The average person has no idea what it is like to be driven, to the point of possessed. This book was designed to be finished 12 months ago, and a normal person would have just moved on from it a long time ago, but when you are coo-coo for Cocca Puffs, like me, life is not that simple.
The goal here is to close out the latest effort by walking the readers what will look like a bizarre process, but in actuality is the very definition of Driven.
We start the seven days at 3:30 pm on Thursday afternoon (October 1st ) and will conclude it at 3:30 pm on Thursday, October 8th. This is how I will close the book on the book.
Thursday, October 1st
I enter the gymnasium on The Hill because it is the ninth of our 10 volleyball nights. It is a triple header because our middle school is playing in the leadoff spot. What I do during VB season doesn’t fit under the umbrella of announcing because it is much more like being the emcee for a party that lasts just over four hours.
The second that the third set ends, Lin and I have to head home and pack up. I am packing for 1 week, but Lin is packing for an indefinite amount of time. She has three different next level medical appointments, and the third one will most likely keep her in Missouri for months.
I have two things that have to happen on Friday before we leave town. One involves Vickey Ritchie and the other one, Tammy Quesenberry. The goal is to jump into the car with Lin the second that she pulls up to Pizza Perfect on Main Street.
Lin has the first appointment and then has to load her bags in the car for her three months away. For this to work out correctly, I need a ride on Friday morning from Olde Mill to The Hill, but first, I have to load my stuff quite like because it will be 6am.
Friday, October 2nd :
Up at 4am – boooooooooo
Start writing ✍️
Car loaded by 6:20 and at 6:30, I jump into the car driven by Kris Richardson, and we play catchup for 25 minutes until we reach Hardee’s. I jump out, order a biscuit, and then a few minutes later, I ask Vickey Ritchie if she can swing by to pick me up on her way to Hillsville Elementary School? We need to be there by 8:00 am for her annual Little Feet Meet.
For the next 3 hours and 15 minutes, we crushed what we were doing and had fun while doing it. Karen and Evee were awesome ➕️ anytime with Vickey is an absolute blessing. I would owe her a story, but that was what I call a next day problem.
My meeting with Tammy isn’t scheduled until 1 p.m., but now I need a ride back to Main Street. I have no control over the lunch break window, and when Patrick Smith and his daughter were heading out for the break, I was able to climb up into his truck.
I jump out at Ron’s ( Omega ) shop at 11:30 and engage in a typical fashion with Mr Cochran and his work daughter!
At 1 p.m., Tammy concluded her walk over from her office, and we sat down to discuss a subject matter near and dear to me, Carroll County High School Soccer ⚽️.
We don’t get to sit down together very often because we both stay incredibly busy. But when we do, it’s a top shelf conversation. It only ended at 3pm because we both had to get to the next point or station.
Lin pulled up a few minutes early because the first of three appointments had to be canceled. Incredibly inconvenient, but you have to roll with the punches. It was a bonus that two very important ladies were also enjoying lunch at the same time.
3:15 – jump in car with Lin, and we head north. I text Vickey because I need a couple of things – Karen’s last name and the photo 📸 she took of me and the principal.
The destination is Bryce Resort, only because JMU has a home football game and its parents’ weekend. Finding a hotel for less than $200.00 a night wasn’t going to happen.
Vickey calls 📞 and we bask in the glory of the morning, and she shares the necessary information that I needed. The story was brewing in my head at this point.
The next thing to happen was stopping by the home of Bill & Barb Meade from 6:09 until 7:10. They live in Stuarts Draft, and I wanted to give Bill / Pappy a couple of suggestions on topics for his section of the story. We headed out when the Pitt – VA Tech came on as one of their Son’s went there and they are big fans.
We still had roughly 90 minutes left, and the next thing that I received was the first update from Vickey as she was at the Cavalier – Highlanders game. The final stop ✋️was at Buc-ees because it’s Buc-ees.
The Carroll County game ended as we turned the key 🔑 to the unit. The last thing we did was unload the entire car and then went to bed around 10-11 pm.
