“Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”
– Helen Keller from her 1940 book Let Us Have Faith

Riding in small airplanes, Skydiving, Parasailing, and Surfing for Peak Thrills

Around the time of my 40th birthday in July 2008, I went through a mid-life crisis. I had worked successfully as a seasonal park ranger in the winters in Everglades National Park, Florida and summers at Crater Lake National Park, Oregon. After seeing the documentary about Al Gore in the summer of 2006, An Inconvenient Truth, I knew I had to do something as a career to promote climate action. However, I had no idea how to pursue this passion. I knew of no organizations or individuals pursuing this passion at that time. I loved my job of giving ranger talks in the national parks. In my restlessness, I started pursuing thrill-seeking opportunities in my spare time.

In the spring of 2007, I wanted to see a bird’s eye view of the Everglades. The highest point in Everglades National Park was about 8 feet above sea level. The lower third of the park of this 1.5-million-acre park is the shallow sea of Florida Bay, which is connected to the Gulf of Mexico and sporadically connected to the Atlantic Ocean through the Florida Keys. Another third of the park is mangrove trees, which live in the brackish mixture of fresh and salt water barely above or at sea level. The upper third of the park is the freshwater slough of sawgrass with hardwood hammock islands and pine tree ridges mixed in between. That area was just a few feet above sea level. The Everglades has no steep tall mountains providing grandiose scenic vistas.

Thus, my friend Jackie and I found a way to take a short airplane ride in March 2007 to get aerial views of the Everglades and south Florida. We booked a pilot to take us on a 45 minute flight in a small 4 seat plane that flew in and out of the Everglades City Airpark, a tiny airport located directly behind the National Park Service Visitor Center where I worked in Everglades City. While that flight was fun, but I wanted more.

I decided I must go tandem skydiving in April 2007 to get even higher views of south Florida. I wanted to experience jumping out of a perfectly good airplane to live to tell about it. I deeply enjoyed that skydiving experience so much that I wanted to do it again when I worked at Crater Lake, Oregon in the summer of 2007. I talked a group of friends to go tandem skydiving with me in August 2007. It was even more of a thrill than the first time, but damn scary since I am afraid of heights. After two times, I got the skydiving adrenaline experience out of my system.

I still longed to do more thrill-seeking experiences. In October 2008, I visited friends on the Big Island of Hawaii. I achieved a life goal to see all 50 states, plus I turned 40 years old in July. Even more, I did not know if I would ever return to the Big Island. Therefore, I was determined to make the most of this trip. I first bought a ticket from UFO Parasailing so I could parasail above the Pacific Ocean.

Parasailing felt magical to feel like I was drifting in a parachute that was attached a couple hundred feet above the boat that was pulling me along. It was a bit freaky seeing how tiny the boat was below me and how my seat rocked back and forth a bit as I was pushed around by the wind. My bare feet were dangling, and I clung tightly to my parachute harness and wires, nervous I could still fall into the water from this great height. Yet, I loved how quiet it was when I was high up parasailing with just the sound of the wind. The view of the Big Island and the Pacific Ocean from up in the parasail was spectacular. I had a fantastic time. With my fear of heights though, I could check this activity off my bucket list. I did not feel much need to do it again.

The next day, I signed up for a surfing lesson. I had no business surfing since I am not a strong swimmer and I don’t have great balance. Furthermore, I always had a fear of swimming in water where I cannot touch the bottom. I learned quickly when I showed up for my lesson that morning that those are to requisites to surf successfully: strong swimming skills and a good sense of balance. Gulp! I was going to have to swallow my fears to achieve success there.

Once we got out into the water, it took several attempts to try to catch a wave and balance myself properly on the surfboard. My surf instructor screamed at me in a very beneficial way each time I tried to climb on board the surf to ride the wave back to the beach. He worried a strong wave would push me into nearby jagged rocks, not the soft sandy beach where I needed to land. He was a great instructor because he did not give up on me. He was determined I would achieve standing on the board, properly balancing, and surfing the wave smoothly to the beach.

After several failures, a part of me was getting tired and I thought about giving up. However, my surfing instructor was not going to allow me to fail. He was determined I would succeed and I was not going to let him down. Finally, I caught a wave! I stood fully on the board, and I balanced myself with my back crouched forward with my knees bent, one leg in front of the other. I did it! I was so proud of myself! I achieved a peak life experience, like nothing I did before. I hopped off the board in the shallow water at the beach. My instructor was so proud of me and this accomplishment for him that day. I must have been one of the hardest clients he had ever taught to surf. He looked tired from all his efforts to coach me that day. I made sure to tip him well and thank him for his efforts.

