All morning I've had this memory floating around in the top of my mind. I remember sitting in class at ECI on a spring afternoon with my jeans absolutely filthy from the knees down. I didn't care. I had a secret that only my little group of friends knew. I had gone on an adventure with Ro over lunch and 3rd period through the nearby storm drain in bare feet and my poor jeans.

We called it Sewering and the 4 of us loved it. We'd find hidden entrances to this cool, dark and quiet world below and disappear for hours. I remember a few big drains and many short ones. My aching back, ruined shoes, soaked clothes -- the things that didn't matter because we were doing something different and unknown to the people around us. We'd be out driving or biking around and come across a likely spot and more often than not we'd poke and explore.

It wasn't just the sewers that we'd explore. We had these places like George's garage, so many barns, ruins, old factories that we would pick our way through. I still have a handful of smoke stained paper that I took from a burned out husk of a factory up north. We were on a camping trip and decided that we had to explore. I think that was the May 24 camping trip to Beaver River... 11 years ago.

I know Ro kept up with the exploring after she moved to Toronto. I wouldn't be surprised if she's doing it still today. I stopped once I got married and depressingly serious. I'm not sure when the boys stopped, if they have. I think they have because there's been no mention of it. I've been tempted over the years to take it up again but I never wanted to go alone. Part of the fun was the exploration with my friends.

I'm not sure what got me looking at Infiltration.org yesterday. Several years ago I read it all and offered to do some write-ups about the KW drains (which I never did, because I'm a damn procrastinator, heh) -- but I forgot about it. Anyway, something reminded me of that ancient promise of mine and my former love of "UE"ing. I started reading the forums, hopping links and now here I am. Wanting to explore again.

Which is damn funny. I've been working on my damn back for months now and I want to go shimmy through drains. I remember how bad my immortal teenage back felt after a trip through a too-short drain, so I don't even have the excuse of forgetfulness. I just don't care. I want to grab the boys and my cameras and just go. I want to have adventures again, I think. I want to go see what a decade has done to "our" drains.

I'm old. I'm broken. I don't give a shit. Hah. I think I need to see if the boys agree with me.