We happened to catch the big news about young Peyton Spencer as we were finally turning out the lights.
Saturday, October 3rd :
Up before 6am, did the Morning 🌄 Brew and then headed over towards the town of Shenandoah. The drive flirts with being one hour long and includes crossing Massanutten Mountain ⛰️.
We had hoped to meet up with four or five people on a day we blocked 🚫 off but that wasn’t going to happen. When that’s the case, you make sure that you don’t short change the people that give you their time!
We pull into the parking lot of Roy Cardin Field shortly after 10 am. You can’t help but notice the name of Archie Dodson in a few places as well. Big Daddy pulls in shortly after, and we hit the ground running, exchanging story after story. Just before 11 am, he places a call to Amy Gaskins of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Until that moment, I only knew that we were calling one of Roy’s daughters. Once I saw her last name, I immediately connected some of the dots !
The conversation that followed was the equivalent of winning the lottery jackpot ! Shortly after the video call ended, we made the short drive over to the Italian restaurant in town. We gave Dennis Zimmerman a heads up in case he wanted to stop by and join us for lunch. The picture above shows that he did, even though he couldn’t stay long enough to break bread because he needed to finish preparing for his sermon tomorrow.
We called Alan Knight as we left Shenandoah and headed over to Harrisonburg. We still needed to accomplish four things – Lin to the Gym for her knee, catch up with Alan, see part of a movie at Regal – because of our membership, and write a story for Vickey.
When I ran a depot for the New York Times out in Seattle, I had a 90-minute window to discuss business with 45 carriers. It was during that time I learned how to think fast and improvise.
Alan was going to a local restaurant to watch the JMU – Marshall University game at 3:45 pm. At 2:45, Lin dropped me off and drove the one mile to the Planet Fitness to begin her workout. Our plan was to meet up at Regal at 4pm to watch the new Tom Cruise movie, Digger.
During the movie, I created the volleyball coverage for the JV tournament and thanked both Travis Osborne for providing it and then Nikki Heflin for taking our group up there on Saturday.
Then, the moment of truth happened – I wanted to go back to Bryce, but Lin wanted to finish her workout. Back to the gym we went…
Lin heads back into the gym, and at 6:30 pm, I send this message to Vickey Ritchie.
One hour and 42 minutes later, I finished up the story on the Little Feet Meet.
Sometimes, a story is just that, a story, but other times it deserves a screen play ! Five years of trying to run alongside the miracle that is Vickey Ritchie of Carroll County, Virginia.
I kinda liked the finished product, and Vickey paid me the ultimate compliment by saying it read like I was standing next to her. That is the part that I learned from Jimmy Buffett. A good storyteller should be able to let you close your eyes 👀 and see what the song 🎵 is about.
The McDonald’s drive thru for dinner and back at Bryce Resort by a little after nine o’clock. Asleep 😴 at 10 pm and praying for a decent night’s rest 🙏.
Sunday, October 4th
The clock ⏰️ read 2:01 am. when my eyes opened. I could have really done without that being the case !!!!
2:00 to 4:24 is what it took to write the 8th and final chapter. Everything between chapter eight and this afterword will just be a string of stories tied together. It felt like a great read.
I fell asleep while holding the phone and stayed that way for 60 minutes. When I woke myself back up , I spent the next sixty minutes piecing the Craig Worrell piece together, and I know that one wS a great read because I heard from both Rick and Donna Nester shortly afterwards.
I jump in the shower, and we head out in search of Lin some Starbucks on our way to Shenandoah for back to back Church services
Dennis Zimmerman is the backup pastor at both his Church and its Sister Church. The sermon would be similar at both 930 and 1100, but is there such a thing as too much Church ?
Big Daddy and Chris Dodson
The next conversation took place immediately after the second service, and it was Top Shelf stuff. Dodson is tied to this story in a large number of ways and a quick comparison of notes was incredibly helpful. The small window 🪟 of time also allowed me to meet his Bride and Puppy 🐶 for the first time.
