So apparently we aided and abetted a felon...

For those not following things on our Face Pages, as mom would say, (mine, Lori's) allow me to recount a recent incident.

About a week ago we were coming back home from spending some time with friends in Knoxville. It was about 2:30am as we were driving across Deals Gap in the S2000, when we came upon this SUV pulled over with hazards on at Parson's Branch - 4 miles from the state line. We stopped and asked the guy if he was ok, he said he had ran out of gas and wasn't familiar with the area...didn't realize gas stations would be so sparse. Said he was traveling back home to Johnson City from a friend's place in Knoxville and taking the long way for something different. It was about 14 degrees out and he had no means of heat. We considered options and since everything was closed, figured the best bet was to run on home, get some fuel, and bring it back to him. It took us about an hour, had to switch vehicles to the Mini for space to carry fuel cans. By the time we returned the poor guy (heh) was shaking uncontrollably so we had him sit in the Mini passenger seat, Lori in driver's seat, while I refilled his SUV. He kept insisting on helping, but I insisted more that he sit down and warm up, it didn't take two people. Got a few gallons in there, and went to start it...of course, the battery was dead from sitting there with the flashers on for a couple of hours in sub-freezing temps. Luckily I had foreseen this and brought the jump box. Got it started after a few minutes and he thanked us profusely, insisted on paying for our gas and troubles, and hastily headed off in his original direction, (south on 129) despite our advice to cut his losses and head back to civilization in Knoxville/Maryville since he still didn't have much gas.

Cut to the next night, we're driving back over in the Mini and the serpentine belt fails, killing the water pump, alternator, and supercharger - no good deed... We get a call through to Lori's parents thanks to the free-local-calls phone at the Deals Gap resort, and Lori's brother comes to pick us up with his beefy truck and car-hauler trailer. On the way back with the car in-tow, we're telling him about the life we probably saved the night before, when he interrupts with "What was he driving?" We describe it and he says "I think that's the guy that tried to steal my truck this morning...ended up stealing my neighbor's because I left the 2-way radio on and the battery was dead." Turns out he and his neighbor left their keys in their trucks, doors unlocked, and when he came out that morning his door was open, but it wouldn't start. Further investigation confirmed the guy we helped back along his merry way had indeed ditched the SUV just outside of town, snagged the neighbor's truck, wrecked it a few miles down the road, snagged another vehicle and drove on toward S.C. Last we heard they were trying to track him through the On-Star of his most recent acquisition, but nothing more. He apparently never stole anything out of the vehicles, which were filled with valuables.

I'm not going to stop helping people in distress, but next time I'll have the gun already pointing through the door before stopping.

So we're now in St. Lucia, enjoying some sun and fun. Today we've got an ATV excursion scheduled in about an hour...get to play with the GoPro HD some, and we've been getting in some scuba diving as well. We'll have pics to come and I'm planning on throwing on some past highlights from the Gap as suggested from our readers. Hang in there cold people!