Always find a way to say yes when traveling

by Christopher Conant (United States of America)

Making a local connection USA

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The heart of this story begins a few days before we learned the importance of speaking up and saying yes. My wife Becca (then fiancé) and I camped at a little campground on the Forgotten Coast of Florida. We had both left high paying corporate jobs with the prior month. We explored the new found freedom of life on the road as our travels would take us from Houston, Texas to the Florida Keys, up to Virginia before settling in Eastern Idaho for the summer. It was bliss. It was new, it was a way to say yes to ourselves and see what was possible. On the second day of our big adventure, an older couple approached us about some blue crabs they had trapped from the bay where we camped. The little suckers were scrambling around the bucket filled with saltwater. The older couple was clearly pleased with their catch and they proudly offered the crabs to us for a meal. The couple planned to head home the next day and didn't want the crabs to go to waste. We, however, had no idea what to do with blue crabs other than knowing they were delicious to eat. So we kindly said "no thanks" and the couple wished us safe travels. We did the same and went about our day. Later on, I saw the man dump the back into the water and crabs scurried off with their new found freedom. Back to a life of dodging fish and birds. It's a rough life as a crab. We woke the next morning to see the couple had moved on. At that moment, I realized how short sighted it was to say no to their offer. We had all the supplies to boil crabs and the couple even offered us some of their Old Bay seasoning! But we said no because of the fear of the unknown instead of leaning into saying yes and having a new experience. We missed the opportunity to create a memory. A few days later, we found ourselves having a drink in a bar on Florida's Nature Coast. I noticed a few younger guys that were dressed like fishing guides. I recognized the look as I was a fishing guide in a former life before going to law school. I told Becca, I think those guys are fishing guides. She encourage me to go talk to them, but I was as bashful as a middle school kid trying to talk to his first crush. Becca reminded me about the blue crabs and our regret over not saying yes to that experience and she introduced herself to the guys. We bought them a bucket of beer and got to talking with them. All three fellas were fly fishing guides. As we got to talking, I think the guys realized I wasn't a charlatan and that I knew what I was talking about. After a while, one of the fellas, Gray chimed in and offered us a spot on his boat for the following day. His client had canceled and he was planning to fish on his own. Remembering the blue crabs, we jumped all over the opportunity and exchanged phone numbers with Gray with plans to meet him the next day at the boat ramp. At 1:00 PM the next day, we stepped onto Gray's boat and headed out in search of tarpon or redfish. Unfortunately, the fishing wasn't great that day, but we had a wonderful conversation and made a new connection along the way. Gray and I realized we had a few friends in common and we learned about his business that featured parts of the Florida outdoors that not many people get to experience. At the end of the day, we offered to pay Gray for his time (these trips really expensive) and he refused, calling it an early wedding present. We shook hands and thanked him and went our separate ways. I will remember that experience for a long time, and it's all thanks to the reminder we had from the blue crabs about saying yes.