Last night I went to town to work out and enjoy the whirlpool and sauna at the rec center. As I was leaving I got a phone call on my work cell but did not get to it in time. At that time of night it is usually not good news, but it was an “unknown” number. I then got the voicemail notification.

I called my VM and it was the U.S. Coast Guard… I knew this was possibly going to be interesting. I called them back and they said there was apparently a 911 signal reported by the County Sheriff that was possibly coming from the beach in the vicinity west of The Spit. They asked me to go check for any problems.

NEVER in my wildest dreams did I EVER think that I would be responding to a 911 call… at least in this capacity and the last thing I want to see is the lifeless body of someone. I got back to the cabin and got dressed warmer as fast as I could – I was taking the ATV out on the beach. I thought of taking the Mule, but the ATV has better lighting, maneuverability, and is much less likely to get stuck crossing a stream that is down the beach (and I have never been that far down the beach so I did not know what I would encounter).

Luckily the tides were low, but it was quite dark… it IS night, after all, and hard to see with just the ATV headlights. I went past the creek for a ways, but luckily never saw anyone in distress (hopefully for a good reason). I called the Coast Guard back and let them know I did not see anything. They decided to stand down on the situation.

Now that the rush of the situation was over I discovered that my hands were damn cold… and I had probably a mile to ride back on the beach to get to the cabin. The fun had gotten back into the night and it was neat to ride on the beach at night. I was trying to get back to get warm so I did not get much of a chance to enjoy it between that and my hands being cold.

I got back and had some hot soup and settled in for the night. Luckily the situation turned out to not be one after all.