Freddie Richards was a 45 year old stockbroker who lives in upstate New York. His whole life he’s been very energetic and had the need to something very adventurous in life. But when he was a kid his dad George Collins was serving in the United States Army, as a result of that Freddie and George never got do everything they had planned to do. They had planned to go bungee jumping, skydiving, and zip lining, even though it is against George’s morals he is a very easy going man who tends to avoid adventurous situations if possible. But as Freddie moved onto college they never found the time to do everything they had planned. Now Freddie is 45 and George is 67. Freddie has hit the point in his life that many would call his “mid life crisis”. He has started to make many large purchases such as a sport car, a sailboat, and an addition to his house. The last thing he wanted to do was “make up for lost time” with his dad. He had many things planned and he was going to surprise his dad for his birthday, which happened to be in 2 weeks which was enough time to book everything.

Freddie showed up at George’s on his birthday without telling George he was going to show up. George was of course very happy to see Freddie, but was still very surprised and puzzled at why Freddie was at his house. George, being the easy going guy, hated surprises or secrets. Freddie knew this from when he was a little kid, so all he told his father was that for his birthday he was taking him on an all expenses paid road trip to make up for lost time. George was very confused what that meant, and all Freddie said was that he was gonna love it, and they were going to grow closer from the experience. George packed his bags and the two were on their way to the first destination.
As they pulled up to the first destination George could see a great, large canyon and platform where people were jumping from into the canyon on a cable. Immediately George knew what this was all about. He knew that the phrase “make up for lost time” really meant making up for the time that he was serving in the Army. Although George did serve in the Army he still hated heights no matter, it was his lifelong fear. George begged and begged Freddie to not do this, but Freddie convinced him. They both got suited up and safety prepped. Then they both were standing on the edge of the ledge together strapped to the cables. Freddie could tell George was nervous, he thought the best remedy to this would be just get it over with. So he grabbed his dad’s hand, then they jumped. George’s grip on Freddie’s hand got tighter and tighter as they flew down towards the floor of the canyon. Then they hit the max length of the cable and went flying back up. And just as quick as it started, it was over. They both just hung there as they were being reeled back up laughing hysterically. Once they were back up and in the car it was obvious George enjoyed it. But he thought that was it, he thought they would be going back home. He was quite wrong, they went the opposite direction of the city, and towards the direction of the next thing they would be doing.

George and Freddie pulled up to an airport that just had small turbo prop airplanes that looked like they could just sit the two pilots and 4 other people. On one side of the planes there was a slide open door that looked abnormal for that kind of plane. As George was looking at this he perplexed at first then he realized what they were doing. They were going to be skydiving. The ultimate fear of people who are afraid of heights. George was quite adamant on not doing this. He said he would do anything else but skydive, but Freddie was dead set on doing this. Freddie had to drag George into the orientation area. As they were being briefed Freddie looked at his dad and saw a very angry look that he had never seen before. Even though this look was very unnerving, he knew that once they were falling towards earth together it would really bring them closer together. The two got in the plane with the instructors and took off into the sky. The flight was about 20 minutes, and Freddie was even getting a little nervous because they were really high up. Higher than Freddie thought they would be. As they reached the key altitude one of the instructors flung open the sliding door exposing the cold thin air. Also exposing the long way down that they would be taking momentarily. It was now or never so George and Freddie crawled to the door with their instructors on their back and grabbed eachothers hands as they did before. Then they jumped. They started falling towards earth at almost 125 miles per hour. They were screaming laughing and taking in this once in a lifetime thing. Right before the instructor with Freddie pulled the parachute he saw a smile on his dad’s face bigger then any smile he’d seen before. Both of them glided back to earth and slided to a stop right back where they started. The whole endeavor lasted no more than 6 minutes even though it felt like an eternity. Freddie knew that his dad loved it and that he had accomplished the goal of his trip.

Freddie and George got in the car, and George was expecting to be going to another place. But Freddie turned the car towards the city and headed back. At the time it was all Freddie could afford because of his other sporadic purchases, but George still did appreciate it, and did see the actual goal of the trip. He realized that by taking these risks and stepping out of his comfort zone he became closer than he had ever been with his son. Although they were both full grown adults doing there own thing, they both still felt even closer than they had ever been. That was the best birthday present George could’ve ever asked for and would remember for the rest of his life.