Category: hiking, outdoors, photography. pictures, nature, mountains

Spirit Chronicles: Was It Real or Not

Featured

I was driving down the road the other day and off to my right I saw something step into the woods. I wasn’t sure what it was but I know it was not a bear, deer, coyote, dog or large cat. It was bi-pedal and stood to be about five or six feet tall. I caught just a glimpse of it as it made its way into the brush and disapeared as if it was never there. I have driven that road many times in the past and have always felt like it was an area that something unexplained could hide in or be protected from. The woods are deep and thick with Pine Trees and big hard woods. There is a rock quarry across the road and a large wooded boggy area about three or four feet deep near the sighting.

That bog has plenty of wildlife surrounding it with fish, turtles and other critters in the water. It is a perfect habitat for a large predator to live and prosper in. It provides plenty of cover, railroad tracks, water, a huge man made rock quarry and plenty of roots, fruit trees and wild flowers. I know I saw something and when I was nine years old I saw something similiar to this. I was told by another person that I trust that I saw a shaoe shifter that day but I am still not sold that it was not a bigfoot. This looked like a bi-pedal being and it moved through the woods smoothly and just was gone. It was not a trick of my mind.

I stopped the jeep and got out to go check it out and maybe grab a photo. I snapped a few and heard movement down in the valley a few hundred feet away but that could have been any type of wildlife so no proof of anything. Whatever was moving made some heavy paths and noise as it moved through the thick brush. It was getting dark so I went to my jeep and rode on to the house. The whole time I was thinking about what I had seen and have not mentioned it to anyone until writing this today. I will be going to do an investigation in that area soon to see if I can find some evidence or grab a very rarely seen photo of what it might be. I will continue to believe that there is something out there deep in the woods all over the world that is yet to be found. Time will tell and we will see.

Americana: Dirt Road Diary

Featured

Growing up I spent most of my life living on an old dirt road. The road I grew up on did not get paved until I was in my later teens and I do not know how many times I ran up and down that road to see my friends and hang out. We lived in a rural area with eight houses on the road and all my friends and neighbors were within a few years apart from one another. The road we lived on was a cur through for many people heading off to work and coming back from town. It was a good route so people did not have to stop at a four way and turn and head down a real steep hill.

With all that traffic cutting by the house the dirt stayed flying about all the time. Later in my childhood some of the parents got together and put down rock on the dirt road which made it better for fighting off the dust. But man did those rocks hurt when you went over the handlebars of your bike ot missed a jump off about a six feet drop and wiped yourself all over that road. The rocks were brutal and always won against the skin of a child. I cannot count the times I rode up and down that road or ran up and down it. From my house to the bus stop was about two hundred yards dead sprint in the mornings. It seemed like a half mile at the time when I was little. If you got a late start heading towards the bus stop and heard the old bus rumbling down the county road then you best get to running and fast.

Back then the bus drivers would leave you if you were not at the stop and then would stop and get you if you were there when they came back through. My dad wouuld leave for work around 7:15 everyday and you best not be standing there which showed him that you had missed the bus. So on occasion when I did we would run into a tobacco field right beside the dirt road and hide. I am sure he knew we were there and after a few tines he figured out that we were safe either way. Back then the country was safer and kids could be outside playing, standing at the bus stop and hanging outside until it got dark.

I have so many memeories of that dirt road and all the antics we got into. We played football, baseball, basketball, and other sports on that dirt road. We raced bikes, cars, motorcycles and anything with wheels on that road. The neighbors had some big dogs and they would always chase your tail down the road and come to the edge of the yard sounding like a monster ready to tear your leg off and eat it. Most of them werre actually just good old dogs that wanted to bark and act all tough. I seen fights on that road, kissed a=my first girl on that road and probably some other stuff that I do not need to admit too on here (my wife and kids) may read this posting.

For those that never had the pleasure of living in the country and growing up on a dirt road I am sorry for that. Dirt roads teach us life lessons, some good and some bad. Dirt roads make good memories and tough memories. Dirt roads twist and turn, Dirt roads are dusty at times. Dirt roads have holes and can tear a wheel up on your vehicle. Dirt roads go deep into the woods sometimes and you might not know where it leads you. Dirt roads often give you a choice to go one way or another to get somewhere. This is like life as all of these things will happen.

