Back in 1988, did a bicycle tour from Boston to Rochester, MN. Near London Ontario, we had lunch at a McDonalds and my cycling partner accidentally threw her wallet away in the trash. We didn't realize it until 10 miles further when we stopped to fix a flat. Cycled back to that McDonalds and looked everywhere but couldn't find the wallet. We decided to make a police report so as to have some paper record that we reported the missing wallet.

Returning to US at Port Huron, they let her back in US despite not having any ID (this was before passports were required; and so drivers license was her only ID), also looking at the police report. We also had some difficulty since we would run short on cash in a while. We had some $100 travelers checks with us - mostly in her name, but unfortunately there had just been a TV program/news about a flurry of false travelers checks being passed in Michigan, so we also had difficulty finding people willing to take travelers checks. She no longer had her bank card. I had mine, though it was part of the plus network. At that time, you could dial a 1-800 number and see if there were any banks that took plus cards in that phone exchange. Most everywhere we tried, there didn't seem to be nearby plus ATM machines. Finally I called my back back home and learned there would be (only) four plus teller ATMs in entire state of Wisconsin. So we had her parents wire some money to Western Union in Green Bay.

It all sorted itself out. Now a bunch of this would be easier with interlocked ATM networks and also having internet - but this was before that was readily available.