“You’ll be warm,” he replied with a beautiful smile.
I smiled back, shook my head, and turned my gaze back out of the window. All three Jeeps were trekking up the mountain in a single file formation.
“This view is breathtaking,” I proclaimed, looking at the peaks just ahead of us as we made our way through the mountains.
Large trees stood like mile markers on either side of the road as we continued climbing higher. My ears popped, and I chewed my chewing gum harder, but I couldn’t take my eye off thebeautiful scenery: the snowcapped mountains, the drifts on the trees, and the majestic mountain peaks standing before us like large, erected pillars of gray, black, white, and silver stone.
“Isn’t it though? And that is where we’re camping tonight.” He pointed just ahead and then reached over and squeezed my knee.
At one point, CJ’s truck had gotten stuck, and Harlem hitched it up and pulled it out of the snow. Right after that, we were crossing another river.
“This landscape is so beautiful, Harlem. I have to take pictures,” I asserted, reaching into the travel bag that was directly behind my seat.
He chuckled, reached over again, and he gripped my thigh as we came upon another body of water.
“Hang on, Baby. This bank is steep,” Harlem warned.
He rolled down the snowbank, and I squealed as the back of the Jeep lifted a little, and the nose of the vehicle plunged into the water. He gunned the engine when it seemed that we were going to be stuck.
“Is everything okay?” I asked with light fear in my voice.
“We’re good, Baby. I’m just going to put this in reverse, back out, and head back in again,” he explained, step by step.
It took only a few tries before we were out of the river, and within five minutes, we were at our campsite.
We climbed out of the vehicles, and everyone shouted, laughed, and high-fived each other. Jenna checked on Isla and me as the men started unpacking.
“Are you ladies okay?” she asked.
“I’m good. That was actually fun. I was scared a few times, but nothing can beat those gorgeous views and the adrenaline rush of going through the rivers and conquering them,” I replied.
“Right, and before you know it, you’ll be used to it.”
“We’ll be pros like you?” Isla laughed.
“Exactly.” Jenna laughed too.
“Let’s help them get this stuff out of here so we can get out of the cold,” I suggested.
“Not until we get a few selfies in. This view is too stunning to miss. We have to capture it,” Isla asserted.
“You’re right about that, boo,” I replied.
We all got together and took several pictures, including the men, before we removed everything from the vehicles and set up camp. It took a while before we were set up the way that Harlem wanted us to be, but once everything was to his satisfaction, we sat around with them by the fire, cooked, and then ate and drank some beers.
“This has been an amazing experience,” Isla declared after we finished our meal.
“It has been. I’m surprised that you didn’t capture more for your MixTube channel,” Eli declared.
“I thought about it, but I’ve got more than enough footage on the ride up here. There are other things that I want to capture, but I wanted to be present in the moment. I wanted to enjoy the experience and not through the eyes of a lens for the people,” Isla explained.
“I feel you,” I declared. “I did capture some photos with my regular camera, but I just couldn’t miss that much of this stunning adventure.”
“I thought we were gonna drown. Of all the years we’ve been up here, we’ve never been stuck like we were this time,” Jenna professed.
“Baby, I told you there was nothing to worry about. We were on pure snow, no ice. The ice was breaking down the river, but we were a good enough distance away to cross safely before the ice broke where we were,” CJ stated.
“Yeah, y’all were good, sis,” Harlem declared, nuzzling my neck.