You will encounter potholes, hills, curves, and forks in the road. You will have times when life is muddy and dusty. You will have crashes, trees in the way (obstacles) but no matter what if you take that dirt road and stay the course it will eventually take you to a point where you want to be. Remember earlier I said that the dirt road I grew up on lead to a shortcut that made getting from point A to B easier for people. So just know that a good old dirt road is fine and a great place to live. I now live on a half mile dirt road again and still love to hit the gas on ny jeep or truck and throw some dirt road dust in the air when I am driving to the house. You can drive hard, hit the humps in the road and make more memories on your dirt road diary.

Americana- Off Shore Fishing With Dad

Featured
https://rcm-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/cm?o=1&p=11&l=ez&f=ifr&linkID=46f9607174bcce7b241db0c9e047499a&t=coachb71-20&tracking_id=coachb71-20

Growing up and into my late 30’s we always took family vacations to the beach. When we did my dad, brothers and I would take a day trip with a Captained boat to go out and do some off shore fishing. My dad loved to fish and we often would catch the limit on about every fish we got into to. The last trip we took before my dad got where he could barely see and walk was on a boat called the Captain Stacy. We went out of Morehead City, NC into the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean about 25 miles off the coast of North Carolina.

My dad, two brothers and myself went on this trip. After about a three or four hour boat ride out into the Atlantic into 150-300 feet deep water we put our lines in and soon began to catch Dolphin (not flipper folks) but the actual fish called a Dolphin. We then got into some Amberjack which are big and strong and give one hell of a fight to get into the boat. We fished out the limit on both of those so we moved into some deeper water in search of some bigger game fish.

We put anchor down and suddenly things got hot again and we hit a school of Spanish and King Mackerel and hit the individual limit on both of them. I cannot remember I think it was like 5-7 per person and we had a good time tearing them up and getting them on board the boat. Mackerel is a bony fish that doesn’t eat that well so we gave them to the people who show up everyday at the local docks when the boats come in so they could eat them.

The day continued and we found ourselves surrounded by five or six other boats because we were hitting the fish hard and catching them like crazy on every cast. Other than a few that broke the line or fought off we tore them up that day. Late in the day before coming back in for the three hour return trip we hooked into a large shark. My dad fought it first and then one by one we took turns fighting that beast. It breached the water three times to let us get a hint of his size and power but we never could get it close to the boat.

The last time the shark jumped out of the water three hours later as it was still fighting the Captain got a good glimpse of it and determined based on his experience that we had hooked a 8-10 foot long Tiger Shark that likely weighed in the area of 400-600 pounds. He told us we would not get that thing on the boat and it was best to cut it loose and let it go. He also reminded us that it was getting late in the afternoon and we needed to head back before it got dark. The last thing he said was we really don’t want that full grown adult shark close to a 30 foot boat anyways.

It was big enough to pull the boat around and mean. One huge, lean, mean eating machine. So we cut the line and let it go. That shark won the battle that day as he proceeded to wear all of us out. One by one he kicked our butts and sent us packing and we are all healthy and strong men. My dad was older but was still a 6’4 340 pound mans man and the most experienced of us all and it wore him down also. Just as we were cutting the line my brother hooked a good size fish and as he was reeling it in and just as it was coming out of the water it got hit by another Tiger shark.

This one was not as big but was mean and about 6-7 feet long and he was a monster. He bit the 18 inch long fish in half and kicked his tail at us as to say better stay on that boat. As a kid I spent lots of time in the ocean playing, swimming and fishing for two weeks every summer. But that sunny day in July showed me a life lesson that we are humans and are meant to be on a boat and not in that water out there. We may be the ultimate predator on ground, but those big sharks are the rulers of the deep. They can have the deep water and I will stay my big butt right in the shallows where it belongs.

We lost dad in 2009 and man would I love to fight another big shark or just catch a few pond bass with him. One of these days we will fish again. Dad, thanks for the memories growing up at the beach. Thanks for teaching us how to fish, be men of faith and take care of our families like you did for so long. Happy fishing in Heaven dad!

Love, Hugs and Kisses in Heaven!

Americana- July 4th Fireworks, Family and Friends

My family has been celebrating the fourth of July for many years at a pool party with friends, family and lots of fireworks. My dad loved fireworks and would always drive down to South Carolina or have someone bring some back from the beach to shoot off at the party. He would sit on the diving board at the local pool we were members of and watch us boys (me and my brothers) fire off the fireworks. He took pride in his family, friends and that pool party. The highlight at the end of the night growing up was to see those booming fireworks going off.

