There's an old addage which states that "Time waits for no man or woman"; so it's only fitting that I tell a story about that one time my buddies and I decided to travel abroad, in order to climb a mountain. Over the course of probably four years or so, the guys in the picture and I have formed a bond, a bond that has been quite rewarding and filled with adventure, there's one other lad, Doc/The Scientist/Kenford, who isn't pictured and he helps us to round out what we've affectionately called ourselves "The Four Horsemen" or "GBC Crew".
In every group there has to be a ring leader and the guy in the middle, Bobby, is that guy, that controller of the paint, the distributor of the rock, PG, the QB, the DJ, the one who my parents will one day eventually ask, "How'd he die..."
IF memory serves me correct, it was the summer of 2014 when Bobby and I were in Barcelona, Spain, chillin' with our brother, and Bobby said, "My number one bucket-list item is to see all the Pyramids, we've already done Egypt but what I want to do the most is see to see Machu Picchu." Now, I know a lot of random things, places, etc., but I had zero clue that a single statement would morph into, "WE GOIN." First off, I'm scared of heights, second off, I'm afraid of heights!
I've learned a few things during my ever so brief time here on earth, perhaps the greatest being, never bring up something that you're either afraid to do or not completely sold on doing. I mean granted, I thought being silent for close to seven months could help, which it did up until about February of this year (2015) when Bobby went into Bobby mode and started researching the layout of Peru, Cusco, Machu Picchu, and it was at this point when I realized that there was no running from it, no hiding from it. In order to make a long story even longer, everything was planned out, plane tickets were purchased, waking up at the crack of dawn in order to speak broken Spanish to an airline operator was done, apartment was secured with both a driver and a tour guide, penthouse suite was booked too, and now all we had to do was wait.
As the months turned, into a few weeks, which turned into a few days, which turned into a few hours, minutes, seconds from leaving, I learned that this adventure was more than just a simple trip. Our buddy Poppi , guy with the good hair and perfect beard, had never been abroad like this and the beauty of it all was the fact that he had a spanking new passport with zero stamps in it (I like stamps, sue me); he was going to grab a coveted stamp but at the same time, he was scratching off what he called the destination of a lifetime. Me on the other hand, I simply just want to see the world and the beauty it has to offer so when folks pinpoint a spot and say, "This is my Mecca", all I can do is sit back and take note and observe.
So as any good scribe would do, I simply sat back for two weeks and observed a bond that was already strong, grow that much closer, I watched as my buddies acted like two young kids in awe of the beauty that shone around us at the site, I climbed, and climbed, and took pictures of things that I wouldn't otherwise had seen if not for a simple, "WE GOIN."
Perhaps all three of us were able to cross an item off our bucket-lists.