As I have mentioned, Lane and I fish most every day that we have off together. We have a beautiful secluded spot, a perfectly honed get-up-and-go routine, and most often it's just what we need to get our heads back in order, and "hit the reset button" as Lane says. This is what "our spot" usually looks like...
Pristine, peaceful, uncrowded, and amazing. Just the way we like it. We ususally go on Wednesday, but this week we had a funky schedule and we decided to try our luck and go yesterday (Sunday). Big mistake, because it was a freakin' parking lot.
Within five minutes we decided that we just couldn't take it and started driving back down the beach to get the hell out of there. There were two rows of parked cars, one to the left of the two lanes of traffic driving down the beach, and one row the the right, nosed up to the dunes. The cars to the left were parked just where the water was lapping their back tires, and the tide was coming in. For another TWO HOURS. So basically we have sinking cars to the left with no where to go, two lanes of traffic in the middle, and 50 bajillion people running in and out of all the cars to the right. In a word, DANGEROUS. I was freaking out. I told Lane a million times how scary I thought it was, and that I wouldn't have my kids out there for anything in the world. Come to find out, a two year old did get run over yesterday - she survived and had no broken bones (???), but still. Not a good plan. So after this shitshow, we decided to mosey on down A1A a few more miles and try another, not-so-easily-navigable state park.
I was not optimisitic, but this park turned out to be MUCH better. You can only get out on the beach if you have a 4x4 and the beach is really narrow, so not many people will brave it. Plus the fishing is great! In addition to a few whiting, a blue fish, and a horseshoe crab, we also caught a bonnethead shark baby! Very cute.
We were enjoying the day and soaking up some rays and chatting when a truck dragging a jetski came sliding down the beach behind us. About 100 yards away from us, the guy driving the truck slung it sideways and backed the jetski right into the water. I asked Lane if that was even allowed, and we had a brief little discussion about how it's hard to build boat ramps in the ocean because of the tides and stuff and then we went on about our business. I looked back down there about five minutes later and this is what I saw...
That's right. The jackass sunk his truck. Do I hear a "You might be a tourist if..." YES.
A few different people tested the might of their own trucks by attempting to drag this guy out, but the tide kept getting higher and the hopes of getting this dummy out kept getting lower. Eventually they just gave up and set up their tent and shit and let the truck sit there. I guess just waiting until the tide went back out?... Anyway, the longer we watched this whole debacle, but more annoyed I became with these people. They were clearly from New Jersey. (That's not the reason I was annoyed with them... well, not entirely.)
Lane and I always do the same fishing set up on the beach. We put our rod holders in the sand about three feet in front of our chairs, the cooler goes in between us, and the tackle box goes beside Lane's chair. It's like our litle beach nest. Well about two minutes after I notice this guy stuck in the water, two greasy haired dudes come strutting down the beach towards us carrying a card table. (Umm card table? WTF?) Anyway, they get closer and closer and it is starting to look like they are just going to bust up in our little beach nest (card table and all) in the three foot space between where we are sitting and our fishing rods, and not do the courteous, personal-space-respecting thing, and go around the back of our chairs. I started grumbling (not so quietly) about how I was going to trip them and throw the card table in the water if they didn't go around, but STILL they marched right in between us and our fishing poles with no reservation. They were so close that I could see the red on their faces where they'd just had their greasy eyebrows waxed and hear their giant silver eagle medallions jingling on their Mr. T chains. Gross.
After they brutalized the beach buffer rule, they went on to upset a lovely little family in a small boat right off the shore by running circles around it at about 100 miles an hour the jetski. They also came so close to the shore that they almost snagged our four fishing lines several times. They were doing this on purpose, so that they could get close enough to the beach to spray their fellow Jersey Shores castmates that were hunkered down playing Rummy or whatever by their sunken truck. Then they had the nerve to give Lane a dirty look when he just so happened to cast one of the lines out in their general direction. It was a real scene.
Undaunted by my shit talking, they even walked back into our beach nest SEVERAL more times before we left. I am NOT a fan of personal space invasion, and after the third or fourth time we had to bust a move out of there.
I have no idea how (or IF) these idiots got the truck out of that sand. Part of me hopes it's still there, but most of me hopes they got it out, because I don't want that beautiful beach to be destoyed by the gallons of grease that would surely come off of the headrests if the truck was to sink entirely.
And to you Yankees who ruined a beautiful day on the beach for everyone around you... the only Snook we need in Jax is a FISH, not a short, orange, obnoxious, poufy-haired guidette. Keep it on the Jersey shore, k? Thanks.
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