Once dad got a bit older and could not set them off himself as I stated we would set them off and he and mom would sit and watch and celebrate. I can see him smiling now as the beautiful colors sparkle and bang in the air. My dad passed away on 2009 and we have continued to make sure this family tradition continues. My nephews have now become the firework setter off leaders. One of them is a fireman so he is the perfect person for the job. If he sets something on fire he can grab a hose and put it out.

I was helping them this time and we were spending some time talking and I looked both of them in the eye and told them that myself and their dads were getting a little older and will not always be here. I asked them to take it and run with it every July 4th. Family, Friends, Fireworks and food are a staple of my families July 4th and I cherish every memory made all of these years. I have been hit by random fireworks, ran from them, nearly got my fingers blown off and all kinds of trouble due to setting them off.

We celebrate a day that signifies life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the greatest country in the world. I am thankful for all of my family, friends and the fireworks and hope you had a great July 4th celebrating our independence. Americana is apple pie, holidays, baseball, fire works, summers at the lake, toys, traveling and so many other things. Enjoy and make your own Americana memories and tell your story. I hope you enjoyed the story of my dad, mom, our family and how important fire works is to us and our family bond.

Spirit Chronicles: The Escaped Murderer

Many years ago when I was in college my roommate and I were back in the mountains doing some Saturday morning trout fishing. We were down this long dirt road about seven miles off the main highway back in the woods working this little creek that had small but numerous brown and rainbow trout in it. We were having real good success and caught several big enough to keep and cook over a nice fire later that night. We were camping out in the area also just having fun and being college kids drinking some beer, chilling out and enjoying nature.

Later that night around midnight the two of us were joined by a couple of friends that had to work that day so the party got going pretty good as they came in with a re-supply of cold beer and some liquor also. As we were hanging out and having fun this tall skinny man about 6’5 and 170 pounds walked up to our remote campsite and began talking to us. He told us he lived in the area, but we were down there about every weekend and knew of no houses, cabins or homes within 10 miles of this remote out post we stayed at.

He told us he was doing some camping and that his car had broken down up the road a ways about a mile and he was just walking and hoping he would find someone in the area to get help. This is back when there were no cell phones and all you could do for help was use a telephone or drive for help. This triggered one of my friends to tell us that he did not see any cars as he drove into the site and the story was not adding up. We were very uncomfortable with the situation but felt protected because we had numbers with five of us versus one of him. I also had my 22 rifle and my roommate had his old single shot 12 gauge shotgun incase we encountered some type of wildlife we needed to protect ourselves from.

He told my roommate he needed a ride and his place was about another mile down the road or so back in the woods. We knew this was not true because the road ended a few hundred feet from where we were and it became a national forest trail leading to a series of waterfalls we would go dive and swim in. We tried to blow him off and get him to leave the area by pretending we were packing up to leave early the next day but he just hung around. He was wearing a long black coat with ragged jeans and cowboy hat. He was not clean shaven and smelled of liquor. That night I had a dream that someone got killed in the woods and saw people chasing me.

At the time I did not know my dreams were due to a gift I had and that it was a warning about what was going to happen. Spirit was telling me in a protective way to get away from him. One of my buddies tried to go to the car and the guy started acting paranoid asking what he was doing and where he was going. Being a young cocky guy my buddy told him to back off and that it was none his business what he was doing. That is when the guy opened his coat up like an old cowboy revealing his gun to another person. This guy showed us a long bladed knife and he made a comment that he had cut many “young punks” in his life and for all of us to shut up. We started to panic a little bit and realized this guy was not right in the head.

He went into the woods to pee so we came up with a plan to lure him into the truck and put him in the back of it for the ride. I would follow in my truck where my 22 rifle and the shotgun were at in case he tried to hurt someone. So we drank some more beer with him to let him see we were all cool. All the while we knew something was not right about this tall, lanky, creepy guy with a long knife. The next morning he asked us for a ride once again so we hatched out plan. Three of us would take him down the road towards the falls and the others would go for help in the nearest town.

He agreed to the ride and when he climbed in the back of the truck he pulled his blade out and out it on his lap. My roommates drove and rode in the front of the truck. I followed along behind him now with access to the guns we may need if he was to try something with us. We drove down to the end of the road and he jumped out of the truck and said my place is just down the road here a ways. We knew that was a lie and at this point figured out he had bad plans for us all. So my roommate jumped back in the truck and took off down the road with the guy running and hollering at them to stop and slung the knife at the truck striking the windshield.

