Latest / Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected Stories / Sailing on Foot — 1,863 Miles with Rand Timmerman | Ship’s Log #30

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Sailing on Foot — 1,863 Miles with Rand Timmerman | Ship’s Log #30 · Project Candor: Ordinary People. Unexpected Stories

• 0:03
  Rand Timmerman: So the two aluminum poles rods, these are mountain tents.
• 0:07
  Rand Timmerman: They're made for wind, you know, for wind and stuff, but not like that.
• 0:11
  Rand Timmerman: And what it was doing, it was just collapsing on top of me and then springing back up again because of the rods.
• 0:17
  Rand Timmerman: So it was beating the crap out of me.
• 0:18
  Rand Timmerman: If I had not held those stakes in the ground, it would have just blown me off that mountain.
• 0:23
  Rand Timmerman: I would have been nobody would have probably ever found my body.
• 0:26
  Jeanne: Hello and welcome to Project Candor.
• 0:29
  Jeanne: I'm your host, Jeanne Andersen, and this is the show where ordinary people share unexpected stories.
• 0:35
  Jeanne: Today's guest brings together Marine Corps discipline, personal recovery, and a journey most people wouldn't attempt at any age.
• 0:43
  Jeanne: Rand Timmerman is a Marine Corps veteran, retired attorney, and author.
• 0:48
  Jeanne: Born in a small village in upstate New York, a place he says had more cows than people.
• 0:53
  Jeanne: Rand enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in 1966 and served in the first Marines in Vietnam.
• 1:01
  Jeanne: Years later, at 72 years old, he set out on a very different challenge, hiking the entire 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail.
• 1:10
  Jeanne: Rand later captured that journey in his book, A Spiritual Passage, Reflecting on Endurance, Recovery, Faith, and the lessons learned along the trail.
• 1:20
  Jeanne: Rand Timberman, hello.
• 1:23
  Jeanne: I'm so glad to have you here.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: Yes, Jeanne.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Great to be here.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 1:28
  Jeanne: So the way we go on the show is uh, you know, we say hello to you, and then we want to dig in and find out more about you.
• 1:36
  Jeanne: So I've got a list of questions prepared today.
• 1:38
  Jeanne: Are you ready to dive in?
• 1:41
  Rand Timmerman: I am.
• 1:42
  Jeanne: All right.
• 1:42
  Jeanne: So put your best Rand Timmerman hat on.
• 1:46
  Jeanne: Whatever that may be, whatever rank that may be, and whether it's Marines or hiking, who knows?
• 1:54
  Jeanne: I just thinking about that picture of you that I saw of you and your your hiking cap.
• 1:59
  Jeanne: All right, let's go on.
• 2:00
  Jeanne: Question number one.
• 2:02
  Jeanne: Rand, I think there are really two questions here.
• 2:07
  Jeanne: Um, first, how did hiking the Appalachian Trail even get on your radar?
• 2:12
  Jeanne: And second, why at 72 did you decide, yes, now is the time?
• 2:17
  Rand Timmerman: Well, I was kind of forced into it by my brother.
• 2:20
  Rand Timmerman: My brother was a combat army veteran, uh, machine gunner on a helicopter in uh the Vietnam War.
• 2:27
  Rand Timmerman: And when he came back home, uh all of us guys, when we came back, we had a fair amount of trauma.
• 2:35
  Rand Timmerman: And uh, but Ron met our mother's best friend, Edie.
• 2:39
  Rand Timmerman: And Edie was 14 years older than Ron, and on their first date, she showed up with the three youngest of her seven kids.
• 2:48
  Rand Timmerman: Whoa.
• 2:50
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah, whoa.
• 2:52
  Rand Timmerman: And she was a really uh beautiful woman inside and out, and uh my brother fell madly in love, and you know, they got married and he ended up with a huge family.
• 3:05
  Rand Timmerman: Edie got interested.
• 3:06
  Rand Timmerman: My brother was always a religious man, I was not, and when Edie showed an interest in uh the Mormon Church, the Church of Latter-day Saints, Ronnie said, fine, let's do it.
• 3:18
  Rand Timmerman: And they ended up moving to Utah and lived in St.
• 3:22
  Rand Timmerman: George for 40 years.
• 3:23
  Rand Timmerman: Edie produced seven kids, 27 grandchildren, and now 30 great-grandchildren.
• 3:31
  Jeanne: Whoa.
• 3:32
  Rand Timmerman: Whoa, yeah.
• 3:33
  Rand Timmerman: So I'm living on the East Coast with my family, and Ronnie's living in Utah.
• 3:37
  Rand Timmerman: I had never been to his house.
• 3:38
  Rand Timmerman: They came east every year, and then they had would rent a cottage on Lake Ontario.
• 3:43
  Rand Timmerman: We'd get together.
• 3:44
  Rand Timmerman: I might see my brother one time a year, you know, for an afternoon.
• 3:48
  Rand Timmerman: And my younger brother and I would be drinking and carousing and and mocking him for being a dry, you know, not drinking Mormon bishop.
• 3:57
  Rand Timmerman: It was all good-natured stuff, but I look back on it's not a pretty picture necessarily.
• 4:05
  Rand Timmerman: But anyway, we never had any problems when Edie died.
• 4:09
  Rand Timmerman: That was very difficult for Ron.
• 4:11
  Rand Timmerman: And I could tell talking to him on the phone, and I said, Well, come out.
• 4:14
  Rand Timmerman: And then the phone call, he said something, Jeanne, about hiking the Appalachian Trail.
• 4:19
  Rand Timmerman: My brain just says, There's no way.
• 4:21
  Rand Timmerman: That's just I had hiked sections of the Appalachian Trail over the years.
• 4:27
  Rand Timmerman: I ran 26 marathons.
• 4:29
  Rand Timmerman: Turned out both my brother and I were kind of uh exercise geeks, you know, we just weekend warriors, however you want to put it.
• 4:37
  Rand Timmerman: So even though we were in our early 70s, we were both really good shape.
• 4:41
  Rand Timmerman: I went out there and we were hiking in the desert, and he brought it up again, and I didn't think he was serious.
• 4:48
  Rand Timmerman: And I said, Well, how are you gonna do it?
• 4:50
  Rand Timmerman: And he said, I'm gonna take the bus to Springer Mountain, Georgia, and start walking.
• 4:56
  Rand Timmerman: And I said, Well, okay, I'll uh that's not gonna work, bro.
• 5:02
  Rand Timmerman: That's not a good plan.
• 5:03
  Rand Timmerman: How about if I go with you?
• 5:05
  Rand Timmerman: He said, You would?
• 5:06
  Rand Timmerman: And I said, Sure, why not?
• 5:08
  Rand Timmerman: And then I said, Well, when are you gonna do it?
• 5:10
  Rand Timmerman: I'm thinking, like, in a year or so, right?
• 5:12
  Rand Timmerman: He goes, March 22nd.
• 5:13
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, he's got this all figured out.
