Grow journal, chat and giveaways and occasionally art and 3D printing!

[Natea]

Well when I was 18 my brother and his friend showed up at my dorm room and said we were all going to go to Florida (we were in WV) to go wild mushroom picking. We had 120 total for the whole trip including gas, so we drove down to stay at a free campground in basically the middle of nowhere. It had no running water or bathrooms or people around at all. We camped right next to a creek and swam it the next day and smoked a J with some guy on a boat that passed by. A dead fish was on the beach and that night we woke to a screaming (sounded like a child) right text to our tent. Turns out a raccoon was eating the fish and an alligator came out of the creek (they come through the creek at night I guess, Im glad because we swam in it earlier that day lol) and snapped on the raccoon. Scared us silly. In the end we didn’t get shrooms because there was a festival the week before, the field were combed through. On the way home, 30 miles from our exit, my tire blew. We didn’t have anything to write on so I wrote HELP on some cardboard with an incense haha. Some lady picked us up and took us there no problem though.

Edit: Happy birthday also @Bobgrows!

[MoBilly]

Happy Birthday @Bobgrows !

I might contribute this story.
I am a spelunker. That is an explorer of caves for those who don’t know the term. I had been after a friend and guide to take me back into Smittle cave. It was a tourist cave for a while until there was shifting. My friend was one of the few with permission to take anyone back there. Anyway, this cave is huge! The main chamber could park 50 tractor trailers and it goes a long long way back in. We spent the day exploring and finally we came to where two slabs were separated and he said “this is where it ends”. I wanted to say that I had been as far back in this cave as a man could go so I crawled up in that opening and went back deeper. It began to open up after about 50’. I told my friend and you could hear his hard hat bouncing off the top slab as he came up behind me. I found a section of that cave that nobody had ever set foot in. Dust gathers in these places and a hand print will last until it’s disturbed. There were no prints anywhere. That newly discovered area of the tunnel went back a good 1/8 of a mile. That may not sound like much but for someone with this passion it’s like finding a 5 lb gold nugget.
I still re-live that day like it was yesterday.

[blowdout2269]

Happy happy birthday!!!

[Abbbian]

Happy happy birthday dear @Bobgrows! You deserve the best everyday!!
Still, make this day a memorable one!! A weedy party!!


Have a lovely birthday!!

[BigMike55]

One time, my best friend, growing up, his brother was a huge KISS fan. KISS was coming to town and he bought tickets with the “Backstage Pass”. He ended up not being able to go so he gave the two tickets to his brother and me. With the stipulation that we take his KISS Alive! Album with us and get the band to autograph the album cover.
Needless to say, we stupidly did not go to the concert. We went and bought some marijuana instead. Then we signed the album and gave it back to him. He treasured that album for years, until my friend let him off the hook. Holy Crap! Was he mad!

Kinda comical, but not something I’m proud of. I was an impressionable youngster.

[MoBilly]

Hey @BigMike55 !
I have a football signed by Willie Mays. My Uncle got it for me.

[BigMike55]

All I can think of to say is, I was really young. And it was not my idear. I was merely an accomplice.

And the prisons are full of guys that say the same thing.

[HumblePie420]

I was in my early 20’s and my friend was a tow truck driver on call with the city’s police department that night. Sometimes he’d pick me up so he wouldn’t get bored or fall asleep. I brought along two 40 oz’s and a few joints for myself or I wasn’t going. Around 3am we he gets a call to pick up a car with a flat tire from an arrested drunk driver. We arrived and the cop shined his light at our cab and ordered us BOTH out. I’ve never had to leave the tow truck before so now I’m worried. He barked that a wreck just happened and he needs him to go to the next scene so I have to drive this car back to the lot. My friend took off and I staggered behind the wheel quickly so he wouldn’t approach me. And off we go, cop escorting with his lights on in front, me weaving behind him like a mini drunk parade. Even hit a curb on a turn. Got to the lot, he waived and left. I finally un puckered. I certainly didn’t belong behind the wheel. MAN that was a rush!

[potpotpot]

Never mind, realized that I have told that same story to like, every person irl haha.

I would dm it to you though if you asked haha.

[Bobgrows]

Oh please Dm me! I would love to hear your story.

Checking in periodically. Judging later tonight.
Thank you everyone for the stories and birthday wishes.
Love it! Keep them coming.
@potpotpot Dm please!

[Emeraldgreen]

Happy birthday @Bobgrows mine was the 7th.

