I Climbed Stone Mountain!

by Nehemiah.

I woke up Tuesday morning, clearly tired from the night before. I went down the stairs and into the kitchen. The calender read "August 19th, Dad and boys go to Stone Mountain". Yes!

Today was the day that my Dad, Mordecai, and me were going to hike Stone Mountain! But there was one more question: Was my face red and swollen?( You see, I have had a rash that comes often for about a year now. It makes my body red and itchy). To answer my question, I went into the main bathroom were there was a mirror. OH NO! My...face...was...red and swollen!

"Why?" I asked myself. "Why did I have to have this rash over and over again."

After we had breakfast, made our sack lunches, we got our clothes on and woke up 'sleepy-head' Dad and tell him to get ready, we were ready to go to Stone Mountain Park!

So all three of us-Dad, Mordecai and me- got into the truck my dad owns.

When we got there we noticed that EVERYTHING was closed except the Sky Ride up the mountain. So instead of riding the train and going around the mountain to the hiking side, like we had planned, we rode the Sky Ride up the mountain. Then we hiked down the mountain.

That was one of my favorite times of my life. It was soooooo much fun!

Mordecai noticed that there was a yellow line that we were supposed to follow so we wouldn't lose our way. I said we were like Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tinman, and the Lion when they were following the yellow brick road in "The Wizard of Oz". When we got down Stone Mountain our stomachs were growling! We pulled out the lunch we made earlier in the day and prayed. Amen. Then we dug in... Yummmmm!

We saw that there was a museum and decided to look around in it. My Dad said we should come back and make a field trip out of it. Finally we got out of the museum.

"What do you think, are you up for going up the mountain?"asked my dad.

Was I up for the challenge my dad gave me and my brother? I felt good about it, so I said, "I am."

Part Two- The challenge

So we went up the mountain, without any hiking gear. The Mountain was very steep and was a great challenge. First was what I call "Forest of The Mountain". Trees and bushes covered the Mountain, where squirrels lure in the shadows and birds hide in the trees, is where we hiked.

The only thing I could hear was our steps on the stones we stepped on. Finally, we got out of "the forest of the Mountain", and into the open. Then I slipped, but caught myself at the last minute.

"Are you okay?" asked my brother, Mordecai.

"Yeah, are you okay?" added my dad.

"I am okay. Are we almost there?" I said.

Now we had hiked about half the mountain. So we took a break. We drank the water in our water bottles and sat there.

Now we faced the hardest challenge yet. I call it "The stairs with no steps". It was the steepest part of the mountain. There were rails up this part of the mountain so you would not fall.

When we got to the top we went down on the Sky Ride. When we got to the bottom my dad bought one hat each for us, he said we earned it.

Now I can say "I climbed Stone Mountain!".

Here is a picture of a bug we found on our way up the mountain!