(Not-So)Wordless Wednesday: I Chartered a Helicopter

WORDLESS WEDNESDAY HAS WORDS! Therefore, it’s not technically Wordless Wednesday, but this post is going to be so photo-heavy that I’m putting it there.

Just bear with me.

And also bear with the fact that the story of this post occurred, oh, some week and a half ago. I like to post about things later, give the thoughts and ideas some time to ferment and grow.

More like, I like to blog about things later because I am lazy.

I guess we can begin this story at Tucano’s a few Fridays back. I’d been telling Kevin all week that we were doing something on Saturday for his Birthday, so no, don’t try and guess, because you can’t guess it anyway.

Just my luck, the correct guess of  “You’re taking me on a helicopter ride,”  was the first thing out of his mouth, and I was hard pressed to not say you win, let’s go home, oh and if you’re so good at guessing which degree am I going to graduate with? BECAUSE I’D REALLY LIKE TO KNOW.

But instead I sat there  – probably for a few seconds too long – and then blurted, “No keep guessing.”

Saturday morning rolls around and I take two non-drowsy Dramamine because I’m just sure that we’re going to get up in the air and I’m going to lose it. When Kevin asked why I took those,  I told him I’m allergic to driving.

Which I am.

Back on point – he drove while I gave directions. We pull up at the SLC airport and he looks at me and asks, “What on earth are we doing here?” and I’m staring at him like really? Really!? You don’t know. You guessed last night. Let’s go so I can hurry up and die.

But instead a simple, “You’ll see,” comes out of my mouth and I dive out of the car. You could say I was a mess of nerves. I wanted him to figure out what we were doing, so I could do one of the two things I’d worried about all week: freak out about how scared I was and back out, or throw up midair and die.

There was no other alternative in my mind.

We walk in and meet Brent, our pilot.

“You guys have coats?” he asked.

“Coats?”

“If you don’t, we’ll have to put the doors back on, it’s going to be 50 degrees up there in the air,” he explained. BACK UP A MINUTE BRENT. DOORS. Off the helicopter.

I want my mommy.

“So what made you guys want to do this?” Brent asked as we walked out of the hanger.

“She actually brought me for my birthday,” Kevin responded, looking at me like he still couldn’t believe what we were doing.

“Wait, she took you on a freaking helicopter ride for your birthday? Dude. She’s a keeper,” Brent said as I blushed and walked past both of them. We stepped outside and got our first view of our door-less heli.

I had Brent take a photo of us beforehand.

Just in case I didn’t make it. You know, a last photo type of thing.

I made Kevin sit up front, while I took the seat in the back.

Someone please tell me that the back seat reminds you of a lawn chair too.And the seat-belt? It was a quick release.

Kevin and Brent talked for a few minutes beforehand about what it takes to become a pilot. Halfway through their conversation, I  assaulted Brent with some questions of my own.

“Is it common to get motion sick?”

“What’re the odds of getting puking?”

“Does it make you dizzy?”

“About how many people have you had throw up?”

Finally he cut me off, “why, are you getting ready to?” I honestly didn’t have a good answer. I wasn’t trying to want to puke, I was just trying to be realistic. I just wanted to know if I’d need a brown paper bag or if I can just puke out the door on all the cars below  is all, and the fact that it took Brent three times to start the engine definitely wasn’t helping.

Nor were signs like this:

or this one.

But this?

This helped immensely.

Kevin looked back and smiled at me and that’s all it took – I wasn’t scared anymore.

Something about that boy just makes me fearless.

He makes me feel like I can fly.

And not two minutes later the engine was on, the blades were spinning and all the sudden there goes the ground, falling away from me.

Grid patterns are so fascinating from this angle.

And so is the back of his head, since I seem to have took exactly 2,157 photos of it.

Don’t ask. Infatuation makes you do some odd things.

Also don’t ask me to name any of these buildings, as I’m directionally retarded.

I want to find this courtyard and live in it. Look at all the green in the middle of all these buildings!

Kevin got to fly the helicopter for a minute.

Oh that’s just my foot, hanging out of a helicopter 500 feet above buildings. No big deal.

You really want a sense of vertigo? Brent tipped the heli sideways multiple times.

I don’t know what this castle building is, but I love it.

I do know one building, the Mormon Salt Lake City Temple.

And although I’ve seen it plenty of times, I’ve never seen the roof! If you look real close you’ll notice two happy couples who just got married, each on opposite ends of the Temple.

The building in the back is another one I know, it’s the state capitol.

On the return ride, Brent preformed what he called a “rollercoaster” effect and dived straight up and back down again.

Then he showed off his sweet skills with a 360° turnabout upon landing. He was an amazing pilot and so much fun to be around.

They took one last photo of us after we landed, and they were even nice enough to borrow us their coats on the ride so we didn’t freeze. I had so much fun.

AND I DIDN’T EVEN PUKE.

Kevin, thank you for going and I hope you had a great Birthday. You make me fearless.