Got to Wadsworth, my old hometown, on schedule. Dropped off some DVD’s to the local TV station, ate Marie’s Pizza, and went to the park that was once the wild, untamed world I used to call “The Woods”. Thank god I’ve gotten in much better shape, as I traipsed through the brush and went off-trail like a 12 year old. 
The last time I tried this, I had to sit on 3-4 park benches along the way, taking constant breaks because I was in piss-poor physical shape. Yesterday, I made it from one end of the park to the other and back without stopping, climbing steep hills, hanging by branches over an edge, and running through a creek at full speed. It felt amazing.
When I was a kid living in Wadsworth, every single summer was spent in “The Woods”. At one point I even became an amateur cartographer and made maps of this area, hand drawn – for no reason at all. As if I needed it then or now. I remember every single hill, practically every single tree.
My single fondest memory of this place was a hill that was split in half by a sewer drain. So it was half a hill with these steep sides that we called “The Crevice”. It was insanely dangerous and that was why we loved it. In the middle of the steepest side was a single clover. I invented this idea that it HAD to be a four leaf clover and that’s why it was the only green on the entirety of the crevice.
One day we got rope and attempted the stupid, I took a turn climbing down a rope tied to a tiny tree on the side and lowered down to get it. The rope unraveled and when it snapped and I feel about 8 feet in a millisecond, it developed a lifelong fear of heights that I still have today. My buddy took a turn, finally got the clover and we lowered him all the way down.
To our disappointment, it was a standard 3 leaf clover. But it was an adventure. We were so inspired by Indiana Jones and stories of high adventure. Yesterday, I relived some of those moments.
It was a good day.
“There are places I remember all my life, though some have changed, some forever not for better, some have gone and some remain, all these places have their moments”
― John Lennon
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