The Oregon Trail: Gerald Hyland

May 29; Scott's Bluff

       Today I learned that Michael liked rocks.

       Legit, we were walking towards Scott's Bluff, and when we saw the giant rock-thing standing there, he screamed and grabbed onto my arm. I literally couldn't tell whether he was crying or laughing or what (but I had to admit, it was kinda cute). Then he started ranting about hearing stories about this rock and that he wanted to visit and explore or something alike, so guess what we did when we stopped?

       It was dark, yet Michael and I took a lantern to go and explore Scott's Bluff. I had to remind Michael to keep a lookout for snakes because we didn't know if they were in the area, but he told me that the only snake in the area was the prairie rattlesnake, and we were fine as long as we didn't provoke it.

       We tried to climb the rock, but we couldn't get to the top because one, it was frigging dark, and two, it was a pretty steep climb. Especially with number one, I am still afraid of the dark (don't judge). But, Michael said that we could stop and sit on a ledge sticking out of the rock partway up and look around from there.

       We looked at the horizon, which had the beautiful colors of dark purples and blues. It was after the "perfect sunset time", but I personally like the colors after the "perfect sunset". I think Michael's more fond of that kind of sunset, but he seemed to like the sunset we saw nevertheless.

       As the scene replayed in my head right now as I'm writing this, I'm trying not to physically slap my palm to my forehead. I accidentally knocked down the lantern. For a split second, I saw nothing but complete darkness even before I shut my eyes and grabbed onto what was closest to me: Michael.

       Now, if I was not terrified of the darkness and how I felt lost whenever I couldn't see whatever was around me, I would've stayed calm and kept my distance, but that wasn't the case. I held onto Michael, who seemed confused and startled when I literally grabbed him. Luckily he soon realized what the problem was. He didn't say anything as I was trying to calm myself down with deep breaths. I'm not exactly sure if this is true or if my memory was just foggy from fear, but I think he even placed his hand on my head in attempt to help.

       After I was calm enough to let go, Michael decided that it was time to head back to the tents. I didn't talk much on the way down, but Michael helped me out. I almost slipped a couple of times, but I caught myself. It took a while, but we made it down the hill safely (except for when I scraped my knee while catching myself, but eh, I'm fine), and Michael even found the lantern I knocked down. It wasn't too broken, and we could still use it, but I still feel bad for damaging it, freaking out, and perhaps making Michael feel uncomfortable (even though he did nothing to suggest that).

       We didn't tell anyone about it. We only told the fam that I dropped the lantern (Michael tried to correct me and say that "we" dropped it, but no, I was the one who broke it. Calm down, Michael) and when my mom asked me how I scraped my knee, I told her how I fell while my dad was fixing me up.

       Hopefully this doesn't stop me from walking tomorrow.