Chris

About the middle of last year, I realized that my life had come to a depressing stand still and I didn’t know why.  I hated my job, yet had no motivation to do anything about it.  Phill had always talked about his adventures in his emails and I decided that was what I needed.  I have always been drawn to the power and majesty of the natural Earth and it is rather hard to see that while living in the middle of concrete and smog.  Slowly, but steadily we began to create our future adventure together.  This was the time that I first actually spoke with Phill on the phone.

Around November/December of last year, Phill invited me to join him at the Rancho Macho for the Winter Wineland Festival in January.  I accepted and we continued our correspondence in emails and phone conversations.

The point I am moving towards (for those who haven’t already caught it)…is that Phill and I had never met in the flesh until the day before the Wineland Festival when we caravanned from my house in South Orange County up to the Rancho Macho. 

We had an incredible time that weekend.  It began with the red-eye drive up to Sonoma, finally arriving at about 6:00 in the morning..  A refreshing two hours of sleep and it was off to Frick Winery for the first day of the Festival!  (Do you ever notice you’re never tired when you don’t want to be?)  I really took in the beautiful wine country around me (it was much more beautiful seeing it in the daylight and not after driving for 9 hours worrying about what woodland creature I was going to hit in the dark). The first day of the festival went flawlessly under Bill’s charismatic leadership.  While I was only there as an observer/greeter/and finally a wine case carrying specialist… I was highly impressed!

(Click here to see the movie 'Winter Wineland')  

Saturday evening, we were off to the Hunting Hideaway.  After amusing myself and practicing my curvy-road racing skills on the drive out there…we arrived at our destination.  Phill and I immediately took to the kitchen to prepare the feast of stir-fry venison!  It was perfect and some of the most fun that I’d had in a long time.  I (and Phill too I believe), retired from the festivities early to make up for no sleep the night before.  The following morning found Phill, Chase, and myself collecting our weapons, pulling out the quad and setting out in search of piggies.  Though the game eluded us, it was an adventure worth having none the less!

When we returned to the cabin, we engaged in a hearty breakfast and a little wood splitting before heading back to Frick Winery to help out with the last day of the Festival.

After the last guest had departed and the tasting room was tidied up, we headed back to the Rancho.  Phill and I took out the quads and he lead me up to a truly breathtaking location..

(Click here to see the movie 'On the Quads')

The top of a hill, accessible only by quad trails, with a view 360 degree view of the valley.  The power and natural energies of that place are beyond words.  

As dusk approached, we began to prepare for our trip out to the Sonoma Coast...

We got the fire wood together and brought our least of sushi, sake, and wieners…which just goes to prove that any food will go with a bonfire!  It was truly an amazing night.  I found myself wandering the vastness of my imagination while gazing up at more stars than I had seen for a long time.  The gentle crackling of the fire and the sound of the waves rushing to shore in the blackness ahead was almost trance-like.

The following morning would see me off home to Southern California…but with the knowledge that I had only had a taste of what was to come!  My father and I are meeting Phill down in La Paz on March 14^th and will be adventuring for two full weeks.  I’m looking forward to that like never before!              

Only a short time ago, I would have said that “I don’t know the reason I would have trusted someone whom I had never met in person!” and “I guess it just must have happened for a reason!”  What I didn’t get at the time is that there are no reasons…I just did it and it just happened.  As humans, we have to put a meaning or a reason to everything.  Something who put the reason to the events, those reasons no longer have to control us because it is just our story.  Things happen because things happen.  Life was just going along being life until Humans showed up and decided it needed a “meaning”.  But that’s just how our machine operates.  I know that if I had listened to my reasons…(you know the ones I’m talking about…"you’ve never met him, how do you know what he’s like”…”he could just be trying to scam you out of your money…you can’t trust him”…”you can’t just drive up and stay the weekend with someone you’ve never met in person!”…etc, etc.)…I would not have had the incredible experiences I had at the Rancho Macho…I would have never met some extraordinary people…and I would not have connected even further with the guy who has become one of my best friends.

Life is too short for reasons.  What would you rather have written on your tomb stone?  "Died with potential intact”...or “Burned out…lived every day to its fullest…nothing left to give!”

Look forward to Chris' free verse poem about his Spring  2004 adventure:

 'Valley of the Ancients'

...in the Summer 2008 secretspotbaja newsletter