I backed up and turned around and he ran towards my truck grabbing the passenger door and trying to open it. I floored it and that sent him flying onto the ground rolling down in the ditch a few feet away. My roommate had turned around and came flying up the road to get out of there also and drove by as he got to his feet. We left everything at the campsite and drove out of the woods to a small town seven miles away and called the sheriff. The sheriff deputy met us about hallway back into the woods to get a description and take a report.

None of us were in trouble as we were deemed to be defending ourselves during this process. He told us that the local park ranger had told him about a vagrant camp off in the woods somewhere they had to run people out of on a routine basis. So we drove back down, grabbed our gear and got back to school and decided until things cleared up not to go back down there. Two weeks later on the local news we say that man on television. He had been charged with attempted murder of two young college students using a knife. He was also known as an escaped fugitive that had been on the run for five years evading police by living back in the woods in a camp.

The guy was a convicted murderer that had escaped jail twice and was wanted for connection to several murders or attempted murders in various areas of the southern states. He was eventually caught and sent back to jail where he later died a few years later from a violent knife attack fight in prison. We escaped with our lives that day and had it not been for us just having a feeling that this guy was rotten to the core we probably would be dead now. All at the hands of the tall knife wielding murderer of that old mountain road.

I no know what my gift is and am figuring out how to interpret my dreams, visions and use my intuition better. Thankfully we survived this harrowing experience and I lived to tell another true story of the power of spirit and its battle of good versus evil. This man had an evil heart and wanted to take us with him and kill us. This story could end up a book or movie one day soon.

Spirit Chronicles: Mom, Aunt Beona, Grandmother and The Old Camping Cabin

Last night I dreamed that I was at a camping ground staying in an old wooden structure and my mom and aunt were with me sitting around a camp fire relaxing. There was another older spirit there which is one of my spirit guides. This lady has long silver hair, is very pretty and in her 80’s. I believe this to be one of my great grandmothers on my moms side. She has been very active in my dreams and visions the last six months since I awoke and had the transformation with God and spirit. We were trying to relax and there were three men that looked pretty rough and they were mean spirited. They kept hitting me in the mouth by running by and sneaking up on me from behind the door, out of the walls and from the woods. Before the dream ended I had lost five teeth total and saw myself looking in the mirror to see a bloody mouth and five teeth missing from my mouth.

They all came from the side of my mouth so I could see the blood in the back of my mouth. I looked like I had been in a boxing match. These three guys had faces that were hard to see and moved around like your watching a 3D movie without glasses. This signified to me that they were dark spirits trying to mess with me and hurt me. My mom, aunt and grandmother came through to help me from these guys. I was fighting them the best I could, but with three of them I didn’t have much of a chance against all of them. My grandmother stood at the door and she is an older soul spirit so she pushed them back once they had beat me enough to knock my teeth lose and out.

My mom and aunt were by my side telling me to stay strong, have faith and fight for my life. I am not sure what this fight for my life stuff is about and will have to study on it, think about it and see where that leads. After they stopped the attack and we pushed them away my grandmother sat down in an old rocking chair and just looked at me with a beautiful smile that was very reassuring to me. It made the pain of the fights go away and my mom and aunt just stood by ready to defend me in a moments notice. No one talked, but I could hear what they were saying to me. My mom smiled at me like the picture of her I have on my desk and it just made me know she was there and has my back against evil and darkness. When you transform into a more spiritual person the devil sends his demons to attack you. The devil wants to scare you into not being who God is calling you to be.

I have been attacked many times in my sleep so go read some of those stories on my blog posting for further details. Before I awoke my mom and grandmother cleaned me up, wiping it all away and I saw a new man in the mirror. I didn’t look like myself but I knew it was me staring back at me in the mirror. My mom has protected me several times over the last nine months and is constantly watching over me at all times. God sends us all Angels and Spirit guides to assist us and keep us safe from evil. We have to ask for their help and give thanks for their presence in our lives. I am thankful I got to be at an old camp ground in that old building with my mom, aunt and grandmother. As for the evil trio, we will likely see them again but with Gods help, faith and my guides I will continue to be a light warrior for God to show people the light of heaven.

