Fred's in the House

After almost two hours of searching we were getting a bit worried. He was already a bit concerned about the flights; Seattle to Melbourne is a rough trip even before you miss a couple of connections. I went to do another run through the baggage claim while Susy checked another gate and had him paged again. Walking down the escalator, I caught a brief glimpse through the columns of our missing climbing partner-in a clearing next to a busy carousel crawling around on his hands and knees. I walked toward him and could see that the contents of his pack were exploded across the floor and he was uncrumpling little pieces of paper looking for my phone number. I walked up to him, bent over and yelled "FRED!" couple of times with no response. I grabbed his arm and opposite shoulder. The look on his face when he saw me was absolutely priceless; purely amped and ready for "anything". Everybody should hope to be just like that when they're 87.