• 5:15
  Rand Timmerman: Well, March 22nd, 2018, in a blizzard.
• 5:18
  Rand Timmerman: We're standing at the top of Springer Mountain on our way.
• 5:23
  Jeanne: Oh, wow.
• 5:24
  Jeanne: Well, I have to go back.
• 5:25
  Jeanne: Edie, she met him when she already had seven kids.
• 5:30
  Rand Timmerman: Yes, she was divorced.
• 5:32
  Rand Timmerman: She had seven kids.
• 5:33
  Jeanne: Okay, so she never had more kids with your brother.
• 5:36
  Jeanne: That's where I was like, Did she have more kids?
• 5:38
  Rand Timmerman: When you said No, I think she was kind of worn out by that.
• 5:42
  Jeanne: Hey, I get her pain there.
• 5:44
  Rand Timmerman: My brother was, I don't know if that was I I don't think that was ever an issue.
• 5:49
  Rand Timmerman: He certainly never said anything about it.
• 5:51
  Rand Timmerman: Edie was just, you know, one of the funniest things that happened, Jeanne.
• 5:55
  Rand Timmerman: Now, I've, you know, I had relationship problems between alcohol, trauma, and other things.
• 6:00
  Rand Timmerman: I've been divorced three times and married four times.
• 6:03
  Rand Timmerman: And I'm not proud of that, but that's just how it worked out.
• 6:05
  Rand Timmerman: And there was never any verbal or physical aspects to it.
• 6:08
  Rand Timmerman: It was just you do stuff when you drink that you wouldn't normally do.
• 6:12
  Rand Timmerman: And anyway, but Ronnie was a totally wholesome guy, and they just had a fantastic marriage.
• 6:20
  Rand Timmerman: Uh, I don't think they ever really thought about having more kids.
• 6:23
  Jeanne: Oh, okay.
• 6:24
  Jeanne: Well, I guess that's not your story, but anyway, I just wanted to ask that question.
• 6:29
  Jeanne: And you don't have to feel bad about how you were divorced three times and married four, because I mean everybody has those stories, including myself.
• 6:38
  Jeanne: Alcohol was involved in one, but not me.
• 6:41
  Jeanne: But anyway, I married a second time.
• 6:45
  Jeanne: So this is the one that stuck.
• 6:48
  Rand Timmerman: Well, I've been married now of 25 years to the same lady, and she's, you know, it works out.
• 6:53
  Jeanne: Yeah, that's wonderful.
• 6:55
  Jeanne: So when you started telling people you were planning to hike 2,200 miles through the mountains at 72, what kind of reactions did you get?
• 7:04
  Jeanne: Were people supportive, or did some of them think you had completely lost your mind?
• 7:10
  Jeanne: I actually thought about it and I'm like, I didn't even know that was the things people did.
• 7:16
  Rand Timmerman: Well, the family was very supportive.
• 7:19
  Rand Timmerman: Ronnie kept a journal.
• 7:20
  Rand Timmerman: When I saw his journal after the hike and was thinking about doing a book, it was uh every day he wrote in his journal the same sentence with me that I'm so happy my family's supporting me, or I love my family, all that kind of stuff.
• 7:34
  Rand Timmerman: And uh I was writing more about the people we met and all that kind of thing.
• 7:37
  Rand Timmerman: But I don't know, my wife wasn't particularly happy, but I don't think I don't think most people were too worried about it because they probably figured, like I did, two weeks max, and then these old guys will get over it.
• 7:52
  Rand Timmerman: Everybody knew we were kind of gritty guys, you know.
• 7:56
  Jeanne: Did your wife like meet you at different points along the way since she hadn't seen you?
• 8:00
  Jeanne: Did she like travel to a place in Georgia or what your next stop was?
• 8:06
  Jeanne: Tennessee.
• 8:07
  Rand Timmerman: No, we were we were kind of on our own.
• 8:09
  Rand Timmerman: Ron's oldest son, Rick, uh, was 60 at the time.
• 8:13
  Rand Timmerman: He hiked 62.
• 8:15
  Rand Timmerman: He hiked the first two weeks with us, which was a godsend, because he's a a gear geek.
• 8:21
  Rand Timmerman: And uh I'm more of a just do-it type of guy.
• 8:25
  Rand Timmerman: Ronnie had done a lot of studying of the maps and things like that.
• 8:29
  Rand Timmerman: Uh and then uh Rick ended up finishing it with my brother.
• 8:33
  Rand Timmerman: I didn't do the full 2200 miles because I fell down a rock sliding.
• 8:38
  Jeanne: Oh, that's right.
• 8:39
  Jeanne: You did tell me that earlier.
• 8:41
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah.
• 8:42
  Rand Timmerman: So I only did 1,863 miles.
• 8:46
  Jeanne: That's still like unbelievably long.
• 8:51
  Rand Timmerman: And then the book I actually wrote when Ronnie, you know, we could hike all day long and not say a hundred words to each other.
• 8:58
  Rand Timmerman: You know, we're guys that don't complain, we just kind of, you know, soldier through, if you will.
• 9:04
  Rand Timmerman: And I was shocked when I read Ronnie's journal.
• 9:06
  Rand Timmerman: And then he was shocked when he read the first draft of the book because I wrote in there that two weeks max.
• 9:12
  Rand Timmerman: And he goes, bro, did you you thought we were we'd only go two weeks at the most?
• 9:16
  Rand Timmerman: I said, Absolutely.
• 9:20
  Speaker: There was any way in the heck we were gonna do the whole thing.
• 9:24
  Speaker: Uh I I misjudged his determination.
• 9:29
  Rand Timmerman: Oh wow, it had to be determination, definitely.
• 9:33
  Speaker: Yeah.
• 9:34
  Jeanne: So once the decision was made, what was the biggest challenge in preparing yourself physically or mentally for something like that?
• 9:41
  Rand Timmerman: Well, I mean, we both kind of knew what we were doing.
• 9:44
  Rand Timmerman: I had done a fair amount of hiking in the Smoky Mountains over the years, and Ronnie was doing the same thing.
• 9:50
  Rand Timmerman: He did a lot more stuff than I realized because you know, we didn't really talk to each other very much over the years.
• 9:55
  Rand Timmerman: And uh critters was one thing I had, you know, I did understand that.
• 10:00
  Rand Timmerman: I had done I'd had uh encounters with bears, one of which was really troubling.
• 10:06
  Rand Timmerman: I was fake charging that bear, and that bear was fake charging me, and he wouldn't leave me alone.
• 10:13
  Rand Timmerman: I thought I was gonna have to do something drastic, which I really didn't want to do.
• 10:17
  Rand Timmerman: This was not on the Appalachian Trail, this was prior.
• 10:20
  Rand Timmerman: So, and I had hiked in the Smoky Mountains, which is part, you know, one of the hardest areas of it.
• 10:26
  Rand Timmerman: So I had some idea how dangerous and hard it was gonna be, but but I'll tell you what, when we started actually doing it, I was like, oh my god.
