Adventures with Nana: Lost in the Walmart Parking Lot

And so we start running and we're going and we're going.

Oh my goodness, Nana's like, Kevin, I don't see our car.

SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lowdown on Life and Travel, the podcast that informs, entertains, and inspires.

It's you're taking on a journey to see the world from a different view.

The view of a luxury travel advisor who just so happens to be completely blind.

Here's your host, Kevin Lowe.

SPEAKER_01: Hey guys, welcome back to the podcast.

I'm of course your host, Kevin Lowe, and you're listening to episode number 30.

Today I thought we would switch things up a little bit.

We've been talking all about travel and different amazing experiences during our month of all things of romance travel in February.

But I thought, you know what?

Time for a little bit uh change in pace.

And so I thought, you know what?

Today's a perfect opportunity to kick off what I'm going to call an ongoing series called Adventures with Nana.

Now, I don't know what you call your grandmother, but my grandmother, she is Nana.

And this is going to be something that I'm going to pop in from time to time with these little short episodes, much shorter than than many of the others.

And they're just going to be something a little bit fun, interesting, something to make you laugh.

And um, we'll consider this a real quick win.

And so, anyways, I just wanted to go ahead and start this series off.

And, you know, a lot of people, a lot of teenagers, once they hit those teenage years, you know, to be quite honest, unfortunately, so many of them get a little bit far away from family.

And especially your grandparents.

But when I went blind at 17 in my junior year of high school, me and my nana became closer than ever before.

Well, because I was over there every day.

That's where my mom would drop me off in the morning on her way to work.

And I would stay with my nana.

And she would help me with everything from the uh teachers coming over with the hospital homebound, teaching me my school subjects and teaching me all this new stuff like Braille and how to use a talking computer and all of this different stuff.

My nana was there with me.

But she also, it wasn't all just work, work, work.

No, because we had awesome times together.

The two of us, we were always getting into some type of trouble, having some kind of crazy experiences.

And I want this opportunity to share some of them with you to hopefully, like I said, make you laugh.

Anyways, but before I get into today's story, I'm super happy and excited to announce that we have a new sponsor for the podcast, and that is Tori Lake Designs.

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She works with you to be sure that your brand matches your personality, your business to a T.

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If you want to learn more and see some examples of her work, be sure to check out the show notes where I'll leave a link to her website where you can see examples of other websites and logos that she has created.

And matter of fact, you can of course check out my travel agency's website, which is linked in the show notes, because Tori is the one who designed it.

And I'm telling you, I have never received more compliments on a website than the one that Tori created.

So I don't know how much time you've spent with your grandparents, but it doesn't take long to realize they really love them some Walmart.

And I guess, I mean, it makes sense.

I mean, grandmother, she can go get her cleaning supplies, maybe pick up a few groceries, while your grandfather, he can go off on the other side of the store and pick up a new battery for the car, maybe a new bottle of armor all.

I mean, it's really the ideal place for them.

And well, hanging out with my Nana, I realized too, Walmart is something that you just go to on a normal occasion.

You gotta pick up all your medicines, like I said, cleaning supplies, groceries, pick up her a new pair of bedroom slippers, whatever it is.

Walmart was somewhere that we visited quite frequently.

And so it was no surprise that here it was a day we had been out running some different errands, and one of those stops, of course, was Walmart.

Now, while we're walking through the Walmart, you know what it's like.

It's huge, it's like a big, massive, glorified warehouse.

And so, with that tin roof, you can hear when it starts raining.

And sure enough, we're in there.

We honestly, I think we were about ready to head on up to the checkout lines when you heard the rain start hitting the roof.

And it was pouring, pounding down rain.

It was thundering, lightning, just massive storm.

So we were like, you know, we're in no hurry to go out in that, so let's keep shopping.

So we did, we kept mosing around the store, checking out different things, and finally realized, okay, enough is enough.

We've got to get home.

So we headed on up to the checkout lane and went ahead, checked out as usual.

Now, luckily, this was not a big shopping trip to Walmart.

We honestly had a few things in the buggy.

So when we headed to the front door and it was still pouring, we decided, okay, you know what?

We're gonna go ahead and make a run for it.

But let's just go ahead and we'll grab the bags in our hands and carry them rather than pushing out the shopping cart.

Now, this enters into the section of Walmart that I basically call a real life death trap.

That's the Walmart parking lot.

If you've been to a Walmart even just once in your life, you will know that you literally need to take out a life insurance policy if you're going to the Walmart.

The Walmart parking lot is crazy.

I mean, not only do you got people and all their minivans, and you got the big trucks and the little sports cars and people, you you've literally got this mixture of everybody, because everybody goes to the Walmart, and everybody's fighting for that prize front row parking spot.

And it's crazy.