Spirit Chronicles: The Dancing Man, The Rock Cross and Feeding People

I was walking along a beautiful mountain road looking at all the wonderful sites. The trees were full of wonderful colored leaves which signified to me it was late fall because that is when the leaves change and is one of my favorite times of the year to visit. I came around a bend on this long and windy dirt road and there was a one lane bridge crossing a small but very fast creek full of big rocks and fish swimming around in the deeper pools. I was walking with someone that I didn’t know but felt very comfortable with like I had known them all of my life, maybe even before I was born. This person had a soothing and warm feel to them that made me feel good inside. As we entered the bridge I looked down stream and there stood a man in a white robe. This man was dancing around in the wild flowers and singing but no one else was around him.

I walked to the middle of the bridge and stopped to lean over the side rail and look at the water, the fish, the giant rocks and the wonder of the water just flowing like life. Turning over the sand, going around rocks, creating little rapids, big rapids and nice calm pools. Water relaxes me and I love it so the dream was making sense. I turned to ask the man with me a question and he was gone as if he had simply vanished. I looked around checking both sides of the bridge to see where he went but he was gone. I could feel his presence but could not see him. I then turned my attention back to the man in the white robe dancing down by the river in the blue, green, red and purple wild flowers. Those are pretty much my favorite colors so it felt good to see the beautiful flowing plants waving in the wind as it blew along the river banks.

The man was about one hundred feet or so from me so I hollered to him, “hey mister, what are you doing”? He looked up at me and smiled and said I am hear to make a nest. I asked him “why would you make a nest in the wild flowers and be standing there dancing”? He looked at me and said “I build the nest so I can store food and feed people”. As he was telling me this he laid a rock on the ground, turned and walked four or five feet on an angle and put another rock down there. I just stood and watched as I was trying to think about his response and then like the other side he walked across the middle of the first rock and placed on an exact angle as he did the other. It looked like he was building a fire pit but why build one that is a triangle shape and so far apart? Then he stepped back in the middle and walked about fifteen feet towards me and put another rock on the ground.

These rocks were big and heavy probably over 100 pounds and he picked them up with ease and placed them perfectly where he wanted them. Once he finished he looked at me and said see “I built a nest to store food for gathering my people”. Then the wind kicked up and the exact spot he had placed the four rocks in revealed the shape of a cross. This was a message from God that he was preparing a place and had built a way for us to find him. As fast as he was there he just walked off going behind some tall pines and he was gone. The place in the high grass was still there and evident to the eye. I woke up and wrote down this vision and began to take notes, pray and think about it. It then hit me that the river, mountains, colored flowers and windy road was my version of heaven and he was showing me to embrace it, look forward to it and to spread the word that God built a big giant T, called a cross and that is where he wants us to be with him.

Luke 12:19;

And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years to come; take your ease, eat, drink and be merry.”’

Psalm 104:14; You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth.

Spirit Chronicles: The Old Haunted Mansion

When I was 16 years old a group of friends and I decided we would go and check out an old mansion that no one lived in since the early 1900’s. This old mansion at one time was on the main wagon trail and was an overnight stop for people traveling on the wagon trails. Being built back in the wild cowboy days it was a motel, drinking spot and gambling joint for the travelers. With this type of activity came violence and death. Several people were reportedly killed or died in this location and on the property. Growing up we had always been told these stories and that if you went in there you could hear people talking, shadows moving in the dark and foot steps in rooms you were not in. My friends and I decided to go and check it out to see if any of these stories were true and being teenage boys we were pretty reckless and stupid.

We waited until it got good and dark and about 10:00pm on a Saturday night we went to the old mansion. It was back off the road with a decently long driveway down on a holler and isolated. It was a creepy feeling walking in and we felt like something was watching us the whole time. Of course, most of the group of seven guys thought it was imagination and laughed it off. We arrived at the house and debated back and forth as to who was going to go up on the porch in complete dark with no lights and open the door. This went on for awhile and even the skeptics that laughed it off were suddenly paranoid about going into the house. I thought I saw a shadow in the window closest to the front door but did not say anything to them. Then another guy said he saw something moving inside the window so about half of them took off running back down the driveway scared to death.

The paranoia had gotten the best of them and they decided they were done with this ghost hunting mission. Four of the seven decided they were leaving and going to go do other things so the remaining four of us decided we would go inside the old house and check out the property. We walked around back and within 50-75 feet of the house were several small head stones of people that had been buried there through out the years. That creeped two of the guys out so they decided they had enough and went back to the truck to wait until myself and another guy finished our ghost hunting mission. The two remaining were myself and the guy that thought he saw something move also. We decided to sit on the back porch and just be quiet and see what happened. It was really quiet back in the woods behind the old mansion with the exception of typical noises you will hear in North Carolina in the fall season (crickets, bugs, animals moving, the wind).

