[LEAKYSEALS951]

Last weekend, it was my PE teacher from high school.

Our family went to Williamsburg, Va., staying in a hotel room, and that morning while eating in the restaurant, my phys ed teacher appears right across from us.

Never mind we are approaching 50 years ago.

..well I "think" it was him.... Dude looks like John Cleese.

This is where the mind kicks in. The PE teacher "did" look like John Cleese. Back in the day. In real life, an age regression is needed. He is older, shorter, fatter, with etc... etc.. etc... But I digress.

For me, I HATED phys. ed. I HATED sports. However, we did have a neat caveate- for two weeks, teachers would quit teaching their professions, and instead teach what they "really" liked.

For my PE teacher, he taught "survival". As a "test" for his class, he drove us up to a cabin in the mountains of Nelson county (which he built himself- log by log) and we then hiked several trails in the area.

This was a guy who encouraged his pupils to drink out of a mountain stream straight up and enjoy it.

..but not just any mountain stream. His cabin was a few yards down from a cowpasture. Don't drink from it.

Gutsy stuff on 2023ish 2024 ish....

I was about 70% sure it was him. Even after 40 or so years. Since I was a total dud in the athletic department, it took some courage to even walk up to him. Imagine the principal in "Back to the future" that calls McFly a "slacker"- yep- that's him.

I walked right up, told him he wouldn't remember who I was, asked if it was even him, and his face lit up. He (obviously) didn't really remember me (he is in his late 80's)- but - I called him on his international 4x4, and his cabin, which inspired me to move to Nelson. I told him I rode my bike past his cabin on a weekly basis, and it was in great shape.

I had watched his entire breakfast to this point (he was not enthused about his breakfast at all... stuff was presented wrong, etc... Eggsto starchy... but this is ppot territory- I can HANG!!!), and when I mentioned his cabin, he really got excited!

He invited me up, and will try to get up there asap.

Weird how you can run into people like that.
Over the day, we re-met up a lunch, and re- met up at dinner. I tried to keep a low profile, completely random, but that was weird.

If anything, it was cathartic. He didn't remember my lackluster athletics. I did get to tell him what an impact he had on my life he had.(I moved to the mountains he loved).

It meant a lot to me.