About seven years ago I agreed to attend a fundraiser for bicycle safety awareness and advocacy. My wife was out of town at the time, so I attended the event solo and met up with my Rainbow Riders bike group.
The requisite silent auction with an eventual live auction for the major items was a significant part of the fundraising effort. Of course they had a lot of bike related items which I bid on, but did not win.
My eyes kept coming back to the African Safari trip. I had always wanted to go on an African Safari and here was my dream trip nearly whispering in my ear that you must bid on me.
Finally, the live auction portion of the evening was upon us. My purse strings started to loosen with every additional sip of wine and the perfect storm occurred. A second glass of wine, encouragement from my friends, and my deep desire caused my bid number to raise in the air several times. Eventually, the bid got too high even for my inebriated state. Oh, but wait, there’s more. The auctioneer announced sold to my competitor and then promptly added, that the generous donor gave away not one, but two trips to Africa and since I had the second highest bid I was going to Africa.
I promptly called my wife, who was in Baltimore at the time and the conversation went something like this:
Me: Hi honey. How would you like to go to Africa?
My Wife: What? Are you drunk?
Me: Um, no, not exactly, although I have had a few. I just bid on an African Safari trip and can you believe it, I won.
My Wife: I thought we were going to Greece for my fiftieth.
Me: Well as long as we have to make that long trip on a plane, we can combine it with the Africa trip.
My Wife: Sigh (yes I think I remember hearing her sigh over the phone). Okay, I guess that could be fun.
I got off the phone and did a little happy dance. Now this is seven years later, so I’m taking a little poetic license with the phone conversation, so honey if you are reading this remember my memory gets worse every year. However, I do recall not as much excitement about the trip as me.
In all fairness, my wife did warm to the idea and by the time we boarded the airplane, she was as excited as I was about our trip.
It turned out to be the trip of a lifetime. I managed to see all five of the big five game. Unfortunately my wife was sick on the morning that I saw the lions, but I took a boatload of pictures and a short video to prove we had come across the large pride.
My other favorite critters were the monkeys. Like Pavlov’s dogs every time the lunch or dinner bell range, the playful monkeys would come around. One would distract us with his or her antics, while the other stole our fruit or on one occasion a whole bowl full of butter packets. This picture shows the evidence of their intelligence at tricking the dumb Americans.
We plan on going back to Greece after I retire, but probably not Africa because we have so many other places to visit. However I can say without a shred of hesitancy that Africa will remain one of the finest adventures of my lifetime and I do believe my wife would agree with that.
Cheers to alcohol and live auctions!
I hope to make many more trips overseas after I retire and maybe to even write about a few. In the meantime if you are interested in checking out my debut novel, the link is below. Just around the corner is my second novel, Asset Management, set for release on August 1st. Quite different from the first book, it is filled with excitement and intrigue. I do so appreciate the support and the reviews!
Click the link below to purchase my debut novel.
Annette Mori 