Mikey Hester

In the old days, in the old country, Richard would be the guy you’d send to the next valley to sue for marriage on your behalf…

When the Alabama Bartram River Trail opened in June of 2008, I spent two extra days paddling with Richard and two others, Jerry and Chris (whose information I have misplaced), downstream from Montgomery, AL.

Towards the end of the first afternoon, around 4:30pm, we reached the usual decision point of “Do we go to the original camping spot or find some other place, like right here?”. Well, ‘right here’ happened to be a small island with two beached motorboats, various adults and an American flag on a flag pole. It was agreed that flag suggested that the folks we could see may be the people we should check with before setting up camp further along the island.

Now, if it were up to me, we’d move downstream to find a deserted spot, far from the jet-skis and bass boats. Good thing it wasn’t up to me.

After Richard ‘did his thing’, we were invited up to “Mikey’s Beach” (see satellite view of map below) where we met some really hospitable folks who generously shared what they had with our motley crew of kayakers.

It turns out that one of our hosts, Mike “Mikey” Hester, a proud Vietnam Vet’ had been BBQ’ing a Boston Butt (pork shoulder) since 8:30am in a charcoal grill next to their camp. I love BBQ pork.

I knew I was going to like this guy as soon as he told me he was cooking. I fancy myself as a bit of a cook. If I was to appear on Iron Chef, I’d be more of a clay-pot chef than an aluminum foil chef…

How was Mikey’s BBQ? Really very good. He had other things going too, buffalo wings, pork ribs etc. but I was focused on the prize. I think I waited 45 long, long seconds before skirting around the holy ground of recipes. That was a long 45 seconds. I’ve had crowd-pleasing skin caught in (my) zippers for longer periods of time. Now out of respect for the cook, I won’t share times and temperatures, rubs and technique with y’all, but hmm, pork. Nice pink ring, good moisture, good seasoning, good crust and color, right off the grill, more where that came from -awesome.

Of course, I just wanted a taste. Just a taste. I didn’t want to show up and start eating these folks’ food, besides, if you paddle with Richard Grove he’ll feed you fat. A pack of peanut-butter crackers here, bag-O-pretzels there, add some trail mix and you’ll be wondering if your kayak is taking on water or something.

Besides the awesome joke-telling, some people have a gift, there was the bourbon and coke. Something must have been lost in translation, because I said “Just a bit” but Mikey added a few extra seconds of pouring…  A few minutes later I was sitting back, chillaxing, knowing I’d be hurting in the morning.

It was all a surreal experience.  All this, and a whole lot more, due to the Richard Grove Effect -now with even less sauce!

Shut up and paddle.

Mikey’s Beach: (zoom in on satellite view)

LON: 32.3673254823502
LAT: -86.60630285739899