Life And Times Of...

Adventures of Ches and Alex - Part One

I had written this on my old blog during the summer of 2010.  I had hoped to make it a several part series about the adventures, or misadventures really, of myself and my friend Alex.  Unfortunately, living in two different cities has made it tough to get together on a regular basis, and the adventures didn’t happen as often as we had hoped.  Hopefully, things start slowing down and we’re able to have more awesome adventures in the near future.  Here is part one of the Adventures of Ches and Alex.  I’ll try to post up parts two and three in the next few days.  Enjoy!

The Adventures of Ches and Alex!

Part One! 

 The day begins inconspicuously enough. We’re playing some form of sport, like we always find our selves doing (this day it was soccer…), women are gawking and fawning…pretty much the norm. After a few hours of strenuous running (mostly by Alex…), we decide to head to the water fountain for some hydration and a much needed break (you know, from the gawking women….). We meet two kids there, who immediately begin to talk and ask us about the sports we play and the sports they have played. All seems well and good until the smaller kid begins to ask if we know how to make a bomb out of a soda bottle. Just so happened the larger kid had a soda bottle with him. Alex and I grow concerned for our safety and begin to slowly back away from the kids, hoping not to elicit any harm from the soda bomb. At this point, the kid holds up the bottle, freshly shaken and engaged, and starts running full steam towards me and Alex. We head for the football field and to the safety of the car, which is clear across the field and up a menacing amount of stairs. We zig, we zag…trying to confuse and frustrate the explosive wielding, devilish spawn of children. We reach the car, exhausted and out of breath, thankful to be alive (and dry), and promptly drive to the baseball field, but not forgetting our rule of the day….don’t trust kids. 

During Alex’s stay, I told him we would travel up to a risque named waterfall to hike, take pictures, maybe meet some bikini clad women, and maybe swim a little to escape from the iron hot clutches of the sun. We travel south down the Blue Ridge Parkway to Skinny Dip Falls and begin our trek in. It’s only about 3/4 of a mile hike, but there are boulders and trees to climb over, including the aptly named Dragon Tree. 

We reach the falls and see that the place is pretty deserted, so we take some pictures, waiting to see if anybody else shows up. We only needed to wait about 5 minutes before some people start arriving. We head back down to the main falls area and meet a few people, including what appear to be two sisters. Conversation turns to whether or not any of us would get into the water, and more importantly, if any of us would jump in from the looming rock above the falls. The girls decide that if we jump in, they will follow. Being the leader and manly man I am, I decide to jump in from the 12 foot rock over the second series of falls……no one followed. Second rule of the day…don’t trust women.


After we leave the falls, we decide to do some more exploring up at Graveyard Fields, which is only a few minutes south of Skinny Dip Falls on the Parkway. Here are a few shots from that… 

Alex leading the way into God knows what… 


Me crossing a rickety old bridge… 

After we leave Graveyard Fields, we decide to pull off and take some pictures of the mountains. We find a nice pull out spot and notice a car sitting there and people looking down over the rock cliff. We get out and learn that the guy has somehow dropped his keys, and they are perched on a ledge twenty feet down. Me being the only man with actual shoes on (who wears sandals in the woods…?), I decide to climb down and see if I can retrieve them. Alex was kind enough to snap this picture of me starting my descent. (thanks for the help….) 



About fifteen minutes later I get back to the top, keys in tow, with only a few scrapes and bruises to show for it. We head back down off the parkway, our new friend happily (and re-keyed) driving behind us, honking through tunnels and weaving past lazy motorbikes, we made it back from another adventure alive.

Until next time……

Here are some good summer mountain driving adventure songs…..

Holiday Road - Matt Pond PA

Home - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros 

Beat the Devil’s Tattoo - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club

Navy Blues - Washington

Who Needs A Girl - Sky Harbor

You’re A Wolf - Sea Wolf

Wide Eyes - Local Natives

And anything by Elliott Smith….

Death and Awakening

I die every night.  Every evening before I go to sleep, I take the opportunity to rehash every conversation, every encounter I come across, and live it over and over again.  Usually, the memories of the day’s activities are pleasant and mostly fond.  Sometimes though, they can be rather nightmarish.  It is during this time I learn the most about myself.  How could I have handled a certain situation better? What else could I have done to help someone in need?  How did I do on my History test?  Did I really say what I think I said to that cute girl who sits in front of me in Biology?  Sometimes the questions are deep and philosophical.  A lot of the times they’re mostly hollow and shallow.  But they always reveal something I learned about myself that day, something I can change and learn from when I awake the next morning.

I like to read before going to sleep.  It’s a way of opening my mind and helping my imaginative horses run wild.  Mostly, though, I find it relaxing and entertaining.  Usually what I’m reading about will dictate the type of questions I’ll be asking myself later on that night, the moments right before sound sleep slides in.  If I’m reading a Tom Robbins book, my mind will wander around highways and farms, of cowgirls manning (or would it be womanning…?) farm equipment, and of giant, waving thumbs.  This inevitably leads to think about how fun it would be to travel the open road with no destination, to be a farmer at a dude ranch, or even to be a painter in a big city.  But it always leads me to think about myself and how I would have handled all the situations presented in the book.

Writing is another tool I use before bed to open my imaginative flow.  It’s normally in the form of songs or poems (or more recently, blogs…), but it’s always about what I’m thinking about the hardest, which is usually what’s happened to me that day.  Whether it’s good or absolutely catastrophic, I try to get it out of my mind and onto paper.  I find this is a good release of my emotions and a way to actually look and see what I’m thinking about in physical form.  I can tell a lot about the day by what I jot down.  If it’s been a hard day, the writing comes off as aggressive and sharp.  If it’s been a delightful day, the writing will be more sunny and warm.  Either way, it tells the emotions and feelings I have before I drift off to sleep.

Sleep, for me, is a way of killing off all the thoughts and worries of the day before.  I awake the next morning fresh, new, reborn; a new person who’s now more aware of himself then the day before.  A person who’s grown and learned and is now able to live a better life because of it.  I’ve died and lived to talked about it.  

After each entry I’m going to list a few songs that have influenced me or that I’m currently listening to.  Here’s tonight’s: 

“Fair” - Remy Zero

“The New” - Interpol

“Your Ghost Takes Flight” - Saves The Day

“Maps” - Yeah Yeah Yeahs

“Always Love” - Nada Surf

“Happy Apple Poison” - Lovedrug

“Photographs And Memories” - Jim Croce