[Rabeats2093]

Happy birthday @Bobgrows !

[GrouchyOldMan]

Okay, I want to enter the competition… jus for the luv of writing Bobbi, you know how I am…

So, there I was, in western Guanajuato, Mexico at the top of a MicroOndas (microwave) hilltop, overlooking a vast plain of orange sage, mesquite and sauguaro two thousand feet below me.

My faithful hound, Joshua, looked a little puzzled and stayed close to the VW van that served as our home.

We could hear the Ranchero band below us coming to life as the party below us came to life. The Club de Liones de San Miguel Allende was my host, and I was one of many special guests, aka entertainments, for the evening.

Joshua and I were atop the steep hill that served as a base for the Mexican government’s most recent “modernization” program. These towers sprouted all over the country in the early 1970’s but, like most Mexico politics, they ended up as just another expensive boondoggle.

The good news was that each of these projects included rough but serviceable roads up to the very top of every vertical bit of geography in Guanajuato. I was travelling with my firehouse dog, a buddy from SoCal and a custom build early generation hang glider suitable for jumping off tall peaks.

This was timely and fortuitous, since I was travelling with a bunch of travel book writers who made it their business to know everyone in the small town we all inhabited. These, rascals, irresponsible potheads that they were, had volunteered me to fly my hanglider from the top of this craggy volcanic peak, down over the heads of the local gentry while their band played a snippet of the American national anthem! This is the kind of weirdness that transpires amongst the young and foolish.

That was the idea, born in high quality Oaxacan weed, innumerable bottles of Noche Buena Christmas Special bock beers and scant respect for my life and limb.

I could hear the Ranchero music from below as I set up the aluminum frame of my delta wing hanglider kite. Joshua looked askance, and he was the one I trusted most at that detached moment in my life.

I assembled the kite by muscle memory, and adjusted my harness for the launch. As I approached the edge and calculated my flight path for a tiny clearing far below…

to be continued.

In the meantime, Showering Glories, Fondest Blessings and a Good Nite to Y’all.
-Grouchy

[CanuckistanPete]

I was hiking near Campbell River BC (Ripple Rock) with a buddy and we stopped at an outfitter for trail maps. This was pre-GPS, I had a compass but that didn’t tell me the trails. So we get some trail maps, and he asks if we want bear spray.
“Sure” I say.
“Do you want bells?” he asks.
“Bells?” I reply
“People wear them so bears hear them coming…so you don’t surprise them”. he says.
“Nah, pass on the bells” I respond.
Then he asks if we know how to tell the difference between black bear scat and grizzly scat (there are no grizzly on Van Isle, but I digress). “No” we respond"
“Well, black bears eat lots of berries, so you’ll see undigested berries in their scat…and grizzly bear scat usually smells like pepper spray and has bells in it”.

A couple months later I’m working in Alberta with another guy whos going to fly his wife and two kids there when he’s done, rent an RV and explore Alberta. We stop at an outfitter, I tell him and the guy at the counter the above story, and we laugh. He asks for 3 cans of bear spray…I say “Three?” and he then proceeds to ask the guy if they have any “bacon spray”…for his wife!

[potpotpot]

Dm sent . Thanks for doing a contest that isn’t just random numbers haha.

[THCeed]

I have two music stories to share the first one when I was in my early twenties we went to a bar that we like to frequent and we were stopped at the door and told that there was a cover charge there’s never been a cover charge here so we hummed and hawwed as it was $10 and we decided we would pay it since we were already there we get inside and there’s one table left open and it’s right next to the stage and we think oh shit we get stuck with this table after ordering a few drinks they announced that the band’s about to come on stage and I just want to say this is long before his second album ever come out and who pops out right beside us “Meatloaf” we ended up having the busiest table at the bar that night my second story is I was driving back from Red Lake and because of the weather decided to spend the night in Thunder Bay so we pull up too I think it was a Super 8 at the time and got ourselves a room we asked if there was any entertainment around and they said there was a bar attached to the hotel that held 400 people we were like wow and they’re like yeah and there’s a special band playing tonight we’re like okay so heading up to my room there’s a long haired freaky character behind me who happens to be staying on the same floor as me so I hold the door open for him he says thank you and Carries On so do I later that night we’re sitting in the club having a drink and the band comes out and starts playing and the singer is the long haired freaky character that I had held the door open for I had no idea it was Dr Hook

[DougDawson]

Happy Birthday @Bobgrows . This one time at band camp, oh wait, never mind

[HappyTrees23s]

Happy Birthday @Bobgrows !!!
Hope your having an amazing day so far !

