“I wondered what on earth was going on. I opened the door and they more or less barged past, saying that I was growing cannabis on the windowsills.
“I started laughing because I knew they were tomato plants but it wasn’t so funny when they frisked me and then started tearing the house apart.”
Mr Matheson said he was held in the bedroom while officers searched the furniture and under the mattress…”They even ‘arrested’ Zac, our black labrador, and Moby, our Jack Russell, putting them in the back of one of the cop cars,” Mr Matheson added.
“And I just couldn’t believe it when they brought sniffer dogs all the way from Alness, which is about two hours away.”
He went on: “Despite leaving with their tails between their legs, the police didn’t even apologise.”
Mr Matheson, a keen gardener, grows tomatoes in the south-facing bedroom window.
He said: “We always enjoy having a juicy home-grown tomato with our dinner and I’ve had fine crops this year.”
Mr Matheson is now making a formal complaint to Northern Constabulary.
A police spokesman said: “We can confirm that, acting on information, we attended at an address in the Shieldaig area.
“No drugs were found as a result of the search.”
Acting on “information”? What possible information could Deputy Fife have been acting on? Here is useful information, Barney:
Tomato Plant–
Cannabis Plant–
(A note, to the police: I did NOT take that picture of a tomato plant. I have no idea where it came from. So, please don’t search my house for tomatos. I don’t have any. And when I use tomatoes, it’s just social. I don’t inhale, ever.)
After lunch on Day 3: Drove to Manteo, and the Front Porch Coffee Shop.
3:15 pm: Arrived Manteo, after travelling through a whole lot of empty swamp and pine forest, for hours. Boy, is the eastern part of NC big, and unoccupied. Manteo is nice, though.
And, the folks at the Front Porch were sure nice, once we found it. (Directions were of the “go to the old Simpson place, though of course that’s been torn down, I don’t recall the name of the road now, but anyway turn left there, and….”) Some folks from Virginia had a cute little girl, who was happy to get a rack card. And then Larry (one good leg, one artificial leg, and one big, real heart) and his wife came in. They literally called Barbara and me over to their table, just to talk. Great folks. Turns out their son is in law school at Elon, and they used to live in DC, in the Virginia suburbs. We had a great time talking.
And, then, an appointment with destiny! Though it was an appointment with only a video track, since the audio track didn’t marry up right. I’ll have to re-dub it, but didn’t want to wait. After all, the words aren’t very important. To set the scene: air temp was 65F, water temp was 58F.
(Approx) Text of video: “Hi! I’m Mike Munger, Libertarian candidate for Governor here in North Carolina. It’s been a long campaign, and I know we are all glad it’s almost over. My campaign manager Barbara Howe and started in Murphy, NC, and covered every inch of US 64, all across the state.
There are two reasons for what I’m about to do. First, we’ve been travelling a long time, more than three full days, and I’m glad we made it. But more important, third party candidates in North Carolina have to resort to stunts and begging just to get attention from the media. In particular, two Triangle television stations, WRAL and WTVD, ought to be ashamed of themselves. They denied me the chance to participate in the debates, debates I was qualified for, both legally and professionally.
So, it’s to make up for the lack of commitment to public service, at WRAL and WTVD, that I am about to take this cold bath. Sure, it’s silly, but until the media serve the people, instead of special interests, this is all we’ve got.
Day 3, 6:45 am: Poor Barbara pulls into my driveway at 6:45. (Thank goodness for the Fall Back time change, or we might not have made this). We hit the road. Arrive at the Cracker Barrel in Rocky Mount right on time…..
8:00 am, Cracker Barrel: John and Sophie, our newest BFFs, have been there since 7 am. A little mixup about the time change. But they are steadfast. I have the “Mama’s Pancakes” breakfast: coffee, two eggs, two sausage patties, and three big pancakes with maple syrup. “Mama” must have diabetes. A great talk with John, and we learn a lot about Sophie’s two horses, Cinnamon and Curly. Sophie is a cute 11 year old, and John is a farm machinery importer. And John is mad as hell, an ex-Republican who is going to be an important part of the future of NC’s LP.
10:30 am: Princeville and Tarboro: No particular place to stop. Tarboro is a very cool little city, with lots of well-preserved ante-Bellum charm. Beautiful. Princeville, on the other side of the Tar River, is an almost all-black community founded by escaped and freed slaves. The grinding poverty, and the aftermath of the catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Floyd, are all the meet the eye. A useful comparison, since Princeville reminds us why the Bellum was necessary in the first place, lest Tarboro makes me a little too misty-eyed about the Lost Cause.
