GREAT WALL OF “OH MY GOSH!”

Day 4, March 25th

I don't know if I mistreated my sisters when I was younger.  But, whatever penance I owe from our youth, we are square.  When mom and dad get old and we are pushing them around in wheelchairs and they want to go to Branson, Missouri to see Mickey Gilley and eat at every discount buffet in sight…you two are up.  I’ve done my tour of duty.  Mom and The Great Wall of China.  Pretty self-explanatory.

Let’s start from the beginning.

Mom chose Vietnam as her destination of choice.  But, since we were in the “neighborhood”, she thought we should swing by The Great Wall of China.  I guess neighborhood = continent.  She has always wanted to see the Great Wall and showing her a map would do no good, so here we are.

Before the Climb

Up early and off we go.

For those of you that know mom, you know she will talk to anyone.  Language doesn’t matter.  She is her father’s daughter.  Her conversation with everyone here always starts the same.  “Hi, where are you from?  We are from Texas.  That is my son.  He is teaching me how to backpack.”  I know.  She’s adorable.

That is how she greeted the Swedish couple going to the Great Wall with us.  She talked ‘em up most of the way, which was cool with dad and I cause we could dose off or sit quietly. 

We chose the Mutianyu section of The Wall that was pretty far removed from central Beijing so that it wouldn’t be as crowded.  True enough, it seemed to be empty when we got there and we had it pretty much to ourselves for the first hour we were there.

The Climb

When we drove up, I heard mom say, “This is it?”  Nice.  Insult a Chinese national treasure.  Sure, it never accomplished what it was built for, protection from invading forces.  But, it is a source of great pride for the Chinese and you just slammed it before stepping out of the car. 

Peaceful

Her tune changed once we started climbing and I quickly realized how much they listened to me.  Another window into parenting, cause they didn’t listen worth (censored).  I told them to train.  Walk.  Load up their backpacks and get used to being on the go.  A few weeks before we left I ask dad how the training was coming along.  He said they were thinking about doing it.  They never got past the thinking stage.  And now mom is on her hands basically crawling up the Great Wall.  Every time we got to one tower and walked through it to see another one on the other side, she would yell, “OH MY GOOOOOOSH!  You gotta be kidding me.  Kevin, run up there and see what’s up there and wave to me if I need to come see it.”  And so it went for six towers.  Six steep towers.  Until she got all of the way to one end and could sufficiently say that she had climbed/walked/crawled The Great Wall of China.  Then, I had to get her down.  I’m sure by the time we get back to the states she will recall The Wall as a breeze, no problem, up and down in a flash.  Uh huh.

The Wall

Once I returned them both to flat land, I split off to see how far I could go before we had to meet up and leave.  Of the 23 towers at Mutianyu, I made it to number 14.  Along the way, I found some quiet moments where I couldn’t see anyone else on the wall with me.  I know a major portion of The Wall is rebuilt and not original, but you can still feel the magnitude of this accomplishment.  It is easy to understand why this is one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

After my dash across the wall, I finished it off with a tobaggon ride down to the bottom.  Yep.  They even have a chair lift that you can ride up and down from the base of the wall to the parking area.  The three of us rode the chair lift up.  I took the tobaggon down.  Not traditional, but fun.

A little shopping, some good Chinese food and then the van ride back to The Red Lantern.  Done.  Mom can now say she has been to The Great Wall of China.

Never going to Bransonly yours,

Number 14

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