Vacation 2018 and a life changing event, MUST READ!

Hello Everyone!

I know it has been a while since I have posted anything and I apologize.  Part of what has led me to take this long to post is part of the overall message in this post.   I hope that something I say here today will help someone in a similar situation to get thru it and enjoy their time on this earth!

So, as I have stated too many times on here I have been very very busy between work and the farm.  I have been working for several months to find a solution to this problem at work and at home with no solution.  So, we headed to vacation this year with a heavy decision on my mind.  

That decision was whether to continue on the current path I was on or try something new.  The decision to leave the only career I have ever known to go out on my own is something my wife and I have talked about but have never been comfortable with to date.   My thought was to clear my head with some salt water, wind, tremendous friendship, and some good fishing.   I never saw coming what was in store for us this year.

Zeus and I with the 05 F350 on the beach in Hatteras NC

Our vacation started out as normal with our 13 hr drive straight thru from home to Hatteras NC where we were staying at A. S. Austin Co.!   Eddie and Gail became our friends over the last couple of years of being on the OBX and this year I feel we moved past friends to family.  What started from a simple trip to go clamming has lead to a relationship that has brought tremendous learning and experiences that we never would have known existed before this year.  

Zeus and I on the front porch of A. S. Austin Co. in Hatteras NC. 

We arrived on the island late on Saturday night in a pretty crazy thunderstorm and most of the roads were flooded but the old girl (our farm truck) took us safely to our destination and so began the vacation of a lifetime!   The surf was very rough due to many days of thunderstorms and such so we did some fishing and careful swimming at the first clearing we had on Sunday.   We were excited to find that we were just in time to spend the evening with our host for his 70th birthday and got to meet several family and friends!  Eddie spent most of his life on the islands and was a commercial fisherman for most of his life and his children and friends mostly all have jobs relating around the sea as well.  Our night was filled with food, great family, and many warnings of the rough surf and how quickly it can change and warnings were headed but not fully understood.

Monday found us on the beach with some fun waves to play in which lead me to try something new.....Body Boarding!   It was quite fun for the first hour or so.   Then I got a great refresher course in physics when I got rolled up in a wave and smashed into the body board causing me to crack a rib and put some others out of place....but hey, after I caught my breath I was ok, lesson learned!

Tuesday found us back on the beach fishing and the kids playing with nothing much going on.  The sun was out, the breeze was nice but not crazy, no storms, just great weather and great waves to play in.  My wife and kids were in the water for most of the day and I didn't get in the water till completely low tide when the waves were more manageable and to my liking.   Unlike my wife and children, I don't swim.  I did a little as a child, but for me, waste deep is good enough outside of a swimming pool.  I had been fishing most of the day and actually caught a couple of fish but nothing exciting so I got in the water with my kids.  We played in the waves for a bit and after about 20-30 minutes I had to get out to reset my fishing lines so they were out of the area we were swimming in.   This should have been a sign to me but I had so many other things on my mind I wasn't paying much attention....just trying to relieve some stress.   

So my I got out of the water and put new bait on my lines while my kids swam for a little bit.  My daughter asked me to get back in the water again so I said sure, the tide was just starting to change so it was our last chance before the waves came up again.  Due to me having cracked a rib the day before as well as being in the water just a short time ago and the water being safe, I didn't take a floatation device.  Again, I had a lot of things on my mind and wasn't thinking of all the warnings from our new family of the dangers of the water at this time.  

Just my daughter and I got in the water this time as my wife was cleaning stuff up around the truck and my son was getting a snack.  We made it about 20' into the water and two very large waves hit us back to back.  Within seconds I realized that I was now 40' in the water and up to neck deep.  I yelled at my daughter to get help as she is a swimmer and could break free from what I now realized was a very deadly rip current identical to what had taken so many lives over the few days prior.  

Before my daughter could make it to shore, she was only 30' away from shore at the time and it took her just a few seconds to get to shore, I was sucked 200'+ out to sea.  I cannot swim and was panicking pretty badly.  I have heard of people being in situations like this but never expected myself to be one of those people.  The amount of information and thoughts that went through my mind in the 20-30 seconds between when my feet left the bottom of the beach until I saw my wife heading to the water was tremendous.  At one point I seriously thought that this was the end and the only thing that snapped me out of all of it was seeing my wife heading to help with a floatation device.  

At this point, my mind went completely free and clear of everything and all I could think of was this is not the way this is going to go and I am good, just swim!  I had been fishing all day so I knew where the sandbar was and it was my only chance of surviving.  If I couldn't slow myself down from being sucked out my wife would lose sight of me and that was it.  So I swam as hard as I could to where I thought the sand would still be.  At this point, I was 300'+ out in the water.  Some more really big waves hit and in between I managed to touch bottom so I knew I was gaining ground.  I swam some more and managed to get on the tip of the bar.  In between waves, I managed to fight the current and get onto the bar enough to hold myself till my wife got there. 