It's a madhouse.

Well, the other aspect of the Walmart parking lot is let's face it, the Walmart parking lot, it's huge.

And most people can never find their cars when they're coming out of the store.

Now, ordinarily, not such a big deal, but when it's pouring down rain, it's definitely a big deal.

So let me paint the picture for you.

Here we are, me and my Nana.

Now remember, I'm completely blind, so I have my cane in one hand, along with a couple of grocery bags that I'm holding in that same hand, while I'm holding onto my grandmother's arm, onto Nana's arm.

That's how we call going sighted guide.

And then she has some grocery bags in her hand.

But we decide, okay, you know what?

It's time, let's make a run for it.

So we start running out into the parking lot.

It is literally pouring down rain.

And so we start down the one aisle of cars and we are getting soaked right off the bat.

And so we start running and we're going and we're going.

Oh my goodness.

Nana's like, Kevin, I don't see our car.

What she thought was her minivan was not her minivan.

So we keep going.

Now, at this point, I'm telling you, literally, we are in the middle of it seemed like a tropical storm.

It's literally the parking lot is completely flooded out.

We're in like ankle deep water, trudging through.

Now, meanwhile, we just keep walking.

And Nana's just so distraught because she can't find her car.

And so finally, literally by this point, we've gone so far that I'm telling her, Nana, let's stop walking this way.

You know that we parked literally at the front of the parking lot.

So we obviously just went down the wrong aisle.

But she just starts freaking out.

She gets so upset.

And so by this point, we literally are just standing there in the parking lot, pouring down rain, ankle deep water.

And I'm like, Nana, come on.

And I and I had told her, I said, Nana, your car has the beeper on it.

I said, take out your remote and be pressing the panic button to set off the alarm.

So she finally figured out what I was talking about, got her keys out, and now we're starting to walk backwards.

And I'm like, okay, well, we know we're not on the same aisle that we need to be.

We need to cross over to the next aisle on either direction.

So we did.

And now, literally, like I said, now you have to remember, it's pouring down rain.

We're already soaked.

Nana is freaking out because she's lost her car.

She can't find it.

And so I'm trying to calm her down.

And so, anyways, I'm telling her, and she's like, I'm pushing the button.

I'm like, okay.

I'm like, well, obviously, we are really far away from your car that it can't even recognize the signal from the remote.

So we keep walking, and she's got her little key in her hand, pressing the panic button.

Nothing's happening.

Nothing's happening.

Meanwhile, I'm directing her.

I'm like, okay, all right, let's keep moving.

We're we're not getting any drier here.

So we start making our way back towards the front of the parking lot.

Again, pressing that little remote of hers, nothing is happening.

We finally get literally back to the front of the parking lot.

The closest space to the door, there's her van.

Right there.

She just lit down the one wrong aisle, and I'm like, Nana, I don't understand why we are keeping going when we know we were at the front.

But you don't argue with Nana.

Nana knows what she's doing, and you're just supposed to follow along.

Yeah, at least see how well that did for us.

Anyways, so this is what's so funny though, is we finally find the van.

We're walking up to it.

She's still hitting her little button, and she's like, see this remote.

The remote does not work, Kevin.

I told you this isn't working.

She was hitting the wrong button.

The entire time she was hitting the unlock button, not the panic button.

So of course it was not going off, making a beeping alarm sound, so when we knew where it was.

Oh my goodness, did I have to rag on her something fierce when we got inside that car?

Oh my gosh.

And that was just literally one trip to Walmart.

It was supposed to have been nothing big, nothing stressful.

But literally, we got into the van.

We are both drenched, look like wet rats, and we both just started cracking up.

And so we laughed all the way home, couldn't wait to get home and tell everybody else about what happened, about Nana getting us lost in the Walmart parking lot.

And well, that was just one of those experiences that literally can only happen when you're with your grandmother.

So that right there is just one of my quick little stories about adventures with Nana as in the life of a blind teenager.

I hope you enjoyed today's story.

You know what?

I guess uh just don't forget, give your grandmothers a break.

They're older than you are, and I don't know, they're losing it.

But they're awesome.

I love my Nana to death, and I can't wait for her to listen to today's episode.

Now, I do want to tell you one thing before I end.

If you're enjoying today's podcast or have listened to previous podcasts and feel like supporting the show, you can check out the show notes at the bottom where I'll leave a link to a site called Buy Me a Coffee.

And that's where you can help support the show.

It takes a lot to produce each and every episode.

And well, it's just a little way.

If you feel like supporting what I'm doing here on the podcast, I'd love the support you could offer.

Thanks so much, and I can't wait to see you next episode.

SPEAKER_00: And that's the lowdown on life and travel.

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And until next time, just keep living and enjoy life like it was meant to be.