Wednesday, April 30, 2008

T-minus 6 months and counting...(or an ode to the obx)

while we are actually now inside the 6 month count, i would be remiss if i didn't devote a post to it...i mean we do call or email one another and wish each other a 'happy calendar year' of the next trip...so this is only fitting. being inside 6 months means that you might as well go ahead and start organizing your tackle, you might as well go ahead and start re-stringing your reels, wiping down your rods, taking inventory of your lures (making sure to note the number of 'tarheel' gotcha plugs and bucktail lures you have and are going to need), and knowing in the back of your head that it isn't really going to matter what kind of heat you will be packing because you're going up against the master (many of us are convinced that one day he is going to have to answer to the fact that he 'sold his soul' to be able to catch fish the way he does...you know, robert johnson and the crossroads kind of thing).

the annual pilgrimage to the outerbanks of north carolina began my second senior year at asu w/ john essick and chris baxter. after the first trip it is a wonder we ever went back. we went over easter weekend of 1998 and ended up spending the first night packed in john's chevy blazer because he neglected to call ahead to make sure the campground would be open upon our arrival...once we finally got settled, we found our success at fishing and enjoyed days of that and great fellowship. i believe it was the following fall-break that landed our friend ryan kraska on the front page of a local outerbanks newspaper (he and josh jones and a few other of our asu crew had gone down for the long weekend...apparently it was big news to have boys from boone so far from home on the outerbanks). and so began the tradition of an annual trip from the mountains of north carolina to one of the most spectacular strand of beaches on all the east coast.

while some of the personnel has changed over the years (a note here: i would love to, at one point, have a trip that included ALL of the alumni, everyone who has ever done this trip...good times indeed), the idea has remained the same: commit to a week (we are able to take a longer trip now that none of us are in school anymore) every fall to reunite over some things that we all love dearly: jesus; fishing; breakfasts for a week at grits grill (the sunrise grill away from boone); one dinner at the black pelican (the chesapeake bay pizza is rediculous); fellowship; late nights on the avalon pier ; afternoons on the beaches of oregon inlet; sleeping 4-6 hours of every 24 hour period; hoping for that one prize catch; trying to out fish the guy standing next to you; trying to out trash-talk the guy standing next to you; finding yourself wondering if carl clawson actually may have sold his soul to the devil in order to be able to catch fish the way he does and then at some point knowing that it is an impossibility because you have just witnessed him sharing jesus w/ the guy who standing next to him (who has been drinking, talking trash about his wife and his job, and cussing up one side and down the other all day long)...and doing so in such a way that you are convinced that you have perhaps just seen exactly what it means to love people the way that jesus wants us to love them...i could certainly go on because it is all of these things and more: hunting red fish, schools of blues, emergency room visits due to treble hooks buried to the shank in your finger (only to return directly to the pier and keep fishing), hoping for runs of spot (spot heads are the preferred bait for bull reds), speckled trout, and any other species of saltwater fish that may happen by your lure or bait...

while there may be years that one has to miss due to being a newlywed, the birth of a little one, an unforseen job change, or some other such event- there is comfort taken in the fact that you can count on the guys being there waiting for you next year, w/ a seat saved for you at breakfast and a choice spot picked out for you on the pier.

see you in october.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

this actually brought a tear to my eye

springer said...

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