“Ryan, I heard a loud bang from the sea wall. Could you come over and take a look at it? I’m worried it might be failing”, Bruce Sheipline’s worried voice rang over the car’s speakers. “Ummm… Yes, I can come take a look, but it will have to be quick. Hunter and I just pulled out of the driveway to get to our 6:45 dinner reservation.” Ryan responded. “I really appreciate it. Go ahead and pull around back and go to the wall. I will meet you down there,” Bruce said before ending the call. Hunter was not thrilled about this development. It was already 6:32. She had been looking forward to their date night, and she knows it does not take much to get Ryan roped into a good project. She made it clear that the inspection of the sea wall was to take no longer than 5 minutes. Little did Hunter know, everything was going according to plan. There was nothing wrong with the seawall, the dinner reservation was at 8:45 not 6:45, there was a ring box in the driver’s door cubby, there were two photographers hiding at Bruce & Mary’s, and that Ryan was a few minutes away from getting down on one knee! Go check out the photo gallery to see how the events unfolded.

On an ill-fated road trip from Michigan to Talladega Super Speedway, everything that could go wrong for Ryan did go wrong. The only silver lining to this misadventure is that Hunter and Ryan would meet, and the next morning go on their first “date”. This is their story. After visiting his Mom and Dad in Maryville, Tennessee, Ryan continued his road trip south to Birmingham, Alabama. It was supposed to be the final stop before attending Talladega race weekend with Greg and Katherine Giraud. That night in Birmingham, Ryan and Hunter were introduced to each other by their mutual friend, Baylee Clark, before going to play kickball in the local coed recreation league. Ryan thought Hunter was beautiful. During the kickball game, while attempting to tag up at 1st base, Ryan’s feet got twisted up, and his shoulder proceeded to find a ditch as he fell to the ground. When he rose to his feet, it was clear his shoulder was not where it was supposed to be. He, and everyone else, hoped it was just dislocated, but later at the UAB Emergency Room, the diagnosis was a 37.3 mm offset overlapping compressed fracture of the left clavicle. The doctors informed Ryan it would require surgery to fix and to schedule an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon ASAP. So at 8:30 p.m. on a Thursday, the night he turned 29, Ryan had to called his Mom and Dad to ask if they could rescue him and his car, which had developed a broken radiator fan, from Birmingham. The next morning, since Ryan could not drive, Hunter offered to take him and his broken collarbone through the twisty hills of Mountain Brook to get his prescription filled at CVS. On the drive, having nothing left to lose and potentially under the fog of ER pain medicine, Ryan asked Hunter some flirtatious questions about the new Taylor Swift album she was listening to, and Hunter reciprocated with some bashful and engaging responses. She made the suggestion that Crestline Bagel Company would be a great place to get breakfast while waiting for the prescription to get filled. Ryan agreed that breakfast sounded great. On April 19, 2024, Ryan and Hunter had their first “date” at Crestline Bagel Company. A little less than 4 months later, Ryan was coincidentally back in Birmingham, and this time Hunter had a flight booked to Detroit before Ryan made it back to Michigan. The rest is history.