Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Dumb and Dumber


Idiot. Complete idiot #1, a.k.a. Lew. Place: Phoenix, Arizona, circa 1970. Location: dry riverbed of the Salt River where the storm drain of the city empties into the dry river bed. Idiot climbing down the storm drain cover grate: me. Why would I be doing such a thing? Young and dumb. Thinking that this would be an adventure.

Good idea, my accomplice Rick is pretending that he is trapped behind the grating. This cast iron grating was extremely heavy and very difficult to move. The water was very clear and did not have any odor to it so I wasn’t too worried about it.

Accomplice: idiot #2: a.k.a. Rick, a coworker of mine. Why was he idiot #2? Because he followed idiot #1 on a zany adventure. The movie “Dumb and Dumber” comes to mind. The cement pipe was so large that it was very easy to stand up in it. My concern was a sudden storm while we exploring the storm drain pipe.

Here is water gushing in from a side drain pipe. I would estimate that we went several miles up the drain pipe because we ended up under downtown Phoenix. Never really had much problem with carbon monoxide until near the end of our adventure. Breathing became labored and I figured that it was due to carbon monoxide from the car exhausts on the streets above us filtering down since it is heavier than air. This is when we decided to turn back because of the heaviness with the breathing. It was a grand adventure which most people wouldn’t do. At least sane intelligent people. I was always exploring; abandoned mine shafts, ghost towns, treasure hunts for buried treasure, etc. I was very active when I lived in Phoenix, Arizona. There were times when I would even brave the summer heat but not for long when the temperature would hit 118 degrees. It was a good time in my life. I worked hard (62 hours per week routinely), had fun with my adventures and enjoyed attending college at Arizona State University. I had the energy of youth. Now I have a lot of wonderful memories and tales to tell. Everyone have a nice day and may today be an adventure for one and all. Lew






1 comment:

seaside said...

Brave guys! I am glad everything turned out ok.