I finished my novel! Woohoo! I’ve already written a number of short stories and kind of a running memoir, and I’ve even started several novels, but I have never finished any of them. Until now. Just the other day I wrote the words The End and it took me a minute to realize what I had accomplished. It’s been over a year in the making. Sometimes the words flew from my fingers at an alarming pace. Sometimes I had to struggle to get anything from them. At one point, right after the Epidemic started, I couldn’t get them going at all for almost three months.

I thought once we started the Full Time RV Life I would have all the time in the world to write, but it didn’t turn out that way. I misjudged how much of my time this life demands. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all worth it, but there are a lot of things in it to compete for your free time. Eventually I got my ass in gear and got back into it and boy did the words fly, right up to the very end.

It’s just a first draft, so there is a lot more work to do. Editing being one of the biggest things. Then I have to decide if I am going to self publish or whore myself out to a publisher. I would most certainly be their whore if I could get one to ask, but who knows if any of them would even want this thing.

Anyway, I’ve decided to drop one more excerpt here if you’d like to digest it. Any reviews or suggestions are welcome. If my dreams continue to come true you may get to read the whole thing one day when you pick it off a shelf at a bookstore or down load it from Amazon. Am I getting ahead of myself if I push for Morgan Freeman to do the audio book version?

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MoMo (Dad)

“What now?” Southern Comfort asked me as we both sat on the edge of the shelter with our legs dangling off. Sawyer had retreated into the shady portion of the back of the shelter to lay down for a bit. He’d had a busy day so far. Hadn’t we all?
“I don’t know,” I replied. “Our plan a few days ago was to get further north and see if we could get out. They are concentrating the search more in the southern district.
“How do you know that?”
“Because I took Ranger Dick’s radio the other day when we had our, uh, encounter.”
“Ha! Nice.”
“The Swift Run Gap entrance and exit station is only like three miles from here and is always busy. I’m wondering if we can somehow get out among the crowd.”
SC sat there for a minute thinking about what I said. “How does this sound? I have to stop off at that station anyway to get a replacement thru-hike permit. I can check out the situation and then come back and let you know what y’alls chances are.”
“Are you sure about that? I mean you are on a thru-hike and this has already had to put a hurtin’ on your mileage.”
“Are you kidding me? I went on a thru-hike for adventure and this is shaping up to be a hell of a one. It’s not about the miles, it’s about the smiles, and it would give me the biggest smile in the world to help you and Rush.”
I chuckled to myself at her use of the well worn turn of phrase but I was also very touched. “Wow, I love hikers. We are one of a kind. You don’t know how much this means to me and I’m sure Rush would echo that sentiment if he were awake.”
“You know the trail provides, and right now it’s providing me. I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Lay low. I don’t think you’ll get anymore Ranger visits and I’m sure any thru or section hikers showing up will be completely sympathetic to your situation, but day hikers might not know what is really going on and could turn you in.”
That was solid advice and I nodded my head in agreement. SC geared up and headed back down the blue blazed trail. When she was out of sight I sat about fixing us that lunch we had never gotten around to. Sawyer woke up to get some treats that I offered him and then wondered off a bit to do some business. Seemed like a good time for that type of business so I visited the privy myself to use it for something other than a place to hide. After that, I put everything back in both our packs to have them ready to strap on and beat feet if need be. Then we just kind of chilled waiting for SC to come back.
“Hey Rush,” I said to Sawyer. “Keep an eye on things. I’m going to catch a little shut eye.” He gave me a little huff and I stretched out in the shelter using my pack to prop my head on. Just to think, a month ago I would have never even entertained the thought of leaving Sawyer to his own devices while I napped. The dynamic had certainly changed and I realized we were more than just Master and Dog now. We were partners. It didn’t take me long to drift off to sleep.
Some time later I felt someone grab me! It was Ranger Dick! He had come back and caught us! He was stooping over me and shaking me awake. When he saw he had my attention he stood back up. What was that in his hand? It was my walking stick and he was raising it over his head preparing to strike. He was going for a little payback. Wait a minute. Something was not right. As Ranger Dick swung my stick down toward me it morphed into a little branch. Instead of whacking me, Ranger Dick started pawing at me with the branch, dragging it back and forth across my right arm. What the fuck was this? As he continued to do that Ranger Dick also morphed; in to Sawyer. Then the haze fell away and I could clearly see Sawyer pawing at me trying to wake me up. It had all been a dream.
“What is it Rush?”
Sawyer looked toward the blue blazed trail and huffed. That’s all I needed to know. Someone was coming. I quickly looked at my watch and saw it had been a little over two hours since SC had left. Hopefully that was her coming back but I wasn’t taking any chances. I strapped Sawyer’s pack on and for once he stood perfectly still while I buckled it. I strapped my pack on, grabbed my stick and we both stepped down from the shelter so we would not be cornered if we needed to run.
Luckily we wouldn’t have to do that since it was SC we saw strolling up the trail. I was happy to see her return but by the grim look on her face I knew the news was not good. She confirmed it when she said, “There is no way you are getting out at Swift Run Gap. They are checking every car that is leaving and there are a number of rangers spread out to prevent anyone from trying to skirt them through the woods.”
“Well, hell,” I said sighing. I unbuckled my pack and let it drop to the ground by the picnic table. What now? I sat down and tried to think. Sawyer came over and tried to get my attention but I was too deep in thought to notice.
“Let me get that Rush,” SC said and I looked over to see her pulling off Sawyer’s pack. I couldn’t help but chuckle at that.
“Well, if he didn’t like you enough already, you just made a friend for life. He hates that pack.”
She laughed at that and gave Sawyer some good scratches where the pack straps had been. Sawyer’s eyes rolled back in his head as he enjoyed that massage. After a few minutes of that she asked me, “Want to see something cool?”
I raised my eyebrows indicating my curiosity. She sat down, dragging her pack between her legs and started digging inside. She found what she was hunting for, drew it out and showed it to me. In her hand was a radio that looked just like the one currently residing in my pack. “What the fuck? Where did you get that?”
“When I was getting my new thru-hiker pass I noticed it sitting in the passenger seat of an empty ranger’s truck that had the windows rolled down. When I left the station I just kind of reached in and grabbed it. Figured it might come in handy.”
“Damn girl! You got some balls on you.”
“Not the last time I checked,” she laughed. “But thanks anyway.”
An idea started forming in my head and I got quiet. SC saw my facial expression and guessed correctly that I was working on something and waited for me to finish. After a few minutes I thought I had a viable plan and voiced it. “I think we should still try for Swift Run Gap but late at night. Things there are bound to be more relaxed then. So far we’ve avoided night hiking because I thought our headlamps would draw too much attention in the dark, but now that we have two radios we can work around that.”
“How?” SC asked.
“If you are still willing to risk your neck, you can hike up ahead of us, then Rush can hike in the middle, and I’ll bring up the rear. You would meet anybody going southbound and I would encounter anyone catching up to us going northbound. Rush would be safe in between us. You can radio me if you come into contact with anyone and I can get Rush off the trail and turn off my headlamp. If someone comes from behind us I can do the same and radio you so that you would know to hold up until they pass. We can make it this way to Swift Run Gap and hopefully Rush and I can slip by with you watching out for us and letting us know of any potential danger by radio.”
I saw her think this through for a few minutes and then she smiled. “That might work MoMo. Let’s give it a shot. We can hang here until we are ready to go. What time do you want to go?”
“Let’s leave here around midnight, by the time we get there things should be pretty chill.”
SC gave me a thumbs up with one hand and kept scratching Sawyer with the other. Sawyer was laying there enjoying this immensely which is why he was probably as surprised as us when we heard a voice say, “Well if it isn’t Southern Comfort.”