Then after a few minutes of sitting and talking about leaving because it seemed to be nothing going on we heard what sounded like men singing way off in the woods. I knew the family that owned the land in the woods behind the old mansion and there were no houses or people that lived back in there. It was just thick woods, some farmland and a creek bottom. We listened and heard what sounded like singing going on but this time it was closer to us like whatever it was had moved closer to us. This spooked us but with the natural curiosity we both had about the paranormal we moved deeper into the woods to investigate it. We didn’t have a flash light so we stumbled back into the woods about 100 yards of so and the closer we got the farther the singing moved away.

That is when we heard what sounded like a growl from something and it was startling to both of us. We were deep in the thick woods without a flashlight so we got scared from that growl. It was a similar sound to other noises I had heard during other times in my life. There were no bear in that part of North Carolina and growing up deer hunting I know what a deer grunt sounds like. I also knew what a bobcat and screech owl sound like and this was neither of them. So we decided to get back to the safety of the yard and what little bit of moonlight was shining through into the yard from the breaks in the tree tops since the leaves were starting to fall off the tall oaks, poplars and other local trees. As we got back into the yard we heard the growl again and it sounded like it was within a 10-15 feet of us but we could not see anything. So we decided to get out of there and go back around the front.

With both of us very curious about ghosts and the paranormal we decided to go on into the house and check it out. I pushed the door open and as it opened it made that scary squeaky sound like you hear in horror movies. The old house was in bad shape and messy as people had been going in and out of there on occasion to check it out. As we walked from the living room area into the old kitchen we thought we heard foot steps up stairs. The first thought was it was probably a couple of our buddies up there trying to mess with us. So we thought lets fool them back and started up the steps. As we made our way to the top of the steps to check things out something made a loud bang down in the kitchen. It sounded like a cabinet door had been slammed shut or something dropped on the floor. We took a quick peek into two rooms and could not find anyone or anything and it was really dark without a flashlight.

As we worked back down the steps we began to hear the steps again upstairs in the hallway we had just left. Then we both had a really sick feeling in our stomach that something bad was there with us and did not want us to be in the old mansion. So we decided it was time to end the ghost adventure and go home. As we left the house and closed the door the noises stopped and we walked off the porch. Then once again we heard a loud guttural growl from nearby beside the old house. So we started running for our lives and just ran all the way back to the truck. We were screaming for them to start the truck and go and we jumped in the back and took off. As we were leaving the driveway I looked over and saw what I thought was a tall skinny shadowy figure standing just to the side of the driveway about where we heard the last growl. We never went back to the old mansion for more ghost adventures and to this day still remember that guttural growl and the feeling of being watched in the old haunted mansion.

The old mansion was eventually bought and reworked by a family. They sold it shortly after to another family and from what I understand it has been bought and sold several times and now lies in ruins again. The old mansion is home to something bad that growls and scares people off. No one can live there anymore as it is the home to ghosts, residual hauntings and a growling shadow figure in the woods.

Spirit Chronicles: The Hairy Men and the Dog

When I was nine years old some friends and I were playing down on a small creek riding our bikes, looking for a shallow swimming hole and just being boys. We got deep into the woods and one of my friends had a huge dog named Cowboy. He was so big you could ride him like a horse. He was a mixed breed Collie and Saint Bernard and was very protective of my friend. We played all day down on the creek beds and as the early evening was approaching with the sun starting to go down in the west we heard a very loud growl about 150 feet from us. It was normal to be in the woods and see critters, animals and deer that the dogs would chase and fight with at times. But this growl was different, it was very low and loud and came from something I had never seen nor heard.

The growl became a yell and that alarmed us all and we took off running. It was getting dark and we were a good mile in the woods running on a creek bed. As we all started running I turned around to catch a glimpse of what I can only describe as a big “hairy man”. Cowboy attacked the thing and started fighting with it. This is where it got hard to believe or understand because Cowboy was standing on his hind legs and at 150 pounds he stood at least four feet high on his hind legs. Whatever he was fighting was on two feet and stood a minimum of six feet tall. We all called for Cowboy to come but he was engaged in a heck of a fight with this “hairy thing” right there in the woods.

We were running away and I looked back and this thing raised its hand and hit Cowboy one time and knocked him about ten feet away like he was tossing a cat. The thing then turned it glare towards me as I had frozen at that point, stopped and was just staring at whatever this thing was. It yelled really loud with a snarling growl and turned and ran up the hill and into the trees. It disappeared and I began to run as fast as I could away. I didn’t realize that my friends had all been gone for at least a minute running ahead of me. They didn’t see or witness everything I did so when I told them of course they gave me a hard time about it.