• 10:35
  Jeanne: Yeah, I like nature and all that stuff.
• 10:37
  Jeanne: But I tell you, when you start talking bears and everything, I'm like, my hikes are gonna be like up the tent stores to my hotel room in the Hilton or something.
• 10:45
  Jeanne: I'm not I'm not going out there where a bear, but hey, that could be dangerous too, you never know.
• 10:52
  Rand Timmerman: Well, yeah, and there's lots of bear stories and pictures in the book and snakes.
• 10:56
  Rand Timmerman: We had I had a fair number of encounters with poisonous snakes.
• 11:01
  Jeanne: Oh, yeah.
• 11:01
  Jeanne: Georgia, North Carolina, I know they have lots of snakes.
• 11:05
  Rand Timmerman: Yep.
• 11:05
  Rand Timmerman: Shenandoah Park and the lower part of the Appalachian Trail in Virginia.
• 11:11
  Rand Timmerman: Oh my gosh, the deer will walk right up to you.
• 11:14
  Rand Timmerman: There's bears everywhere.
• 11:15
  Rand Timmerman: We saw I saw a bear every day for seven days with one stretch.
• 11:19
  Rand Timmerman: I actually ran into a ranger and said there's a lot of bears here.
• 11:24
  Rand Timmerman: And he goes, Yeah, there's so there's 300 square miles of land in the uh Shenandoah National Park, and he said there's six according to their surveys, there's about six hundred bears.
• 11:35
  Rand Timmerman: Well, that's two bears for every square mile.
• 11:38
  Jeanne: Oh.
• 11:39
  Rand Timmerman: And 80% of the train, the bears aren't gonna walk on.
• 11:42
  Rand Timmerman: Nobody's gonna walk on it because it's straight down or straight up, pretty much.
• 11:46
  Rand Timmerman: And so they so where do they go?
• 11:49
  Rand Timmerman: They hike on the trail, they walk on the trail.
• 11:52
  Rand Timmerman: I came around a corner and I had a the biggest black bear I've ever seen in my whole life right in front of me, like 10 feet away.
• 11:59
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, that close and he froze with one paw up in the air like this, and I just froze, and we I just we're staring at each other, he's frozen, I'm frozen.
• 12:09
  Rand Timmerman: And I very slowly because if he wants me, he's got me.
• 12:14
  Rand Timmerman: There's not a thing I can do, right?
• 12:16
  Rand Timmerman: I very recently slowed.
• 12:17
  Rand Timmerman: Do I get a uh bear spray thing or nothing?
• 12:20
  Rand Timmerman: No, I pull out my phone.
• 12:22
  Rand Timmerman: This is so stupid.
• 12:25
  Rand Timmerman: Because I want to get a picture of him.
• 12:27
  Rand Timmerman: Oh no, really?
• 12:29
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah, that's what I wanted.
• 12:30
  Rand Timmerman: This thing was magnificent.
• 12:32
  Rand Timmerman: The its head was about the size of a bowling ball, and he is literally 10 feet away from me.
• 12:38
  Rand Timmerman: And the thing that shocked me was it was the most the first thought through my head, Jeanne, was this is the most beautiful beast I have ever seen in my life.
• 12:48
  Rand Timmerman: Right?
• 12:49
  Rand Timmerman: And his fur was so shiny, it was just I was stunned, and I wanted a picture of it so bad because I knew I would never see anything like that again.
• 13:01
  Rand Timmerman: And I put the phone up, and when I did, he whirled around, went down that trail.
• 13:05
  Rand Timmerman: Like in within a I couldn't, I didn't even get a picture of his rear end.
• 13:09
  Rand Timmerman: He went so fast, and then he turned left and he went down the mountain.
• 13:13
  Rand Timmerman: Now, the day before I had seen a bear, and that one was quite a ways away, probably you know, a couple hundred feet at least, and he just quietly went off the trail and disappeared, never made a sound.
• 13:26
  Rand Timmerman: This bear, when he went down that mountain, it sounded like a bulldozer.
• 13:30
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, rocks are flying, trees, it felt it sounded like trees are falling over, and this hiker comes up behind me, he goes, What is that?
• 13:38
  Rand Timmerman: And I said, It's a bear.
• 13:40
  Rand Timmerman: He says, It can't be a bear.
• 13:41
  Rand Timmerman: I said, That's a bear, it was right there like five seconds ago, and it went on for like 30 seconds.
• 13:47
  Rand Timmerman: It was on my he and I just stood there in awe.
• 13:49
  Rand Timmerman: That was amazing.
• 13:51
  Jeanne: Well, gee, I mean, that could have been a baby, for all you knew.
• 13:56
  Jeanne: I mean, there are some big bears.
• 13:58
  Rand Timmerman: You think it was a an adult bear or oh no, it was huge, it was probably a 350-pounder, that which is big for a black bear.
• 14:05
  Rand Timmerman: I've seen lots of bears.
• 14:06
  Rand Timmerman: I know that was a big bear.
• 14:08
  Jeanne: That was a big adult bear.
• 14:09
  Jeanne: Okay.
• 14:09
  Rand Timmerman: If I was a bear hunter and it was the see, that's the problem.
• 14:12
  Rand Timmerman: That's what the ranger said.
• 14:14
  Rand Timmerman: There's no hunting season here, not for deer or for the bears.
• 14:17
  Rand Timmerman: It's a problem.
• 14:18
  Rand Timmerman: I his name was Gene Anderson.
• 14:20
  Rand Timmerman: I said, I said, Gene, this is really not good.
• 14:22
  Rand Timmerman: And he says, Yeah, somebody's gonna get hurt someday.
• 14:25
  Jeanne: His name was my name?
• 14:27
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah.
• 14:27
  Rand Timmerman: Wow.
• 14:28
  Rand Timmerman: He was part of the Potomac Conservancy section.
• 14:33
  Rand Timmerman: Uh is what he told me.
• 14:36
  Rand Timmerman: I ran into him a couple times.
• 14:38
  Rand Timmerman: I didn't have this conversation the same day.
• 14:40
  Rand Timmerman: It was a few days later, and we were further up.
• 14:42
  Jeanne: Oh, okay.
• 14:43
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah, and he was part of uh, I don't know, his job, I guess, was to go out and meet hikers and hike with them a little bit.
• 14:49
  Rand Timmerman: He he and I hiked together one day, pretty much the whole day.
• 14:53
  Rand Timmerman: So he wasn't doing the trail, but he was just on the trail to be there and you know, talk to people and stuff.
• 14:59
  Jeanne: I don't know what I'd do if I met a bear.
• 15:01
  Jeanne: That's I think parent trial.
• 15:03
  Jeanne: I would just all of a sudden I thought of the parent tribe.
• 15:05
  Jeanne: They were trying to say.
• 15:06
  Jeanne: Did she say two sticks or something?
• 15:09
  Jeanne: You know, click two sticks ahead of you if there's bears or snakes.
