With this year’s Naples’ tournament looming on the horizon, my thoughts turned to an incident that happened a couple of years ago. Three members of our club traveled to Naples together, and had reservations in the Best Western approximately 3 miles south of the playing site.

We arrived, checked in, got our room keys, put out suitcases in the rooms, and went to play in the first day’s games. I, being one who likes to get a good nights sleep, declined when asked by one of the others to avail ourselves of the hospitality suite. 11:30 is too late for me. Our second player also declined.

Now its important for you to know that one of our ladies is noted for what she can eat or stash away at hospitality suites, (or any other refreshment offering), and was undaunted by the rejection of her traveling companions. She found another group of Spring Hill players, ascertained that they were indeed going to go to the hospitality suite and finagled an invitation to ride back to the hotel with them. They were also staying at the Best Western approximately 3 miles south of the bridge site.

When our friend, who will remain anonymous, arrived back at the hotel; oh, and I forgot to tell you, after having had a couple of drinks, things seemed to her to be a tad different. She had a bit of trouble finding her room; the layout of the hotel didn’t seem at all familiar. She put her key in the lock, it didn’t work. She got down on her hands and knees to have a better look at the slot and tried again; it didn’t work.

Now she was getting a bit angry. “Ok, the key doesn’t work, but why doesn’t my roommate come to the door and let me in? These dumb hotels. I wouldn’t be having this problem if they knew how to make a key!” She went angrily back to the lobby to complain about the defective key.

As she approached the desk, she surveyed the lobby area. “Hmmm, this looks totally different,” she thought to herself. “How did you change this whole lobby in the short time I was gone?” she demanded of the clerk. “Boy, you people worked miracles! And you must have changed the lock on my door because my key doesn’t work. Now, please, fix my key. It’s late and I need to get to bed.” The clerk was taken aback by this fiery little lady but managed to ask her for her room key; of course he would fix it for her.

When he saw the key, he realized he was not going to resolve the problem by fixing the key. My friend was at the wrong hotel! He graciously allowed her to call the player who had driven her to this hotel and gave them directions to get her to the “other” Best Western 3 miles away.

What? Me tell you who this person was! Not a chance. You’ll have to figure it out for yourself.

Whisper: (I didn’t think it was appropriate to tell you this on her birthday.)