think anyone would look there…until now that I’ve told all y’all that’s where I leave it…).

So we started saying, ‘Hello….Heeelllllloooo….’. No one answered. I banged on the door to wake the people up THAT WERE OBVIOUSLY IN OUR ROOM and had locked us out.

Mac’s calm side too over, and assured me there wasn’t anyone in our room.

Which NATURALLY made my NCIS/Castle/Rizzoli & Isles watching brain assume the only other possible reason: SOMEOME HAD BROKEN IN, STOLEN MY COLD POCKETBOOK and locked us out of our ROOM!

Again, Mac didn’t think that happened either.

Doesn’t he WATCH TV???

So we go to the front desk…where we attempt to explain what has happened.

It goes something like this: “Hi. We’re in room 126 and the door is locked. From the inside. NO, I mean, the safety lock thingy has closed and we can’t get in with our key.”

Total. Blank. Stare.

“What?”

So we explain again. She thinks for a moment, because apparently not everyone that stays with them manages to DEAD BOLT the door FROM THE INSIDE when they walk out of the room.

She searches through the drawer and comes out with a tool, which Mac says looks like a skinny spatula with a fork on the end. I’m hoping maybe this is more common than I think, but she derails that thought when she says she uses this tool to REACH the lights over the front door.

Oh. Well, maybe it’ll work on a safety lock?

As we’re walking down the hallway, Mac says this has never, NEVER happened in all the thousands of times he’s stayed in a hotel. I say I’m sure someone is sleeping in our room or has broken in and locked us out. The hotel lady just laughs, and says, “no one is in your room.” Bwahahahahaha….

Apparently she doesn’t watch TV either.

When we get to our door, she tries to open it with the key, too. IMAGINE THIS: It doesn’t open!

“Do you have anyone with you that’s in the room?”

Me: Oh, what a great idea! We’ll just ask the people we brought with us and left in the room to UNLOCK THE DOOR! WHY didn’t we think of that????

Ok, that’s what I said in my head. What I really said, was…No. There’s no one with us.

So she starts working on the lock with the ‘tool’….as she’s working, she says, “If this works, it’s not really very safe to have that lock on, is it?”

Thanks….thanks for making me feel very safe…I WATCH MAJOR CRIMES YOU KNOW!!!!

When she can’t make anything work, and says she’s going to get a screwdriver to TAKE THE DOOR OFF. As she’s walking away, Mac asks for the tool and starts to work on the lock.

When she’s almost to the end of the hall, his magic works and the lock pops off the door! I yell down the hall, “WE GOT IT!!!!” much to the delight of our fellow travelers.

She comes back to our room and asks if she can look at the lock, deciding she should have maintenance look at it in the morning.

At NO time, did she check to make sure it was OUR room, so now you know what to do if you have plans to ransack random hotel rooms in your leisure time. Although, it’ll be tough to find ones with the safety lock on and no one INSIDE the room.

When we got inside, Mac the engineer spent 10 minutes trying to make the same thing happen again, but finally gave up because it was now close to 1:00 am and we were sure we were going to turn into pumpkins soon if we didn’t get to bed.

The next morning, we got up, had eggs and 27 pieces of bacon at the breakfast buffet and got in a truck that cranked the first time. As we were checking out, I mentioned to the new lady at the desk that we were the ones with the safety latch that locked us out of the room last night and they might want to get that checked.

“What?”

Never mind….let’s just let it be an adventure for the next person that stays in room 126…

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