Good going! cheered Bob.
After he asked me to find my life time senior pass.
To the United States National Parks.
Since we would need our cards in Puerto Rico.
For entry into el Castillo San Felipe del Morro.
I never paid them much attention.
So, I searched among three rubber-banded piles.
Each in a compartment of a small fanny pack.
Here it is, I called out, triumphant.
He walked over to examine the card.
Which didn’t match the one he held.
His, with a picture of a bright pink flower.
With a lifetime membership.
Mine, showing a station wagon with a cargo carrier on top.
H’m, I considered the discrepancy.
Turned mine over.
To see an expiration date: March 2023.
The sleuth in me stepped forward.
Calculated we must have bought it in Hawaii.
Yes, agreed Bob, in Volcano National Park.
After we realized we didn’t bring our cards!
He started up his pursuit again.
Found two more pink flowered passes in a drawer.
Why three? Not just two?
It took two of us to solve the mystery.
Over a decade ago, we bought two in Puerto Rico.
Each one, ten dollars.
On a later trip to Cape Cod, we forgot them again!
So, purchased a third to cover access to a national beach.
Another ten dollars.
But since 2017, the price rose to eighty dollars each!
Ours were grandfathered.
Becoming three small prizes!
Now, in all, we have four cards.
One in March about to expire.
Plenty to use on our next two trips.
The annual just under the wire.
The three lifetimes will likely outlast us.
The ones with the pretty pink flowers.
Not possible to bequeath them to others.
Though we wish we could extend their powers!
For you have to sign them, show proof of ID.
Now pay eighty dollars a card.
So, we swear from now on to take them along.
To treasure them, hold them, safeguard!
Lynn Benjamin
February 19,2023
