Cowboy Confidence

June 6, 2013

I scurried out of bed to catch the sunrise on the beach this morning, and only once I got there did I realize I forgot to put my battery in my camera. Rookie mistake number 1. Even still, I hung around to watch the sun rise and was able to snap a few pictures on my phone.

Sadly, when I returned to the house, John had already left for work and it was time for me to leave, too. I do wish we were able to say goodbye, but he and I remain in contact and plan to link up again once each of us get settled in our new homes.

I packed up my things and headed to Port Aransas about 4 hours away. While cruising along and jamming to some tunes, my navigation chick spoke up and said, “In about 1 mile, you will board a ferry.” Wait a second, come again? A ferry? I had never been on a ferry before! This should be interesting.

The line to board the ferry was long, and honestly I was a little anxious about driving my car onto a boat. Once I got to the front of the line, the ferry directors were super nice, and a little bit on the chatty side. I didn’t get to look around much while we crossed the water since driving a pink Jeep attracts attention and sparks up a lot of conversations, which is fine by me.

Once over the water, I knew where I wanted to go first. Any guesses? Ding, ding, ding- the beach! I made a quick change into my swimsuit and walked out on the jetty with my camera. I didn’t realize until about half way out that jetties were so rough. It probably wasn’t one of my smartest decisions to take my rather expensive camera out there while walking in flimsy flip flops, but we survived. I was able to catch some cool pictures of boats that passed and of some fishermen doing their thing.

I explored a little bit after that, but only ended up getting lost. Checking in my rearview mirror every so often, I realized that a black truck seemed to be following me. Once I stumbled upon a small college campus I figured I ought to pop out and see if I could find anything interesting. After only a couple photographs of some nearby pelicans, I noticed a boy walking up behind me. He looked to be about my age, had pale skin, bright blue eyes, and hair so blonde you’d almost think he didn’t have any eyelashes. He walked right up to me and said, “Whatcha doin’?” I responded, “Well…just taking some pictures… What are you doing?” He responded back, “Oh, nothing…” No introduction or anything from this boy. I asked where he came from and he told me his brother dropped him off. When I asked where his brother he went, he told me he didn’t know. (Hmm?) He sat down on a rock right behind me and didn’t say much. I felt obligated to ask questions to kill the silence, but this conversation definitely made the Awkward Top 10 list. He was very friendly, but shot me a few weird vibes. When I told him it was time for me to go, I’m preeetty sure he tried to kiss me. Luckily I was able to dodge it gracefully. Ballsy move for an awkward little fellow, but I suppose he figured it was now or never. Props for that.

I went back to the beach to enjoy my decadent dinner which consisted of tortillas, beanie weenies, and a capris sun. Are you drooling yet? Once I finished dinner, I hurried to rinse off in the beach showers in hopes to speed off and try to catch the sunset. In the midst of rushing around to get my belongings packed up, I was stopped by a middle aged man on a bicycle named Jimmy. Jimmy was super friendly and after chatting for about 5 minutes I asked him if he knew any way I could get somewhere quick to take pictures of the sun that had already began to set. He told me it wouldn’t be a problem and that he could show me where. He said he could lock up his bike and we could ride there together in my car! Now, Jimmy seemed really nice, but I used my little brain and decided it probably wasn’t a good idea to take a strange man in my car in a town unfamiliar to me. He understood my apprehension, and said that he would ride his bike and I could follow him. That sounded like a much better option to me. He took off, and hollered back to me that I better hurry up since the sunset changes every 3 minutes. By the time we got to the bay he was dripping in sweat. I thanked him repeatedly and his response was, “Anything for a friend.” This dude was too nice. He shared with me many, many stories of his life and how he’s always bumped around from town to town while I took some pictures as the sun went down. Jimmy used to be in the circus and he enlightened me with some crazy tales of what went on behind the circus scenes. He said, "All circus performers are a little wacky," and that most of them are running from something, whether it be child support, the law, or all of the above. He also said the majority of performers do some sort of hard drug to keep them going in that crazy line of work. Jimmy told me that the manager of each circus usually loans the performers money ahead of time, and that after each show, they remain unable to pay him back, so they keep on traveling and head to the next show, where they end up needing money again, and they cycle never ends for them. Luckily, Jimmy was able to get out of the cycle, and now he lives in Port Aransas where he aspires to own his own bakery. He showed me pictures of some of his pastries and they looked mouth-wateringly good. I promised to return in a couple years, and he said he would tell everyone in the line for his bakery to move out of the way as soon as he saw me and give me special treatment.

Once the sun finished setting, I hopped in my Jeep to head back across the ferry and go to a Walmart in Aransas Pass where I was pre-approved to sleep in my car over night. Before I could pull away, someone banged on my passenger side window. It was a young blonde guy so I unrolled it just a tad to hear what he had to say. It turns out that his brother was the one that followed me earlier! Thankfully his brother wasn’t with him. How are these people finding me?! It may have something to do with the fact that my car isn’t exactly camouflage and the population of Port A is only 3,500 people... Any way about it, Jeremy asked if I wanted to have a drink with him and his friend, Trevor, before heading back into Aransas Pass. I figured I might as well spend a little more time there, and these dudes seemed cool enough. We ended up having a couple “rum drinks” as Trevor called them, and went to the beach for a midnight stroll after that. Jeremy, Trevor and I had a pretty awesome time jamming to some country music, looking at the stars, and living the simple life.

Jeremy was completely taken back by my story and what I was doing, but I think he was inspired by it. He stated several times that he didn’t know what he was doing still living in Port Aransas and that he needed to get out and experience life. When we drove back to town from the beach, Jeremy said to Trevor in his thick southern accent, “You know what I love most about this chick? She’s the biggest hippie I’ve ever met. She loves everyone and everything…” I don't believe I've ever been called a hippie before, but that was one of the biggest compliments I’ve yet to receive. It makes me happy to know that even people I’ve known for only a short amount of time are able to see something like that in me.

Trevor worked really hard to try and convince me to stay at his house with him and his mom, but I think that rum from earlier gave him a little too much liquid courage, and I decided I would rather sleep in my car at Walmart than have to worry about warding off Cowboy Confidence.

So across the ferry I went, and had a restless, toasty little sleep in my car.