Several years later while hunting for deer and other small game in the same area I always had a feeling that something was watching me but I could never see it. I heard it moving in the brush, but could not find it. I stopped thinking and talking about after my friends busted my chops about it and tucked that memory away. I thought about it from time to time and have been infatuated about it for the rest of my life. I watch movies, shows and specials about Big Foot now because I firmly believe what I saw was not a bear (no bear in that area of NC) and I know the other animals that were in the creek bed area. Fast forward to 1987 and I am in the woods in the mountains of NC and as my roommate and I are riding down a dirt road heading for our deer stands early in the morning as the sun was rising.

I glimpse over to my right and on top of the mountain in a clearing I see what looked like the same thing. It was big and hairy and no human could be that big and that high up on a mountain. I caught a quick glimpse of it maybe three to five seconds and it ran off into deep thick woods. This being my second time seeing a “hairy man” it just made my curiosity even higher than before. Fast forward to 2021 and I am on the phone with a friend of mine that is very gifted in seeing things and I am asked about the thing I saw when I was young. That blew my mind and It validated what I thought the whole time. Until you see something like a big foot, odd creature, lake monster, cryptid or other unexplainable things you may be a sceptic You may say I am crazy and try to tell me what I saw. But I can say without a doubt that 45 years later I still can picture both “hairy men” in my head and will never forget the yell and growl that thing made.

Americana: Fishing The Local Creek

Growing up my brothers and I fished in small creeks around our house. We never found that huge fish much bigger than a small mouth bass but seen lots of them swimming in the creeks. We would gather our poles and tackle box and ride our bikes down to the creek a mile or so away trying not to bust our butts and wreck the bike holding onto a rod and tackle box while driving the bike. The one creek we fished was down a steep hill and if you were not careful you would wipe out going down that hill (it happened to me more than once). We would arrive at the creek and climb under or over the old electric fence and on occasion get zapped by it. Worst thing was to get zapped if you were climbing over it and unfortunately that happened a few times.

The fence was up because Mr. Cecil had land all along the creek where his cows stayed and he allowed us to go fishing as long as we left the cows alone. I love cows and know they are sweet animals, but when they feel like you are threatening their little ones or a bull is around they will charge you and can mess you up. We would walk for miles fishing every little hole we could find and stop when we saw a fish move in the water and generally not catch them. Nothing more frustrating that dropping a big old earth worm right in front of a fish that is spawning and they just look at it. We just knew for sure we would catch them but the chase was fun and frustrating at the same time.

Miles of walking with an occasional stop to just get in the creek and take a swim in a hole a few feet deep and walk in the water kicking it on each other. We knew where the good swimming holes were but they changed with every storm depending on how much flooding happened and how much debris got washed down stream. We looked for fallen trees because that was where the bigger fish would lay and wait for small ones. The fish in creeks like to congregate around fallen trees and root systems. We caught some good catfish and sucker fish in those holes. We had to be on the look our for snakes also. Where I grew up we didn’t have cotton mouths but the copper heads and banded water snakes were mean rascals and would leave a mark for sure.

The most exciting thing we saw once was a big bull frog got caught by a copper head on one end and on the other was a king snake. That frog made the most awful noise I had ever heard in my life as the two snakes fought for that big old frog. The king snake won the battle when the copper head let go after being wrapped up by the six foot long king snake. The frog bit the dust (literally) and the the king snake went after the copper head and that was a heck of a fight also. I am thankful for Mr. Cecil allowing us to fish his small creek and spend time in the summer and fall just being boys. Getting into nature and finding creeks and rivers is in my blood now. I desire to have a home sitting on a river, creek or at least have a small brook running through the property.

Fishing small creeks and hanging out with my brothers and friends was some of the best memories of my life. Take care of small creeks, keep the clean and go explore them. You will be surprised how nice they are and the wildlife that supports it. Fish, deer, snakes, racoons, possums, foxes, bears, coyotes and even an occasional big foot might just be seen near a creek way back in the woods. The big foot is another story for another day!

Coach B!

