this image does not capture the intensity of the rain
I packed a full change of clothes and Brandon came along for the adventure. Cherokee, NC is just over an hour from our house in Asheville. The 5K was a sunset July 4 race–a much more civilized time than the 7 or 8am 5K’s happening in Asheville.
About 45 minutes into our drive, I had to brake quickly around a curve due to a recently downed tree in the road. It landed on a power line and the connection point was smoking so I decided to turn around as quickly as possible and seek an alternative route.
On our way to Cherokee, we saw a young man walking in the rain and had said that if we were going in his direction, we would have stopped to offer him a ride. Once we got turned around, we saw him again and this time pulled over to offer him a ride. He told us he started walking at 7:30 in the morning and only had gotten one ride. We drove him about 30 miles and got him within 3 miles of his destination.
Unfortunately, with the long detour, my eta was going to be 15 minutes after the run was scheduled to start. Even if I thought I could have jumped in late, we saw that the secondary road was also closed (though there was another detour).
The weather is nutty right now. The French Broad River is flooding right now and I’ve gotten multiple flash flood alerts on my cell. Talking to my Vermont peeps and they’re dealing with the same thing. I saw today that Route 100 through the Granville Gulf was washing out, only recently repaved due to a huge washout during TS Irene.
I’m looking for another race while Exercise your Rights is happening. Don’t worry my dear donors, I’ll earn by keep! And on that note, HUGE THANKS to everyone who donated to my run. I’ve raised $1,154 so far and will still accept donations. Everyone will get a special piece of digital “Val” art.
