A Day Without Skip

Events from Monday, October 13th, 2008:

Skip gave me both his computer and his phone to charge for the day, which meant that we would be out of nearly complete communication for a few hours. We previously discussed this scenario and it was decided that if we should lose communication the alternative would be to construct cairns along the road for each other.

I spent the majority of the day in Henderson, NC, in a delightful little coffeeshop called Common Grounds. While Skip’s phone charged in my car, I sat inside with his computer, which took nearly 4 ½ hours to charge. (Side note: Skip does not like it when you reconfigure the settings on his desktop.) I calculated the directions from where I was to where I approximated Skip would be by that point in the day. When I left Common Grounds, it was 6:40pm, sunset, with about half an hour before twilight. Three of the four directions to the contact point with Skip were right on track; unfortunately, it was the last direction that cost me. In North Carolina, it seems, roads have at least three different names, and there doesn’t seem to be any pattern to the criteria that decides when a road will be one name and when it will change. What that meant for me, in this case, was that I was looking for Lee St., which was going to take me to Jacksontown St., which is where I figured Skip would be; I didn’t realize that Lee and Jacksontown were the same street until hours later.

I then figured my best course of action would be to drive back over the border to Virginia where I had last seen Skip, and then trace his route to wherever he was, hoping to find cairns along the way. This was a good plan, but looking for roads and cairns is difficult to do at night, especially when you are driving 60+ miles an hour attempt to make up for lost time. I did finally see Cherry (Skip’s Chariot Carrier) by the side of the road, and when I saw Skip he did not look happy. He put up his arms in the “What the f-?” fashion. It was a good thing I anticipated this, because I handed him his dinner of chicken and Gatorade before I began to explain myself.

* * * * * *

I was able to redeem myself. Skip asked me to do one more thing before I looked to make camp somewhere: drive into Henderson and ask the Scottish Inn if they would be willing to comp a room for us for the night, in exchange for credits in the documentary, should it go that far. Having learned from a cowboy playboy years before, “The answer’s always ‘No’ if you don’t ask,” I agreed and drove into town. With the camera out and business card in hand, I walked into the Scottish Inns … and walked out a minute later, having been shot down. I phoned Skip and told him that I would try one more hotel before driving back; I tried three; the third hotel, the Ambassador Inn & Suites, said “yes.” I felt like the man. In Vegas, rooms get comped all the time, no big deal, but in Henderson, NC? I was riding high on the thought that I had redeemed myself from earlier in the day, and the realization that we were going to have a hot shower and comfy place to stay for the night.