It’s rare for me to share any off-topic, personal life here on this blog, but I know you’ll want to read this, if only to make you happy that it wasn’t you it happened to.
Most of you know I’m a road warrior type of sales consultant. Most days see me tick off 250-350 miles a day in my ’07 Camry.
Today I had to drive to Murray, Kentucky to meet with one prospect about his need for the products I represent.
It’s 145 miles each way. Luckily, my iPod was fully loaded with sales and marketing .mp3′s. When those run out, I’ve got Sirius Satellite Radio to fill in the time between making and taking phone calls.
After an hour or so of spittin’ and grinnin’, the prospect and I shook hands on his agreement to help line my pockets with cash and I said thanks and left. Typical day.
But, since it was almost 4 PM and it was 145 miles home, I thought I’d stop at a coffee shop I saw on the way to his office.
The traffic was so bad, I had to park on the north side of 5 lanes and hustle my 6’2″ 250 lb. frame across to the south side of the street just to get to the Murray location of Fidalgo Bay Coffee.
I ordered a White Chocolate Mocha, medium size and a sour cream scone. They quickly and cheerfully completed my order and I hustled across those 5 lanes again and started my jaunt back to the place I love, to see those who love me.
The first traffic light was half a block up and as soon as I came to a complete stop, I reached down and grabbed my heavenly little beverage and then all hell broke loose !
The rather flimsy cup, with the even flimsier lid that popped like a pre-pubescent teen’s first pimple filled my Camry’s console with several inches of steamin’ hot White Chocolate Mocha !
Even worse, that happens to be where I keep my iPod, my flash drive and my Jawbone Bluetooth earpiece !
That $3 White Chocolate Mocha had just turned into a $253 drink from Hades !
Wanna know what’s even worse ? After I used up every, single napkin in my glove compartment cleaning up the milky, brown drink of destruction, I tried the sour cream scone and it was not very good, to put it mildly.
Lesson learned. Never stop at a coffee shop that uses cheap lids that don’t have a distinctive snap when you place them on their less than stellar, somewhat flimsier cups.
The only consolation to this fiasco was when I got home and my wife told me that she had gone to a McDonald’s in our hometown this morning and the young lady who was handing her drink out the drive-thru window looked back at just the wrong time and spilled an entire Diet Dr. Pepper on her at around 8 AM. Nice way to start your day, huh ?
Good thang it wasn’t coffee 
PS – I went to that other coffee place and bought a cup of tea to compare the lids and cups and the one from that other coffee place takes more effort to remove and has a more distictive snap, making me think that it would be better and have less of a chance at having this happen.
Of course, that’s a very unscientific study, but it’s my blog, so I’m right 
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
That stinks! As an aside, I gotta tell you, a sour cream scone doesn’t sound too appealing in the first place.
Hey Brad,
It was the most likely to be good of all the goodies they had, if that tells you anything about the selection, in my humble estimations of all things foody
Back in my travelin’ days (when ties were mandatory)after staining several silk ties and white shirts, I always carried a hand towel and would drape it over my shirt and tie and would use the shoulder belt to hold it in place. That way when (not if) the cup lid leaked, I was protected. And when it spilled in the cup holder, I could use the towel for clean up.
BTW, you don’t carry Wet Ones in a zip lock bag to keep them moist? I used to keep them under the front seat where I could reach them in emergencies. (Make sure they’re unscented.)
BTW-2 I gave up those high calorie drinks and snacks (substitute regular black coffee or water. Lost some weight that way.
Some other comment I’ll tell you what kind of (legal) drugs I kept in my glove box.-)
Glenn
Great ideas Glenn.
I used to keep some wet naps of some kind, but kinda forgot about them … til now !
It’s been a while since I had this kind of fiasco.
I usually drink unsweetened tea, hot and cold, but some kind of buying trance came over me and I just had to have that coffee.
Hello Mike,
Someone from our company recently stumbled upon your blog. I am so sorry to hear about your negative experience. The shop where you purchased your coffee is not owned by us but does sell our products.
If you would send me your address I would like to send you a gift to apologize for this unfortunate experience.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Mindy Otterstedt
Customer Relations Specialist
Fidalgo Bay Coffee
Address and phone number removed to protect the innocent
Hi Mindy,
I’ll send you the info and appreciate your caring enough to reply.
Than ks!