Unlike the world-traveling American’s usual modus operandi – the tao of the free-wheeling, low-budget trek – the nature of this particular trip was… a mission.

He was to meet up with a Canadian man, who was staying at a fancy resort, and to give the Canuck the proverbial what-for upon the Scrabble board. Both men were tournament-level players, and their rivalry reached back over several years and locations.

His ratty backpack looked quite out of place alongside the luggage of the other arrivals in the check-in queue of the upscale resort. Fishing his wallet out of what he called his religious shorts (because they were hole-y, buhdumbum-tshh), he shelled out as much money for a one night stay as could have lasted him a week in the far humbler lodgings to which he was accustomed.

The occasion proved worth the expense. America took Canada three hard-fought matches out of four.

Mission accomplished.

***

True story! Thanks go to What Pegman Saw for the memory-jogging photo prompt.