Lol, have my upvote for a great backstory!
Also, I think the word you want is “apprised”, which means “to inform”, while “appraised” means “to evaluate”.
Lots of homonyms in English, another pair is “weary/wary”. Weary means fatigued, wary means cautious.
Great read, one I link to when people talk about hiking but don’t understand being prepared.