Sedona
Published 6:44 pm Tuesday, April 30, 2024
The first thing you’ve got to know is that you can’t take rednecks anywhere and expect them to act right. Blame it on my bull riding Daddy but sometimes we just can’t be responsible for our actions; it’s just our nature to make unwise decisions. At least that’s what we told my sister-in-law.
I’d flown to Arizona for my brother’s wedding. It was a short trip, so we wanted to make the best of it, and decided to do some hiking out in the desert. A few hours before the wedding.
Miles out of town we ascended a mountain, walking across ledges that were inches wide and hundreds of feet above the ground. At one point I slipped in some loose gravel and fell next to a bush that I thought had a bee in it but later deduced was actually a rattlesnake. When I shook a rattlesnake hat band at a store in town and recognized the sound, I nearly fainted.
You know, just the normal near-death experiences you have right before big formal events.
As we climbed, I pushed a branch to the side and in my peripheral, I swore I saw my brother grab the branch. I found out I was wrong when it snapped back and hit him in the face.
We tried as best we could to convince my sister-in-law that the gash on his forehead that would likely be visible in pictures was from being attacked by bandits, but to no avail. And she didn’t even find our attempt at making up a story funny.
Another near death experience.
Mama put a little makeup on his forehead and as far as I can tell the pictures weren’t ruined. You’d think we would learn but minutes before my rehearsal dinner we were in the woods shooting guns, so doing potentially dangerous things before weddings sort of turned into a tradition.
That was 19 years ago and is still one of my favorite memories. The two of us out there experiencing the world together, making bad decisions and great stories.
