Grandpa + driving = long night

Whew... long night last night! (Get ready for a long story...)

On my way home from work last night, my mom called to tell me that my grandpa was missing.

My mom and dad were on their way to my grandparents' house in Englewood to check for his car and check on grandma, and my aunt and cousin were out driving around looking for him. John and I went home (Arvada) to let Wrigley out and hit the road back to Englewood. Grandpa had gone out around 2:00pm to run some errands (pick up his case of Brandy from the liquor store), and didn't come home. My grandma started to get worried after about 3 hours (3 hours!?!), so my cousin called my parents.

So we're all driving around last night--it's dark, it's snowing, there's a 90 year-old man wandering the streets of Metro Denver--and we have no idea what's going through his mind. Where could he be? My cousin stopped by two liquor stores, one of them had seen him around 3:00pm. My mom and dad, aunt, and cousin hit all the hot spots: grocery stores, gas stations, Wal-Mart, liquor stores... my mom even went by his barber. John and I decided to hit the obscure places like alleyways and side streets or dead ends, just in case grandpa took a wrong turn somewhere and didn't know how to get back out. If he got far enough away from home, he may not know how to get back. But how far away from Englewood do we drive??

About 8:00pm, John and I finally hit Wendy's, since we skipped dinner to find grandpa. Well, I'm about to dive into my fries when my mom calls--they found him. WHEW!!! Yes, the tears came, I was so happy and relieved!! He had been gone six hours now, and made his way over to Lakewood, at a gas station at Wadsworth/Jewel. He stopped there to ask for directions; he told the clerks that he needed to get to Englewood, but didn't know why. Thankfully, the gas station attendants called the police.

So two Lakewood cops show up at this gas station to find grandpa, a bit confused and very obviously lost, and then called grandma to see if she'd claim him. She did, told them we were worried and out looking for him, and the cops agreed to send him home. What!? He went to the liquor store that's 5 blocks from their house and ended up across town, what makes you think he can make it home!? After grandma calls my cousin to let her know that grandpa is safe and on his way home, my cousin races back to their house to call back the police officer. She asks tells them that he can't (shouldn't) drive, to keep him there, and that someone is on their way. My parents were closest, and when they got there, the two cop cars with lights on were surrounding my grandpa's van. My mom jumps in his van and drives him home; boy was he a sight for sore eyes!

We all met back at my grandparents' house and replayed the night's adventure. I don't think my grandpa understood the big deal though. He thought he had only been gone a couple hours. He said that he thought he had a delivery to make... but he told my mom he was looking for an address... he didn't think he was lost... he said he'd never been to that part of town before... he doesn't really see the problem here, as nothing like this has ever happened before... Grandpa, you're 90. Bless his dear heart, he didn't think th was gone that long. To make matters worse, he didn't have a coat, his cell phone, and was probably hungry and running low on oxygen.

We're trying to figure out now what we can do to get him to stop driving. If you have any ideas or experience with this, please share!!

P.S. Grandpa didn't even share his Brandy with us when we got to their house... didn't we deserve to partake!? :)