And this isn’t so much a funny story, as a strange one that I will never forget.

I was maybe 30 yo and went out one night to go see some bands play at a venue. They we’re a metal/rock/hardcore band and lots of different people showed up.
After the first band played I went out for some fresh air cause it was packed.
The venue had a little area out back with some picnic benches, tables, bushes and flowers, where people could sit and drink or whatever.

So I went out and was offered a puff or two, which I accepted and enjoyed.
I talked a bit to some strangers and then went on my way.

I walked over and leaned my back against the brick of their building and enjoyed the cool air.

I suddenly heard a voice. It came from inside of me. Around my heart area. It was strange to hear, but I also wasn’t alarmed at all. I could tell it was coming from within, but I could hear it through my ears if that makes any sense.

The voice sounded as if it was happy, and or smiling. All it said was “Go talk to him ”

I looked around and to my left about 15 feet away was another man standing under the venues street light, with his back to the brick wall smoking a cigarette.

I questioned the voice and asked in my mind, “who him ?”
The voice repeated
“Go speak to him ”

I said “I don’t know who that is, I’m not gonna go talk to that guy”

But it repeated itself again
“Go speak to him ”

So I said “Okay fine I’ll go speak to him”

So I pushed myself up off the brick wall and started walking over to this guy.

Suddenly he turns, looks at me, blows out his cig smoke with a sigh and says “uuggh…fine, come on then.” And waved me to follow him.
And so I did

I followed behind him to an unlit area behind the venue and he finally stopped and turned to face me. I felt a very dark energy off of him. Not evil so to speak, but dark. I don’t know how else to explain, but I knew what I felt and what it meant when I felt it.

He then started talking to me, but not in a normal way.
It’s like I could feel an emotion from him and I instantly knew what he said within it.
Even stranger is I was able to send back my own to him.

We had a very deep conversation about heaven and hell. God and the devil. About sin and pride.

All the while if you were standing next to us all you would actually hear was.

“Yeah but…”
“Well what about…”
“I understand that but…”

Everything else was spoken in this strange emotional language I had never known about.

Mid conversation I realized I was almost trying to convince this person to turn back to God. He keept bringing up things to try and prove why the opposite side was better, and I would correct him with what I knew about God.
At some point he said out loud
“I never really thought about it like that”

After maybe 20 mins if this I started to hear the band I came to see start playing.
I told him I wanted to go back inside to go see them and he agreed.

He walked ahead of me again and went back to leaning against the wall in the same spot.
I could now finally see him, and he was wearing a white shirt with a goat god/pentagram on it. I didn’t know what that meant back then, but I figured it was something satanic. I know know what it represents tho.

But anyway, yeah that was it. I went inside and watched the rest of the show before driving home later.

The next morning however I was besides myself. I had no idea what had happened. I could t believe I wasn’t afraid of anything that I experienced, I didn’t even question it. It all seemed natural and like I do it everyday. I didn’t freak out and ask the guy how we were able to speak that way either. Nothing. Just decided I wanted to go see a band play ?!
That makes no sense.
I didn’t question the voice when I heard it.
I mean it seemed so happy and peaceful, like it was always there or something.
I didn’t even question how that guy knew I was walking over to speak with him.
Did he hear the voice I heard ?
Maybe he heard a voice telling him someone was gonna come speak to him ?
I have no clue.
And why did I never ask how it was possible till the next day ?
Even while it was happening I didn’t think to question it ?

But anyway. To this day I have no idea what that was, or who that guy was. I wonder if he woke up the next day too and couldn’t believe what had happened last night.

I’ve heard that voice before only a few times in life. Everytime something strange has happened that I didn’t question till much later. If I had to guess I think it was Gods Holy Spirit. But I don’t really know much about it, so I can’t say.
I just know it’s happened when I had nothing to smoke too. And that night I only took 2 drags as I didn’t want to steal their whole joint. I just wanted to to be polite when they offered haha

But that’s it. No conclusion. But it is one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had in life.

Well, that’s my story.
Happy Birthday Bob Grows !!

May you have many more in life

†

[blowdout2269]

I’m just waiting for the storyteller…

[Bobgrows]

Daugh6 says that’s funnier than shit… @DougDawson