The Crash
John Willingham
Eng. 1010
Prof. Morrow
There is a very unique waterfall in the Nevadan desert. It is hidden deep within some red canyon walls. The water pours out the top like a herd of stampeding water buffalo straight from The Lion King. From a distance you can hear the mighty roar of the gushing water. Who wouldn’t want to go see this great waterfall? At least that’s what I thought.
It was Memorial Day weekend, right after graduation. It was a warm, sunny day in Panaca. The sky couldn’t have been any bluer. There was nothing to do, like usual, so I asked my sister, “You want to go to the waterfall?” Not being a very adventures person she replied, “No, I don’t want to go all the way out there.”
I said, “Oh come on, you aren’t doing anything and you’ve never been out there.” Realizing I kind of had a good point, she finally agreed.
My sister is not the “lets go and do something” type. She is the type of person who is attached to the computer like Tim “The Tool Man” Taylor’s head attached to a piece of wood! I went outside and got the 4-wheeler ready to go. It was a 2000 Yamaha Big Bear. It was dark red. Some areas were faded from the sun. There were scratches and scuffs on all the fenders, due to my dad being “Mr. Adventure.” It had bright shiny, Puff Daddy, chrome wheels, and two black luggage racks. I started it up and waited for my sister. She made her way out the door, with her little camera in hand for any “photo opportunities.” Finally, helmets and all, we were all loaded up and on our own little adventure, not knowing what was in store for us.
We took a windy, well established dirt road for about a mile. Then it turned off to the canyon entrance. Along the right side of the road was a tiny stream. There was green vegetation surrounding it. As we turned off, we saw the huge, red canyon walls. Going in on the tiny dirt road, it seemed like we were tiny ants entering a lions den. We made our way through the canyon to the first, knee high, water crossing. We made it safe and sound. There was a good supply of green trees surrounding the trail. Kind of like a miniature forest. We drove for about ten more minutes until we got to the last big hill before the waterfall. In my head, I thought to myself, “I had never been up it before,” but I had confidence. As we got closer and closer I got more and more nervous. The hands were getting a little sweaty. We had to make a sharp right off the main trail. The new trail was in slanting right at about a sixty-five degree angle .the stream continued along through the bottom of the hill, which led all the way to the waterfall. There was a whole bunch of stinging nettle we had to dodge. We got to the bottom of the final hill. It was about a forty foot tall brown monster, with a seventy degree slope. The burned bridge supports stuck out like huge teeth. We stopped at the bottom and got off to look around. I could hear the rushing water in the distance. The local birds were conversing with each other.
We got back on and just sat at the bottom. Looking up, Teri said, “You better not go up that!” I could hear the nervousness in her voice.
Trying to reassure her I replied, “We will be fine.”
I was a little nervous myself. I was debating with myself, whether or not to go up. My palms were getting sweatier. I kept trying to convince myself that we could make it. It felt like standing in line to ride the Goliath roller coaster and Six Flags. I didn’t want to go, but I really wanted to. Without warning, I pinned the throttle, and we were on our way. I wasn’t thinking of anything, but making it. I could hear Teri scream with a high pitched squeal, “AHHHHHH!” I knew there was no turning back. We got about three fourths of the way up, then it started. The front wheels just decided to take a break! The whole front end slowly rose off the ground. Everything went silent. I couldn’t hear Teri anymore. I felt her hands slip off of my waste. The left front handle bar seemed to reach out and grab my pant leg. By this time there was nothing I could do, but wait for it all to be over.
The four-wheeler came right down on me, and then it just continued to roll. That thing did more back flips than… well it was a lot! It rolled on me at least three times before I got free. It finally hit the bottom and landed on its wheels. I saw my sister, dazed, sitting on the ground. All the water and bird sounds stopped. We were both in shock. I got up and ran to my sister. I asked, “Are you ok?” I felt fine, until all my adrenaline and shock went away. Slowly all the pain started to creep into my body. My pants were ripped and I had scratches all over my back. My knee got its share of pain as well. Teri kept saying that her arm hurt. The first thing I thought of, was to sling that arm up!. So I ripped some of my pants, got some sticks, and made a splint. We got on the four-wheeler and drove back into town as fast as we could.
By the time we got to my house, the sun was setting. I sort of ran/hobbled inside to tell my parents. Initially they didn’t believe me. Once they saw my pants, they agreed that I was telling the truth. About five minutes later we were on our way to the hospital. After about fifteen minutes we arrived to the hospital. About two hours, one shot, and a cast later, we were home. Teri broke her arm pretty good. I just had bruises and scratches and a whole new outlook on things.
Before that, I had never crashed. I didn’t know what it was like. I heard stories of people who had crashed, but I never knew exactly how they felt. I always thought, “I couldn’t crash” or “I couldn’t get hurt.” Ya right!! People often think they are somewhat invincible. They never think that much about today or tomorrow being their last day on earth.
I sometimes wonder if things might have turned out different. We could have gotten hurt a lot worse and someone could have even died. I don’t know how I would have handled that. These days I ride safe. I think before I do things that could cause harm, physically or mentally, to anyone and that’s how it should be.
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