When: Sept. 9-11, 2021
Where: Blue Ridge Mountains, NC
Who: 2 Vans, 12 Pax: Defib, Blackhole, Mountie, Dick Clark, Lowes (Super Q), G-ray, Cruiser, Dreamer, Compass, Dial Up, Mulligan and Red Coat.
The Warm Up:
As Mike Tyson said, “Everyone has a plan until you get punched in the face”. Well I gotta say that Clay had a solid spreadsheet to layout our plan and kept us moving along through BRR. We started with a few zoom calls to check in early in the year and we kept marching right up to September. Regardless of you definition, we were ready to go on Sept. 9th.
Thang 1 – Getting there:
House, house, house, Enterprise, Enterprise and we were on our way, no problem. Cruising south for the many hours to the house. Just like the warm-up, Lowes did not disappoint as we arrived in beautiful “somewhere” for the night. Plenty of food and snacks as we review the game plan for Friday.
Thang 2 – The 36 step mosey
And we are off, early start and we are underway, 36 steps to this mosey but with everything planned out, we all had our marching orders.
Van 1 – Wake up at 5am, drive an hour and begin the Relay. Start us off strong boys!!
Van 2 – go to Cracker Barrel (queue some elevator music in the background).
We stuck to the plan, Run x 6 and then swap vans. Do that 3 times and suddenly it was probably Saturday morning. Plenty of meals and attempts at resting in between the van swaps.
Thang 3 – The after-party
G-Ray closed out our relay by crossing the finish line and we hit the re-hydration station (Highland Brewery) as best we could. After some great decisions at the food trucks, we headed out on one more van ride for the day. We all made it back to the house in “somewhere” to celebrate with pizza, cigars, beer/wine and a campfire where we shared our memories of 9-11 and reflected on the past two days until the wee hours of 10pm.
Count-o-rama, Name-o-rama
COT
As far as we are concerned, this whole experience was a COT. Blending the PAX between the two vans was great and we learned lots about our fellow PAX. We shared stories and naps in the park together, plenty of good times and a few tough times, but the kind of tough times that remind you how fortunate we are in this world. Thanks for bringing me along, Team PANJ-Rising!
A final and huge THANKS to Lowes who is responsible for this adventure and everything great that came from it. He promised an adventure and he delivered.
