My Eastern-European Adventure, now just 50 days away is, in many respects, my most ambitious adventure yet, but certainly not my first time I’ve pushed myself far outside of my comfort zone. Below are very short summaries of my greatest vacation adventures to date.
My first white water rafting experience, around 92.
When I was still very young, early high school I think, my dad and five of his buddies went to West Virginia to raft the Gully, one of the best rapids in the country. I think he must have misrepresented the trip to my mother, because I’m sure she otherwise would not have let me go. It has a number of class 5 rapids, which is the highest level a rapid can be rated and still rafted. Few white water rivers in the entire country even have class 5 rapids. A prerequisite to raft the rapid was previous experience. I’ll never forget when they asked that on the bus, “Raise your hand if you haven’t done this before.” Just as I was about to raise my hand, my dad held my arm down. Maybe they wouldn’t have let me do it if they had known my lack of experience. But as scary as it was, I had the time of my life. And I was never ejected from the raft. Just last year I got to go back and raft the same river again with my best friend Dave Woodward and his friends. Needless to say, I was much less frightened the second time around, but still had a ton of fun.
My first full adventure vacation with my dad, around 94.
A few years later, my dad and I went out our first full-length vacation together, which was probably about two weeks long. We took his van down to Florida full of scuba gear and a jet ski. Although I was a very confident jet skier on the lake in Pontiac where I always practiced, wave jumping in the Atlantic Ocean was a different story. But as much as those monster waves (they were monsters to me, between three and six feet) tried to kick my ass, I kept coming back for more. After a few hours on brutal body punishing fun, we watched the Olympics at our hotel room and ate huge dinners. I also scuba dived for the first time in the ocean off the Florida Keys, which was incredible. In addition to pushing my young body and mind to the limits multiple times, I was also able to bond with my father in ways I never thought possible until then. We hadn’t seen much of each other the previous few years so, in a way, that was as much a discovery as my ability to overcome fear and fatigue.
Florida Life 99
This was less of a vacation, and more of living a life outside of my regular life. Is it really a vacation if I’m working full time? My best friend, Ben H, gave me the opportunity to drive down to FL with him and work for Disney for the summer. We stayed in a condo with four other guys, and had a damn good time. The reason this was so adventurous was not only the fact that I was living on my own for the first time, but I was living a whole new live on my own, over a thousand miles away from my mom’s house. If this were a test, I passed with an A+. The best part of it was that I have much of it on tape, and what a damn fine DVD I turned that into.
My first European Vacation, 03
It certainly sounded like a good idea at the time. Meet my girlfriend in Amsterdam, stay with her for a week at two different relatives houses, make my way to England to stay with a friend living there, then stay in hostels on my own for the third week. Just one small problem; I severally underestimated the bone crushing loneliness I would feel exploring Europe on my own for so long. All together, I was gone almost a month and, as awesome as it all was, it was also hellish. In many obvious ways, the successful completion of this adventure gave me more confidence then ever because, while I was lonely, I discovered what I was capable of completely on my own.
Vacation out West, 04
This time we went west, to kayak the white waters of Colorado and hike the Grand Canyon and Angel’s Landing. I had never even kayaked a real river before, let alone white water, but after a number of practice runs on a class 2 and 3 river, my dad convinced some guy he knew to let us tag along on a white water rafting trip. Normally, they would never let people like us kayak a river with so many class 4 rapids (meaning without real experience and perhaps certifications), but my dad has a way of talking people into things. It was one of the most dangerous and exciting things I’ve ever experienced. I’m also a very amateur hiker, but we hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, stayed at Phantom Ranch a few days, then hiked back out. My boots were hurting me so much that I had to hike out in sandals. What an experience. Needless to say, I was spent that day. We also met up with my girlfriend at the time who just happened to be taking a seminar in Bolder, CO, and we explored caves and I illegally rode my bike part way down Pikes Peek, which was also super exhilarating and dangerous. Finally, we watched the Pistons win the Championship and I scheduled an interview for the job I have now in Hazel Park. An Adventure vacation I’ll never forget.
