“Good morning, Boss-Lady! Hope your weekend was great. Um, bit of bad news on my end. Seems that I lost my phone…!” Yep, I was envisioning that call and conversation occurring the first thing Monday morn. See, my employer supplies my phone, both as a benefit and as a way of, keeping in contact on a secure device. And a new one would have been my third in three years. And, they just issued me a brand new laptop. Luckily, that call won’t be necessary.

     I had decided yesterday that if the sky was cooperating, I’d head to a spot that I’ve been thinking would be a good place to shoot with my drone. I headed out early, drove around the waterfront here in Fairhope, keeping an eye on the sky to see what was developing. I liked what I was seeing, but it was still about forty-five minutes before sunset and the place I wanted to shoot is not a conducive one for just hanging out and waiting. So, I ended up at the Pier Street boat ramp, looking at the sky over Mobile and the gulls perching on the pilings of a long-gone pier.

     I decided that while I was waiting, I’d pull out my drone and get in a bit of practice at flying the thing. I’ve only had it out four times and I knew that the place I wanted to shoot later would require a bit of precise maneuvering. So, out of the case, set up with my phone and off it went. I was just piddling around and took a few shots along the lines of the photo that accompanies this entry. Nothing to write home about, but it seemed appropriate to post with this story. It was fun flying the drone amongst the pilings and the gulls. See, the remote control has a spot for and requires that you connect your phone and the two communicate through an app. This allows you to control the drone and also gives a birds-eye view from the drone. Pretty neat!

     Realizing that it was nearing the time for me to head off, I brought the drone home and began to ready it for its case. I drive a Miata and had the top down so after disconnecting it from the remote, I set it down on the car, probably on the folded down top. I finished with the drone and drove off, first to the Orange Street pier (just because I always do), then down to the Fairhope Pier, where I took a few shots, from my car, with my regular camera. Then I was off for my sunset spot. As I was headed that way, I took a side street that I had never explored then got back on track to where I intended to shoot. I arrived at my spot, or as far as I could get in my car. It requires a bit of driving amongst the trees and then a bit of a walk. As I was gathering my things from the car, I realized  – no phone. Dang! My first thought went back to the boat ramp and I could not remember picking it up after laying it on the car. My foolish second thought was to wonder if another phone that I have at home for use with wi-fi would work with the remote through blue-tooth. I decided I needed to look for my phone. I retraced my drive, back through down-town, around the parking lot by the pier, down to the boat ramp, the Orange Street pier, back to the ramp – no phone! I headed home, thinking about that Monday morning call, but, oddly enough, there wasn’t any dread or panic. It was just a thing.

     When I got home, I used one of those ‘call-my-phone’ websites to see if maybe it was in my car somewhere and I’d overlooked it. No such luck. Then, I remembered hearing something about ‘Find My Phone’, an Apple app. I looked it up on my laptop, found my Apple password and signed in - the app pulled up a map with a little green dot labelled ‘Walter’s IPhone’ and it was located  just off of Section Street and Perdido. I jumped in my car, headed that way and, I’ll be darned if it wasn’t laying face down in the parking lot of the old ‘Ben’s Bar-B-Que’! I realized that when I wanted to check out that street I had never explored, I pulled into Ben’s and turned around. So, that phone sat on my Miata from the boat ramp, to the Orange Street pier, to the Fairhope Pier, through downtown and decided to jump off at Ben’s.

     All I can say is, wow! I do some fairly dumb things sometimes, like driving off with my phone on the car. And believe me, I’ve got more stories just from my pursuit of getting the shot. Luckily, technology is what it is. It allows me to fly my drone and, wait for it … find my phone!