I was in Memphis, enjoying Beale Street with family, when I noticed that my cell phone was missing from my bag. We had just exited an Uber van and were seated at a table with a pitcher of margaritas….ready to relax!  I searched my bag for my cell phone to take a vacay pic of my siblings, stepmom and me and noticed the phone was gone. I retraced my steps mentally…..”I know I had it in the uber because I called my teenage son and husband back home to check in on them…..It’s still in the Uber! It must’ve fallen out of my backpack when I was struggling to get out of the van.” I remember pulling my sister or stepmom’s purse strap from around the headrest of a van seat and that’s what must’ve jostled my cell phone out of its place in the backpack pocket. Yikes.

My first thought was “Is there a 1-800 number for calling Memphis Uber drivers to locate my phone?” I could call my middle son (from my relative’s phone) who seems to know these kinds of things. Meanwhile, I directed my sister in law to try to contact the uber driver on her phone since she ordered the uber for that ride. Sometimes, uber drivers call you to find your exact waiting locations. This one had not. I told her that uber would’ve sent a receipt to her email so maybe she could find some way to contact him on that email. She tried for the next half hour or so to send a message via email and wait for a reply.

When I called my son ( back home in Oklahoma) to ask him what to do (these millennials are advanced with this kind of technology), he said, “Mom! I am tracking your phone right now! Remember? We have tracking and GPS on Life 360.” Of course we do! I didn’t think about that. My son, at a lake in Oklahoma with his friends, could track my phone by looking at our Life 360 app. I had recently put my three sons and myself on the Life 360 app because all three of them were in three different states that summer and I referred to it only when needed. I don’t really have any need to know all the details of the app but it even tells you their driving summary  for the week and their miles per hour! I only needed it for overall safety tracking. I had never thought about the fact that it could be useful for tracking me! I actually like the idea of this because on road trips where I am driving alone, I like the idea that my kids could have a way to locate me and communicate this to my husband (who doesn’t have a cell phone and doesn’t want one.)

My son came up with a plan. He told me where the uber (with the phone inside it) was moving to…..”it’s on 2nd street, now it’s on Beale, now it’s …..” Ugh. This was teasing me. At one point, I spotted the uber driver in his van, driving up our street.  I exclaimed to my brother (standing by me outside of the restaurant)…..”There he IS!” My brother proceeded to chase the van three blocks down this  busy tourist street. I was shocked and laughing. My son said he’d call my cell phone so the driver would hear it. I told my son that my ringer doesn’t work, therefore, noone is going to hear it. He said he’d call it anyway because eventually a passenger will see it in the van and pick it up or see “Missed Call” and know to call it back. (Is this a millennial thing? probably) Sure enough, his plan worked! Mark called the phone, a passenger saw “Missed Call” and Mark told him what happened. Mark called me back (I’m on my stepmom’s phone this whole time, communicating with him) and said, “Mom, call your phone, now. A guy in the van has it.” I called the phone, the guy answered and I told him, “Please tell the uber driver to bring my phone to the restaurant where he dropped us off and I’ll pay him for the drive.”

Crisis solved! After some time, the driver found me and I got my phone back! My brother was somewhat fascinated with this turn of events and the whole Life 360 app which played a part, somewhat. He suggested I blog about it because it is part of traveling and it was an adventure! It took teamwork and my sister in law also finally received some communication from the Uber email. (I don’t remember now what the details were of that). Technology does help! Uber- emailed receipts and Life 360 tracking devices all worked together in this mishap to confirm that my phone was still, in fact, in the Uber van and not lost on the ground somewhere in Memphis. Granted, without the Life 360 app, I could’ve still called the phone to see if anyone would answer it and ask the driver to bring it back to me. But it was reassuring to be able to track it….  My son was also able to see how much battery I had left on the phone which would let us know if someone was going to be able to see the incoming call. Life 360 tells you how much battery you have left and sends reminders to charge it up.

This is an unusual travel blog for me to write but hopefully a useful one to someone out there reading it! (See Life 360 app link below). Travel is disorienting and there are many details to keep on top of but this tracking app definitely came in handy for me!

click on this link below called Homepage and it will show you the Life 360 app.

https://www.life360.com