Feeling High...So High...

Zube Boy: How are you doing, honey.

Zube Girl: (Whimpers)

Skelton: How high* d'ya think we are?

ZB: (Proceeding to drive closer up to the edge) Probably 1,500 or 2,000 feet. Look at that power line tower. It seems more like a pine needle. Honey? You should look, it's a really pretty view.

ZG: Oh my God. Oh my God. Please don't do that.

ZB: Do what?

ZG: (Breathing heavy) Drive so close to the edge when I'm on the passenger side! Stay close to the left.

S: Damn, you really do get scared, don't you.

ZB: Yeah, but she better not do that to our kids. Getting them all scared of heights, too. Yelling at them when they climb all high...

ZG: Can we discuss this at another time.

S: Dude, you guys are gonna be awesome parents. In a fucked up kind of way.

ZB: (Pulling so far over to the left that the jeep starts to tilt my way. Toward the cliff.)

ZG: (Leaning all of my body weight toward the superunderstanding driver, cause, you know, my 125 pounds are gonna keep the jeep from rolling down 1,500 Ft.) Seriously. I hate you.

ZB: (Begins driving normally) Hey, Zubes, your leg is shaking. Geez. Are you okay?

ZG: (Laughing and crying at the same time) I told you, honey. I'M FUCKING SCARED! OKAY. Seriously, I'm not kidding. Right now my brain is like, "Hey, body, so we're gonna fall 1,500 feet any second now. Whaddya think 'bout that?" And my body's reacting like, "Well, fuck, we might as well jump and get this shit over with." That's what it's like living in my head when you're on a cliff. My hands are the only part of me doing the right thing now, and hanging on for dear life. Okay. So, be nice.

S: Dude, she's really scared. Be nice.

ZG: Thank you, Skelton.

ZB: Honey, I'm sorry. I didn't know it was like that. You'll be okay.

It is well known among our off-roading comrades that I'm a'scared of heights. I try to quell it and overcome it every chance I get and Cliffhanger Trail* in Moab was just another one of those opportunities.

There were three of us in Zube Boy's jeep. Zube Boy, Skelton, and myself. There were four cars total in our clan. We were returning from the top. Coming from that direction, and being able to see the precarious trail you'd driven up on made it, for some reason, all the more scary.

In addition, it put me in the jeep on the same side as the cliff.

Anyway, I survived. Honestly, it was an absolute BLAST!!! The top was breathtaking*. Charlotte held my hand as I made baby steps closer to the edge to do a little ooohing and ahhing of my own.

Really, the people in my life are so cool. They like to call me a scaredy cat, but then over the CB they'll chatter about nothing when the scary spots come up to take my mind off of it. And, each time we safely navigate our way through high spots, I'm hoping my mind will learn to shut the fuck up, a little. 'Til it's got no more bad things to say about being all high.

Anyway, our stinky, dirty, fabulous friends. That's what this weekend was all about.

Well, that, and peeing in a toilet surrounded only by a wooden fence, no roof, with just a chain you pulled across for a door. And, it didn't flush. But, hey, there was TP. And I didn't have to worry about peeing on my feet. So, big thanks to the Utah state park peoples. My feet love you.



*None of the photo links are of our entourage. Someday, oh someday, we'll get the right video card to be able to download the images from our video camera onto our computer.