The tropical storm lies to the south of here today. Yesterday we went to the beach anyway. Both of the boys kept throwing themselves at the high surf. Using boogie boards they crashed out into the surf and then rode the waves back in. The currents were relatively treacherous with one pulling them down the beach very, very quickly and an undertow that was fierce. In the course of five to ten minutes we were pulled 1000-1500 feet down the beach. There I was out there in the surf yelling come back in, not that far, etc. In a way I have become my father.
Years ago I was on the Outer Banks in NC when a hurricane was a couple of hundred miles south. No lifeguards were present and few people were around but I went body surfing. Waves rolled in at about 8 feet tall. Time and time again I went out to form a human crucifix and ride those puppies on in. At a point five or six rides in I became aware that my chest was shredded from the broken small shells the waves would drag me across at the end of a heart pounding rocketing ride. Bleeding just a little I decided it was time to call it quits. My kids would have stayed in the surf until that point and then some.
Those rides I took that afternoon were part of a life peak moment. Those five or six rides were everything a bodysurfing run should be. They were the Platonic ideal of a bodysurfing ride as far as I was concerned. Hopefully today had some of the same elemental nature for my boys. My thought is that times like this are why we come on vacation. Maybe forty years on they will remember the waves and not Dad yelling get your butt in to shore before you drown.
Of course the weather that pushed those waves has a down side. Tropical storm Fay is moving up this way slowly but seemingly surely. As a result this means we will be facing a wet vacation for a large part of our time on the road. Still this also means we will have to focus on museums and places that have artistic and cultural significance. Savannah and Charleston both have possibilities but Savannah is much closer. The last time I was there was when we stayed there on our honeymoon. It will be interesting to see what is happening there now some twenty three years later.
Oh the picture at the top is a bit of Americana. We stopped at the original KFC in southern Kentucky. That is me and the Colonel there.
7 comments:
Gee. Neither you NOR the colonel have changed much in 23 years.
And somehow I can't see your body body surfing. Probably wouldn't want to!!!!
Sure hope you guys are having fun. You ALL deserve it.
Check in when you get back.
J & V
Cool pic! I thought it might have been in Plymouth, NC, because that's the only place I've seen "The Colonel" waiting for anybody to sit down on the bench...so nice of you to join him! And, Memories are excellent, aren't they?
I did the killer body surf thing at Sunset Beach (North Shore, Oahu) in a February a few years ago. Despite exiting the water bleeding and shredded from the reef it was so great, mostly great that I survived. I caught 2 waves and that was enough for me. I remember the feeling of power, Superman if you will (not Neitzsche's but Susan's).
I hope you are having a great vaca. The kids remember the surf, they are really not paying attention to you.
Remind me again............WHICH one is the colonel???
You guy's are making life long memories. One day your boy's will think back and smile... the waves and the old man crashing on the shore :)
The Colonel is the old guy...no...wait...
You are very cold. Cold, cold, cold.
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