Coast to Coast "uncensored" -- somewhat
Coast to coast provided all participants, those on the road, and the support staff an incredible opportunity, and enormous trust was placed on us to “not screw up.” Mossman would always finish his conversations with me on the run with “be safe.” I know people were extremely nervous about the experience, so some innocent items were omitted from blog entries from the road, so that people wouldn’t get nervous.
There were tensions on the road between people, and between subgroups on the trip. The experience was indeed a stressful one. Things weren’t always wonderful during the whole trip. In fact, sometimes things got pretty damn trying between people. Don Campbell, a ’79 runner told me that if nobody kills another runner, then we’ve done a good job. The inter-RV tensions were because on a trip like this, we fall into survival mode, and we become clan-like. It’s actually really interesting how each of us reverts into survival mode on an experience like this. If we had more inter-RV interaction, I think the issues between the groups would have been mitigated. Oh well, lessons for 2029.
We learned to absolutely appreciate state police. We were pulled over countless times, but we didn’t get one ticket. The state police were really interested in the run, and were extremely supportive of our effort. In fact, in New Mexico, we were encouraged to stay on the Interstate, which was simply amazing. Local police were another story, however. We had a local authority threaten runners and drivers with arrest in eastern New Mexico. In Missouri, we were accused of being terrorists, manufacturing bombs in our RV, with the intent to blow up a small electrical substation.
The Missouri story is particularly interesting. Firstly, Missouri state roads stink. They have no shoulder. The white line is painted on the edge of the road and they were quite dangerous. It’s a stroke of luck that nobody got injured from a vehicle strike during the whole trip, particularly east of Kansas. Because of the dangerous shoulders, the RV that I was living in backed into a driveway of a substation. We were sitting for about 30 minutes, and a town police officer approached our RV. He questioned our intentions, and we told him our story. He asked us if we had any papers, which of course we didn’t. However, we did have a newspaper that told of our story. He didn’t buy it. He was convinced we were terrorists. I told him that RIT Campus Safety contacted the state police and notified them of our event. I don’t think he was too fond of us talking about the State Police, however. He asked to search our RV, and one of our runners said, “sure.” I however wasn’t too keen on this idea and I blocked him from entering the vehicle. He wasn’t too happy with this, and threatened to call 10-11 Sheriffs deputies. I told him that that was fine with me, but I would not grant him access to the vehicle. He kept mumbling how we could be making a bomb in the RV. He asked if any of us had outstanding warrants, and then asked us to come outside, and present identification so he could “check for warrants.” Of course we were clean, but he kept accusing us of making a bomb. After about 45 minutes, he let us proceed.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad staff weren’t too happy with us running on the side of the road that was next to railroad tracks outside Phoenix.
When on the roadside, watch out for small cactus. On coast to coast, the entire country is your bathroom, and almost all of us appreciated this luxury, except when it was raining. Things are bound to go wrong on the trip. We didn’t drive the route and explicitly go over the route with the runners, so things are bound to go wrong. Flexibility is key to success on this event. Mitigate risk. Wal Marts are everywhere, except when you need them. Purchase extra fuses. Arizona and western New Mexico definitely has the most interesting terrain of the trip. When you hit Missouri, you’ll wish you were in the western panorama. In Texas, which smells, people know you’re from “snow country” when you are wearing shorts in November. Route 50 in West Virginia is pretty crowded with cars at 5:30 a.m., and don’t park the RV on a narrow blind turn.
That’s all the innocent “uncensored” items that I can think of for now. Comment away with other innocent “uncensored” items.
There were tensions on the road between people, and between subgroups on the trip. The experience was indeed a stressful one. Things weren’t always wonderful during the whole trip. In fact, sometimes things got pretty damn trying between people. Don Campbell, a ’79 runner told me that if nobody kills another runner, then we’ve done a good job. The inter-RV tensions were because on a trip like this, we fall into survival mode, and we become clan-like. It’s actually really interesting how each of us reverts into survival mode on an experience like this. If we had more inter-RV interaction, I think the issues between the groups would have been mitigated. Oh well, lessons for 2029.
