THE TRAVELOGUE APPRECIATION SOCIETY

back-tracking part 9.  special edition…. THE STORY OF CHUCK.

 people ask us if we’ve had much trouble on the road.. and for the most part we havent. there was however the day at lake crescent on the olympic peninsula of washington that we met chuck..

driving west on 101 we stumble onto the lake. theres an empty pull off from the road with clear blue water and just warm enough for us to swim in which we tend to do whenever we can.. with no one around we strip down to our underwear and get in. molly throws a towel over her and decides to go back to the truck to get goggles for better exploration of the lake. i continue swimming..

she returns quickly saying someone just hit the truck.  following behind her is a large sweaty man with a touch of the crazy eyes and obviously drunk. apparently while speeding into the shady parking space next to us, he clips ghost stanley, pulling the right hand mirror off his rv..  or rather, the rv he had sold to the couple that were with him..

the woman follows molly around saying things like, ” we’re so close” and  “i dont want to get involved in this”… a beat up minivan pulls into the lot but no one gets out. i help the other guy try and attach the mirror and grab my mallet to do so.. chuck keeps pacing…and mumbling….and getting visibly angrier…he has a little moment of rage that i see go completely through him.. i realize that we may have a problem.

he corners molly and talks real close, and real quiet and real hard to understand. something about how these people are strong arming him and we cant let them leave.. suddenly this has become a real situation.. i approach chuck and ask him what he’s saying to her, all the time holding the mallet over my shoulder.. he keeps staring back and forth from me to molly to the mallet.. he walks away.

GET IN THE TRUCK AND LOCK THE FUCKING DOORS…. IM GETTING OUR STUFF.

the other guy keeps asking me if its cool, meaning, do i want anything from them for hitting the truck..they just wanted to split immediately. with nothing but a couple scratches and figuring that asking for anything was asking for trouble i say its cool. chuck walks to the rv, mumbles something to the other two and they drive off leaving him behind with nothing but a bible and some random box … the minivan follows..  another car, something little and red, had pulled up with a couple young dudes in it..  as i pull us back onto 101 i see chuck on one of their cellphones.. wonder how they made out.

we never saw chuck again.