A giant steaming pile of fresh thoughts, served up Mexican Style with a Bloody Mary
Relaxing here in the spacious comfort of first class, strapped to an aluminum tube with wings, New Years Day 2024, sipping on a Bloody Mary, making final edits to this post, the destination is Mexico’s pacific coast, I don’t fly first class that often, but damn if it’s not nice when I do. Living in the moment and enjoying this jet plane ride, but eager to get to my destination and see what awaits me, I love the uncertainty in travel, the excitement fills up the little boy explorer that still lives inside me. It is exactly one year to the day from my first post here on the blog, wasn’t planned, just when the dates worked best this year.
While the people where out partying last night for New Years, in the dank bars, basements, and man caves, I was eating room service at the airport hotel, it has never been my thing anyway, New Years Eve that is, 6 a.m. flight this morning, all so I can have that sweet salty ocean breeze in my face by late afternoon New Years Day. In several hours, after deplaning in Puerto Vallarta and collecting my gear, I will get some pesos from the ATM, a fish taco along with a cold beer, and a taxi, I am headed north up the pacific coast an hour or so to a small coastal village, tucked in all cozy like along the Pacific Ocean, to be welcomed by an old friend, with promising stories of good surf break, always wanted to try my board skills surfing saltwater break, better late than never I suppose
“I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams” - Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding, The Shawshank Redemption
The surfing is probably not the wisest move, but whatever. Maybe I can lay down a ride and have that experience just once in my life, even if just for just the briefest of moments, it would be so worth it, even at some risk to life and limb. These past few years have been a great ride, the way I see it, I have come this far, fuck it, might as well go for it. Stoked for the opportunity to try…
I am not even sure how to evaluate this past year here, the writing part that is, feels like it’s all over the place, I just write what I am feeling in the moment I sit down, sometimes there is an idea I have been mulling over, usually the good energy stuff, I leave the dark energy for my thought journals, sometimes it’s the experiences that just come out in those stream of consciousness stories. I do love reliving those adventures and sharing them with you through the stories. The hardest part of this writing thing is getting over the resistance to write, just have to sit down and write, sometimes it’s good, many times it’s garbage, occasionally it’s the best shit you have done up to that point in the journey, it’s your personal great. That’s my usual pre blog writing pep talk anyway.
Photography most times takes a back seat to the writing, I love it when it is on, but it comes together less often, I need visual stimulation to find the muse, new and interesting things I suppose. Where as with the writing, I can recall those past experiences in my memories, even down to the taste and smell at times, and then relive them through the reflection of the words, the creative muscle is just different. It’s not just about eye, it’s about the mind, and then eye. With all that said, I will continue to carry my camera as per usual.
There are a few certainties about this trip, not many, but a few, and at least half of them have to do with my consumption of food and drink, can’t wait to get into the local fare. It has been a regular compilation of margaritas, mezcal, sangria, fish tacos, churros, and a variety of fresh seafood served Mexican style running through my mind these past weeks, does life get any better? Throw in a healthy dose of sun, sand and ocean, and you have the makings of a down right badass fuckin’ adventure. It’s not about the having, it’s about the living, for an ever so brief moment in time.
Seems fitting to conclude the first post of the new year with this, but it’s really not a conclusion, it is the start of something, a steaming pile of really fresh thoughts. Been thinking about my grandfather recently, he was the most amazing story teller I have ever known, he could weave a tapestry of truths and lies into a lyrical poetry in perfect time and pace, a real wordsmith, delighting any and all willing listeners with his tales, even to this day it still brings that little boy inside of me to life. I suppose that has always been an inspiration for me and a part of my writing. Ever grateful to have stirred those memories loose and made that connection recently.
I suppose that blonde hair, blue eyed, little boy was always an explorer at heart, in all things life put in his path, full of curiosity and wonder, destined to live and die as such.
Joshua
“You come into the world Alone
And you go out of the world Alone
But in between, Its you and me”
Alone - Live at Red Rocks , Trampled by Turtles