I have heard that surfing is one of the hardest recreation activities one could try. Having tried surfing, it felt like a big challenging endeavor for me. I felt worn out and I just wanted to chill out at the beach and hotel for the rest of the day. No need for me to try surfing again. Check! I got that need out of my system.

Zip Lining near Vail, Colorado in May, 2010.

After my Hawaii trip, I was not finished with my adventure seeking. Around this time, zip lining became a popular recreation activity in tourist locations. I looked online for any zip lining near Crater Lake in southern Oregon in 2009. However, none of the local businesses offering zip lining appealed to me. When I spent my winter in St. Louis, Missouri in the winter of 2009-10, it was too cold to zip line. I did not see any zip lining outfitters nearby. When I planned my cross-country trip from St. Louis to Crater Lake in May 2010, I noticed a zip line outfitter near I-70 in the Rocky Mountains near Vail, Colorado. When I checked in April 2010, it was very early in the season for their operation, but they were able to take my reservation for a zip line.

When I arrived at the Zip Adventures on May 3, 2010, I was basically the only car in the parking lot. The owners were very happy to see me because I was their only customer that day. It was an overcast somewhat cold day in this high elevation area in the Rocky Mountains. Not really the typical clear summer day that one pictures to do an activity like zip lining. However, I was dressed in a turtleneck, warm sweater, and winter jacket, so I was prepared for the chill in the air, plus any breeze I would experience while zip lining.

The only rule I remember is that they never wanted me to touch the overhead cable while I was moving on the zipline. First, my hand could get ripped up while I traveled on the cable. Even worse, hand could get mangled by the pulley wheels attached to my harness as I moved down the cable. The business was so light for the owners that they traveled on the zip line several times while I was there for the fun of it.

With my fear of heights, my heart was in my throat as I moved on the zip line from one end of the deep box canyon to the other side. However, I loved the thrill of traveling on the zip line. The owners secured me well on the zip line so I did not necessarily have to hold onto the bright yellow harness with both hands while I zipped down the zip line. But, my fear of heights forced me to always hold tightly onto the harness with both hands like my life depended upon it.

One of the owners offered a fun activity while I ziplined. I could grab a rock before I started to hold in one hand. During the zip line, I could attempt to throw inside an open barrel that was about 50 feet to the side and under the zip line. If I got the rock inside the barrel, I would win a chance for a free zip line at their location in the future. I felt too squeamish with my fear of heights over the canyon, the weird sensation of dangling from a harness, plus the speed of the zip line moving downline. I was not in a comfort zone to throw a rock into a barrel while zip lining, but I was happy I tried the experience of zip lining. Half the fun was hanging with the two owners in their 30s who delighted in owning this business, zip lining themselves, and showing others like me a good time zip lining.

This was another experience that felt fun for me, but I did not feel a need ever have to do it again. I still had other thrill-seeking items that I wanted to do, such as riding in a hot air balloon.

Inviting my friend Lise Wall to ride in a Hot Air Balloon with me

When I arrived at Crater Lake in mid-May 2010 to work as a seasonal park ranger, I had the privilege of working with Lise Wall. We worked together in the spring of 2009 for the Classroom at Crater Lake. We led ranger talks for high school, middle school, and grade school snow shoeing field trips at Crater Lake. Lise and I enjoyed working together and we became good friends.

She invited me to visit her the Illahee Fire Lookout, Oregon in August 2009 where she worked as a fire lookout observer. In November 2009, I was housesitting in Ashland, Oregon and Lise spent her winters living in the tiny town Idleyld Park, Oregon, a 30-minute drive east of Roseburg, Oregon. We decided to meet up in the Roseburg area to go to the Wildlife Safari Park. We had a terrific time driving in my car to see the wildlife roaming there, such as zebras, bison, giraffes, camels, rams, musk ox, reindeer, leopards, wild turkeys, elk, llamas, rhinoceros, black bears, and other animals.

Lise Wall was an attractive woman who was slender to the point of delicate. She was shorter than me had long flowing brunette hair down to her waist and a soft whispering voice. She frequently had a twinkling smile around me, waiting to hold back the laughter until I said something funny. She delighted in my sense of humor and the ease that I told jokes around her. We seemed to have an attraction for each other, but we never knew how to pursue it, so we always stayed on the friendship level.

