Part of the point of having an adventure is that you don't know exactly what will happen, or how things turn will turn out. This classic scene from the 1986 movie, Stand By Me, reminds me of all those weird little adventures I had, and we all had, as kids. Most of them weren't anywhere near this dramatic, but once in a while things got kind of crazy.
I was always an explorer as a kid. I liked to wander around and see what was across the next field, around the next curve, or over the next hill. Like most kids in the 1970's, I spent a big chunk of my free time wandering one place or another, sometimes on my own, sometimes with friends, much like the kids above. In my case, my family moved nearly every year, from one house to another, and from one town, or area, to another. So I had a totally fresh world to discover on a regular basis. Some of my first memories are wandering a patch of woods when I was 5 years old, outside of Massillon, Ohio. I continued that exploration as we moved around Ohio. Then we moved to New Mexico, when I was about 14, and I spent many weekends with my dad, and his friends, 4X4ing and wandering the wide open desert and hills there. Another year, and we were in Boise, Idaho, where I wandered across miles of waist high sagebrush country, just to see what was out there.
I got into BMX, and began wandering the urban environment on my bike, looking for little jumps, and other things to ride. As I grew up, across so many cities and towns, I also took a mild interest in history. I began to learn parts of the history or each new area we moved to. I just found this interesting, in my own geeky way. Every region and town has its history, usually long forgotten by today's residents. Digging into local history is another type of exploring.
Years later, trying to sort out my personal issues, I started reading a lot of self-help books, which focus on self-reflection, and our own thoughts and inner life. So I dug into my daydreams, thinking patterns, thoughts, and ideas, another form of exploration.
Now I'm a middle aged guy, who's lived a pretty weird life, and I still like wandering new areas, exploring, and learning new things. This blog, and my related posts elsewhere, will chronicle my adventures in checking out places I find interesting, whether it's a park or beach I've never been to, a historical site, an art gallery, or just a cool shop or restaurant I found. I'm going to take a lot of photos, hopefully video as well before too long, and write about some of the things, and just chronicle some with photos, and a few captions.
I'm also going to write some more in depth posts on ideas about exploring, weird adventures I've had in my life, and about how our outer adventures usually seem to lead to some kind of inner adventure, or new ideas and thinking, as well. I don't have the resources to go on any huge, grand adventures right now. But there are a ton of places I'd like to check out here in Southern California to start with, and plenty of things I'd like to explore in a blog post. So that's what this new blog, and series of online channels (like my new Pinterest page), is all about. Like any adventure, I have no idea where this will lead. I've been feeling the urge to spend more time exploring for a few years now, slowly building up. My life, on a financial level, is a mess, making it as good a time as any for a change. So what better time to start something new?
Like Scooby-Doo and the crew of the Mystery Machine, my favorite cartoon growing up, I'm off to a new little adventure. I'll let you know what I find there...
Here I am carving lines in the Nude Bowl, in 1990. This empty swimming pool is high on a hill, the ruins of a nudist colony from the 1970's,in the desert outside of Palm Springs and Desert Hot Springs. Frequented by skateboarders, BMXers, and partiers since the 1980's, the Nude Bowl always offered a fun adventure when we made the trip. Photo by Rob Lawrence
No comments:
Post a Comment