the story of my non-death

Okay. Alex wanted to know the story about my parents thinking we were dead. It's pretty funny if you know my mom at all. So when we were in Talkeetna we were supposed to take a "scenic train" to our next resort at Denali. Luke and I had stopped in "downtown" Talkeetna the first day we were there but my parents decided to wait and go in the morning before we left and that we would just meet up at the train station later in the morning. No problem, I'm 24 years old. I can figure that out how to step out of the front door onto a clearly marked bus and get out when the driver tells me to. So we get on the bus and about 5 minutes later the driver says, "Okay I just got a call and there's been a problem with the train tracks and it looks like you won't be able to take the train today." He went on to explain that a semi was hauling some equipment that didn't quite fit under the railroad bridge and it damaged the tracks. He said we would have to take a bus (which was fine with us because it was a 2 hour drive instead of a 5 hour train trip) but we wouldn't be able to leave yet because the drive was so much shorter and our new hotel wouldn't be ready yet. So we go back to our old hotel and wait. We assumed that our parents would be right behind us but they still weren't there when we were ready to leave so I asked someone at the front desk to leave a note for them saying that we'd meet them at Denali and that we were okay.

Meanwhile:
Our parents got on their shuttle to go to the train station. The cruise line people do a pretty good job of keeping track of where everyone is so they knew that it was our parents and where they were and they were the only ones on the shuttle so it was pretty foolproof. As they were pulling out of the parking lot some woman comes running in front of the bus waving frantically and gets on the bus and says, "Are you the Bensons? You need to come with me, there's been a problem." So my mom (who is already worried that something has gone horribly wrong and we probably forgot to wake up or took the wrong bus or were poisoned in our sleep or something) is instantly worried that something happened to us so she says, "Can you tell me if my kids are okay?" and the lady says, "I don't know," which could be the worst response to that question ever. Obviously she knows that there was a truck accident early in the morning and that no one was hurt but she decided not to share that information so my mom panics, starts crying and freaking out. She asks about 5 times for more information and all the lady says is, "There was an accident and I was told to stop and take you back to the hotel until we have more information for you." Still no word on whether or not her children are alive or have been mauled by a bear and are bleeding to death on a trail somewhere. Finally she asked about us specifically at the front desk when they finally got back to the hotel and the message I left turned into "Your children left and they're fine without you," which weren't exactly the words of comfort she was hoping for.

There were about 4 more complications about what bus to take, including being dropped off along the side of the road and being told "a bus will come pick you up in a minute." Which, surprisingly, was true. The 2 hour trip to Denali took my parents almost 7 hours and they walked in the door of the lodge just as we were getting ready to leave without them on the Natural History Tour at Denali that we weren't willing to miss just to wait for them (this was before we knew about their emotional journey to get there). So yeah. That's why my mom thought we were dead.