Laughter beats the pain at times

He sits in a wheelchair because of diabetes and he suffers from neuropathy of the legs and feet. He told me, “Doctors describe walking with neuropathy as walking on pins and needles, well they know nothing, it’s nothing like that and it’s pure pain!” As the 65 year old man continued, “I wasn’t always in a wheelchair, I used to work in the automotive industry.”

Gary Rupp is from Detroit, Michigan, but moved away about three months ago because the dying city got too expensive to call home. After a little research, Gary found one of the cheapest places to live was Chattanooga, Tennessee – so he made the move.

The costs of Living for Gary (Detroit Vs. Chattanooga):

Gary currently calls the ChattCity Motel on East 20th Street in Chattanooga his home. He has a room that he rents for about $300 monthly, which is cheaper than some of the dirtiest motels in Nashville, Memphis and even Murfreesboro.

In Detroit, utilities average about $115 per month in a small apartment and that small apartment in a middle class neighborhood costs about $530 per month. The small apartment is only 480 square feet in size, which is a studio apartment.

In Chattanooga, you can get the same apartment for $483 per month and utilities will cost you $94 per month or less.

While saving $68 monthly would not convince most people to move, when you start factoring in the cost of food in Tennessee verses Detroit, transportation costs, etc. – it actually makes sense for someone on a fixed income to make that move.

What happens with neuropathy of the legs?

Some of the things that neuropathy causes in the legs include: burning pain, freezing pain, jabbing feelings as if you are being stabbed, extreme sensitivity to touch, lack of coordination and muscle weakness or paralysis.

Laughter beats pain: 

I feel it is important to say that Gary laughed three times as we talked. The first time when I handed him an ice cold bottle of water, the second when I handed him a package of Oreo cookies and the third as we joked at nothingness.

"Laughter is the tonic, the relief, the surcease for pain." - Charlie Chaplin, English comic actor, filmmaker, composer (1889-1977)

The Great Race stops in Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Murfreesboro, Tennessee hosted a lunch stop on the 2017 Hemmings Motor News Great Race presented by Hagerty. The cars stopped in Murfreesboro on Monday, June 26, 2017 at 12 noon. The stop was at the Cannonsburgh Village.

The Great Race, the world's premiere old car rally, brought 120 of the world's finest antique automobiles to Murfreesboro for the $150,000 event. The Stones River Region of AACA hosted the event.

In all, the participants in the race will cover more than 2,100 miles in 9 days. The start was on Main Street in downtown Jacksonville, Fla., on June 24.  The race will finish July 2 in Traverse City, Mich., on the banks of Grand Traverse Bay just off Lake Michigan as part of that city's annual Cherry Festival.

Teams and cars from Japan, England, Germany, Canada and every corner of the United States will be participating in their vintage automobiles dating back as far as 1916.

"There are more than 450 people just in our entourage from all around the world taking part in this incredible adventure," director Jeff Stumb said. 

Along the route, competitors will travel parts of the original Dixie Highway in seven states - Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. 

The Great Race, which began 34 years ago, is not a speed race, but a time/speed/distance rally. The vehicles, each with a driver and navigator, are given precise instructions each day that detail every move down to the second. They are scored at secret check points along the way and are penalized one second for each second either early or late. As in golf, the lowest score wins.

From Michigan and never going back

I often meet people who have a face that is covered in tattoos and I think to myself that they are likely hiding from who they want to be or from who they are. I see sadness in the eyes of so many who live on the streets of America.

“I’m from Detroit, Michigan,” he told me while standing outside of a truck stop. While looking away he said, “I will never go back.”

As for the tattoos, “I was going to get my eyebrows tattooed like a clown, because life’s a joke and you have to laugh – if you don’t laugh then somethings wrong with you.”

“The reality of the other person is not in what he reveals to you, but in what he cannot reveal to you. Therefore, if you would understand him, listen not to what he says but rather what he does not say.” - Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

Built in 1967

This small building was built in 1967. It sits behind a shuttered Detroit Fire Station that still has a 1980’s model fire truck sitting in the rear parking lot.

The building, once covered in graffiti, was pressure washed and nicknamed “Dzale’s House of Faith.” That was over 10-years ago and I have no clue as to who Dzale is or where he might be? I can say for sure, he was not in his house of faith.

Today, it sits empty.