• 15:13
  Jeanne: I don't remember.
• 15:14
  Jeanne: Something stupid.
• 15:15
  Jeanne: That would be me.
• 15:18
  Rand Timmerman: Well, what they tell you to do today.
• 15:20
  Rand Timmerman: There used to be back in the 70s and 80s, they would tell hikers to get on the ground and get in the fetal position, cover your head with your hands and pray or something.
• 15:28
  Rand Timmerman: Oh wow.
• 15:29
  Rand Timmerman: Well, that doesn't work out too good.
• 15:32
  Rand Timmerman: See, here's the problem, and I knew this from my prior experience.
• 15:36
  Rand Timmerman: So what happens is bears can't see very good, right?
• 15:40
  Rand Timmerman: So when they encounter something that they think might be food, they want it to run.
• 15:46
  Rand Timmerman: If it runs, they'll go after it.
• 15:48
  Rand Timmerman: They won't even hesitate, they'll just go.
• 15:50
  Rand Timmerman: So you can never run away from a bear.
• 15:52
  Rand Timmerman: You won't go 10 feet anyway.
• 15:54
  Rand Timmerman: So it's over.
• 15:55
  Rand Timmerman: That's so the worst thing you so what they teach now is you jump up and down and yell and so on and so forth.
• 16:01
  Rand Timmerman: Well, that don't work very good either sometimes.
• 16:04
  Rand Timmerman: But what I ended up doing was this bear would fake charge me.
• 16:07
  Rand Timmerman: He would growl, the stuff would be hanging from it.
• 16:11
  Rand Timmerman: You know, he'd be drooling like crazy because he's hungry.
• 16:14
  Rand Timmerman: And the one that I had the worst encounter was, it was in the fall.
• 16:18
  Rand Timmerman: So the bear was getting ready to hibernate, but it was still hungry.
• 16:21
  Rand Timmerman: So it was kind of out of its mind a little bit, I think, because it wouldn't leave me alone.
• 16:25
  Rand Timmerman: And what it would do is it would run at me, but it's not, and it's its paws are flying, the dirt's flying, he's growling, and he's looking like he's charging, but he's not really charging because he doesn't know what he's dealing with yet, right?
• 16:38
  Rand Timmerman: Right.
• 16:38
  Rand Timmerman: And then he'd stop, and then I would do a fake charge, and my legs would be puffing, and I'd be yelling, and my arms would be going, and it looks like I'm running 20 miles an hour and I'm moving forward like six inches.
• 16:50
  Jeanne: Oh, it's too bad somebody couldn't have filmed that.
• 16:53
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah, so it's like a fake charge.
• 16:55
  Rand Timmerman: But he would we did that a couple times, and then he would wander, you know, he would go away, and then I would think it would be okay, and I'd start, and I'm all by myself.
• 17:03
  Rand Timmerman: There's nobody around, I haven't seen anybody all day.
• 17:05
  Rand Timmerman: And then the next thing I know, he's behind me and he's coming after me again.
• 17:09
  Rand Timmerman: I'm like, oh my god.
• 17:10
  Jeanne: Oh, wow.
• 17:11
  Rand Timmerman: It went on for an hour and a half, and uh, and then finally, uh, I kind of did a more than just a fake charge, and that time he's when he left, he left.
• 17:22
  Jeanne: But I wonder, do they smell you too?
• 17:24
  Jeanne: I don't know.
• 17:25
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah.
• 17:26
  Jeanne: Maybe if you have a lot of bad oh, that's what the bear spray is about, you know, making a stinky smell.
• 17:32
  Jeanne: Okay, let's move away from the bears because that gets a little scary for me.
• 17:36
  Jeanne: No, no, I think it's all fun.
• 17:39
  Jeanne: But uh, let's go to another question.
• 17:41
  Jeanne: Your story also includes recovery from alcoholism.
• 17:45
  Jeanne: Well, after that story, I I don't know how you could recover.
• 17:47
  Jeanne: I would be wanting to drink about that time.
• 17:50
  Jeanne: Sometimes people who have served in the military talk about how that experience shapes the way they deal with stress or challenges later in life.
• 17:58
  Jeanne: I'm curious, did your time in the Marine Corps have any influence on that chapter of your life or on the way you approached recovery?
• 18:06
  Rand Timmerman: Yes, it did.
• 18:07
  Rand Timmerman: So my brother and I both had traumatic experiences in Vietnam, and I knew the first time I drank at 13 that it was probably gonna be a problem because I just liked it so much.
• 18:20
  Rand Timmerman: It was insane.
• 18:21
  Rand Timmerman: And I got wicked drunk and crawled home, and my dad talked to my dad next day because I knew he was gonna find out anyway, and all he said was never do it again, and I thought I can't wait.
• 18:33
  Rand Timmerman: But I made a conscious decision for some reason, Jeanne.
• 18:37
  Rand Timmerman: I thought, you know what, because we were being exposed to marijuana and other things, and uh, I'm never gonna do any of that stuff because why would I?
• 18:44
  Rand Timmerman: I didn't need to, for one thing.
• 18:46
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, alcohol did everything for me I ever wanted it to.
• 18:49
  Rand Timmerman: But being power, you know, we were very impoverished when I was a kid, and money was, you know.
• 18:56
  Rand Timmerman: So it wasn't a problem for me.
• 18:57
  Rand Timmerman: And then the military were long stretches, we didn't drink.
• 19:00
  Rand Timmerman: When I drank, most of the time I got drunk.
• 19:02
  Rand Timmerman: But so for a long time it wasn't a problem.
• 19:04
  Rand Timmerman: When I came back from Vietnam, then I ended up married with a couple kids.
• 19:09
  Rand Timmerman: I had enlisted, but when I came back from Vietnam, I went, they made me an officer, and I ended up in JAG school by a total fluke.
• 19:18
  Jeanne: Oh, that's very cool.
• 19:20
  Rand Timmerman: Probably the only enlisted Marine Corps veteran that was promoted to an officer that became a JAG officer without a without a college degree or a law degree.
• 19:30
  Rand Timmerman: And I ended up in a class at the JAG school with 99 other lawyers.
• 19:36
  Rand Timmerman: They had all graduated from law school.
• 19:39
  Rand Timmerman: And I decided to, instead of drinking all the time like they were doing, I decided to focus on it, and I ended up being the I got the highest score.
• 19:49
  Rand Timmerman: I was the class honor man, really ticked them all off.
• 19:52
  Jeanne: Oh, that's a really nice story.
• 19:54
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah, so well, I like to say the Marine Corps got damn near got me killed about 20 times in Vietnam, for sure.
• 20:00
  Rand Timmerman: I mean an inch or two even.
• 20:02
  Jeanne: Stop, stop.
• 20:03
  Jeanne: I think that's one of your stories.
• 20:05
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah.
• 20:06
  Jeanne: In the two truths in a lie, don't go there.
• 20:10
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah.