She enjoyed hearing about my thrill-seeking to sky dive, parasail, surf in Hawaii, hike up and down the Grand Canyon, zip line, etc. She liked my zeal to try new adventures. When I chatted with her one day when we were working at Crater Lake, I mentioned that I wanted to go up in a hot air balloon sometime soon. Lise expressed an interest to join me if I did this. I don’t mind doing these thrills by myself, but it is more fun to have a friend with me. Lise and I frequently laughed when working or hanging out together, so I knew it would be good to have her join me.

I looked online and I found the His Sky Balloons in Grants Pass, Oregon. I arranged with my Crater Lake supervisor Eric Anderson to get a specific day off in June so I could make a reservation for this balloon ride. Lise was still working seasonally at Crater Lake into June. Eric arranged it so both of us could have the day off on Friday, June 11th to do this balloon ride.

Grants Pass is a two-hour drive southwest of Crater Lake. Lise needed to go home the day before to take care of her cats before joining me in Grants Pass. Our balloon reservation was for 8 am the next day. I booked a room for both of us at the Shilo Inn so we could get a good night sleep and not be rushed to drive several hours from our residences that morning.

I arrived at the motel on Thursday evening, June 10th an hour and a half before Lise showed up at the room. It took her so long to get to the motel that I was a bit worried if she would make there ok. When she arrived at the room, she looked lovely with her long flowing brunette air and lovely smile, she looked happy to hang out with me. I will admit I hoped a romantic intimacy might happen that evening.

However, as soon as Lise was comfortable in the room, she grabbed the TV remote, turned on the TV, and was giddy to see what shows were on TV. Lise lived in a remote rural mountainous area without TV reception. She prided herself as an aspiring writer. I somehow thought she had a negative impression of TV like me. I was shocked to see her marveling at the sight of TV, to the point of almost ignoring me. I think she was hoping that I would be amazed by the availability of TV. At that time, neither one of us had access to it in the remote mountains at Crater Lake or at her home in the deep secluded forests at Idleyld Park.

Sitting on my bed, I finally sighed and observed, “I can’t believe you are watching TV!”

Lise responded, “Well, what else is there to do?”

Me: “I can think of a lot of other things to do.”

She did not get the hint. She continued to happily watch TV. It felt like there was an attraction between us. I probably could have sat next to her on her bed to see if anything progressed from there. I don’t think she would have minded, but I was just too shy. I was also still in shock how much this liberal minded, mountain living, nature loving, independent woman was loving watching TV. It was bizarre to me. The TV viewing was a mood killer for me. That might have been her intention. Who knows!

She eventually turned off the TV. We had a pleasant conversation about work, life, and the upcoming hot air balloon experience the next day. Nothing romantic happened. I did not want to make our cherished friendship awkward by going beyond that. If you had bugged or videotaped our motel room that evening, you would have been bored with two friends chatting until they fell asleep on their own beds that you would have fallen asleep too!

Riding in a Hot Air Ballon above Grants Pass, Oregon on June 11, 2010

When we woke up the next morning, we quickly realized we overslept. It was after 7:36 am and our balloon ride reservation was at 8 am. We each quickly changed from our sleeping clothes to the clothes we planned to wear that day. We left the motel room fast throwing our overnight bags in our cars and raced to try to make it to the balloon in time.

When we reached the hot air balloon, it was already a couple of inches off the ground. It was right around 8 am. The pilot of the balloon allowed us to instantly jump into the balloon basket. He then sternly remarked, “If you had arrived any later, we would have left without you!”

Lise and I felt embarrassed and relieved we had cut it so close to barely make it on it. We noticed three other patrons on this balloon basket, which was only about as big as a small elevator. There was not much room to maneuver or turn around in the balloon.

In our rush to get to the balloon. We barely had time to notice how stunningly beautiful the balloon was. It had a multi-color checkerboard pattern of squares of blue, yellow, red, and green. In the middle of the balloon was a giant yellow stripe that went from the top to the basket. Inside the yellow stripe were the vertical letters WWJD. I had no doubt the pilot would tell us what those letters meant at some point.

As soon as Lise and I stepped inside the basket, the balloon started quietly lifting towards the sky like a very quiet elevator. The only sound that broke up the noise was the infusion of the propane blasted like a flame thrower into the balloon, officially known as the envelope or bag.

