If the Lid Fits: An Odyssey

Have you ever wondered what happened to something you donated to Goodwill?

For the past two years I've been looking for a square glass lid to fit a cast iron skillet we have at the cabin.  Every time I went to a thrift store I'd check out the pot lids.  Not only did I rarely see a square lid, when I did, they weren't the right size.

Then one day a month or so ago when I was in the Goodwill in Longmont.... (Since this is an odyssey, I've created some travel stickers.  The photo below is of Long's Peak after which Longmont is named.  I wanted to credit the photographer, but didn't make note of the name when I inserted the photo and have been unable to find it again)...
...I found a lid that appeared to be the perfect fit...but it had no price tag.  So the lid's odyssey started almost immediately, inside Goodwill!...I took it to check-out and the clerk on duty thought it probably was the top to a casserole.  She called for assistance and I stepped aside and allowed another customer or two to go through check-out while another clerk looked to see if she could find the casserole.  Soon, she returned, indicating the lid had been put out alone and she'd need to get it priced. Off she went, into the back room, finally returning with the lid priced $6.99!  


The check-out clerk commented that it was a ridiculous price and she was only going to charge me $3.99.  I said that sounded great and I'd take my senior discount as well.  So I paid $3 and happily took the lid back to Boulder.... (These are the Flatirons, below, a Boulder landmark, about which I've blogged before.  This photo is by Charles Pfiel and can be located at the Arrowphotos site)...

My sister and her husband had been vacationing at the cabin during this time and the day she came to Boulder to launder bedding before they left to return to Missouri I gave her the lid, still in its Goodwill bag, and asked her to take it back up to the cabin and see if it fit the skillet.  So the lid took its first drive up Boulder Canyon to Eldora. (This old photo of Chittenden Mountain west of Eldora, taken by Donald Campbell Kemp in approximately 1938, is part of the Photographic Collection of the Denver Public Library).

Here are Legs 1 and 2 of the pot lid's sojourn from the time I purchased it...

Several days later I got an e-mail from my sister indicating she had forgotten to take the lid out of her van and had taken it back to Missouri with her! 



Here are Legs 3, 4 and 5 of the lid's odyssey... (My sister e-mailed me that they made it to Goodland, Kansas, the evening they left)....

 ...then drove it on in to Blue Springs, Missouri, the next day....(This photo of the entrance to Burrus Old Mill Park, located where the City of Blue Springs was founded, is from the City of Blue Springs web site).

So this makes Leg 6...

I can only surmise what occurred to the skillet lid at my sister's.  I'm sure it got brought into her house when they unpacked their van...then boxed up and probably taken to the Blue Springs post office (I noted on the internet, plans were announced late last summer to close the downtown Blue Springs post office, so I don't know if it was still open) where it was probably trucked to the Kansas City Airport.  Then I'm assuming it flew to Denver....So, if the trip to the Blue Springs Post Office was Leg 7 and being trucked to the Kansas City Airport was Leg 8, this was Leg 9....

I forgot to note how much my sister paid for postage, but the lid was heavy, so I expect it was quite a bit....but not nearly as much as a coach seat for the same flight!  This lid was having quite the little adventure.  

I'm assuming it was trucked from the Denver International Airport to Boulder and from the Boulder post office to my apartment building, so let's make those Legs 10 and 11.

The last time I was at the cabin, I took the lid with me, Leg 12, and the second time the lid had been driven up Boulder Canyon to Eldora and its potential home!...

Would it fit and get to stay?...

Yes!  It fit!...

Like the original, this odyssey had a happy ending.  

I sure hope I'm not the one to break this lid!  Maybe I should just build a shrine!  Teddee