Day 1 – 05.05.2012

Today was the first day of Kicking Across Carolina, our journey across this
great state in hopes of raising funds and awareness regarding religious pluralism
and peaceful coexistence. We awoke from a sleepless night at 6:45 and headed out
to the John B. Lewis Soccer Center here in Asheville where we started our trek.
Dylan livestreamed the action on his phone and we had two whole viewers at
kickoff time, so special thanks to the Heely’s and Dylan’s Mom for waking up early
and experiencing a special moment with us. We were joined by my childhood friend/
brother from another mother Sam Rossabi who was kind enough to be our first
celebrity dribbler, as he joined us for about six miles of our trip.

In the early goings we experienced some problems keeping the soccer balls
under control, as Dylan lost his to a nearby stream, our first of many scares with
losing the balls, but thankfully he was able to retrieve it and we continued on our
way. Soon thereafter, the weather decided to pull a Hillary Duff and “Let the Rain
Fall Down”, and while rain doesn’t stop Kicking Across Carolina, it did put a damper
(pun intended) on Sasha’s phone. However, the rain also brought us some good
news as we partook in a 2 vs. 2 mini-game pitting Sasha and Dylan against Sam and
myself. To keep a long story short, Dylan and Sasha were victorious, winning 3-1
before we moved on with our dribbling. This loss may have scared Sam away, as he
made up some excuse of how he “had to work”, so we bid Sam farewell and
continued on our journey.

As we dribbled through the neighboring town of Swananoa, we decided to
fulfill some viewers’ request in terms of filming. Upon hearing peoples’ requests that
we should include more footage of us actually dribbling, Dylan decided to set up the
camera on a traffic cone situated on the sidewalk and film us dribbling, for our
viewers’ pleasure, however we were nearly robbed of our camera, as an
unidentified vehicle nearly got away with the camera, and would most certainly
have succeeded if not for Dylan’s puma-like reflexes. Fortunately, the camera was
recovered and crisis was averted. Soon thereafter, we settled down for a lunch
break at a local Hot Dog King (not to be confused with its more popular cousin,
Burger King).

We continued our journey after lunch, dribbling up a mountain pass towards
Black Mountain, engaging in epic rap battles all the way (or in Dylan’s case,
attempting to rap…and failing). After several strenuous hours, we finally reached a
bike path with less traffic, however it had the major drawback of being bordered by
sheer cliffs along one side, not the most conducive of elements, especially when
you’re trying to dribble across our great state. Tragedy struck at about the 18 mile
mark when we lost a ball to the foliage of western North Carolina. I say “we” and I of
course mean myself, as I lost control of a ball and it careened down the
mountainside, never to be seen again. Fortunately, we were able to utilize the
replacement balls that Eurosport was kind enough to provide us with, so while this
was certainly an obstacle, it was overcome and we “powered through”, eventually
arriving at the town of Old Fort, our final destination for our first day.

Total Distance Traveled: 21.2 miles

Total Time Spent Traveling: 10 hours (oddly specific)