I’m in Whistler, BC for an overnight business trip, replete with meetings (in my industry that means opening wine for various restaurant managers and sommeliers). On this trip I have with me a light load: a carry-on bag, my iPad, and 2 cases of wine – the whites in a camping cooler.

I wrapped up yesterday’s meetings in fine fashion. My last meeting was roundly enjoyed and between it and my earlier engagements, I think I got a lot of new business and met a lot of nice people. As I left my final meeting I thought about how well things had gone – looking forward to watching my sales increase in this market. I got to my car, set my iPad on the roof while loading my wine in the trunk, got in the car and left for my hotel. Upon arriving at the hotel, still smiling from the day’s success, I grabbed my keys, my wallet, my phone and my iPad. My iPad…… was not in the car.

I remembered hearing a clunk after making a righthand turn soon after leaving my last appointment. Oh. My. God. I’d left it on the roof of my car! That was the clunk. My iPad fell from the top of my 6′ tall SUV onto the road below, about 5 km away. I could not believe it.

I quickly got back in the car and sped away.

I arrived at my last appointment, parked and began looking. I was thinking to myself, how could it survive that fall? How could I be so stupid? The iPad was nowhere to be found. I walked about three blocks and nothing – no sign. Whistler is a bustling action-adventure sports oriented town, in the summer it is full of 18-35 year olds mountain biking, hiking, smoking and drinking, and otherwise living the good life (a bit of a generalization but not inaccurate). I must admit after not finding my iPad, I wondered who had grabbed it and how they would enjoy their new discovery.

But then my phone rang. Someone on the other end asked, “umm, did you lose your iPad?”

“YES,” I said. And I was just now desperately looking for it. She told me she had it, and they would meet me at a location nearby. I was so relieved!

A young man named André, my age, approached after I’d arrived at the agreed location and handed it over. He asked how I’d lost it, and remarked how it was barely damaged. I thanked him profusely, told him my story, thanked him again and we both left.

But for a good scrape on one corner and a couple of scratches on the back side, it is remarkably undamaged. The screen is perfect and its function and use is unaltered, as I type this to you on it.

The rest of my day was, obviously, fantastic. The restaurant and stores I visited, I was beaming and not short on praise or enthusiasm. “How is your day going?” “Excellent!!! Yours?” I’d say with a big grin.

So there you have it. Apple makes quality products that can survive big falls (theres even a bit of a tread mark on the cover, so I’m wondering if it wasn’t run over, too) and perfect strangers can be wonderfully helpful and generous even facing the prospect of finding lost, expensive gadgets on the road.

I am humbled and appreciative.