You can't go back....
At least not to the beach....
So a week and 3 days ago, I was on the beach just west of Michigan City, Indiana, just outside of what was, before the Federal Parks Department closed it for no good reason, Mt Baldy Park....
There I found, buried in the beach sand, at the edge of the wave line, (OK, really Midwest Chick saw it first) a large chunk of cast iron, likely a windlass or capstan.
Now, there is an old shipwreck in the area (Probably "unknown #3")... Old. like 1850's? ....before the turn of the century....over the years the ribs of the ship get covered and uncovered by sand. I have been there when the wooden ribs were visible, and this is in the same general area....And there is no documentation of any iron windlass or other large iron parts on the wreck....
I took careful sightings and measurements from fixed landmarks and from other beach detritus for closer locating...., and returned with a shovel and a camera to document it 10 days later....Of course, only after we had had large winds(and therefore waves) and a lot of rain....
No dice. The sand was at least 2 foot deeper than it was before. The three large oak trees washed up on shore that were part of my reference marks...one was moved, the other two were gone. With my sightings, I would guess that I was within 10 feet of the place....but with the sand being deeper by at least 2 feet at that area, and with my close reference marks gone or moved, I was unable to locate the item to document it.
Mother Nature teases us sometimes...revealing for a short time her treasures, then hiding them again.
I will go back, and I will find the item. But for now, it is a mystery. The beach I left is not the beach I returned to...nor will it be the beach to which I return next time.
So it is with other places in our life. Once we leave, they are gone. We can return to the same location, but the place is different. The people are new, or changed.....it isn't the same..... Familiar, yet different.....For you aren't the same person as he or she who left, and the place has moved on, evolving and becoming what it is today....different that it was yesterday. And not what it will be tomorrow.
2 comments:
Nice post.
A few years back I stopped on the side of the Kangamangus highway
up in Conway NH. The road follows along side the Swift river.
The spot was just random as I had to make a "rest stop". I could hear the river so I cut through the woods to check it out. As I came to the edge there was a small sandy beach the river wasn't running hard as it was late August. The sun was out and it was hot.
The water was like bathwater. I waded in, the rocks and boulders were hot to the touch. You had to splash water on them to lean against them or to lay on them.
I ended up staying there swimming in the middle of nowhere for a couple hours. Just one of those one time things.
Last year I was up there in Oct and went to find the area. I had an idea where I had pulled over due to some reference points on the road.
I walked down to where I was previously and nothing was the same.
No beach, no flat boulder facing the sun. Nothing. It was all changed in a few seasons of Ice, spring thaw and heavy runoff.
Thanks again for your post.
Irish
Flotsam and Jetsam... Everything changes, no you can never go back. THAT place no longer exists.
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