Andy Dear | Sunday, 8 December 2019
Last night about 9 pm Texas time, I received a Facebook friend request from a young man named Nathan Gonzales. The name didn't ring a bell, so I went over to his page to perhaps jog my memory a bit regarding where Nathan and I may have met. Nathan is from a small town in South Texas called Cuero, and since I've never been to Cuero, I was still a bit clueless as to where our paths may have crossed. The short answer is that they haven't....at least not directly.
I decided to go ahead and accept the friend request, and subsequently sent Nathan a private message inquiring about how we might have known one another. Turns out that he and his brother and a buddy of theirs had recently taken part in an epic battle with one of the beasts from Matagorda like Jackson and I had. He had seen a post of mine on the marina's Facebook page and decided to reach out.
Nathan has also started a youtube channel that he recently uploaded a video to, that documented their trip down to Indianola to chase those giants.I got a real charge out of watching it, as it reminded me so much of my teen years fishing, hunting and spending time with my buddies in the outdoors. The video not only details the fishing, but also the preparatory activities of buying supplies, the actual road trip down to Indianola at 4 am, and my absolute favorite part...a good ol' South Texas shore lunch.
Many of you may think I am referring to fried fish and potatoes or some variant of what constitutes a "traditional" shore lunch. But that ain't the way we roll down here. In true South Texas style, Nathan and his buddies proceeded to bust out a charcoal grill and prepare some traditional Mexican "street tacos" consisting of seasoned skirt steak and corn tortillas. If you've never had seasoned or marinated skirt steak, you have no idea what your missing. It's an incredible delicacy if prepared correctly and dressed with the proper sides.
It was so refreshing to see some young men spending time in the outdoors, and not sitting behind an X-Box console with a headset on, totally disconnected from the natural world. These kids were out there getting it done at 4 am, watching the sunrise over Matagorda Bay, and in the process, creating experiences that 30 years from now they will most certainly hold very dear. And probably unknowingly in the process, building a special sort of character that given time, will shape them into fine men.
I really appreciate Nathan not being afraid to reach out. His video brought back a lot of really good memories of my formative years, and the hundreds of meals I prepared over an open flame after a good days fishing. I have already suggested that sometime next year that he join Jack and I on one of our expeditions to Powderhorn lake. There is however one caveat, copious amounts of street tacos must be prepared for the host. And, who knows...maybe we'll even get a flyrod in his hand!
For anyone interested, you can find Nathan on youtube under the channel name Outdoorstv88
Hope you all have a great week!
Andy