11:30: Williamston: We stop at the Shamrock Cafe, on US 64 Alternate. Very friendly wait staff, and they let us have a table for quite a while. I get hot tea (this cold is killing me….) and peach cobbler; Barbara gets coffee and cheesecake. They are setting up the (as we say in these parts) BUFF-ay for lunch. Fried things of many shapes. A good crowd, mostly the after church crowd. Fine folks.
12:30: Plymouth: The Golden Skillet. An absolute archetype. If you want to get in touch with eastern NC, drop by the Golden Skillet at 12:30 on a Sunday morning. Dress nice. Get the BUFF-ay. The fried chicken is fair-to-middling (I’ve had better, but not MUCH better), but the fried okra was first rate, and the other fixin’s were all well-executed. The cool thing is the way that old men in dark suits, white shirts, and subdued ties move from table to table: “How are y’all today? You look GOOD, man. I mean it. Have you lost weight? She must be keeping you straight.” An ancient dance, affirming the eternal verities of small town life.”
2:30 pm: Asheboro. Great coffee shop, the “Downtown Soda Shop,” 128 Sunset Ave. I order a diet coke, and the pimento cheese sandwich. Say what you want, a GENyouwine grilled pimento cheese sandwich, with pickles, is the food of the good. This was homemade pimento cheese. We sat and checked email, talked to customers and the very nice waitstaff. And then Matthew, a local Republican candidate for school board, recognized me and we had some MORE chat about local problems and local schools.
4:30 pm: Pittsboro. By the time you get 20 miles west of Siler City, and then for a very long way, US 64 has gone all corporate and refined. We resolve to take the local “alternate” 64 on Sunday. We talk to some Obamaniacs at the Pittsboro courthouse roundabout, and they say they have gotten a couple of “you should be shot!” or “I’d rather shoot myself than vote for Obama,” but that most people are at least polite. And I would say they are more than polite. While I am talking to them, 20 cars pass, and at least 15 of them blow their horns and/or yell, “Yay!” or some such.
We hit the EV site, and the entire Pittsboro power structure is out there in its machine-like glory. The mayor, two councilpersons, and several other folks, all Dems. They jump on people who get out of cars like (friendly) vultures, giving them the information that they will need to vote correctly. All part of the service. I talk to three or four voters, who are (like elsewhere) surprised and pleased to see a Gov candidate in person.
Then we head toS & Ts Soda Shop, 85 Hillsboro St. Meet up with an old student of mine, Joanne, and her husband Sam, a teacher. They are big supporters, and we have a great talk. Our waitress, Amanda, is so country and so sincere and so cute that you just want to move to Pittsboro so you can talk to her every day. She’s 19, and the world is a better place with her in it. You go, Amanda.
7:pm: A barbecue dinner at the BBQ Lodge. Another visit to Yumtown. I have the catfish, since I had pork for lunch. Then I made a speech, to the assembled faithful. Thanks, folks, for coming out. We had a good 20 people, there, ready to make things happen for the cause of Libery in NC and the US. They have really done a lot of good work in this campaign, and my thank you is heartfelt. I hope they know how special they are.
Then, home to sleep in my own little-used bed. Still can’t shake this cold. I’m coughing like a nut. Very disturbing.
7:32 am: Some darned fool is knocking on my door, hard. HOLY KAPOWSKI! It’s 7:32 am. We are supposed to LEAVE at 7:32 am. I didn’t get my wake-up call from that woman at the front desk. Yikes! Shower/shave/etc. in 7 minutes, outside in 12 minutes, coughing like a fool from this cold I can’t shake. We are VERY late leaving for Statesville, and the 2nd Fret for breakfast.
8:48 am: Barbara has made up some time, since US 64 in this area is flatter and straighter. BUT….there is a 5k race going on. And Bertha (our GPS) is telling us to take a route that is blocked. We find a way around, and go into the 2nd Fret. Quiet….But wait! A reporter from the local paper, with lots of good questions. Then Bryan comes in, yelling and sweaty in his “Cameron Crazies” t-shirt and sweaty from finishing the 5k. And another six or eight folks come up to the table. Great stuff. The owner, Bob, is very friendly and glad we stopped by.
10:30 am: Mocksville, the EV site. Lots of people coming in to exercise their right to vote, and doing it early, too. A very nice guy, a Marine vet, is there stumping for McCain. And a nice lady is there for Obama and the Dems. We all talk to the good citizens of Davie county, and a lot of them stop to talk to us for a minute, which is nice. Several say they are Libertarians, and several more say they were impressed with the debate. We hand out rack cards until we have gone through the fistful we brought with us from the van, and then head ownard to…..
