So this is Summer.

This summer I took two classes, bookmaking and design cognition. So I've had 1 hard month of design and letter press, and will have had a leisurely 2 months of working with grad students on the concept of design for the designer and the user.

My other pursuits have been looking for work and seeking adventure. Urban exploring has been a past time of mine for some time and I've had a recent revival with the tunnels under Lawrence and the Masonic Temple on Mass. street. So the back story from the streets: "There is a tunnel that connects the Masonic temple to the river and it was used for the underground railroad". Bull shit, Lawrence was a free city for one(lest we forget that it lies in the Free State) and the age of the building doesn't match up. There is another older Masonic temple that now houses the Tap Room at the corner of 8th and New Hampshire, but that is another story. So I did research online about the sewers and works projects that are located online and looked at topographical maps and biked around. In the end I with the help of a friend and Google maps found the entrance to the fabled tunnel, and as I though it was a drain a large as I suspected it would be.

Going through the tunnels was done on the fly with out much prep work and was kinda dumb, but after an hour and a half we popped out of a manhole in front of the Raven Trading post. This seemed hopeful since we were about a block away and there had been a split in the drain. So the second night we went in through a man hole to save us some time and had a third join us. We took the second route that quickly became smaller than the previous route and was made of brick and had a lot of standing water but it seemed clear enough. This is where I should mention I'm claustrophobic not to severely but the first time in I had some moments. We reached a point where I said I was going to hop out at the next chance. And low and behold where did we all get out at? No where near the Temple and actually overshot it by a lot.

The moral of the story is most stories are in fact bullshit, and even after showing pictures and having two people that can confirm my story some treat the story like we are part of a conspiracy. If the trip wasn't so dangerous I might be willing to lie to people so they can continue having this fantasy but this is just not something that most can do. Both time there was about 4+ blocks of duck walking/hands and knees and there was a long stretch we it was hunched over almost in half.

And a week later the story has already changed and evolved, now there is a tunnel that connects the two! And I have already heard an exaggerated account of my trip, where do people come up with this shit? Oh and yes I ended up getting into the Temple and was really disappointed by what I saw and how I didn't have time to go in the basement. If I get a chance to go back in I'll spend the time in the basement to put the final nail in the coffin of this urban legend.