Sunday, January 29, 2012

The Trip



Oh boy what a trip! Jan, Henry and I had just returned from a skiing trip in California to our home of San Francisco. Now you may wonder about my veracity, but yes, we did go skiing in California. Where we three went skiing is called Big Bear Mountain and it is just a short distance from Bakersfield. Returning to the events of the trip we must mention that the three of us almost broke our extremities with which God had blessed us.

Let me relate to you exactly what took place. We took a cable car to the top of the mountain which was covered in snow about 3” deep. Almost immediately after exiting the car we rented skis at $25.00 a pop, plus a sizable deposit. In order to combat the snow we put the skis on. Jan decided at the last minute she needed to have the handsome ski instructor teach her the art of skiing. She was an accomplished skier, so I lean toward the appearance of the ski instructor as being the motivation for her visit.

Logistically, the instructor was located about 100 yards from where we got off the cable car. As Jan was on her way to the instructor for her lesson, she lost her balance and proceeded to ski down a steep incline. Actually, she was such a good skier that she could have managed the situation by herself. But, being the coward that I am, I talked Henry into going to her rescue. He began to gain the speed that Jan had already attained, until he hit a ridge. This caused him to do a summersault that was at least a 1 and 1/2 and be propelled onto the shoulders of Jan.

Fortunately, when Henry was in the process of doing his 1 and 1/2 his skis came off or they really would have hurt Jan. As I have stated, under normal conditions, this little girl is an excellent skier, but she was in a situation that was not normal. So she faltered in her quest of skiing down the mountain safely. I found the whole event to border on the humorous, until in between chuckles, a little boy accidentally pushed me down the mountain. At least I think it was accidental, because if it weren’t it was downright destructive.

Nonetheless, I was now skiing down an incline that was steeper than the ones of Jan or Henry. And I was going at a fast rate of acceleration and as mentioned, I am not only gutless, I am also a very poor skier. I can only relate to you that the change in moods from humor to fright is very difficult to adjust to. The same ridge that Henry had hit, was the one that I managed to also hit. Due to my increased acceleration I flipped in the air 2 times. In the process, I also lost my skis and I was propelled onto the back of Jan’s skis, which greatly increased her falter-ism.

As I held onto Jan, I discovered that our route included trees as we were headed straight for one. Apparently, the weight of two additional “guests” dramatically slowed our momentum and Jan was able to stop just before we collided with an oak.

“Oh, how great it feels to once more be safe,” we all said to ourselves. “Our prayers have been answered.” We decided to return to the lodge and forget about the money we had lost. Not that we ever would have found the skis. Besides we had concluded that the loss of funds was better than spending 10 days in a hospital bed. Over a hot drink and a roaring fire in the fireplace of the lodge and discussed our return trip to the city of the un-chaotic. In short, we tried to adjust back to normalcy.

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