Only in Dreams

I was on the West Coast. It felt and looked like Big Sur only I knew that I was further north. And by further north I mean British Columbia. The Olympics were still going on and so high on the mountain side overlooking the ocean I found a back entrance to the games. I found a room type gym locker place where a bunch of athletes were gathered around. Apparently the US bobsled team had something tragic happen to three of their members. They wouldn't be able to compete because they only had one guy to man the bobsled. A kid about my age spoke up and volunteered to ride in the front and steer the sled. I volunteered to ride middle. The actual olympic athlete would ride rear. I explained very thoroughly that I had no training but really, how hard could it be? Granted I wasn't planning on winning or getting a good score but at least we would have been able to compete. The older athlete had been training his entire life for this moment and we wanted to give him a chance. At the start of the run I was extremely nervous. I could see my self on TV with family, friends and co-workers watching us at the top of the run. I grabbed onto the little handle on the side and we started to push. Only the bad thing is that we had false-started. We tried to hang onto the handles and dig into the ice track with our feet to stop the sled. Embarrassed, we dragged the sled up back to the start line and tried to recover and start over but the emotional damage was already done. Wanting only to finish we launched again. I was supposed to count out four steps then jump into the sled but no one had told me before hand. I only counted three and jumped in. The sled behaved like a canoe on water and the nose went up knocking over the kid in front. He started to slide down the track, unable to stop. The athlete in the back was hanging on being dragged down on his stomach. I balanced on one foot for a while until I fell out to the side and tried to hang on as the sled sped down the track. When it was all over the athlete looked at me in disgust. His wife and two daughters shook their heads as I walked by. Everyone was disappointed. Funny thing was that I didn't really care. I wasn't even qualified to race a bobsled so it wasn't my fault no one told me to count 4 steps before jumping in. I went back home to my normal life and no one seemed to notice that it was me who had botched up the US bobsled race.

I went down to Zion's NP to hike the narrows with some friends. I must have slept most of the way down there because I don't remember which way we drove. I think we went the more scenic way. There were lots of people riding their motorcycles down and they would do this thing where they drag their feet on the asphalt as they drive. The Narrows now has a backcountry loop so that at the end of the narrows, there is a big campsite and paved parking lot. People can now start at both ends or get a shuttle ride to their cars at the other end. I still don't know if this is good or not. We decided to try out this new camping area and there was a log cabin where we stayed. There were some interesting plastic prisms that I would stack up and when you looked through them, it would create some optical-invisibility illusion.

I went to Disneyland but had forgotten my pass. I had to go in and try and pull up my records but it was a bit hassle. This was due to the fact that the Oath was real. When I had signed up for the year pass, I was sworn to make an oath on my life and the magical kingdom of Disneyland that I would always be a loyal to the cause of Mr. Walt. Everyone had to do it. It wasn't a big deal because it seemed to be just part of the Disneyland experience. No big deal, it wasn't even real. Just animated. But I was wrong. This all sank in as I had to wait and go through tons of checkpoints to visit the Disneyland Necromancer. This person had to undo the Oath associated with my old pass and place me under a new one so I could go and ride the rides. Realizing that this was a serious cult I jumped a fence by the train ride and started running towards the ocean. I ended up in downtown LA trying to escape the Disneyland employees that were chasing after me. Since I didn't have a car I ran through a cement construction area at the base of a new skyscraper. The ground level was just re-bar and wood but as I was about to exit the other side of the building, a tidal wave of wet cement crashed through the re-bar and wood and started flooding the room. I had to scramble back the way I had came but that area too started to flood. Lucky for me I was close to a window and I jumped out. The employees weren't so fortunate. They got clobbered by the wave of cement.

Downtown Provo south of Center street there is a cemetery with run down ruins that resemble a medieval cathedral. One of the ruins seemed like a backdrop from an old western except it resembled the front of the ruins of Al Khazneh in Petra, Jordan. I was with friends exploring these ruins that we didn’t even know existed so close to home. I vaguely remember a girl being there who had a crush on me but since Kelsey was in my life this one girl was just annoying. My mom found a building with a burnt out interior and just cement walls with wooden 2x4s lying across the open basement/foundation. As I started stepping in and balancing on the boards to explore the area I heard a deep voice and wooden panels started to appear along the bottom of the basement as well as up where I was walking. “As the steps appear on top and below, follow them into the unknown.” This made the exploration much easier and less dangerous but something tugging at the back of my mind reminded me of the “haunted place” and all I wanted to do was get out of there.

I was with some friends on a giant section of ocean that was set up like a natural flowrider with easy access to where the wave would break. People were lined up on the left and right side waiting for their turn to catch the next wave but since it was in the ocean I just walked into the middle and caught the next once because I felt like snaking everyone. The wave was epic, it barreled perfectly and I soared down the face. Just for fun I bailed and let the water pummel me into the sand. Salt water shooting up my nose. I miss the ocean.