We learned to absolutely appreciate state police. We were pulled over countless times, but we didn’t get one ticket. The state police were really interested in the run, and were extremely supportive of our effort. In fact, in New Mexico, we were encouraged to stay on the Interstate, which was simply amazing. Local police were another story, however. We had a local authority threaten runners and drivers with arrest in eastern New Mexico. In Missouri, we were accused of being terrorists, manufacturing bombs in our RV, with the intent to blow up a small electrical substation.
The Missouri story is particularly interesting. Firstly, Missouri state roads stink. They have no shoulder. The white line is painted on the edge of the road and they were quite dangerous. It’s a stroke of luck that nobody got injured from a vehicle strike during the whole trip, particularly east of Kansas. Because of the dangerous shoulders, the RV that I was living in backed into a driveway of a substation. We were sitting for about 30 minutes, and a town police officer approached our RV. He questioned our intentions, and we told him our story. He asked us if we had any papers, which of course we didn’t. However, we did have a newspaper that told of our story. He didn’t buy it. He was convinced we were terrorists. I told him that RIT Campus Safety contacted the state police and notified them of our event. I don’t think he was too fond of us talking about the State Police, however. He asked to search our RV, and one of our runners said, “sure.” I however wasn’t too keen on this idea and I blocked him from entering the vehicle. He wasn’t too happy with this, and threatened to call 10-11 Sheriffs deputies. I told him that that was fine with me, but I would not grant him access to the vehicle. He kept mumbling how we could be making a bomb in the RV. He asked if any of us had outstanding warrants, and then asked us to come outside, and present identification so he could “check for warrants.” Of course we were clean, but he kept accusing us of making a bomb. After about 45 minutes, he let us proceed.
Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad staff weren’t too happy with us running on the side of the road that was next to railroad tracks outside Phoenix.
When on the roadside, watch out for small cactus. On coast to coast, the entire country is your bathroom, and almost all of us appreciated this luxury, except when it was raining. Things are bound to go wrong on the trip. We didn’t drive the route and explicitly go over the route with the runners, so things are bound to go wrong. Flexibility is key to success on this event. Mitigate risk. Wal Marts are everywhere, except when you need them. Purchase extra fuses. Arizona and western New Mexico definitely has the most interesting terrain of the trip. When you hit Missouri, you’ll wish you were in the western panorama. In Texas, which smells, people know you’re from “snow country” when you are wearing shorts in November. Route 50 in West Virginia is pretty crowded with cars at 5:30 a.m., and don’t park the RV on a narrow blind turn.
That’s all the innocent “uncensored” items that I can think of for now. Comment away with other innocent “uncensored” items.
3 Comments:
Now you tell us .... You are right, if you told us then, each of you may have been kidnapped by your mom and brought right home for where ever you were ! ... Now that you all made it is back nice and safe, you did make your families and the RIT community proud. You all had to prove yourselves under tough conditions. If given the choice, as parents we would probably agree - (to put it mildly) better this than many of your contemporaries are having to endure in Iraq. So, a toast to your great journey whose memories will last a lifetime ! Todd's dad
Congratulations on the great job you did on keeping the families aware of the team's progress. We would have appreciated more of your dialogue as you went along but your schedule was too hectic as your "almost uncensored" blog gives us just a part of the story. We understand the use of the term "almost" as certain frustrations that were faced over the 12 days of running should be just a thing of the past that needs to be forgotten. The accomplishemnt of the team and the great job you did on reporting it is all we have to know. However, we would appreciate it if others would likewise post events and happenings along the way that would be of interest to us. We understand that for a short while there was a picture on the blog of "Sanford " running with his Dad in West Virginia. It is quite unbelievable how his parents caught up to your journey just as Ryan was about to have his rotation. If they had been just a few minutes later on their trip from Connecticut to meet the team, they would have had to wait more than 3 hours to catch his next turn. Fortunately for his Dad, we understand it was on a down hill leg rather than the tough uphill leg he later had to run as coach Warth commented on. There is some question whether his Dad could have handled that uphill leg. We understand the whole team will not forget the run across the West Virginia mountains. We would appreciate it if the picture of Sanford and his Dad could be reinserted in the blog. Sanford's grandparents did not get a chance to see this picture. G & G.
I'm still working on recovering that photo from our photographer from the trip.
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