It took us several minutes to wade our way back safely thru the current to get to shore from as far out as we were.  My kids were obviously upset and I tried to be positive for them to help calm the situation.  Shortly after we headed back to the house for the night.  

To say the least, I didn't sleep well that night.....I really didn't sleep at all.  I couldn't stop the movie replaying in my head and the thoughts of everything that brought me to this point in my life.  The vision I keep seeing in my mind when it replays in my mind is of my daughter sitting on the beach crying.  That is what puts it into perspective the most.  My clouded mind is affecting everyone around me, not just myself, and it almost cost me more than everything we have.

By the time morning rolled around I was exhausted but my mind was clear of all of the clutter that had been clouding it for so long.  I no longer was fearing the "what if" but instead I now fear the "what if I don't"!  If I had died in the water none of what was worrying me would have mattered, only what I had actually done to date and the legacy I left behind.  Suddenly I was able to easily make decisions that before seemed to be impossible.  

All that being said we decided to take some time and do some less strenuous things on the sound side like clamming and crabbing!   We also decided to take a rainy day and while the wife and kids went to the library and lounged Eddie and I worked to get his boat in the water.  This was a major change for him as he is used to a large fishing boat with lots of power and plenty of space.   The new boat is a small 17' skiff with a 70 hp outboard engine.....but it is a boat!!!!    We ended up taking it on its maiden voyage to do some clamming in an area you cannot kayak to easily and had a lot of fun!!!  We even found a life vest for Zeus which works awesome!!!

Zeus in his new Doggie Life Vest

The rest of our trip was filled with fishing trips on the boat and a couple more days on the beach.   Eddie, who is an enormous ball of knowledge, took us out gigging for flounders.   We got three nice keepers and had a new experience that we will never forget!

My wife with the flounder she gigged!

A lot of people bait crabs...I just walk thru the grassy areas in a couple of our favorite spots with a crab net and snag them up.  I got enough for dinner in a short 30-minute trip out to one of our spots!

On our last day on the beach, we had some beautiful surf and weather and a low tide in the morning.  Zeus and I found the best way to enjoy both....take the chairs out on the sandbar and fish!

Zeus and I fishing on the OBX!

 We were out there for 30-40 minutes before the tide started to change and we needed to move back in to the shore. 

This spot was a great spot for fishing for the most of our trip.   We caught 70+ sea mullet, several breakfast-sized pompanos and a decent keeper flounder here!

Eddie and Gail are just as hard of workers as we are and they rarely ever get a break from the store throughout the summer so as a parting gift my wife and I fixed dinner for everyone the last two nights we were in town and on our final night we had perfect weather for our first ever sunset from a boat!!!

The sound was a little choppy but not bad and we got around Durant's point just in time to anchor up and watch the sunset!

An unexpected bonus to the sunset was another boat that headed out before us that was directly between us and the sun.  It made for a pretty sweet picture and a fitting end to a trip that will forever be engraved in everyone's mind!

Sunset off of Durant's point in Hatteras NC.

My daughter needed to be home for fair stuff on Saturday and so we pushed everything to the limit and packed and drove back all on Friday.  You can see that Zeus is ready to go....and wondering when we are going to get this show on the road.....and why we have to leave instead of going to the beach or out on the boat! 

Zeus on the deck at A. S. Austin Co.

 Every year we get a family picture on the beach.   This was the first year that we were able to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time and smiling while doing so!

 Now that we are home and back to all the happenings here I would like to share some updates and insight into the changes that I mentioned at the beginning of this post.   The main thing that was on my mind was the decision on whether to continue to grow the farm and leave the company I started with upon graduation from college....or forgo the farm to put more time to work.  This was a hard decision before we got to the OBX, leaving there, it was the easiest decision I have ever made!

Starting 8-25-18 our family is embarking on an adventure that I know will take us more places than we haven't even thought of!  I have part-time work lined up with a friend of mine running equipment when I don't have work on the farm but we are now fully invested in the farm.  We need to see where this will take us and we are excited to know that we can help feed so many people and have fun doing it!

I have greatly enjoyed my time at Enviroscapes over the 16 years that I have been there and I have met people, learned things, and been to places not possible without them.  However, it is time for the next journey.   We only get one chance at life.  I am just glad that I am fortunate to realize what I almost lost and have the chance for a new start with two great kids, a perfect wife, and a pup that is down for anything we want to do along the way!

I promise that I will get back into my blogging as well.  I will be talking to everyone soon.

Have a wonderful day and please, take a moment to be thankful for what you have and understand what you truly need.  All the worries are for nothing in the end.  The only thing that matters is that you take advantage of every day to its fullest and make your decisions based on you and your family, not others want's and perceived needs!

Kenny