We interrupt your normally scheduled content to tell you about the night Brendan almost got shot by a cop at Denny’s.
Yes, I said Denny’s. Well, technically this was the Denny’s parking lot. After weeks of camping, we were nearing the end of our crazy adventure, and it’s safe to say we were pretty much out of funds. Between being broke and having to spend late nights editing to the point that the hour-and-a-half round-trip drive to the campsite and back in time for class early the next morining, we had taken to sleeping in the back of our vehicle some nights, because the drive was literally not worth the time or money. Usually we’d stay in the parking lot at WinCo Foods, which is open 24 hours, but on this particular night we were exhausted and starving. As a result, we came to probably our worst conclusion, which was that since we seemed to be able to get away with staying at places that open 24 hours, and Denny’s is open 24 hours and has food, we’d just eat and stay at Denny’s. Win-win, right?
Wrong! We were So Wrong! I will never forget waking up and sensing that something, or in this case someone, was approaching our vehicle and that there was potential danger. I knew nothing past that; I honestly couldn’t even tell you what time it was. What happened next was probably one of the funniest, most hilarious things I have ever seen.
Okay, so it was hilarious for me; not so much for Brendan, who at this point is still sound asleep as this young police officer starts pounding on our window while illuminating the interior of our vehicle with his flash light. In true B style, my dear partner proceeds to have a total screaming freak-out complete with several jerks and jumps and a nice size bump on his head for the effort.
As I opened the door, I will still never forget the look on that young man’s face: it was a combination of “dude, you just gave me a freaking heart attack,” and the shifty eye-dart that says “Ma’am, are you okay, and is this dude sober?” Meanwhile, we both took in the fact that his gun, which should be holstered, is now out and ready.
After a tense moment, during which B saw the weapon and stopped freaking out extremely quickly, the officer ventured, “Sir, are you okay? …” I forget how exactly he phrased the lecture that came next, but in short he made it very clear that B had just come moments away from being shot.
As the tension died down, we had a brief conversation where I convinced this young officer that we had merely stopped for some food, and since we were too tired to continue driving, had decided to take a rest since we figured Denny’s was open 24hours. Somehow, in my half asleep state, I remembered the advice given to us by our dear friends about not telling the cops that we living/sleeping out of our vehicle. True fact: it is illegal to sleep in your vehicle except in designated places like rest stops, and you can and will be asked to move along; refusing to do so will get you arrested. Luckily, clearer heads prevailed, as we didn’t look like his usual vagrants. Apparently this particular Denny’s was in a bad part of town, and we should be careful since the area was actively patrolled due to “criminal activities” and the high population of vagrant drug addicts who live out of their vehicles.
Eventually, it turned out this young officer, having confirmed that we weren’t on drugs, was truly just concerned for our safety and wanted to make sure we wouldn’t get mugged by one of those “vagrants” he’d mentioned earlier. He even pointed out that there was a safe-sleep area across town just for people in situations like ours.
He also said that if any other officers bothered us again that night, implying he wasn’t the only officer watching us, to tell them we had talked to him, and that we shouldn’t have any more problems as long as we were gone by morning.
In the end, we made sure that the next time we had to sleep in a vehicle, we did it someplace legal, no harm no foul, except maybe to B’s head; that bump didn’t go away for a whole week.
Join us this Thursday as we say good-bye to our tent, and after 16 long weeks I finally get my degree. I’ll share with you some of my most memorable experiences, some lessons we learned along the way, and most importantly I’ll introduce you to the unsung heroes who made all of this possible. See you then!