Queen Of The World

by Crystal Coons
Mar 12, 2003

Let me tell you the story of a time I went camping. Doesn't sound like anything special, right? Well, as you loyal readers know, I am a city girl to the core. I had never been camping before I met my husband, and I had never intended to. I never hiked, biked, or anything. Then one day I met this guy, fell in love with him, and before I know it, I'm taking daily walks, spending time at home with the family, and sleeping on the ground. What a turnaround.

I was eased into this camping thing. The first time, it was off the side of the road, and there were outhouses. I enjoyed myself, but at that point, I'd take a McDonald's sandwich over camping.

This time, however, was different.

We drove down a long dirt road, and found little clearing the family decided would be our home for the night. We set up, and I immediately made myself aware of the outhouses in the area, and checked them all out. "Not so bad", I thought to myself. We all went to hike along Canyon Creek, which was beautiful. It wasn't much of a hike, seeing as it was all flat-ish. We retreated back to the campsite and my husband, his father and mother, and two of his sisters went in search of firewood. I stood there; looking around at my surroundings and suddenly the wind picked up and ran through my waist-length hair, like gentle fingers.

Maybe being out here wasn't going to be so bad. The rest of the day was filled with us all hanging around the campsite, playing horseshoes, and laughing. We made dinner and hung around the campfire all night until we all got so tired and went to sleep.

Sunday morning, we had breakfast and packed up. We drove to Christopher Creek and everyone but my husband and I left to go swimming. we hung behind and began to hike around the mountain. Now, like I said, being one to not have gone hiking in my life and all, I didn't take well to all this up and down, almost non-existent trails, over which my husband floated over with ease. I struggled for a while, trying to make it up these trails, with the fear of getting lost and never seeing anyone again. The sun bore down on my face, shoulders and head, burning me to a crisp, and causing signs of a heat stroke. The temperature rose as the day went on and we continued to walk these trails. We got to a sort of level ground, and I paused to cool down in the shade.

My husband, being the outdoorsman that he is, yelled that he'd be right back and bounced up a trail. "Angel!!" he yelled, "You've got to come here and check this out!!" He bounced back down the trail with a huge smile on his face. At this point, I was thinking to myself, "There is NO WAY IN HECK am I hiking anyway but down." Before I could protest, my hand was grabbed, and I was being pulled in the direction of the trail. I forced myself up the rocky path, and suddenly, it was like heaven's gates had opened before me and the sun that had been blocked out by the tall pine trees had broken through and shone down on me alone. It would have been the perfect time for angels to sing "Hallelujah!" as I continued a few steps further.

A large stretch of rock stood before me and I walked to the edge. I looked around me and realized-I was at the top. The sky above me, and a large canyon below me. I saw peaks of mountains that seemed forever away, light blue on the horizon. I felt like I was on top of the world. I took a few more steps in my joy and screamed; "I'm the KING OF THE WOORRLLLDD!!!!!" My husband then laughed and pointed out I wasn't a man. I pondered my previous statement and decided to try again. "I'm the King. err... QUEEN OF THE WORLDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" I had never felt so high in my life. Whether it was the altitude, the extreme Arizona

Arizona	(air-i'-ZON-u')
The State of Arizona comprises the extreme south-western portion of the United States. It is bounded on the north by Utah, on the east by New Mexico, on the south by Mexico, and on the west by California and Nevada.

sun or the sense of accomplishment, I'll never know. Maybe it was all three. Either way, I had made it to the top of a mountain. It was no Mount Everest, but it felt that way to me.

I stood there while the wind hit me, and I filled my lungs with wonderful top-of-the-world-fresh-mountain-air. Then I realized how close the edge I was and realized I was terrified of heights. So, in a moment of shame, I turned and ran away towards my husband, who was watching me from a few feet back. He laughed as we turned and walked away. We headed back to Phoenix later that day. and the whole way home, I thought to myself; "I made it up a mountain. I actually did it. And now, it seems to me, there's nothing I can't do."