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One of my primary purposes of becoming a travel nurse was to investigate all the new cities and nearby towns that are available at each new contract location. It’s like a continuously built in vacation for agreeing to work at a new place every 6 months or so.
While on assignment in Reno, NV, a tourist book I happened upon identified an activity I was not aware of: Powered Hang Gliding. What?!?! Instantaneously placed this on my bucket list of must do’s while in the area.
But then, my mind started racing a bit. “You’re not a major fan of heights. You are the girl who was determined to jump off your 6ft high jungle gym multiple times as a 10 y/o but couldn’t do it because it was too high. When folks you know, including your son and 13 y/o niece jump off cliffs into say, Crater Lake, you can’t bring yourself to do it. However, you have zip lined multiple times and that was totally fun. You did jump off a bridge into water in high school, but someone had to hold your hand and tug a little. This has a glider which can be controlled by the pilot if the engine turns off and we go down. If we’re lucky, we’d land in the lake. Is this going to be something that will cause overwhelming anxiety? Like panic attack in the air variety?” OK, maybe the mind racing was excessive.
This was turning into a major life experience on two levels:
A super cool adventure with a professional which I might not run into again
Potential panic attack over Lake Tahoe.
I had to make a decision. I was betting on #1. I got this! 7AM Saturday appointment time was scheduled.
Friday night I could not fall asleep. My mind was going all over the place (more than above LOL) until about 2 o'clock. That was the last time I remember checking the time so I believe I fell asleep right around there.
I was awakened by my alarm going off, so I tried to hit the snooze button which is my baseline every morning when the alarm goes off (add eye roll here on that behavior). In doing so, I realized it wasn't actually the alarm, it was a phone call. I answered the phone and it was the pilot saying “you had a scheduled flight for 7 AM today. It is 10 of seven now.” F**K came flying out of my mouth as I quickly sat up in bed being jolted out of my slumber. An apology for swearing quickly followed. “If you can get here for 730 we can still do this today.” I said “absolutely”. But really, I had never been to this place before. I didn't know where I was going. I had to bring Ninja out to do her duties, get dressed and jump into Blue Velvet and find my way to Carson, NV from Reno. But “yes I'll be there in a half an hour.” I was able to fly through all those things, utilized my favorite GPS and I made it just in time for 730. Pfew!
The pilot was amazing. He has been manually hang gliding and this electric way for decades. He relayed that a camera was on one of the glider wings for picture taking (some of those are attached as you can see). You’ll also see the stylish blue jumpsuit I got to wear for warmth in this open air super cool two seater electric powered glider.
Let’s do this! The pilot started driving us down the runway similar to taking off in a plane. The machine was quieter than I had anticipated, which was very pleasant. We could communicate easily. Speaking of communication, I asked him if he ever needed to turn off the engine while in flight. He moved forward with shutting the engine off. At that point I felt a bit of anxiety in my belly. In my mind, I thought that we would start dropping like a tank out of the sky when he turned off the engine. But of course, that did not happen because of the glider aspect. We did drop a minuscule amount which caused the slight bit of anxiety, but he speedily turned the engine back on, and we carried on with our gorgeous experience in the air.
Definitely an experience of a lifetime that I will cherish due to the fabulous views and because I did not talk myself out of participating for fear of a panic attack which did not occur. Will I be jumping off anything in the near future, doubtful, but one should never say never.
Kudos to you Michelle.
You're so brave!
Me? Not a chance!