Beaufort Blunders

We decided we needed a weekend away from doctors, hospitals, medicines, and all things related. So Vlad, Mom and I packed our bags and headed down Friday night with high hopes for a relaxing Beaufort weekend. We invited our friend Bill for the same reason: His girlfriend, Susan, was diagnosed June 11 with acute leukemia. Since then Bill has been by Susan’s side as she moved from the emergency room, to Rex Hospital, to UNC Cancer Center, where she currently is receiving aggressive chemotherapy treatment. With her approval, Bill decided a Beaufort weekend was just what he needed to catch his breath and take a break to build strength for the journey ahead.

Not wanting to stay in Discovery Dive’s resort lodge, otherwise known as the “Camping Pit of the Northeast Coast”, we booked a room at the County Home in Beaufort: A laid back, old hotel style B&B with lots of charm and loads of quiet on its rocking chair filled porches, and quaint, comfortably furnished studio rooms. No mold or questionable mattresses to be found here….

We also managed to organize a Saturday night cookout with our friends Brian, Ruth and Ruth’s mom, Helen. Brian had caught a 900 pound Marlin. Wait a minute… that was the winner of the Big Rock fishing tournament…I meant a gigantic, African Pompano. (not sure why a fish caught in the Atlantic ocean is referred to as African, but trust me on this one), which he intended to grill up Saturday night for our dining pleasure…

As we drove down Friday night we were all excited for our weekend of diving, boating, shopping, sight seeing and visiting with friends, but our friend Murphy had other plans in store for us.

Blunder #1

I forgot my cell phone. I’d like to blame that on the cancer, but unfortunately, I forget my cell phone way too often for anyone to believe that line. As a result, I had a ton of messages waiting for me when I returned to Raleigh.

Blunder #2

Mom forgot her camera. This means that this historic weekend in Beaufort will not be remembered in pictures-----but perhaps that’s a good thing.

Blunder #3

Related to Blunder #1: no one exchanged cell phone numbers…so I did not know Bill’s number…Brian and Ruth only had my number, which was useless, and no one knew Mom’s number, which became the only reliable number anyone could be reached at for part of the weekend.

Blunder #4

Mom has a Trac phone, which meant all those calls we made using her phone to people who didn’t know her phone number cost a lot of roaming minutes.

Blunder #5

Bill left his BC in Raleigh. This meant that he had to use a rental and anyone familiar with diving knows that a BC takes some time getting used to.

Blunder #6

As big consumers of ice we didn’t have much. And on one of the hottest weekends of the year to date, this was not a good thing.

Blunder #7

After enjoying a relaxing breakfast together, Mom and I parked the car at Discovery Dive and started our leisurely walk though the small town of Beaufort. Little did we know that I had dropped Vlad’s cell phone somewhere in the parking lot. We spent the entire day shopping and walking without a clue that our sole means of contacting Vlad and Bill was cooking away in the parking lot.

Blunder #8

At about 230pm Mom and I, completely starved and parched, were filling up our cooler with cold ice back at the County Home. A knock on the door was an unwelcome surprise: Why would anyone knock on our door?

Blunder #9

This one was not really a blunder…more like bad luck. Bill got bent after the first dive. An ambulance was waiting for him when they returned to shore.

Blunder #10

That knock on the door was our wake up call to the fact that Vlad and Bill had just spent the last five hours at Cataret County Hospital in Morehead City. I was in deep do do for not having a cell phone handy.

Blunder #11

Mom and I finally make it to the hospital. We are there for about two hours when the doc at Cateret decides to let Bill go…despite Bill’s inability to walk a straight line.

Blunder #12

We decide to forge ahead with our dinner plans and head to Brian’s house for African Pampano.

Heroic Save #1

Vlad insists we bring along an extra oxygen tank---just in case.

Blunder#13

Bill’s symptoms return and we head back to Cateret at about 11pm. Bill connected to said oxygen tank.

Blunder #14

We spend the rest of Saturday night and a good portion of Sunday morning at Cateret. The long wait due to the diving chamber doc on call at Duke not responding to his phone. How can you rely on these folks who don’t keep their cell phones handy?

Heroic Save #2

Sometime early Sunday morning Bill catches a wild ride to Duke in an ambulance driven by an 8 month pregnant woman. Fortunately she doesn’t go into labor on the way to Durham. Mom and I get off the bench outside Cateret and the three of us head back to Count y Home for three hours sleep.

Blunder #15

While Vlad is diving, Mom and I decide to save the day by contacting all of Bill’s family and getting Bill’s things from his beach house at Salter Path

Blunder #16

No one in Bill’s family is available. We go in search for the beach house at Salter Path based on foggy directions from a bent Bill.

Blunder #17

Mom and I spend the next four hours looking for said beach house. We finally get in touch with Bill’s son who gives directions to 4 different houses, none of which are the elusive beach house

Blunder #18

Mom almost succumbs to heat stroke looking for Bill’s beach house.

Blunder #19

We give up on the beach house and head back to Disovery Dive to get Vlad, who came ashore early and was patiently waiting for us…again.

Heroic Save #3

While Mom cools off at the County Home, Vlad and I head back to Salter Path where Vlad is able to quickly identify the elusive beach house, which was delightfully cool with all of Bill’s stuff neatly folded ready to be picked up and brought back to Raleigh.

Blunder #20

Vlad drives Bill’s brand new BMW while Mom and I pack up Vlad’s luxury Corolla for a harrowing drive back to Raleigh in a thunderstorm.

Heroic Save#4

We make it back to Raleigh from our relaxing Beaufort weekend in one piece. All this time Bill is in the de-benting chamber at Duke, finally getting the peace and quiet he needed.

True story. I swear.