By Tom Mitchell
Is it true that in every relationship, one partner is more wild and adventurous than the other? If true, I’m not that person. I suffer from Acrophobia, an irrational fear of heights… And I swim like a rock.
So, I’m not the guy that says let’s go swimming in the ocean or let’s get on a roller coaster. Nope.
For two consecutive nights now there have been gale wind warnings (that came true both nights) at our location. Gale-force winds ranging between 39 to 54 mph, on the water and coastal areas is real rough stuff.
In an RV, with that wind speed, you know you’re in an RV. Robin says, “Let’s go down to the ocean and see how high the water is.” I have zero interest in doing that… and I tell her so!
Well, anyway, off we go, dark of night, wind howling at 50 mph. We can physically see the RV rocking side-to-side, and the rain is laterally blowing in our faces (at least 170 mph, yup). My face was stretched back, eyes wide open, jaw hanging open, jowls puffed full of air… I looked like a pufferfish gone wild. Yikes!
We get to the water’s edge and it’s way high! The seawater is pounding on the rocks and the waves are 10 feet high. I felt danger all around me. The wind screaming in my ears, the ocean waves roaring at me…
I could hear Davy Jones whispering my name in the wind. Of course, Robin is dancing around, barefoot, waving her arms in the air; wet, happy, hair plastered on her head. Her long eyelashes dripping rainwater.
I yelled, “Get back in the car,” and she jumped in the driver’s seat. I barely had my door closed when she turned toward the floating boat ramp, and in the yellow headlights, I saw this giant wave of water, reaching above the car, coming right toward us.
She accelerated hard, and yes, again, danger was all around us, everywhere, in the car, on the beach, everywhere…
She pulled the wheel hard left and the wave missed us, but just barely. Her laugh was infectious. I started laughing so hard my head hurt.
I have never before been able to say (in my life) that I felt danger was everywhere, all around me. I never put myself in a dangerous situation.
Because of my daring-do, adventurous wife, can I now check that off my list.
It’s never a dull moment with this girl.
So, again, I ask, is it true that in every relationship, one partner is more wild and adventurous than the other? Please vote below and leave a comment.
I voted neither one of us is adventurous then my wife informed me she is adventurous so I had to change my vote. I’m still learning about her, we’ve only been married less than 4 years, we’re in our higher senior years, what do I know?
I’m the adventurous one. My wife isn’t. I rode my bicycle down the Pacific Coast from Victoria B. C. back when I was a young stud. 30 days leave between duty stations, camped nearly ever night. 2 motel rooms, 1 youth hostel. Oh yeah, did 1250 miles in 12 days. I’ve sailed my sailboat through rough water, I go to really cool places in the Jeep. My wife goes with me when we go places in the Jeep and hangs on tight sometimes. Oh yeah, over 100k miles cross country on my motorcycle as well.
We’ve been married for 45 years this July.
Did I mention I was a “lifer” in the Navy? 20 years in the hole. I steamed boilers, fixed steam equipment and had liberty call in places that weren’t especially safe either, weathered about 10 typhoons/hurricanes at sea as well. Covered the Western Pacific Ocean from as far north as the Bering Sea to as far south as traversing the Indian Ocean and other bodies of water down to Perth Australia.
I love adventure.
Dan,
What a great life- I’d love to hear more. You must have tons of experience about sailing and the Navy. Thanks for your service to our country.
I am definitely the one who will instigate an adventure, but my wife will usually join me without much hesitation.
Tom,
Your story is a riot. I can visualize everything you mentioned. You guys both sound like a kick in the pants.
I was always the lead in an adventure. My wife would reluctantly follow however terrified be it on a forty mile bike ride ,a canoe ride down a rapidly moving river where we breached and flipped the canoe,or a hike up the “mountain ” at Devils Lake State Park in Wisconsin (during which she cried the whole way). That was the last mountain climbing experience for us. She hasn’t killed me yet and after 58 years probably won’t. How she tolerated me is still a question.
My wife was terrified of heights. At the Sears Tower she went up the elevator and hugged the wall. Likewise at the Grand Canyon she didn’t want to get close to the railing. She usually did [eventually]. I encouraged her but didn’t force her or put her in dangerous situations. One must be respectful of potentially dangerous situations or something very bad could happen.
