The heart of adventure
Adventure is in all of us, it begins in the mind and is transposed to paper as we plan a trip. Sometimes even a simple walk to the shops can be an adventure, especially if you deviate and take a different route. You never know what lies ahead.
Whilst true adventure may have an element of boldness or danger it does not have to be so. Given the current times, a simple road trip can in itself be an adventure. As can white water rafting or a good 4×4 trail. Not forgetting extreme sports for the younger folk.
To many, the garage is the heart of adventure, a staging area. You store your stuff and experiment, fix things and work. It all helps you grow as well.
It is not a large space roughly 3.6m x 6m with a door around 2.6m wide. Big enough for a medium-sized car or bakkie and your kit. Yet many people never park there. It’s a special space.
I have visited a few friends and they have similar viewpoints, one is involved in dual-sport motorcycling tours and his garage houses two Triumph Bonnevilles and the accessories. Another friend tours regularly and his garage is rigged to lift his rooftop tent and store it along with other bits and pieces. Others keep bicycles, canoes and kayaks suspended from the roof. To all, it is a special space. And you can also tinker, do woodwork and fix things in between adventures.
A garage can be the biggest storage area as well as a place for future projects and adventure. We love the stuff we keep there. It reflects dreams, memories and in some cases items from our childhood that we hang on to.
One has an emotional tie to many of these things and can not get rid of them. Many of my tools belonged to my father and grandfather, I still use them today.
There is a plethora of useful junk, some of which I hold on to, simply because I never know when I will need them. And in many cases, they have come in handy for the strangest jobs. Parking a car in my garage would be nothing other than a waste of good space.
Many of my friends run fridges in their garages and use the space for diverse activities, some listen to vinyl while they work, others host wine and whisky tastings and even have micro-brewing facilities. I have restored furniture and fixed bits and pieces as well as having repaired bicycles and household appliances.
It is a space that regularly gets tidied and sorted as I love order and knowing where my stuff is.
A well laid out garage is inspirational with similar stuff grouped together and easily accessible. Yet a degree of mess and disorder is also satisfying. Bits and unfinished pieces tell a story of future projects and adventures.
A garage also teaches you to do things that you would not do if you never had the tools and space. Tinkering is such fun. These are things you would not do in the kitchen. They involve grime and fluids that you would not dare take inside the house. You sort stuff for the next trip and return stuff from the last trip. Clean kit and repair broken items of kit. It is always a staging ground for the next adventure.
Garages came into being with the introduction of cars in the 1890s, they took over from carriage houses and were simple sheds. In the early 1900s architects took to integrating garages into house plans. Making them part of the house and allowing access to the car. Garages have been formative spaces, rock bands and even businesses such as Amazon started there. In our case they are the areas where adventures begin, projects take place and even allow time out for contemplation.