As Chad and I were pulling into his hometown in California late one night we had to drive through some really thick fog. Growing up with foggy evenings were common for both of us and we started to reminisce about the folklore that we grew up hearing about in our hometowns. Chad heard about "rebobs" which apparently were some sort of flying monkeys, and I always heard about "The Stairway to Heaven." Don't even get me started on "The Purple People." Anyway, there's a monastery up in the hills of my hometown. There was talk of these stairs that were near the monastery that never ended. People would say they would go up and up and disappear into the fog.
In honor of October and Halloween and everything spooky I thought I'd share my experience with the "Stairway...to...Heaven." (insert some dramatic scary music and a "Boooaahhhh" here). One night while in high school me, Britt, Matthew, Ben and James started talking about this "Stairway to Heaven" and decided to go check it out. As we winded up the hills in Britt's Jeep Wrangler, we started to majorly spook ourselves. Or at least the boys were trying to spook us, and it worked because I was so scared. At one point a car came up behind us and James started saying things to make us think that they were following us. I was freaking and I remember Britt yelling, "Are you serious, Are you serious?!" while punching the gas. The car finally turned and I laughed, cause, well of course they weren't following us. At one point Ben was practically sitting on my lap and when I questioned him he said, "I don't want to be by the window! They're plastic!"
We finally get up by the monastery and we find the stairs. None of us wanted to get out of the car but we finally made ourselves. We slowly walked across the street while making sure to stay in a pack. Being really wimpy in these types of situations I strategically placed myself in the middle of everyone. We stood on the edge of the woods for at least a minute trying to decide if we were really going to do it. As we made one step into the woods Brittany noticed two people walking towards us from the Monastery and she quietly yells, "People!" We all started chaotically whispering, "People? People! Where? People!" I still remember looking down the street and seeing those two robed men back lit by the spotlight. We all ran to the car and four of us climbed over the seats into the back seat while Britt hopped in the drivers seat. I still remember just being a big pile of people in a backseat that only fits two. It still makes me laugh. And luckily we got away just in the nick of time. Actually the monks were still way down the street but it sounds a little more exciting to say it was a close call. I love that memory. We all laughed about it the rest of the night. Good times!