Rush (Sawyer)

I jumped up and whirled around to see a guy, a thru-hiker by the looks of him, walking up the trail into the hut area. He was young, about the same age as Southern Comfort or maybe even younger. I was pissed at myself for not hearing him coming. The scratches I was getting from SC were so intoxicating that I let my guard down. My sixth sense hadn’t had a chance to let me know whether this was a good or bad guy so I wasn’t taking any chance. I raised my hackles and uttered a low growl. The guy stopped in his tracks.
“Whoa Rush,” SC said. “I know him. He’s a good guy.”
I looked back and saw that Dad had stood up with his walking stick in hand. At hearing SC’s words he relaxed and loosened his grip on the stick. My sense had kicked in now and I could also tell this guy was all right.
“Let me introduce you to Billy Idol,” SC said while sweeping her arm, palm up, toward the guy.
“Hey!” Billy Idol said. “Did I hear you correctly when you called the dog Rush?”
“Yeah. This is the infamous MoMo and Rush,” she told him.
“Whoa dude. Did you really attack a ranger? I mean I heard you had good reason but did that really happen?” Billy asked Dad.
Dad went over the actual circumstances of the incident again for Billy’s sake, downplaying my part in it as much as he could and I was grateful for that. After that they did the usual thru-hiker meeting routine and we learned that Billy Idol got his trail name because he is fond of doing a Rebel Yell. From what they said there is another hiker out here with that trail name so the other hikers bestowed Billy Idol on him because of the song. Billy and SC had been hiking together off and on and were just meeting up again after a few days apart. When she and Dad explained the plan we were going to put in motion, Billy wanted to help.
“I’m meeting a shuttle at Swift Run Gap to go into Harrisonburg to resupply and take a zero. I can tell the rangers there that I saw you two back at the entrance to the Two Mile Run trail to the south of here and maybe they’ll take some of their resources there to go search the trail. It might give you the chance you need to slip through later tonight.”
“That would be awesome,” Dad told Billy. “Thank you for the help.”
I expressed my gratitude also by rubbing up against Billy’s left leg. He reacted by giving me a few ear scratches. They weren’t as good as Dad’s or SC’s but nice all the same. Billy refilled his water bottles and had a snack then bid us good-bye and good luck before he headed back out. Dad announced that we only had about an hour left of sunlight so he and SC sat about making dinner. They both decided to cook Mountain House meals to get some max calories before our nocturnal visit. I got my usual hard dog food mixed with a wet pouch but even with Dad’s hiker hunger he let me have a little bit of his Teriyaki chicken.
By the time dinner was eaten and everything put away, the sun had set and the light was running from the sky. We all retreated to the shelter to bide our time. From plenty of experience on the trail so far I knew that it was unlikely that anyone else would show up after dark. It happened from time to time but that was unusual, and this occasion turned out to be no different. We were thankfully on our own. I decided to do a little patrol and take care of my nighttime business before settling down. I hopped down from the shelter and walked a circle around camp. Normally, Dad would have lost his shit if I had taken off from the shelter unleashed but with our new partnership it was now becoming routine and he didn’t even bat an eye. Dad had pulled a pack of cards out and was showing SC how to play a game called 31. He and Mom played it all the time. I went and did my business in the woods and decided to walk down the blue blazed trail back to the big trail. I didn’t hear or smell anything out of the ordinary so I came back to camp, hopped up in the shelter near the entrance, and took up the night watch. You guys can rest easy, Rush is on the job.

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