Preswick, Scotland

Bonnie: Once you returned from Canada, what was your plan?

Scott: I didn't really have a plan other than to get to Europe and make decisions about where I would go from there. It took me about three or four days flying space available on a military hop to get from Washington State to Dover, Delaware. I met people along the way and shared my goal: I wanted to immerse myself in another culture, to get out of my own shit and do it alone. I was learning how to be sober. By then, I'd been a non-drinker for about a year.

From Dover, I flew to Berlin which was in East Germany at the time. I was only there overnight and the next day caught a hop to Prestwick on the west coast of Scotland, the home of poet Robert Burns, who wrote Auld Lang Syne. It was also location of a castle that Dwight D. Eisenhower had commandeered while getting ready for the D-Day invasion. I later visited both Robert Burns home and the castle.

Bonnie: What were your first impressions of Scotland?

Scott: The Scottish invented macadam (asphalt). As I started away from the airport, riding on the left side of the road instead of the right - easier to think about than to do, I was amazed by the smoothness of the road. It was like glass. With 60 pounds per square inch in my tires, I would have felt a hair, if I'd run over it. (Laughs). It was evening; the ocean was on my right as I headed south; it was hot (the hottest summer in 300 years) and the sun was going down. The homes I passed were all similar with thatched roofs and painted stucco walls. It was against regulations to build any structure unless it looked to be 500 years old. The Scottish mists were rolling in. I was really starting my trip in a different time, place and culture.

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1982: Moving Forward

Bonnie: 1982 was really a year of change for you. You were using a bicycle for transportation, attending lots of AA meetings and you started university classes. Tell me more about cycling since that played a part in your book.

Scott: I started riding the first of June. The first day I rode 2-1/2 miles and thought I was going to die! I threw myself on the field at Jefferson Park and cried. Really. I asked myself what in the world I had done spending my last $500 on this bike that I couldn't ride 2-1/2 miles without feeling exhausted.

I joined the Tacoma Wheelmen and because I was riding every day, by the end of the month I was able to ride 162 miles in two days to Kalaloch from Tacoma. I build callouses on by ass and from then on, it was easy.

Bonnie: In 1983, you'd begun writing, decided not to return to school, but to travel and learn more about yourself as a recovering alcoholic. Where did you start?

Scott: After spring semester, I wanted to get started on my foreign travels, but had to wait for my passport, so with my bike, I hopped a ferry to Victoria, Canada. I was there about ten days and because it's easy for me to meet people, I camped overnight with a guy in a beautiful forested area.

The trees were at least 120 feet high and there was no undergrowth. It was the closest to being in an outdoor cathedral I had ever experienced. It was deathly quiet except for birds. The sun shone through the branches in an ethereal way. I felt awakened spiritually, confirming for me that I was now seeing things through different eyes from how I'd seen them in the past.

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Blank Check

Bonnie: You said leaving California wasn’t the end to your hydroponics venture. What was?

Scott: While I was still in California, I’d contacted a company that grew bean sprouts. They were losing money because 70% of their crop was rotting. When I got back to Tacoma, I called the company and suggested they build a hydroponics tank and maintain the PH at a certain level. They did and were able to reduce wastage to about 10%. I was a hero and inspired to keep working on the hydroponics project. At the same time, I crossed paths with someone who had developed a PH monitoring system for printing presses. I knew the system could be adapted to hydroponics. For the next four months, I worked night and day on the project. I wasn’t drinking, but still had visions of grandeur.

I ran into Steve, a friend from my commercial real estate sales days, who knew a lot of people with money. Because of his interest in the venture, he found an investor willing to write a blank check for whatever it would take to get the business off the ground. That investor called me the day after I’d attended my first Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) meeting on May 6, 1982.

At that meeting, an alcoholic with a lot of sober years under his belt, heard my stories, looked me right in the eye and told me, “You are one sick SOB. Knock off the grandiose BS and get real.” When the investor called the next day, I turned him down. I later told Steve, when he asked why, “If I’d done that, I‘d be dead in a year.” I started college and attending AA meetings – lots of them.

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California Dreamin'

Bonnie: Before you get to your story about your European adventures, why were you riding a bicycle as your only transportation?

Scott: Prior to getting sober in late 1981, I was the world's biggest bull shitter - and I never exaggerate either! In fact, I found out in Scotland that Haverly means "bull shitter." At least that's what they told me.

I had gone to California with an idea and got off the plane in California with $1.15 in my pocket. I talked a lot of people into believing in my ideas about hydroponics. I had three cars at my disposal, free accommodations and people willing to invest time and money into the concept, but I walked away from it three months later.

Bonnie: Why?

Scott: One day, I finally drank myself sick. I'd had one six pack of beer and woke up the next evening in a piss-soaked bed. I said, "That's it. I have to get out of here." It was December 4, 1981 and  haven't had a drink since. I came back to Tacoma and moved in with my folks. I had a $1.15 in my pocket (laughs). My only transportation was a bicycle. It was tragic at the same time. I had deceived and disappointed a lot of people. I started attending AA meetings on May 6, 1982. It was the anniversary of getting shot in Cambodia. It was also the anniversary of a good friend's death during the assault.

I got to AA meetings on my bicycle. I was told to attend 90 meetings in 90 days. I later joked that I thought someone had said, "Ninety meetings in nine days." (Laughing) I was going to meetings all the time; some days four times a day. I'm not one for doing anything in moderation.

Bonnie: Really. I hadn't noticed. (Tongue firmly planted in cheek).

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Escaping Myself

Bonnie: At what point did you realize your writing was turning into more than something to pass the time?

Scott: When a character solved a problem, it led to another problem and I found myself asking what does he do now? I wrote on and off during my 1983 spring semester at the University of Puget Sound (UPS), at the end of which I had found more enjoyment in writing than studying, so I quit school.

Bonnie: What did you do then?

Scott: Because I was retired from the military, I had unlimited travel opportunities. Wherever the military went, I could go for free on a space available basis. So I spent some time in Canada and then headed for Europe with my bicycle. I had also read in an article in TV guide that a person can't get out of their own problems unless they immerse themselves in another culture. I was a recovering alcoholic. I still am. As a recovering alcoholic and all that involves, it indicated to me that a trip abroad was in my best interest. And as an alcoholic, I could justify any of my actions whether it was getting out of a marriage, leaving my family or heading to Europe. So I went.

The Last Apocalypse  is available at  Createspace https://www.createspace.com/4569527
and
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