• 20:11
  Rand Timmerman: Oh, sorry, I forgot about that.
• 20:13
  Jeanne: Oh no.
• 20:13
  Jeanne: I'm just remembering what we're gonna go to next.
• 20:16
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah.
• 20:17
  Rand Timmerman: So when I came back, I had a, you know, I'm in college, I'm working three jobs, married two kids, and I'm just thinking, I'm every once in a while, I think, it's amazing because I don't seem to have any repercussions from the Vietnam War.
• 20:31
  Rand Timmerman: And then I started having these horrific nightmares.
• 20:35
  Rand Timmerman: And I would void myself in the bed with my wife, wake up thinking I'm in a battle covered with blood, and I'd be screaming.
• 20:44
  Rand Timmerman: The first time that happened, she didn't know what was going on.
• 20:48
  Rand Timmerman: She crawled over to the door where the light switch was and turned it on.
• 20:52
  Rand Timmerman: And when I when she did that, I opened my eyes and I realized I wasn't covered with blood, I was covered with sweat, and I didn't smell urine and all that stuff.
• 21:00
  Rand Timmerman: Or I did actually because it was mine.
• 21:02
  Rand Timmerman: I thought I was smelling the gore from the battle.
• 21:05
  Rand Timmerman: And we just both looked at each other and we knew that something, you know, it was bad.
• 21:12
  Rand Timmerman: And there was no programs in those days, and I started using alcohol to uh medicate at night.
• 21:20
  Rand Timmerman: Uh I put the kids to bed and then I would drink insanely for an hour and go to bed, and that way I didn't either the dreams didn't happen or I didn't remember them.
• 21:29
  Rand Timmerman: I don't know.
• 21:30
  Rand Timmerman: But so I would do that uh fairly regularly, and of course, you know, after a while you get a higher tolerance and the whole nine yards.
• 21:39
  Rand Timmerman: Didn't really affect me until I got my late fifties, early sixties, and then I ended up in suicide watches and all kinds of bad stuff.
• 21:48
  Jeanne: Ooh, I'm so sorry.
• 21:50
  Rand Timmerman: That led me to a recovery program for alcoholics in which the members like to remain anonymous.
• 21:56
  Rand Timmerman: And I went through the whole deal and It just changed my life.
• 22:01
  Rand Timmerman: Amazing.
• 22:02
  Rand Timmerman: I still go to meetings every day and uh I work with guys every day.
• 22:07
  Rand Timmerman: It gave me joy in my life at a I'm eighty years old now.
• 22:12
  Rand Timmerman: You know, I did it right through I got sober four years before we did the hike.
• 22:17
  Jeanne: Oh, okay.
• 22:18
  Rand Timmerman: Yep.
• 22:19
  Rand Timmerman: And on the hike, every day I was talking to at least two guys that I was trying, you know, helping out, and I maintained my sobriety without any problem.
• 22:30
  Jeanne: Well, that's wonderful.
• 22:31
  Rand Timmerman: It's been an amazing journey, Jeannie.
• 22:33
  Rand Timmerman: It's it changed my life.
• 22:34
  Rand Timmerman: I I have more joy these days at 80 years old, I swear, than I ever did.
• 22:40
  Rand Timmerman: That recovery program gave me a whole new life.
• 22:43
  Rand Timmerman: I just remember being 68 years old looking at the mirror and looking, you're a complete piece of manure.
• 22:51
  Rand Timmerman: Your life is over.
• 22:52
  Rand Timmerman: You might as well be dead.
• 22:54
  Rand Timmerman: And then it all changed completely.
• 22:58
  Jeanne: Well, that takes me to my next question, actually, which is more about the spiritual journey.
• 23:03
  Jeanne: Your book is called a spiritual passage, which suggests the journey became more than just the physical challenge.
• 23:09
  Jeanne: Uh was there a moment on the trail where something happened and you felt like the journey had become something deeper or more spiritual?
• 23:17
  Rand Timmerman: Yes.
• 23:17
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah, there was quite a few.
• 23:19
  Rand Timmerman: My brother had some too.
• 23:21
  Rand Timmerman: We both did.
• 23:22
  Rand Timmerman: Some of them were where we were at in stress and danger, and then some of them were more just awareness, you know.
• 23:32
  Rand Timmerman: So in the Smoky Mountains, I got caught at dusk in a bad spot on the trail um south of Klingman's Dome before you get to Fontana Dam.
• 23:43
  Rand Timmerman: There's a section of the trail there that's like 10, 12, 15 feet wide, and it's hundreds, if not thousands, of feet straight down on each side.
• 23:53
  Rand Timmerman: And I was trying to get to a place called False Gap and to pitch my tent.
• 23:59
  Rand Timmerman: And when I got there, there was no gap.
• 24:01
  Rand Timmerman: That's probably why it was called False Gap.
• 24:04
  Jeanne: False Gap.
• 24:06
  Rand Timmerman: And a thunderstorm was coming up, and I pitched my tent right in the trail and got in it.
• 24:13
  Rand Timmerman: And I was in that part of the Smoky Mountains where the there's this huge valley, it's very wide to the south, and then it comes right to a point which is right where I was at.
• 24:24
  Jeanne: Okay.
• 24:25
  Rand Timmerman: So these storms came in, and I woke up in the middle of the night, and it was just sound like freight trains were coming at me.
• 24:35
  Rand Timmerman: Sometimes I go to the right, sometimes I go left, and then when one would hit me, my tent would just collapse like an accordion, like ten times a second.
• 24:44
  Rand Timmerman: It was just beating the crap out of me.
• 24:47
  Rand Timmerman: And I felt like I was in a body bag.
• 24:49
  Rand Timmerman: I was just gonna get blown off that mountain at any moment, and I would be dead.
• 24:53
  Rand Timmerman: And uh later my brother would say, Were you hanging on to the rods that held the tent up?
• 24:58
  Rand Timmerman: I said, Hell no, I was pushing down on the stakes with my hands and my feet.
• 25:02
  Rand Timmerman: So hoping and praying it wouldn't rip out.
• 25:06
  Rand Timmerman: And I was praying to God, like, you know, gosh darn it, I've been I've been a good boy for four years.
• 25:14
  Rand Timmerman: That's how long I've been in recovery.
• 25:15
  Rand Timmerman: And uh, you know, if you want me to die tonight, I guess I gotta accept that.
• 25:20
  Rand Timmerman: But I really think I could do some more work for you if you just give me a break.
• 25:26
  Rand Timmerman: But it went on, it was terrifying.
• 25:29
  Rand Timmerman: It was the most terrifying thing I've ever done when nobody was shooting at me, and it went on a lot longer than most times other things would happen.
• 25:36
  Jeanne: Well, what was hitting you?
• 25:37
  Rand Timmerman: Was it rocks or was it tree branches, or what was the Oh, all that was going on, but just the air, the wind was so strong it was when it went over the top of the tent, it was collapsing it.
• 25:49
  Rand Timmerman: It was like an accordion.
