Every so often, like today, I make a business trip to DuPont, WA. I was excited this time to go running during the lunch hour --a new work acquaintance there had suggested a nice route down to the Sound and back that he does routinely.
I set out, cut through some woods, ran along a cement plant's fenceline and popped out onto a paved road. I began noticing signs posted every several hundread yards on either side of the road marking the woods behind them: "Do Not Enter. Small Arms Impact Area" Hmhh, I'd never seen one of those before. Eventually a red pickup slowed beside me and a gruff hulk in fatigues started barking at me: "You're not supposed be running on this road. This is a military base. And you're not supposed to have those things in your ears [my iPod]." I was more annoyed with his claim to musical sovereignty. I muttered some self-justification, planning to just continue down to the water. He showed no sign of moving his red (standard issue, surely) truck though, and so I did an "about-face!" and continued back from where I'd come. Lame-o, they never bothered my friend.
On the run back (music playing), my thoughts went to the book I've been reading about 20th century Greece and the military coups, substituting Puget for Aegean...
1 comment:
Freaky! This reminds me of so many of my brother's running stories. He's even been held at gunpoint for "trespassing." Well, I guess it shouldn't be in quotations because he really was trespassing, but come on, how threatening is a guy in running shorts, obviously unarmed? Some people are weird about their property/marijuana plantations.
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