Yesterday was not only Remembrance/Veterans Day, it was also the day when Czechs jubilantly celebrate everyone with the name Martin! (I love those Czechs and their abundance of excuses legitimate reasons to party.)
Name Days are traditionally celebrated by showering the day’s auspiciously-named people with gifts and treats. However, seeing as we’ve been sorting through our crap and getting rid of a lot of it lately, I decided that it would be best not to go all consumer-like on Marty’s (Other) Special Day. Instead, we ended up celebrating the Day of Martin by getting in trouble with the law.
It started off as a regular Name Day: we slept in (thank you, stat holiday!), I made breakfast, and we called up our friend to see if our pup was available to come hiking with us. Robertine’s schedule was checked and it was confirmed that she could come out to play. Hooray! So we merrily skipped down to Matheson Lake/Roche Cove Park and proceeded to hike and hike and hike.
The weather was overcast but not raining, and the lush greens and yellows of the trail were completely dazzling and enthralling to us. Yes, we might have hiked a little more slowly in some spots, because we were occupied taking photos and taking in the scenery, but we still managed to clip off 10km in a reasonable 3 hours or so. On the final leg of our hike, the sun was starting to set. We picked up the pace, not wanting to get stuck on the trail in the dark.
It was then that I remembered that all CRD parks lock their parking lot gates at sundown.
We booted it back to our vehicle as fast as our legs would take us. As you’re all well aware, with daylight savings time ending and all, it’s starting to get dark pretty damn early these days, and when you’re in the middle of a forest, the sun literally seems to drop out of the sky with no warning whatsoever. That’s what happened to us: one minute it was getting a little dark and then POW- it was totally dark and we could barely see where we were going. (And it was only 5 pm!)
We made it back to the vehicle at 5:17 pm, jumped in, and raced out of the parking lot towards the gate, which (as I’m sure you’ve already guessed by now) was indeed locked. It started to rain. Our cell phone (!) couldn’t pick up a signal to phone anybody. The stars fell out of alignment. And Martins around the world let out a troubled sigh…
We weren’t sure what to do, but we hoped our evening wouldn’t involve sleeping in our van at the Matheson Lake parking lot. I briefly entertained the crazy-ass idea of driving onto the nearby Galloping Goose trail (which is a strict cyclist and pedestrian-only walkway), but my hopes were dashed when I remembered that all trails leading to the Goose have special narrow gates so only people and cyclists can pass through. (Duh.)
Then I saw the emergency phone.
I picked it up and it started dialing automatically. (I had no idea where I was calling, but I figured it was a start.)
Turns out I called 9-1-1. Heh.
The woman on the other end urgently asked if I needed an ambulance, the fire department, or the police. God, I felt horrible. A bit stunned, I lamely told her that I didn’t need any of those things: I just needed to be let out of the park where we were locked in.
‘Oh’, she said. ‘Hold on.’
Guilt. Shame. Avoiding all eye contact.
A few moments later, she was back on the line.
‘Is your last name Maysek?’, she inquired. Another random butchering of our Eastern European last name.
‘Yes’, I replied, not bothering to correct the pronunciation.
‘And are you the owner of a Mitsubishi Delica van?’
Oh god, yes- they know who we are and where we live!
‘Yes’, I responded, totally sullen and guilt-ridden.
‘Okay’, she continued. ‘I’m going to phone the RCMP and they’ll come let you out, okay?’
No, no, no!! Not the effin’ RCMP!!
‘That’s great!’, I lied. ‘We’d really appreciate that!’
So we sat in our van and waited like two year old kids for the police to come and let us out of our playpen. They arrived within a few minutes (in the dark and in the rain) and silently unlocked the gate. I felt terrible.
I’m not certain if we’re going to be fined for this misdemeanor or not, but the RCMP obviously know where to find us if they want to pass on a bill for the inconvenience of it all. Thank goodness we didn’t have to sleep in a random parking lot, and thank goodness the Galloping Goose trail is gated so we couldn’t have tried out my awesome plan to drive on it and get in even more trouble with the law.
At least Marty’s name day will be a memorable one, though!