Our Redneck Adventure

I am not an adventurous person. In my mind, I want to be. But most things terrify me and in reality I do way less adventuring than I should. Part of it has to do with my semi-paralyzing fear of heights, but mostly it's that I am terrified of dying from ignorance in trying to do something "thrilling."

My husband is the complete opposite. He is into being outside, climbing mountains, skydiving, zip lining, jumping off of cliffs - if it gets his adrenaline pumping then he is down to party. I actually did go zip lining with him last year. It was terrifying and I was glad I did it with him, but I wouldn't say I'd rush to do it again.

Growing up, he spent a lot of time on a local mountain that had nothing but trees, rocks and some really muddy, washed out dirt roads. I mean, you're not getting more than two feet up any of these "roads" without four wheel drive. People are known to take up four-wheelers and old beat up trucks and SUVS that are fixed up especially for climbing this mountain.

Nice and clean and ready to go to the mountain.

Andy bought an old Isuzu Trooper last year off of Craigslist for about $500. It only needed a little work to get it running good enough to be his "mountain ride." So when he had free time he worked on it and this past weekend it was finally ready for a test run up the mountain. He really wanted me to go with him so that he could show me how he spent his youth. (I never did things like this and had never even been to this part of our town.) I was terrified of something crazy happening, like the car rolling over, which happens a lot on the mountain. I think that's supposed to be part of the fun.

In my mind, we were going to roll over trying to climb some rocks, I'd probably hit my head and die immediately because of course the truck would roll over on my side first. And we would be at a spot of the mountain that was close to the edge, so the truck would just roll right over and slide all the way down into a fiery ball of death. Luckily, my skull was already cracked open when the truck first started rolling, so I was unaware of my body burning. THIS IS HOW MY MIND WORKS DAILY. It's exhausting. And it's why I was happy to take a Xanax before agreeing to spend the day with my husband and his best friend doing what I was sure would end badly.

But I love him and he assured me it would be safe and fun and that I was overreacting, as usual. Plus it was super important to him that I go. So, I went. And it was a really fun day. There were some scary parts and definitely some times when I got out of the truck and walked while Andy and his friend climbed rocks and hills that went straight up in the air. Overall, I enjoyed myself and I enjoyed making my husband happy and seeing him do something he loves. Fears conquered.

Random boot in the woods.