Beyond the Blog - Day 1: The Lady Behind the House

Hello Friends!

Now that the Ruck is over, and the dust has settled somewhat...it has been suggested that I write down the events of each day in greater detail, perhaps as the basis of an article or something else. Or perhaps for no reason other than to read later when I am old and decrepit, sitting on an iceberg somewhere waiting for a polar bear. In any case, to quote Mary Poppins, "Why Not? A capital idea!" (much more relevant than "Feed the Birds, Tuppence a Bag", which strangely played in my brain several times during the ruck. Go figure.)

I was all nerves the morning of Day 1...why wouldn’t I be, right?  But I was also excited and anxious to get started, especially after speaking with Charlie Engle the night before and getting some of my confidence back.   Charlie, you cannot imagine how our conversation turned the ship around for me, which was about to fall off the earth.

Our hotel was in Murphy, about 25 miles from the Tennessee/North Carolina state line.  This was by design, since I planned for Day 1 to end with a ruck up the hill to Harrah’s Cherokee Valley Casino.   Unfortunately we didn’t actually have reservations at the casino due to some error on their part, so we stayed at the Stonebrook Lodge just below Harrah’s.   That fact has nothing to do with anything, other than setting the tone for a continued series of hotel mishaps along the way.   It all worked out.

I had scoped out our starting area on the state line many, many times on Google Maps and Google Street View, and had come up with only one possible starting point….a run-down, deserted roadside convenience shop right on 74, with a “Welcome to North Carolina” state sign on one end of the decrepit parking lot.   Completing the picture was the presence of an old, tossed-aside recliner right below the state welcome sign.  The recliner would have a big part in this story.   I cannot possibly be making this up, so here is a screenshot from Street View to convey the total picture:

Our team met at about 7:30…...myself, Cheryl, Becky, Mike (Becky’s husband), and Matt (our photographer).   We all chatted and, due to my nerves and force of habit, I went for a quick “p” break behind the deserted building.   I should mention that it was in a considerably worse state than the picture above conveys.   It was collapsing in on itself, in fact, with trash and debris scattered behind the building.

Anyway, as I was choosing my spot on the back wall, something told me to look to my right.  Oh. My. God.   There was a woman sitting on the recliner not 20 feet away looking right at me!

Let me repeat that, just so you get the full effect.   In the middle of nowhere, at 7:30 am, behind a deserted building on the side of the highway, I am going to take a pee and there is a live person sitting in a chair almost in the same spot as me.    Ahhhhhhhhhh!

She was a middle-aged white woman with long stringy brown hair, and I know she was alive because her hand moved up to her face as I stood there, paralyzed by fear.    She said nothing, just staring.   I was so scared that my bodily functions went, er, upstream, shall I say, and I scrambled back out to our little group.

Cheryl says I was as white as a sheet and I had difficulty trying to describe to the group what had just happened.  It was especially terrifying because I had joked with Matt a few days before that we should get a picture of me sitting in the recliner beneath the sign. Now, it was possessed by a hillbilly apparition. After my babbling description, everyone had a good laugh at my expense. Nonetheless, immediately after that, my rucksack was strapped on, prayers were said, pictures were taken, and off I went.

This is the true story of how the Carolinas CAN Ruck for Autism started.

Next post: Snakes! Marmots! A mental breakdown only after the first day!

Godspeed,

R.