• 25:50
  Rand Timmerman: Oh, okay.
• 25:51
  Rand Timmerman: So the two aluminum pose rods, these are mountain tents, they're made for wind, you know, for wind and stuff, but not like that.
• 26:00
  Rand Timmerman: And what it was doing, it was can't it was just collapsing on top of me and then springing back up again because of the rods.
• 26:06
  Rand Timmerman: So it was beating the crap out of me.
• 26:08
  Rand Timmerman: But the worst part was it felt like it was just if I had not held those stakes in the ground, it would have just blown me off that mountain.
• 26:15
  Rand Timmerman: I would have been nobody would have probably ever found my body.
• 26:18
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, you know.
• 26:20
  Jeanne: Yeah, the wind's that massive, you would just be like a feather.
• 26:24
  Jeanne: It could just blow you off.
• 26:27
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah, well, when I before I got in the tent, I was standing there taking a you know, doing a leak, and I'm looking down and I can see pine trees down between my legs behind me.
• 26:37
  Rand Timmerman: So I'm on a cliff that's basically an overhang right there.
• 26:42
  Jeanne: Oh, okay.
• 26:43
  Rand Timmerman: And the other side of the trail, the cliff went straight down hundreds of feet.
• 26:47
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, literally, it's just unbelievable.
• 26:50
  Rand Timmerman: So when it finally, just before it started getting light, the wind stopped.
• 26:55
  Rand Timmerman: But it was like probably five hours of just pure terror.
• 26:59
  Jeanne: Oh, wow.
• 27:00
  Rand Timmerman: And hanging on and um and praying.
• 27:03
  Jeanne: That could be very spiritual.
• 27:05
  Rand Timmerman: And praying for sure, yeah.
• 27:07
  Rand Timmerman: And when I got out of the town at daybreak, I turned my phone on every morning.
• 27:11
  Rand Timmerman: So the guys were calling me, they know I would turn my phone on in the morning and they could call me.
• 27:16
  Rand Timmerman: And they both did, and then I didn't, you know, I wasn't scared of them or anything, but one of them said, I was really scared for you because I was watching the weather there, and it looked, they said there was tornadoes there.
• 27:27
  Rand Timmerman: And I said, Well, I didn't see a tornado, but it was it was pretty bad.
• 27:30
  Rand Timmerman: I didn't go into details.
• 27:32
  Jeanne: Well, I know because I live in Florida and I've lived in places all on the coast all my life, and hurricanes are pretty rugged and things flying by you and everything.
• 27:42
  Jeanne: So I understand the wind impact, but I wouldn't want to be in a little tent in that.
• 27:48
  Jeanne: Oh, wow, that's amazing.
• 27:51
  Jeanne: Well, I know that um you've got a lot more you can share with us, but I do want to transition to our two truths and a lie.
• 27:59
  Jeanne: Are you ready to play our game?
• 28:01
  Rand Timmerman: Yes, ma'am.
• 28:02
  Jeanne: Okay.
• 28:03
  Jeanne: So the part of this show is to actually get um for those listening, is to get uh headlines from the guest in advance of three stories that um two of them are true, and one of them may be a lie, or it could just be a twisted truth.
• 28:21
  Jeanne: So we're gonna play our game now.
• 28:23
  Jeanne: What'll happen is um I'll read out the headlines and then I will guess, and then our guests will take us through each of those without telling us which one's the lie.
• 28:32
  Jeanne: But uh somehow I think we might be able to guess them a little bit based on our questions.
• 28:38
  Jeanne: Anyhow, let's go ahead and I'm gonna share my screen.
• 28:42
  Jeanne: This episode is sponsored by Rebel 180, the home of brave pivots and fresh starts.
• 28:50
  Jeanne: Rebel 180 is all about helping you rediscover what's possible when you stop settling and start listening to that little tug inside that says, life can be different.
• 29:00
  Jeanne: Whether you're navigating a career shift, dreaming about a new direction, or standing at the crossroads wondering if it's time for your own 180-degree turn, Rebel 180 is a reminder you don't need permission to change your story.
• 29:13
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• 29:18
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• 29:44
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• 29:49
  Jeanne: Thank you to our sponsors.
• 29:51
  Jeanne: And here are the two truths and a lie on screen.
• 29:59
  Jeanne: Number one, here's your headline.
• 30:01
  Jeanne: The United States Marines Corps tried to get Rand killed at least 20 times and then gave him a career.
• 30:07
  Jeanne: Number two, Rand says hiking the Appalachian Trail when he was 72 was the hardest thing he ever did when nobody was shooting at him.
• 30:17
  Jeanne: And then three, there was a time when Rand thought a guy like him could never get sober.
• 30:24
  Jeanne: So I am going to pick.
• 30:29
  Jeanne: Well, I can't really pick that one's a lie.
• 30:32
  Jeanne: They all sound really reasonable to me, so I'll just pick one.
• 30:36
  Jeanne: But you take us through these stories, please.
• 30:39
  Rand Timmerman: Okay.
• 30:39
  Rand Timmerman: Well, yeah, I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1966.
• 30:44
  Rand Timmerman: I got drunk in a in a bar.
• 30:47
  Rand Timmerman: At the university I was attending.
• 30:51
  Rand Timmerman: I was so desperate at that point.
• 30:54
  Rand Timmerman: My life just I had a job as a janitor from midnight to eight o'clock every morning, cleaning toilets at my old high school.
• 31:03
  Rand Timmerman: I was a pin setter in a bowling alley that did not have the automatic pin setters yet.
• 31:09
  Rand Timmerman: And selling AMWA, and I had no money.
• 31:12
  Rand Timmerman: And I had no idea what I was gonna do.
• 31:14
  Rand Timmerman: I had changed my uh my major three times, and the third time was to psychology because I knew I was a nut job, and and I had no purpose in life whatsoever.
• 31:25
  Jeanne: Does anybody ever sell AMW for real and get any money?
• 31:30
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah, the bronze, uh, you know, the shine stuff, and yeah, I did that door to door in a swiggo.
• 31:36
  Rand Timmerman: I was going to a Swegel state at that time.
• 31:39
  Jeanne: Okay.
• 31:39
  Rand Timmerman: And I got drunk, and uh this was kind of a God thing, I guess, the in a way.
• 31:45
  Rand Timmerman: The bartender came back the next morning, and I'm passed out on the pool table.
• 31:50
  Rand Timmerman: I'm the only person in there, and he unlocks the door and comes in, starts cleaning up and turns on the radio, and they're talking about 1st Marine Division going into Vietnam.
• 31:58
  Rand Timmerman: And uh I made a decision right then.
• 32:02
  Rand Timmerman: It was my version of the French Foreign Legion.
• 32:05
  Rand Timmerman: Back in those days, if you were desperate and you didn't know what to do with your life, and you were a young man, you could go and join the French Foreign Legion.
• 32:12
  Rand Timmerman: That was the old saying.