The view was mesmerizing. We took off from a suburban part of Grants Pass. As we got higher, we could see more rows of these middle-class homes with lots of tall trees dispersed between the houses. While we were up in the air over Grants Pass, another hot air balloon was airborne. It was colored with red on the top third, white in the middle with a large Remax logo and a cobalt blue color in the bottom third of the balloon. It was fitting to see another balloon in the sky on this morning to give us more perspective on this hot air balloon experience.

With my fear of heights, I dared not to look down at the ground as it appeared further away from us. It also felt freaky to me to see all this blue sky and open air around the ballon as we hung out in the sky anywhere from 500 to 1,000 feet above the ground. I tried not to think how there was six of us huddled together inside this small balloon basket, just floating around in the sky. When I did think about it, it felt very weird and I felt vulnerable being this high in the sky. At the same time, I was loving the views of Grants Pass and the mountains surrounding Grants Pass. This felt different than any previous life experience or adventure.

At times it seemed like the balloon was floating in the air, almost as light as a feather. At other times, it felt like the balloon was a white-knuckle ride as it would decrease in altitude, nearly missing the tops of trees or the flood lights of a nearby high school football stadium.

When we were at our highest elevation above the ground, about 1,000 to 2,000 feet, balloon pilot shared why it had the initials WWJD. He told us that it stood for “Walk With Jesus Daily.” The initials also stand for “What Would Jesus Do.” I should have known that abbreviation having a connection to Christianity since I had seen that in popular and religious culture for decades. However, it did not grab my attention when I made online reservations for the balloon. I barely noticed it when Lise and I showed up that morning and saw the balloon for the first time.

The pilot expressed his Christian faith is important to him. He shared where he attended church and hoped we would join him. I did not like going to church when I was a kid, and I still don’t. I am not comfortable with religion, especially organized religion, because I saw too many famous people, especially politicians, express how religious they are. Yet they treat people, particularly the most vulnerable in our society, awful, inhumane, and cruel. Suddenly, I felt like the balloon basket was way too small. I wanted to get off the balloon, but there was no place to go. At the same time, the scenery and experience was so fantastic that I chose to ignore him.

Besides Lise and me, the other folks on the balloon did not seem to mind that he was witnessing his religion. They seemed to agree with him and reacted positively to what the pilot shared about his faith. Lise just ignored the whole thing. She seemed to love every second of this balloon ride. She smiled with delight when we looked at each other several times during the flight.

It was not enough for the pilot to talk about his Christian faith. He then pulled out a religious card about his balloon business that was roughly about the same size as a baseball card. He deliberately let go of the card while we were a couple thousand feet above the ground. The card then flittered in and out of the balloon basket like a butterfly. The wind carried the card differently than it would have on the ground. The jittery free motion in the air of this religious card sent me into a panic. It reminded me how high we were above the ground in a tiny balloon basket. If anything failed at this height, we were falling to our deaths. This realization caused me to duck inside the balloon in a spot where I could not see the floating religious business card or the broad view of the Grants Pass area.

I am glad I overcame my fear and momentary panic attack. The pilot pointed out some locations in Grants Pass that I had not heard about before. He pointed out a Rolls Royce junkyard. Rolls Royce cars that were totaled in an accident or that no were no operational were brought to this junkyard. They were then stripped of their good parts to be sold to auto mechanics and Rolls Royce owners needing to replace parts on their vehicles. The pilot stated that this was one of few Rolls Royce junkyards in the United States. The balloon pilot even found a way to maneuver the balloon about 50 feet off the ground so we would get a good view of the junkyard.

We continued to see the red, white, and blue REMAX balloon ascend and descend from a distance from us in Grants Pass. It was great to be in the sky around the same time as another hot air balloon to get aerial photos at the same level as us, above our altitude and below our elevation. I liked seeing the shadow of our balloon on the ground. It felt we were part of our own balloon eclipse. I would not see a solar eclipse for another 14 years. I have seen a few lunar eclipses over the years, but it was still a fun sight to see the dark temporary shadow of our WWJD balloon on the ground.

After about an hour, it was time for the balloon to land safely on the ground and for the balloon ride to be over. With my fear of heights and the uneasy sensations I felt at times during the balloon ride, I was happy to be the first person off the balloon.

It was great to take photos of the balloon outside the basket. Lise and everyone remained on board to provide weight so the balloon operators and staff could start deflating it. They needed their weight to hold the balloon down so it would not float away. When the balloon was deflated enough that the envelope or bag started to look droopy, Lise and everyone else then exited the basket. The basked was then tipped to the side so the balloon would fully deflate, and they could carefully fold it up for future trips. It was a delicate operation to fold it up to make sure the thin nylon materials that make the balloon would rip and make the balloon inoperable.

