27 years ago, maybe a few months after we got married and had moved to Hutchinson, KS, we were invited to a friend’s family house on Grand Lake, just east of Tulsa. We were both not yet 25 years old, so it was a while ago.
It was a short weekend, somewhere in July or August of 1998, so pre-Hannah and pre-Chris. We drove down to the lake house with maybe 7 or 8 other friends from Eaton in Hutchinson.
There were a lot of fun memories from that weekend, as we cruised the lake on the boat, cooked chili as a group and told stories, and generally hung out living the lake life.
For those that do not know, Grand Lake , nestled in the foothills of the Ozarks, is a 46,000 acre lake created back in the early 40’s when they dammed the Grand River. The result is a really pretty lake with a bunch of little coves and inlets, and about 1,300 miles of shore line. It’s a big’ un.
It also features a few small cliffs near which locals and visitors often gather in their boats to watch people jump from the 30-40 foot high walls to the deep water below.
Which is exactly where we found ourselves 27 years ago.
We boated around the lake on the first day there and found ourselves in the Dripping Springs cove, watching people climb up the cliff face on a narrow little path, while we watched others stand at the edge, deliberating whether or not to make the jump.
After a few took the fateful step off the edge and lived to tell the tale, we decided, why not?
Dumb.
We were old enough to know that we both were not big fans of heights.
However, we decided to try it anyway.
We hopped into the water, swam over to the very steep cliff face, and began our climb up to the jumpin’ spot.
As we climbed higher, we realized we had made a serious mistake. The cliff path was quite steep, very rocky and tough on the bare feet, and we were finding ourselves far above the normal height at which we preferred to jump in to the water, namely, not very high.
Nothing to be done for it now. We could have scrabbled back down the cliff, but we had our pride to consider. So we continued to the edge.
Scariest moment of our then young lives, looking down to the water far below.
We decided to go at the same time, because if either of us had gone first, the other probably would have chickened out.
Ben counted down, and we both leaned forward over the edge.
It’s funny to think about it, 27 years later, but I remember every second of that fall.
Time seemed to slow down as I stepped off the cliff. As the water rushed up, I noticed I just kept going faster and faster as the water approached. But the fall seemed endless.
As I fell, I felt my body shifting from a straight up and down, feet first approach, to a slightly angled approach. Not good. Definitely don’t want to hit the water on my back, yikes. Despite the fruitlessness of my efforts, I pinwheeled my arms backwards, trying to bring my feet back around to directly under my body.
By the time I hit the water, I had corrected the rotation a little bit, but only to the point where instead of hitting on my back, I hit the water in an almost seated position. The result was a super spanking. Holy moly. It was like the world’s biggest paddle just smacked me right across the booty.
After I surfaced, gasping for breath, Ben was right there and got me over to the boat, where I climbed in with a completely numb posterior. The ride back was in silence, as the pain started pulsing through my stunned rear end. Not only that, but between the fall and the lake water, I developed an ear infection. Later that evening, we got to visit the urgent care to get it treated. The ear, not the butt. The butt was on its own.
Fast forward 27 years, and we are back. Not for cliff-jumping, rather, just to hang out on the waters edge for a few days before dropping back down in to Arkansas and wrapping up our US tour.
We stayed at the Regatta On Grand, a really cool campground with most sites backing up to the lake. We had a little covered patio with a couple of rocking chairs, a couple little sofas, a fire pit, and a nice big grill. Really a great setup!
Hannah came up from Fayetteville to camp out with us for a couple days after a stressful few weeks at her job. We had fun just hanging out and cooking pancakes.
We head down to Fayetteville next to keep hanging out with Hannah and Ty and get some projects done on her house before we all head down to Hot Springs Village and Lake Desoto for the 4th!
Hard to believe this journey is about over!
TaterTotTales 