• 32:13
  Rand Timmerman: But for me, it was the Marine Corps, it was probably uh the most dramatic thing I ever could have done.
• 32:18
  Rand Timmerman: I always felt a lot of patriotism.
• 32:20
  Rand Timmerman: I had been very involved in the Boy Scouts, and uh I really felt loyalty to my country and love of my country.
• 32:26
  Rand Timmerman: I'd been taught that.
• 32:27
  Rand Timmerman: All my uncles had fought in World War II, my dad, Mustang pilot.
• 32:31
  Rand Timmerman: Uh, just felt like I had to carry on the tradition.
• 32:34
  Rand Timmerman: My brother had already enlisted in the army.
• 32:36
  Rand Timmerman: He was in Vietnam at that point, and he did two tours.
• 32:40
  Rand Timmerman: So, and nine months later, I'm in a rice paddy going, hmm.
• 32:44
  Rand Timmerman: Damn.
• 32:46
  Rand Timmerman: What have I done?
• 32:48
  Jeanne: I would rather be selling Amway.
• 32:50
  Jeanne: Yeah, that was pretty traumatic.
• 32:54
  Jeanne: Okay, we already know about you on number two, I think.
• 32:58
  Jeanne: We've talked a lot about that.
• 32:59
  Jeanne: So this isn't a surprise story.
• 33:01
  Jeanne: You want to say anything about that?
• 33:04
  Rand Timmerman: No, we did cover pretty good.
• 33:05
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, there's lots of stories in the book.
• 33:07
  Rand Timmerman: There's 500 pages.
• 33:09
  Rand Timmerman: Um I I wrote in there how we did it on a daily basis, where we went from into.
• 33:15
  Rand Timmerman: If somebody wanted to try to, you know, emulate what we did.
• 33:18
  Rand Timmerman: They got the whole blueprint in the book, along with my story about recovery and how I did that with with the help of wonderful people, and then my brother's spiritual journey and how he got through the grief.
• 33:31
  Rand Timmerman: I think Edie's dying challenged him spiritually in ways that were difficult.
• 33:38
  Rand Timmerman: And then he chose to go, like he called it nature's call to see God's work.
• 33:43
  Rand Timmerman: And my gosh, on that trail, you see things are unbelievable.
• 33:47
  Rand Timmerman: If you can't believe in a higher power, go on a long walk and you'll change your mind because something had to create this that was huge.
• 33:56
  Jeanne: Yeah, I every time I see, you know, just even going to the zoo when you just even look at an animal, uh, a lion or even the monkeys or what it's just like who could make something without it being God?
• 34:10
  Jeanne: I mean, this is not random stuff.
• 34:13
  Rand Timmerman: Giraffe with two hearts because it's got a long neck.
• 34:15
  Rand Timmerman: It's me.
• 34:17
  Jeanne: Somebody was telling me about giraffes and having sponges in their neck because there's they drink and they can't it can't go that fast down their neck, so they've got built-in mechanisms like our sponges along the way to catch it and then have it filter down in.
• 34:32
  Jeanne: I mean, that's such ingenuity that who would ever think about that.
• 34:37
  Jeanne: I mean, you know, we have a esophagus, but can you imagine the size of the giraffe's esophagus?
• 34:43
  Jeanne: Uh uh, I could just go on and on.
• 34:44
  Jeanne: So I'm with you there.
• 34:46
  Jeanne: It must have been really, really powerful to see God's handiwork along the trail.
• 34:53
  Rand Timmerman: Amazing and amazing people, too.
• 34:55
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, and spiritual counters there.
• 34:58
  Rand Timmerman: Uh, there's lots of stories in the book.
• 35:00
  Rand Timmerman: It's just it was an amazing experience I wanted to share.
• 35:03
  Rand Timmerman: And it turned out it's as apparently my recovery story has helped some people get on the right track, I've been told.
• 35:11
  Jeanne: So I think you have a lot of good stories that can benefit uh listeners and other people in general.
• 35:17
  Jeanne: Just um, yeah, just keep going.
• 35:19
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah.
• 35:20
  Jeanne: Uh so number three, you said that you didn't think a guy like you could ever get sober when laying on a pool table somewhere.
• 35:29
  Rand Timmerman: Well, yeah, I mean, at the end of in my late 50s, early 60s, alcoholics metabolize alcohol differently.
• 35:38
  Rand Timmerman: I thought I was something there was something wrong with me.
• 35:40
  Rand Timmerman: I couldn't understand how a man of my willpower ran 26 marathons, fought in a war.
• 35:44
  Rand Timmerman: I, you know, I was a litigator.
• 35:47
  Rand Timmerman: I stood on my feet almost every day in court, and I did a really good job, never had any problems, never got grieved by a client or anything.
• 35:56
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, I just had a great, you know, awesome career.
• 36:00
  Rand Timmerman: And but then the alcohol took over.
• 36:02
  Rand Timmerman: I couldn't understand why.
• 36:04
  Rand Timmerman: I couldn't stay stopped.
• 36:05
  Rand Timmerman: And when I why when I drank, I just got thirstier and thirstier.
• 36:09
  Rand Timmerman: Well, we know today that alcoholics metabolize their alcohol differently than normal people, and it creates acetone, and that acetone is what gives you that feeling that you can't stop drinking.
• 36:21
  Rand Timmerman: It's hard to explain to normal people.
• 36:22
  Rand Timmerman: Can't even my wife doesn't understand it.
• 36:25
  Rand Timmerman: You know, it's impossible.
• 36:27
  Jeanne: Well, I know I drank in the Navy, but I tell you I can't drink very much, and I don't drink much now either.
• 36:33
  Jeanne: But I will have a margarita every once in a while.
• 36:35
  Jeanne: But they gave me a margarita about a month ago, and I thought, maybe I haven't eaten enough food or something, but I drank some of that thing, and I told my husband, I looked straight out of him, I said, I'm going down.
• 36:47
  Jeanne: We need to go home.
• 36:49
  Jeanne: One margarita.
• 36:52
  Rand Timmerman: Oh well, that's where we get that feeling we can't stop.
• 36:56
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, I would start drinking, and then I'd be three days later, and I can't.
• 36:59
  Rand Timmerman: I'm thirstier than I was when I started.
• 37:02
  Rand Timmerman: See, I thought it was a moral failing.
• 37:03
  Rand Timmerman: My wife thought it was a moral failing, but it's not.
• 37:06
  Rand Timmerman: That's why the uh American Medical Association described it, you know, categorized it as a disease in 1957.
• 37:15
  Jeanne: But they have nothing really to give you to cure it.
• 37:18
  Jeanne: Not really.
• 37:19
  Jeanne: They have some pills, I know, but they don't really have anything much.
• 37:22
  Jeanne: And then it's all willpower.
• 37:24
  Jeanne: They want you to be willpower, which if everybody could do everything from willpower, then everybody'd be skinny, tall, buff, every don't drink.
• 37:36
  Rand Timmerman: Well, willpower.
