On the top of the world

I’ve been known to make impulse decisions, when it came buying things. However it has always been rare that I trusted solely on my impulses on anything else. And when it came to adventures, I would say I liked to plan at least a tiny bit before I took the plunge. For this same reason, when I decided to hop onto to an R44 Clipper , which stood majestically in front of me, I myself was taken aback!

Everything about the trip was unplanned. A sunny morning that yesterday turned out to be, seemed to indicate a perfect weather all day long and we decided to travel down to the beach. A quick tour around the web world to nail down on the closest beach pointed us to a 70-mile drive to the “Trump City” of the east – the Atlantic City . Having already wasted half a day, through the process of waking up to a lazy Saturday morning, we did not give this a second thought. Relying on the en-route technology aids, we jumped into the car and soon hit the roads.

Although there were indications of an impending surprise, through the occasional disappearance of the sun beneath the mildly dark clouds, little did we expect a strong gush of cold wind to greet us as we park the car and got out! “Wading” through the strong currents, we reached the beach and what we saw was barrens!

Slightly disappointed by the laziness to check the weather before heading out, we decided to take a walk down the pier, before the winds became unbearable. And there it stood in all its majestic elegance, at the farthest end of the pier! We walked towards it, with our eyes fixed on nothing but the clipper. It was as if all of us thought alike. At the counter, the cashier took down our weights, a random number that we told him out of the blue, which I strongly believe was completely off, at least in my case. After another 5 minutes of cash and credit formalities, we were handed our tickets to our 3 minutes of being in the air!

As I stepped out to walk towards the chopper, a sudden wave of apprehension struck me. I wondered how a small and light man-made craft such as this could muster the strength to fight one of the strongest forces of nature, the wind! But there was no turning back. I had already made up my mind.

We were asked to pause, right at the end of the walkway, to take a picture with the chopper. The captain, an old veteran (or as I allowed myself to believe) greeted us with a quick, yet warm smile. I chose the front seat, which gave me a wonderful view. We were briefed on the safety instructions and were buckled up in no time and off we lifted without the usual accelerations that I was used to on a normal plane!

I guess I missed a heartbeat when the chopper took a quick dip right at the beginning, into the Atlantic, but soon I was on the top of the world….

.. looking down on creation!

It was a bliss! Nothing we did after that would come anywhere close to those three minutes of being in the air! I guess its time I started trusting my instincts and impulses beyond just purchases!