The poll is missing a category. “Screw loose” or “Certifiable” or “Accident waiting to happen”
And maybe another category. “Prone to exaggeration”. I am thinking if rain is blowing laterally at 170mph, unless you are shaped and weigh about as much as a brick outhouse, you can’t see where you are going and can’t walk that direction either.
The writer meant it sarcastically, that’s why the “yup”.
I’m the one that at the ripe age of 71 rode the Sky Rider (zip line) at Royal Gorge some years ago, while my husband stood with our cameras and my purse and watched me glide across that gorge some 1,200 feet above ground! It was amazing!!
I hate heights while on a ladder or looking over a cliff, but have no problem going up in small aircraft, and parachuting twice. What’s wrong with me??
I voted that I was the one most adventurous but it really depends on the activity. I’m the one climbing up the rocks to an overlook on a hike, getting out on the edge of cliffs or up for a ride on the highest coaster. He is the stronger swimmer who likes to dive and has done a solo glider flight. As we have aged, the coasters have gotten a little more mellow, I stay a little further back from the edge and he rarely dives. Age and mutual consideration give us a happy medium – but I’ll still beat him on a go-cart track! 😉
You do realize there are people actually missing the gene that makes the rest of us think about safety? They jump from 100 stories up with no thought because it literally isn’t in their genes to detect danger. I kind of pity them, actually. Must be hard to know if some simple thing will kill you because you don’t detect the danger in it.
It is “the soul afraid of dying, that never learns to live”.
Amanda McBroom
What a truly goofy article to put out there as braggin about behavior that is appalling . This is why so many people get others killed trying to save their dumb behinds..your lady sounds like she had a little to much to drink or smoke. Or either she’s about 15 and your 14… why not take A few hits of acid so when your dancing around in the rain ,it will be even more groovy.. y’all got lucky, but DARWIN is always waiting for ya…
Dangerous situations I try to avoid. Let’s just say I;m more adventurous than she is.
I would have wanted to see the waves also! And experience the wind. Nothing wrong with being a little daring. And you didn’t get swept away, you are still here. and I am betting you don’t do that again!! LOL!! But what a thrill!! Worth the experience. After all, you could have been blown over in the motor home too but that didn’t happen either!
If this story was about enjoying yourself when out in the air, it was hilarious. IF it was real, sounds like this couple has learned to appreciate each other and support “for better or worse.” I think a good laugh first thing in the morning sets a tome for the day.
I think this is a tall tail. Made up.
my partner is more adventurous, but i am game for most things that don’t involve amusement park rides and heights. i love to watch a storm come in over lake superior, just stand on the shores of the ocean and watch the waves crashing in. don’t know if i would ever want to drive near a floating dock during a storm though. imagine being in a light house and watching the majesty of a storm, it would be wonderful!
oops, i it post too soon. all of this other stuff my husband does, climb to the top of a working windmill for the view, climb one of the towers on the mackinaw bridge (have to quit winning those raffles), rock climbing, amusement park rides where the bottom drops out, forget it, you can have that kind of stuff.
It is absolutely true. But that’s what makes couples work. What one lacks the other has. You complete each other. It’s worked for us for 43 years and still going strong!
Congrats on the longevity of your marriage!
Long ago after a divorce I toyed with the idea of learning to sky dive, then one day while talking to a friend who was a former paratrooper he said “you know for 3 years I was jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, but after that experience I’ve decided that wasn’t the smartest thing I’ve done and won’t do it anymore “. So I never learned, several years later in a new marriage I was called a stick in the mud because I never would do anything daring. All those people are now dead and I’m still here, my present wife is just as non-daring as I and we love our lives in our upper senior years. I may have missed a lot of “fun” but I’m still alive at 78. Lol
Hold my beer and watch this.
We are both about the same, not that adventurous, but definitely ready to go out for an adventure. As for this guy, the, uh… ‘evenings activities’ must have been incredible that night.
Going on 52 years of marriage and haven’t climbed a rock face yet.
My former wife was the “you only live life once” person. Even when eating out, she would choose something that Klingons would eat. I miss her.
Oh, yikes, I sure wouldn’t try this anywhere on the Pacific northwest coast because rogue waves kill people every year.
That was great writing!