I walked into the back bar at the Reef Saloon in Two Harbors Monday night.
A cowboy and his wife were sitting at the bar. Strange sight amongst boaters out here in the Pacific, but their was a reason.
Not a Hollywood Cowboy, he had all the markings of the real deal.
The round classes, the floppy hat, all that was missing was the flat bed truck.
I sat down as the baseball game came on the TV and asked if I could buy he and his wife a Pancake Breakfast.
He and his wife had to see what I was talking about and gladly accepted. Cowboys perhaps are curious people by nature.
A Pancake Breakfast at the Reef bar is a shot of mixed Jameson and Butterscotch Schnapps,,, quickly followed by a shot of OJ.
Tastes just like a Pancake breakfast.
Try it.
I like to listen to peoples stories,, and flip the conversation back to them at every chance.
The cowboy and his wife are from Jackson Hole Wyoming,, and he's an emergency room physician.
He grew up there,, and you could immediately tell by his authentic presence, wit and character he was genuine.
He said the pressures of the job finally got to him,, so he and his wife are sailing the West Coast down to Cabo as a long term re-set and get-a-way.
Remember it's a job dealing with pain, death and dying and just about every bad human emotion and situation on the calendar.
This leg of the trip they hooked up with a group that ships horses over to Catalina each year,, and their is a 7 day men's ride around the island,, followed up by a women's 7 day ride.
The men's ride works out fine every year he tells me,,, "but by the 3rd day usually the women all hate each other and of course it ends early."
Later in the evening after he and his wife finished dinner,, they returned to the bar and he asked me how I handle stress and difficult people.
Though I'm a fallible fool,, I told him my philosophy on dealing with the mustards seeds of life and he got a kick out of it.
Then came in an old black man with a grey beard and his son of maybe 30 years old.
They sat down with us and bought me a drink.
I love the look of his eye.
He had all the character of a really smart guy with stories to tell.
They had caught a net on their sail boats prop just outside the harbor entrance as we were passing in our dingy. I shit you not,, on the level,, the net yanked back the boats drive shaft 3" and pulled their engine off the motor mounts back 3" as well.
Clear example that a 38,000 pound sailboat at 5 mph wants to stay in motion when grabbed by the tail.
We had assisted and guided them toward their mooring earlier with our dingy (with help from the Harbor patrol) and they were hunting me down in town to buy me a drink.
It's a small world,, he knows my daughter through the University Of Georgia where they both teach.
We talked about my daughters Doctorate program that was originally set up for minority students and she was able to get herself enrolled in it.
"The minority educators haven't figured out how to deal with the fact that the programs are being available to all students regardless of race now."
I didn't know the history of this, it was all a surprise to me.
He too was a doctor but retired from Atlanta Georgia and now occasionally teaching. He and his son are sailing around the world.
They got on line and started ordering the parts to fix their boat in harbor.
I hooked them up with boating friend Mike the Diesel guy in Long Beach and he's since been a real help in getting them back on course.
Finding a good machine shop in So Cal to fit their needs isn't easy these days goes the tale.
An excited couple walked up to all of us, got our attention and BOLDLY asked:"What's black and doesn't work?"
They then pointed to the sweatshirt I was wearing:
They had a Mercury Marine story of their own to tell.
The most amazing people step in for a drink.
