This photo is quite emotional for me. This was back in 2014 when I was drinking heavily. I was working for a large scale vegetable producer and went down to visit our Bunnell Florida farm. When I got to the hotel, I couldn’t help but notice the parking lot was packed slam full of Harley Davidson bikes and the lobby was crawling with people.
This was not normal for Bunnell Florida. What I found out real quick was that “Bike Week” was going on just 30 mins away at Daytona Beach! Wow! Jackpot, I thought. There was not a better thing to do the next couple of evenings than to ride down there and check it out.
I had a few bourbon drinks and drove down after dinner to see what I could uncover. Then, walking up the sidewalk, I see my Uncle Jamie!
“What are you doing here Matt??!!” he asked.
“What are YOU doing here,” I asked. He said he comes down every year. I had never been down to Daytona Beach for Bike Week before so I was in for a treat. I walked into a few places and ordered drinks. My uncle had been sober for over 30 years so I broke off from him so I could keep on drinking and wondering, looking for trouble.
That night was a close call. A real close call. I was driving home, about to get on the interstate when I passed a cop driving the opposite direction. I guess I slowed down and turned off real quick so that he would catch me for speeding…and he thought something was up.
He followed me down that road and flipped on his blue lights. I didn’t know it, but I had turned impulsively down a dead-end road and he thought it was sketchy, to say the least. I’m glad that I didn’t have any drugs on me because I couldn’t smoke weed while I was employed at this farm. They had random drug testing and I just couldn’t lose my job. But!…I could drink and drive and that was socially acceptable there. In fact on other occastions, I would be the one that my boss and the CEO of the company would throw the truck keys to when it was time to drive home after we had been drinking for a while. Unbelievable.
Well, back to the story at hand. I had my pistol in the glove box. The officer knew where I had been and knew that I had been drinking…that was obvious, but he didn’t know how much and I thought I was a pro at drinking and driving because I did it so much. He pulled me out of the car when I told him that I had a pistol in the center consol. He pulled the gun out and took out the magazine and put it on the roof of the white company truck.
I went to the back and had a field sobriety test and he let me off the hook. I guess that my Concealed Weapons Permit helped, but also, I think he realized that I was a good guy. That was a true “GET OUT OF JAIL FREE” cards that I used that night. I don’t know how I didn’t go to jail. It didn’t slow me down thought. In fact, I’m sure I kept drinking when I got back to the hotel that night. It was reckless, stupid and a major learning lesson today. It was just one of those clear RED flags that I should have seen flying during my drinking days. I’m so grateful today to be 1070 days sober today. Thanks for letting me share.
