The Land Rover

A memory surfaced the other day. You see, I used to be a pretty adventurous kid. With heroes like Indiana Jones and Luke Skywalker you are BOUND to try some stupid stuff sometimes!
When we lived in Africa, my parents owned a Land Rover. This mode of transportation is NOT comfortable at all, but is purely for the purpose of getting to “hard-to-reach” places! Because of this purpose, one of the main additions is a ladder on the back which leads to a luggage rack on the top.
One day, a missionary friend borrowed the Rover to go into town. As he pulled away, that beautiful ladder called out my name! I couldn’t turn down an opportunity for an adventure, so I sprinted after the Rover and launched myself onto the ladder.
“Wow,” I mused, “I did that PERFECTLY…just like the stuntmen in the movies!”
As the Rover accelerated, my pride was quickly replaced by a question, “How do the stuntmen get OFF these things?!”
I knew that I had to get off quickly. Luckily, the road beneath me was dirt and we were only traveling at maybe 10-15 mph.
As I jumped, I formed a plan to run as fast as I could when my legs made contact with the ground. That way, I would not fall.
I learned a lot about physics (and myself) that day! It is NEAR IMPOSSIBLE to match speed with a vehicle after jumping off of it! As a result, I went tumbling…kicking up dust in the process.
As I lifted myself up off the ground, insult was added to injury as I heard, “Look at the silly white boy! Hahahahaha!”
But they were wrong. My face was no longer white…it was red with embarrassment!
I wonder how many other people were adventuresome as kids? Did anyone else ever try a stunt like this? Or did anyone else ever try to jump off their house and float down using an umbrella (a la “Mary Poppins”) ? That doesn’t work, either! So, got any stories?