Dreams and Goals: Five Years From Now

I often imagine where my wife and I will be five years from now. Will we be fully retired, working, traveling, living at the beach or in the mountains? These are just a few of the thoughts I have when I think about that question. To see where we may be five years from now I need to look at where I am right now with life. To do this I have to put together a list of the things most important to my wife and I and then add to that list with details about our current status. We then can look at determining where we want to be in five years and how we will plan to get there. We have been in this process for awhile now and it takes time to decide what you want to be doing in the future.

Our girls are grown and living their lives and doing quite well at it. We are at the phase where we have supported and raised them through college and into their mid twenties so now we will look to do what we want to do in the next five years so we can spend the balance of our lives doing what we want to do. My wife likes the beach more than the mountains and I like the mountains more than the beach. I think either would be great but if we cannot find a way to have both then one will have to give. One of our goals is to have a place at either or both. To accomplish our five years from now goals we had to look at our financial, spiritual, family, work and activity goals.

1- Financial: We want to be financially debt free. In five years we plan to owe zero to no one. Not one red cent to any bank, credit card, mortgage company or anyone. We will likely accomplish this goal long before that because we have a plan in place already. As soon as we sell our current home we can get completely debt free as that is the main debt we carry. Plans are to payoff debt, save and invest for a bright opportunity five years from now.

2- Family: Our girls are grown but we spend lots of time with them not only hanging out but working with them in a family type business situation. We want to be close to them, but also want to travel and find our happy spot for retirement. There is a balance we need ti figure out with that so we have some decisions to make and work on solving that dilemma.

3- Activity: We love to travel around even if it is just a short weekend trip. This allows us to go and see new places, find new things to do and spend time traveling and chilling out. Do we get a new place, buy an RV, rent or pay cash in a central location. Once again we have questions and things to work out. We love the mountains, beach and lakes so is one of those our final living destination as home base. From there we go be active and live our best lives.

As you can see my wife and I have questions to ask and answer in the coming years as we plan to see where we will be five years from now. I do know it will require not working, traveling, enjoying life and spending time with our family and friends. How we accomplish that is TBD and something we will be actively figuring out soon.

Coach B!

Health: Eight Ways To Avoid Getting Sick Post Covid

Like millions of people I had the Covid-19 virus and was in the hospital in pretty bad shape. It took a toll on my overall health and made me really consider how I would go forward protecting myself from viruses like Covid, the Flu bug and other communicable diseases. I have always been a daily multiple times user of hand sanitizer because my profession is teaching and coaching high school kids. Unfortunately they come to school sick, coughing, with fevers, and other flu and cold symptoms routinely. I try not to use the same pens and have always kept a line between my desk and where they sit. I have been fortunate to not get too many colds or flus from my students but with the Covid recovery still ongoing and trying to gain my total strength and stamina back I am more cautious now. With that said I came up with some quick ways that most people know for protecting themselves and their families post Covid from other infectious and communicable diseases.

1- Wash you hands routinely for 15 or 20 seconds. While washing them make sure to scrub your nails and the palms of the hands good as germs will ride in those areas.

2- Use hand sanitizer often and make sure it is one that kills 99% of all germs. I buy mine at the Dollar Tree and it works well.

3- Do not share pens, pencils, utensils and other things we use daily with people. I have my own set of pens to write with and nobody but me uses them.

4- Maintain a proper distance even after Covid moves on. I have always kept my students out of my space and do my best to stay out of there space also. Personal space is important to me and always has been.

5- Stay home if you are sick. Do not be that person that risks making everyone else sick because you are hard headed or do not care. Making other people sick costs them time, money and energy that could have been avoided by just staying home.

6- Clean and disinfect surfaces, door knobs and other items that people touch on a routine basis. I spray Lysol everyday after my class ends and clean the door knobs. We do this daily and so far it has been an effective way to avoid major illness.

7- Respect other peoples rights to wear a mask if they chose to even after Covid 19 is over. I have found that wearing a pullover type mask is actually good for many other things like working outside, hiking, mowing the yard, cleaning the house and other things we do.

8- Do not let people touch or use you phone. Peoples hands can be nasty and full of germs. Those germs get left on your phone and your touching it, using the screen, putting it to your ear and beside your face. I do not like people using my phone so if a student needs to call someone to get a ride I dial the number and put them on speaker to avoid the contact and potential issue of getting sick.

I am not afraid of Covid, the Flu bug or a common cold. But with the experience we all had the last 14-15 months it has shown us that we need to be more diligent in how we spend time around others, touch surfaces and protect our families. Covid was real tough on me and I do not want anymore to do with it, the flu or any other common communicable disease. Stay safe and live your best life!

Coach B