The first day of our vacation, early in the morning we stopped at a gas station in Knoxville, TN. When I've gotten up extremely early and tanked up on coffee to get my eyes open, there is always a negative result. Coffee seems to shrink my bladder to the size of a bb while the backup "water" is like Niagara Falls. Such was the case that morning, so I jumped out of the vehicle looking for a "Restroom" sign. I had already checked my surroundings to make sure I was in a safe area and did not see another soul outside the station.

I started down the walk past a phone booth. I saw no one and didn't hear a sound, but suddenly a nasty guy who looked homeless and wearing a backpack dove out from behind the phone booth and right into my face. Sweetie Pie was standing nearby watching me as he smoked a cigarette. When the guy jumped into my face, I lit up with adrenaline from head to toe and went into a self-defense mode. Sweetie Pie ran toward me, caught me in mid-air, and messed up my best Ninjay-Judey beatdown. By then he is so mad he put me down, grabbed the guy, and slammed his head into a brick wall, and said, "I should have let her do what she started but you're not worth her spending her vacation in jail." For the next hour I was so lit up with adrenaline that I wanted to rip the seats out of the vehicle. I told Sweetie Pie, "Please don't talk to me until I cool down because I've never been as loaded with adrenaline in my life as I am right now." He made sure we stopped at the next rest area and told me to walk for a while because I had scared him in Knoxville. I called him a name for a female cat and asked him what HE had to be afraid of. He removed his cap, bowed like a very polished gentleman, and said, "Mam, I plead the 5th Amendment on that one." For the next 15 minutes I walked and laughed at his comment.......laughter is still the best medicine.