On the river

Welcome to this week's Reno News & Review.

Last Sunday, my wife and I floated down the Truckee River. We set in near Boomtown around 3 p.m., and naïvely believed we'd have ample time to finish at Idlewild Park before meeting family for dinner at 6 p.m.

Naïve, right? We'd only floated the river a handful of times, and neither of us is particularly adept at judging times or distances. Plus, the water level was much lower than I remember it from years past, meaning that it was very slow going, with a lot of time spent navigating around rocks. So, we were late for dinner. Very late.

Neither of us had a phone—not wanting to get anything wet. Finally, at 7:40 p.m., I hopped out of the river at the Patagonia outlet to ask if I could use their phone to call my doubtless worried family. Here's the conversation I had a with a female security guard at Patagonia:

“May I help you?”

“Yes, can I please use your phone? My wife and I were floating down the river, we lost track of time, and now we're an hour and a half late for dinner with family.”

“Sorry, this area is for employees only.”

“I just need to make a phone call. It's kind of an emergency.”

“No.”

“Seriously? What's your name?”

Then she literally slammed the door in my face and walked off. I started to leave, bumped into a employee in the parking lot, asked him for help. His cell phone didn't have a signal, but he said he could help me into the building to use a phone. He asked me to wait outside.

I waited a couple of minutes. Instead of the employee, two security guards showed up—the woman from earlier and a grim-faced man. He told me that not only would they not allow me to use their phone, but they'd called the sheriff.

Sara and I waited for the sheriff, who I was more than happy to talk to, but the car never arrived. Instead, a nice guy named Dave showed up to walk his dog. He not only let us use his phone, but also gave us a ride to our car and refused to accept the gas money we offered him.