The next McDonald’s drive thru happened during the 50-minute drive down to Waynesboro, where I was set to meet with Chris and Crystal Graham. Lin needed to get back to a gym for her next workout, so she dropped me off. How tired am I at this point ??? One mistep, and I’m in the middle of a face plant that broke skin on both my elbow ( knew immediately and Crystal patched up) and my left knee which I didn’t notice until the end of the night.
From 1:40 until 4 : 50, I received the exact message I needed to hear from the only person who could have delivered it to me. Picture Tom Hanks asking one of his players, ” Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball.”
The harsh truth had set in about the sixth book. It simply wasn’t going to mean the same to anyone else, and any normal person would have surrendered long ago. The message was simple, if it that important, figure out a way to bring it home.
The next couple of hours were nothing short of brutal and required switching drivers once to make it back up to Bryce. Once back, there it was a crash and burn sleep that began at 8 pm.
We checked a great deal of boxes 📦 was we were far from finished.
Monday, October 5th
Six hours later, it was 2am, and my hesitation to look at my phone was overwhelming. I knew immediately that I was full-blown awake ⏰️ whether I wanted to be or not…
Writing, falling asleep, writing, and hearing from Bill Gallimore made me stop ✋️ and smile. His note, in the middle of his issues, was a shot of adrenaline. By the time we fully packed the car and returned the keys 🔑 it was 9:13 am. The quick stop at the Bryce Community Store for a diet soda and it was 9:26 am
The problem is we had no mapped out plan to get to the end of the week and the drive down to Salem to come up with one.
It was shortly after 10am (10:25 ) on Friday when I sent a quick message to my older brother in Sellersburg, Indiana.
We have a few hard-core time commitments still awaiting us in the next few days.
1:30 pm – Tuesday at Duke Medical Center neurosurgeon.
5:00am – Drop Linda at ROA Airport for her flight ✈️ to Missouri.
11:30 am – pick up a package 📦 in Fancy Gap
1 : 00 pm – Wednesday in Elkin, North Carolina
3 : 30 pm – Thursday, exit the week long circus 🎪
A number of other things need to make the list, but those MUST take place.
Just before 11 a.m., I finished a 20-minute call with our son, Chris, and we managed to create a plan that made sense as we tried to solve a number of issues.
At 12 : 32, we pulled into the Hampton Inn in Salem, Virginia, and 25 minutes later, we finished unloading the car. Yes, we had that much stuff…
At 2 :09, the Brad & Sydney Nester portion of the book was up ! Brad = The Bomb 💣 and it led to the next to the last invite to write to Mr Chuck McGill.
Off to Buffalo 🐃 Wild Wings for the one actual meal of the day. Created the Darrin Mathews portion while chewing food. Darrin thought it was both funny and sincere !
12 : 04 / 3:49 were the times that I reached out to the Cat 🐈 Lady, and when she responded with her portion.
At 5 : 30, I started this part of the book, and I will build on it right up until I sign off Thursday afternoon at 3:30
Now it’s 9:32 and sleep 😴 is possible. We have to pull out at 6:30 am because we have one place to go before Duke.
Thank you, Chris Graham, and thank you, Wayne Carter. If this proves to be my final undoing, let Wayne Preach the funeral service, and Chris write the eulogy.
Oneofus.Care is more than a tagline. It’s a way of life.
More 2 follow….
I was this close to falling asleep, but I made the mistake of thinking about Tiff and the Wiff…..now
Tuesday, October 6th
Three hours after laying the phone down and closing my eyes 👀, I went to the one story that I had to stick a pin 📌 in because of a promise I made to a young lady from Dugspur.
The cover of this book will be the logo that my oldest daughter, Sabrena Michelle Deal, created 20 years ago, but the photo above will be inside the jacket.
Now it’s 12:30 am on Tuesday and we have to leave here in six hours…..
All I had to do was not go there……