12 noon: Lexington Barbecue, Lexington. A visit to Yumtown. I hand out a few rack cards, and the manager comes out and very nicely asks me not to bother the customers. Not a problem at all; this is private property, and I am confident he would tell ANYONE to stop bothering the customers. Then, the OWNER comes out and tells me he voted a straight L ticket. Nice! We meet up with Mark, poobah of FULL THROTTLE magazine, and have a good talk about biker issues. Mark is a really smart, articulate guy, and runs a very successful business. Salt of the earth. We need a lot more like him. He has an interesting theory: Personal responsibility should govern most behavior. And if we see someone acting like an ass, we should tell them so. Biker groups are governed the way other groups SHOULD be governed: Just don’t be an ass. Mark should be President.
We go out and look at his bike, he snaps some photos of the LPV, and climb back aboard the LPV, more or less back on schedule. (BTW: Lexington BBQ is very, very fine. The meat was good, the ‘puppies good, but the best part was the Triple Berry Cobbler. Fresh strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries, with very little extra sugar. Tart, berries not overcooked….an unexpected pleasure of the first rank).
Drove to Hendersonville, and met with Tony and Justin. Had a good talk about working up a party organization county by county. Hendersonville is a very bustling place, and was getting ready for a night of Halloweenerie.
Headed out to Morganton, in Burke County. Halloween Central! Met with long-time friends Richard and Jan, who had also managed to scare up a reporter from the Morgan News Herald. (Reporter had graduated from Dartmouth, so we talked about that for a minute…). Had fun talking to the reporter, and a photographer followed us around as I talked to voters (because I had to!) and little kids (because I love to…). Several times people said, “Hey, I voted for you!” Several others were interested in learning more. A great stop, and the little kids are so cute in their Halloween costumes.
Then, headed out to Lenoir, where we met with candidate TJ Rohr, his family, and supporter Jeff and his family at Piccolo’s Restaurant. Very fine deep dish pizza, and good company. A fine day.
Finally, to the Day’s Inn. The clerk lady was very excited to meet a Gov candidate, and demanded an immediate stump speech. I was tempted to say, “We stand for more regulation of hotels!”, but instead tried to give her a decent performance.
She promised a 6:30 wake-up call, which did NOT happen. On which, more, anon.
Sorry to interrupt Mike’s narrative, but folks in the Raleigh area might like to know: Saturday night’s dinner will be at the Barbeque Lodge, 4600 Capitol Blvd.
Up at 6, working on emails. Lots of good news on media coverage; people are giving us good coverage on the “Back Roads and Small Towns” tour.
7:30 am: Meet Barbara, go get in the Libertarian PARTY VAN (LPV), and head for breakfast at the Hungry Moose Cafe down in Murphy. It’s about 30 degrees, but beautiful.
7:50 am: Breakfast buffet, with coffee and advice from Faith, the woman who works at the Hungry Moose. Grits, biscuit, bacon, scrambled eggs, and some melon. RIb-stickin’. Dr. Dan comes in, a very fine man and long-time Murphy LIbertarian. Well met, sir, well met. We talk about some issues, and then he has to head for work (he is an opthalmologist).
8:10 am: We head for the “early voting” site beside the Courthouse (Murphy is the seat for Cherokee County). No action at the EV site, so we plant a sign and head on towards….
9:00 am: I talk to Roy at the Marathon gas station. He takes the card, and is really happy to meet me. We have a good talk. Barbara and I both hit the Little Wildcats Room, and then pile back in the LPV.
10:20 am: We had been on US 64 about five minutes before getting lost, and ended up on US 74. Took NC 141 to get back on track, and arrive in Franklin about 20 minutes late. I talk to the owner, and her terrrific kid Cole, at the Main Street Coffee Shop. Talk to two other guys, who gladly take cards and talk for a moment. Then we head over to the EV site, but no one is early voting. Still a little cold in Franklin. Back in the LPV, and on to Brevard.
12:50 getting into Brevard, late. Wow! Is US 64 ever a snaky road between Franklin and Brevard. The LPV is a 7k lb E150 conversion van, with the suspension of a dirigible. Poor Barbara was often having to fight off trucks to the left and rocks to the right. Beautiful, though. Just beautiful. Several large waterfalls, and lakes. What a great state, unless you are driving.
In Brevard, we eat at Rocky’s diner. A touristy place, but a touristy place done well is just fine. And Rocky’s does tourists RIGHT!! I talk to the cashier, getting a paper and introducing myself. She recognizes me, and says, “Great to meet you! I voted for you yesterday.” Waiter: same thing. I talked to several other folks. One table of two ladies gives me the cut direct: “We voted already, and we would NEVER vote for Libertarians.” The guy at the next table hears this, and waves me over. Everything I say, he loudly repeats so that the two Prunesicles at the next table have to listen. Rocky’s has great food, great atmosphere, and pickled green tomatoes.
We go to the EV site, and talk to quite a few folks. Some take the literature, some walk by, and several stop to chat and ask questions. A beautiful day….
(Next installment: Hendersonville, Morganton, and Lenoir)
