I had promised at the end of Monday’s journal a story about some travel troubles. I’ve moved it to next week as we’ll be “on the road again,” as Willie Nelson sang. So here we are with one I’m hoping you’ll find entertaining.
 
Yes, the old saying goes that “Necessity is the mother of invention.” We found out for ourselves that very thing when a modest hotel left Rob with a thirst for beer and a problem to solve. I don’t think Ms Christie would consider this lazy at all, unless it was to solve us the hassle of leaving our hotel room after an exhausting day to find a convenience store….
 
Last year when we travelled to Seattle for the Jays’ stand there, my uncle introduced Rob to a sweet beer called Alaskan Amber. Unable to purchase it at home in BC, Rob was delighted to find it in a grocery store cooler on our travels through the States a few weeks back.
 
We picked up a six-pack and went on our way, checking in that night in Provo, Utah. And no, we didn’t bring our own because we were deep in the heart of Mormon country; that thought didn’t occur to us! And besides, there are plenty of bars in the state – at least in Salt Lake City – as pointed out by ads in the Utah tourism guide we picked up at a rest stop.
 
After a long day’s drive, I know he was looking forward to popping open an Alaskan; he’d put a few on an ice pack in a thermal bag when that day’s journey began. As we settled into our hotel room, he said, “Oh no. There’s no bottle opener.” Yes, he’d chosen a beer that was not a screw cap and we’d forgotten that. So, what to do?
 
We started looking around the room for something that could give him leverage. I’m sure Youtube has ideas as to how you could fashion a bottle opener out of dental floss and a paper clip but I wanted to come up with something myself. I spotted that metal arm that flips over to lock your door from the inside, but it wasn’t attached well enough to withstand a good yank. Besides that, it had all rounded edges. No good.
 
That’s when I turned around and spotted this:
 

 
A removable metal piece covered the built-in tissue box compartment. Taking it off was a snap; housekeeping has to do just that to refill it. What the lid wasn’t meant for, of course, was opening beer bottles. But that’s exactly what it did.
 
Applying just the right force at the perfect angle, Rob was able to open his beer, which was still fairly cold (or cold enough). After sustaining a little foamy spillage from the beer having been jostled all day in the car, he enjoyed that sweet amber ale. Our lid idea worked so well that he tried it again with similar success. We bought a can punch the next day at Walmart and it lives with our suitcases now.
 
Coincidentally, the same day that we were trying to come up with a solution, my sister sent us pictures from Mexico of something rather ingenious they sell there: toilet tissue that is meant to come apart from the roll so that you can take it with you – and not just sheet by sheet!
 
We’ve been fortunate on our forays to Mexico: any place we’ve gone has had paper in plentiful supply. Some countries we’ve traveled have left us high and…well, not dry…but at least we’d been prepared with our own! However, that’s not always the case, I guess. And that’s why THIS is a thing!
 

 

Have a great day – thank you for stopping by – and I’ll be back with you here tomorrow with something pretty clever a family member came up with. You may want to borrow it if you have a child in the house!