• 37:37
  Rand Timmerman: I'd be about four inches taller for sure.
• 37:40
  Rand Timmerman: That's funny.
• 37:44
  Jeanne: Well, hey, it's been such a pleasure to have you on here, and I know people are gonna want to know how to get in touch with you.
• 37:49
  Jeanne: So I'm gonna share my screen one more time so that I can show you um how to contact Ray and get more information about his book and everything else.
• 37:59
  Jeanne: And you also gave me this great quote um when we were talking before and preparing for this call.
• 38:06
  Jeanne: So you want to talk about that?
• 38:08
  Rand Timmerman: Oh, I was taught at a very young age that I could cope with life and deal with almost anything one step at a time.
• 38:14
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah, my dad was paralyzed, polio from the waist down.
• 38:18
  Rand Timmerman: He almost died.
• 38:19
  Rand Timmerman: He ended up eight months in an iron lung, not even able to breathe on his own.
• 38:24
  Rand Timmerman: He had two cousins that got polio and died the same day.
• 38:28
  Rand Timmerman: He was probably incredibly lucky to make it to the Utica Children's Hospital.
• 38:33
  Rand Timmerman: And I can't imagine the medical bills, but it drove us into abject poverty.
• 38:39
  Rand Timmerman: But my dad was an amazing guy.
• 38:42
  Rand Timmerman: I mean, I don't know what he was like before the polio.
• 38:45
  Rand Timmerman: He's probably a little bit nicer, but he was a tough, gruff guy.
• 38:52
  Rand Timmerman: He could not stand emotional stress, so he had to solve every problem immediately.
• 38:57
  Rand Timmerman: And so sometimes that would be could be kind of violent, but uh, but he taught me how to cope and deal.
• 39:06
  Rand Timmerman: You deal with what life gives you and then you cope.
• 39:09
  Rand Timmerman: And he made himself, he was the hardest working man I ever knew.
• 39:13
  Rand Timmerman: He taught basically worked from dawn to dust, and he made himself creepers and special chairs and tools and all kinds of things.
• 39:21
  Rand Timmerman: And he he was uh just an amazing man.
• 39:26
  Rand Timmerman: He could make fix anything.
• 39:28
  Rand Timmerman: We built a 20-foot boat in the basement of our house.
• 39:33
  Jeanne: Wow, that's like Jethra Gibbs on NCIS.
• 39:36
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah, and I'm like, how are we gonna get how's he gonna get this out of here?
• 39:41
  Rand Timmerman: Oh wow and the spring came.
• 39:45
  Rand Timmerman: He had me and my brother go outside and start digging in the back lawn, and we end up digging this ramp that goes down to the foundation of the house, and he built a door so the boat can go out the door, but it's got to go up this ramp, right?
• 40:00
  Rand Timmerman: And he was a mathematical genius, but I just remember him standing there.
• 40:05
  Rand Timmerman: We're pulling the boat out with a tractor and a with a chain, and my father's standing there watching the boat go up, and the foundation, the house, the sill, the bottom of the house, right?
• 40:16
  Rand Timmerman: The first floor above the basement.
• 40:19
  Rand Timmerman: It's permanent.
• 40:20
  Rand Timmerman: You can't take that out, and the boat is going out, it's getting closer and closer and closer.
• 40:25
  Rand Timmerman: My dad's got a cigar in his mouth, and that cigar is just going like this.
• 40:29
  Rand Timmerman: And that boat went right up and just touched that sill, and then it cleared.
• 40:36
  Rand Timmerman: Oh or it would have been wedged in there.
• 40:40
  Jeanne: Oh, and that's the time you also want movies being kept, but hey, it didn't happen then.
• 40:46
  Rand Timmerman: Yeah.
• 40:46
  Jeanne: Unbelievable.
• 40:47
  Jeanne: Or did you capture it somehow?
• 40:50
  Rand Timmerman: No, no, just in our minds, but it was he was an amazing pilot.
• 40:55
  Rand Timmerman: I don't know.
• 40:56
  Rand Timmerman: But you know, you want to I was listening to one of your other guests about and talking about this very thing.
• 41:01
  Rand Timmerman: You real what it comes down to is we have to accept what it is, whatever the problem is, deal, right?
• 41:08
  Rand Timmerman: And then cope with it.
• 41:09
  Rand Timmerman: Deal with it, okay.
• 41:11
  Rand Timmerman: It's there, can't change it.
• 41:13
  Rand Timmerman: Now I'm gonna call how am I gonna cope with it?
• 41:15
  Jeanne: Right.
• 41:16
  Rand Timmerman: Well, one step at a time.
• 41:17
  Rand Timmerman: That's the easiest way.
• 41:18
  Rand Timmerman: Just say, okay, well, the first thing I gotta do, and then just do that.
• 41:21
  Rand Timmerman: And it's the same way as hiking the trail, right?
• 41:24
  Rand Timmerman: All I gotta do is take one step at a time.
• 41:27
  Rand Timmerman: And 45,000 later, I will have finished that day's hike.
• 41:33
  Jeanne: So one of my guests also said, Alan Mallory, he climbed Mount Everest, and he said, Find your own Everest.
• 41:39
  Jeanne: So I'm telling you, your Everest was this Appalachian Trail, but I'm not going in those directions that you guys are doing.
• 41:46
  Jeanne: One step at a time, and that's just gonna be me getting my stuff done around here, you know, practicing my piano.
• 41:55
  Jeanne: That's probably my worst.
• 41:56
  Jeanne: That's my Everest.
• 41:57
  Jeanne: I need to spend more time on it because I love doing it.
• 42:00
  Jeanne: I just don't do it as much as I should.
• 42:02
  Rand Timmerman: I just took a picture of that.
• 42:03
  Rand Timmerman: That's beautiful.
• 42:05
  Rand Timmerman: Thank you.
• 42:07
  Rand Timmerman: I really appreciate you, Jeanne.
• 42:09
  Rand Timmerman: This has been awesome.
• 42:10
  Jeanne: Oh, well, great.
• 42:10
  Jeanne: I'm so glad you were on, and I hope people will reach out and contact you on your website and you know, get more information on your website about your journey as well as order your book.
• 42:21
  Jeanne: So um thank you so much for being a guest.
• 42:24
  Jeanne: And for those listening, I hope you will tune in next week when we have another fabulous guest.
• 42:30
  Jeanne: And until then, from your Admiral of the Unexpected, I wish you smooth sailing.
• 42:36
  Rand Timmerman: Thank you.
• 42:37
  Jeanne: Thanks for joining me on Project Candor, where the doors are open, the stories are unexpected, and the treasure is always real.
• 42:44
  Jeanne: If today's episode made you laugh or think, follow the show and share it with your crew.
• 42:49
  Jeanne: Otherwise, I might just make you swab the deck.
• 42:53
  Jeanne: I'm Jeanne Andersen, your Admiral of the Unexpected.
• 42:56
  Jeanne: See you on the next voyage.