Yesterday was pretty rough on me and it appears today is no different as I'm literally typing this with tears in my eyes. This thing with Larke has really hit me hard. He'd many times call just to chat as he was on his tractor working the farm, or in his truck driving to or from the farm. I ALWAYS enjoyed his calls (of course, I called him also) and we'd trade barbs, just talk about life in general, discuss politics or how P-hole could never catch a fish as big as his.

Back in 1995, I discovered a hunting site called All Outdoors. I was just a lurker and never posted anything, mostly because I was simply uncomfortable with the concept (the internet thing was still new to me at that time). Somewhere along the line, some dufe who went by the name of Larke Plyler posted that he was looking for a Coleman Catalytic heater. They had been discontinued by Coleman due to safety issues (people would use them in enclosed areas and suffer CO2 poisoning - duh). He'd had others and really liked them. He wanted another one for his deer stand so he could take his kids with him and they could keep warm by the heater while he hunted. I happened to have one in my garage that had only been used a couple of times, looked like new and was even in it's original box. I told him he was welcomed to it if he wanted it. (it was obviously before my eBay days!)

That was my first post ever on ANY internet forum and nobody had a clue who I was. Larke and I chatted for a bit and I found out he and the family were coming to Florida to spend a long weekend at their beach house. I offered to drive over and give him the heater. Now remember, these were the days when ANYONE who posted stuff on the internet were automatically deemed axe murderers, but he invited me to bring an overnight bag and come stay at the beach house with he and the family! WTF? I knew I was ok, but was HE an axe murderer? He gave me directions, let me know when they'd be arriving and I planned on meeting up with them. I'll admit, I actually hid my overnight bag just in case I didn't feel comfortable with the situation and would have an excuse to have to return home. So, I packed a bag, hid it behind the seat in my truck, dusted off the heater, threw it on the passenger floorboard and headed for St. Augustine. I had no clue who this dufe was, but I was about to find out. All I knew was that he was coming down from NC with his wife, daughter and son.

I arrived at the beach house and knocked on the door. Cheryl answered the door and my first thought was, WOW! This Larke dude has a smokin' HOT daughter! She graciously invited me in and that's when I saw two LITTLE rugrats in the living room, watching cartoons on tv. Bummer, I then realized the "hot daughter" was Larke's wife! Larke and I sat at the dinette table and started chatting. After no more than 10-mins. later, I felt I'd known him for YEARS instead of mere minutes. That's how Larke was. There's NO way you could ever meet him without feeling comfortable and taking an immediate liking to the guy. I eventually gave him his heater and he told me to grab my bag and he'd set me up in the guest room (I don't think I'd ever told him I'd actually hidden my bag, just in case). We talked practically all night and finally turned in. The next morning we walked about a block to a small restaurant for breakfast, I remember "little" David was too small to make the walk and Cheryl had to carry him most of the way. Meredith did pretty well on her own. Now mind you, these days, David is bigger than ME and he and Meredith have both given Cheryl and Larke grandkids!

We soon hooked up with Gator and went on a dozen or so gator hunts together. I've been to the beach house a few times over the years and I believe the last time was to spend the extended July 4th weekend with he and the family. I met up with him in NC when Lynn and I took Lynn's mom up one Fall to see the leaves changing color in the mountains. I arranged for us to meet up with Larke for breakfast and Lynn's mom commented afterwards about how extremely nice and welcoming he was. That's just the impression ANYONE would get after meeting him. When I was driving my truck, I shut down for a break in Matthews and Larke drove over to pick me up. Even though he was the Police Chief at the time and had work to do, he still took the time out of his day to make me feel welcomed. We spent the morning at the office where I met everybody he worked with, we went to breakfast with a couple of his officers and a Detective (I think), then spent the rest of the day just goofing off. He was that kind of a person ... he ALWAYS made time for you.

BTW, Cheryl is just like Larke, one of the nicest, sweetest people you'd ever want to know. I can't imagine the pain she's going through right now. I remember when Larke was with the Sheriff's Dept. (where his moniker "Captain" came from). The Sheriff was retiring and Larke decided to run for election to fill his spot. I even contributed to his campaign fund. Then all hell broke loose. Cheryl was diagnosed with cancer and things were NOT looking good for her. Larke immediately dropped out of the campaign and missed his chance to become Sheriff, but Cheryl was his ONLY priority at that point in time. He'd call and we'd talk for hours during that ordeal and he was devastated. He was sure he was going to lose her, but she ended up a survivor and he was the happiest man on earth! That's also when he became Police Chief of the little adjoining town and built the police department from the ground up as they had previously contracted with the Sheriff's Dept. for their police protection. So, missing the chance to run for Sheriff actually turned into a better opportunity for him!

Last night I pulled the file to check the Good Hunting balance sheet to see if we had enough funds to send flowers. I found something in the back of the file that brought tears to my eyes. When Cheryl was going through her cancer scare, things were not looking good and there was a good chance she wasn't going to make it. I went out and bought a condolences card to send to the family when the time came. I still have that card ... and now, ironically, it appears I will be sending it to Cheryl instead. Life pretty much sucks right now and I will forever miss Larke's phone calls, as well as the ability to pick up the phone and call him.