My Birthday Adventure

A couple of weeks ago Rob's friend Tyson asked us to go

on a canyoneering excursion with him. A little reluctant, I agreed.

A HUGE thanks to my sweet mom who drove down to be with the kids.

We wouldn't have been able to do it without you.

THANK YOU!

We started out just a normal hike.

About 20 minutes later we

came to a 300 foot drop off!
Nothing like starting off with a BANG!

The biggest repel of the whole adventure

was the first one.

I look at the pictures and my heart starts

pounding and the nervousness

sets in as if I am getting

ready to do it again! It's crazy!

I still can't believe I did it.

I had many thoughts going through my head.

"I'm not going to live to see my 35th year..."

"Am I CRAZY!"

"I can do this. It's okay."

"Just keep breathing, just keep breathing."

To put total trust in a rope, a harness, a karabiner

and an ATC to keep me from falling to

my death was a little difficult.

I did it though and it was awesome!

And I didn't pee my pants!

It was such an awesome and exhilarating

feeling. It was tough getting off the edge.

I was scared, but amazed at how calm

I stayed.

I remember being about half way down,

looking down and thinking "dang, I've

come down so far, but I still have a long way

to the bottom."

I was pretty proud of myself.

I didn't shake or have feelings of "no way!

I'm not doing this!"

I was feeling good.

That was until a rattlesnake crossed

our trail. That's when I just about lost it.

No, not a 300 foot cliff...a rattlesnake!

Needless to say we were all fine and

about 1/2 hour after seeing it, I

stopped shaking and was okay.

So, enough babbling...

Here's a video and pictures.

Enjoy!

The first thing I did was looked down.

Rob on his descent

The rest of the repels were similar to this

The rattlesnake.

Tyson was in the lead and he stepped right over it!

Click on the pic to enlarge it

then look below the white writing

and you'll see it's tail!

I was terrified!

Still a ways to go...

The walk out (about 1 mile) was all sand.

It was pretty, but my legs are paying

for it now!

The Red Hollow Group

Me, Rob, Tyson, Kristin, Rob, Tunde and Jeff.

Oh and if the other Rob looks slightly familiar,

it might be because you watch

channel 4 news.

He's the nightly news anchorman.

It was a great time and

an awesome birthday!!