A Day in the Sky
by Olivia Baker
Bean’s Purchase is a tiny township with a whopping population of four. Chances are you don’t even know where I am talking about. Within Bean’s Purchase is a fairly popular mountain called Wildcat. My grandson and I are going to go on the ziprider there. The ziprider is a four person zipline that descends 2,100 feet and it’s making my stomach feel like it’s turning upside down just thinking about it. We get on the lift to go up the mountain and I notice how beautiful everything is at Wildcat. I see all the jaw dropping views and the excitement boils up inside of me and I suddenly can’t wait to go on the zipline. We walk over to the chair lift to get up the mountain and the seat is rather warm. There was a man at the end of the lift to slow it down for us to walk off. He grabbed a hold of the side bar and swung it back away from us. It most likely would have knocked us over if he wasn’t there.
The walk to the zipline wasn’t very long. We were approaching the sign telling us to wait there. There were three other people that were going onto the zipline as we were waiting. One of the men running the zipline signaled us in. We walked up and they told us how to sit in the seat and to put our feet on the foot shaped stickers on the wall in front of us. The seating is awkward. It causes you to sit in a squatting position that isn’t very comfortable. I feel like I should be sitting up straight, but I keep falling back into the seat. The man starts to count down from ten, as he’s counting down he’s checking to make sure everything is tight and ready. Six, I look over to my grandson and tell him that I can’t wait to be flying high over the tree. Two, one...
“Let ‘er rip,” says my grandson.
The wall that my feet were once on opened, and we are now soaring above the beautiful scenery. As we went through I couldn’t help but fear hitting the trees. When I look to my right I can see my grandson with his hands up cheering, he is beaming with happiness as he’s zooming passed me. When I look to my left I can see the mountains
in the distance and the main road below. The mountains lay in a great line like the spine of the land. It was as if long ago they were a great beast, only to lie down and never get up. The range was high to the west and low to the east. They are the reason our land is so lush. The clouds meet the mountain at the top which causes us to never see the peak. The sun is shining through, blinding me every time I glance over. We are passing over the gorgeous lodge close to the bottom. As I am getting closer to the end I can see there is a gated off area that we are going to land. It is more elevated which separates it from the parking lot. We are starting to slow down and I feel like I’m on an adrenaline high. I want to go again and again and again it was so beautiful and amazing. The men at the bottom of the zipline helped us out of our seats.
I look at the person and say, “Did I pass?”
“Did you have fun?” says the worker helping me.
“Yes I did.”
“Then you got an A from me.”
As we are driving home I told my grandson I am oh so very happy to spend this time with him and that I am always happiest with my grandchildren. That I believe I am in a great place in life and I love who I am today. I think that if you wake up happy then you have made it and you have succeeded in life.