After several minutes, the balloon envelope or bag was folded up into a large, enclosed pick-up truck. I then only had my memories and digital photos from this experience.

The aftermath of this Hot Air Balloon Experience and my thrill seeking

This was the last time I went out on an excursion with Lise. Just a month later, I started dating Lesley. I dated Lesley until the end of 2010. In 2011, I felt heartbroken after Lesley broke up with me. For nearly all of 2011, I felt too sad and depressed to want to date anyone else. Lise wrote me some letters when I spent the winters in St. Louis. Lise and I remained as friends. I appreciated her friendship in that dark time in my life after Lesley ended our relationship.

In July 2011, I was still grieving that Lesley and I were no longer dating. It was brutal on my emotions because we worked together as fellow interpretation/naturalist rangers at Crater Lake National Park. I knew I needed to do something to pull myself forward to enjoy life again. For years, I wanted to put together a climate change evening program at Crater Lake National Park. My Supervisor Eric Anderson encouraged me to do that since I expressed an interest in the summer of 2008. The lead naturalist David Grimes supported my interest in putting together a climate change campfire evening program.

In previous years, I was scared to put together a climate change evening program. I felt like I did not know enough. Even more, I worried that visitors who denied the scientific evidence and reality of climate change would want to get into a fierce argument with me about it. By July 2011, I knew I needed to stop procrastinating, hiding behind my fears, and just do it. I needed to start enjoying life again and following my passion for climate action, especially my calling to be “The Climate Change Comedian.”

I started to say to myself: I overcame my fear of swimming in deep water with surfing in Hawaii in 2008. Even more, I overcame my fear of heights with skydiving twice, parasailing, and riding in a hot air balloon. Thus, I could create a climate change evening program.

I spent my free time at Crater Lake in July 2011 creating this climate change evening program. I debuted it in August 2011. To my surprise, the park visitors at Crater Lake gave a positive reception to this ranger program. Very few visitors argued with me about it when I gave it during the summers of 2011 to 2017.

David Grimes videotaped it in September 2012, and I uploaded it on YouTube a few months later. As I enjoyed giving this climate change evening program, it led to many other public speaking opportunities to talk about climate change.

In 2011, I joined South County Toastmasters to be an active member during my winters in St. Louis. I gave 20 speeches about climate change to this group from 2011 to 2017, 8 of those speeches I was voted by my fellow Toastmasters as “Best Speaker.” I miss my involvement with that club in St. Louis. A friend who is still involved says that the group still talks about me and the speeches I gave about climate chance.

The same year I joined Toastmasters, I co-founded the Climate Reality St. Louis Meet Up group, now called Climate Meetup-St. Louis. My life changed when Tanya Couture showed up at one of our Meet Ups in 2012. We started dating in 2013. We got married in 2015, and we moved to Portland, Oregon in 2017.

I will always appreciate my friendship with Lise and the fun times we had hanging out together, such as riding in a hot air balloon together. I simply can’t imagine my life without Tanya. She has always been 100% supportive of my climate organizing.

Around the same time I became friends with Tanya, I began volunteering with Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL) in May 2012. A few months later, in August 2012, I attended a Climate Reality Training in San Francisco, CA led by former Vice President Al Gore. He trained over 800 volunteers, including me, to become Climate Reality Leaders to give his climate change presentation. As a park ranger, Toastmaster, CCL volunteer, and Climate Reality Leader, I ended up giving over 200 to 300 climate change talks from 2012 to 2022 in 12 U.S. states, Washington D.C. and Canada. I gave my Crater Lake climate change evening program for an audience of over 200 people at the Grand Canyon National Park in May 2013.

I discovered my life’s passion do want to do something about climate change when I was working in Everglades National Park in the winter of 2007-08. However, for years I did not have courage to speak publicly about it. It was only after I accomplished my thrill seeking of skydiving, parasailing, surfing, zip lining, and, yes, riding in a hot air balloon that I discovered my determination to speak publicly and take climate action.

My advice is to find something that scares you. It could be as simple as public speaking. Find a way to overcome that fear in a fun way. Then use the courage and the thrill of victory you receive from overcoming your fear to change the world in a good way.

If you do that, let me know how it goes.

I still believe that Helen Keller said it best, “Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.”