Scranton by way of...

Bar Harbor.

At around 12:30AM we finally decided to look for a place to sleep. It was somewhere between Hartford and Scranton, and closer to Scranton. I didn't know what part of New York we were in then. I don't know now. It was liberating and relaxing. Spend a night in a town and don't worry about where you are, only that you're there.

It's been two years since gSF and I last saw each other. Odd how quickly time passes and things change. Around December 2005, we moved into the same dorm room, one of the two massive rooms under the stairs of Main Hall. It was the type of room that underclassmen would randomly visit out of amazement, not just curiosity. 520 square feet and hardwood floors, we didn't know that it was all downhill from there.

The sleepy town, well past its glory years from the turn of the century, looked soft and desaturated. Aged brick and stone both encouraged the calm of a quiet Sunday.

The temperatures rose, but the clouds remained as we walked through Nay Aug Park in Scranton.

To the bridge.

Down to the water.

We followed the stream down the bank, our ironically matching Black Rapid R-straps held D7000s by our sides as we negotiated the wet and slippery path.

The steep walls of the small canyon rose up around us, covered in moss and moisture from earlier showers.

Back onto the path, only to scramble down from it again.

Inside the tunnel.

Not being able to climb back up to the path, we followed the tracks into town.

There was a lot more to see; I'm glad we did.

As we walked from tie to tie, catching up and talking about our recent foray into photography and the future, I thought of Stand By Me, close friends on an adventure down the tracks. As easy as it was to enjoy the moment, it's hard to forget it could easily be another year before we meet again.

They say you meet friends for life in college prep school.

With law school classes starting in six weeks, I continue making the deliberate decision to embrace reality and the looming change, not ignore it.

...the security of being first, with full sight and full knowledge of one's course- not the blind sense of being pulled into the unknown by some unknown power ahead. It was the greatest sensation of existence: not to trust, but to know.