The Day I Almost Died

To any of my readers that don’t know how I almost died, I’ll tell you what happened.

One summer day in July 2010, my family decided to take a road trip.  Our destination was unknown.  Since we resided about an hour north of Philadelphia, we opted to drive toward New Jersey while we discussed our final destination.  We decided to go to Six Flags Great Adventure.  Little did we know that a huge adventure was in store for us. 

After two hours of travel, we arrived.  Even though my little brother and sister were complaining about everything and my mother and father couldn’t agree on anything, we stayed in teh car a little longer to drive through the safari. 

We paid our admission fees and followed the signs to the entrance.  Employees of the park said that we had to keep our windows up at all times and drive extremely slow since many animals were able to roam freely thorough the park.

As we drive slowly throught the rhino area, we watched the rhinos grazing on grass.  All fo the cars slowed down because one rhino decided to walk closer to the roadway.  When this rhino was standing on the path, all of the cars stopped.  The other rhinos followed.  They were so close to our vehicle, I could see the hair on their nostrils.  If I was brave enough, I could have lowered the window and reached out to feel their skin.  My parents were in awe, kind of like a deer in headlights.  We have seen rhinos plenty of times at local zoos but never this close.

My father thought he should take a picture of the rhinos with his phone.  He slowly reached to the dashboard to pick  up his phone, he didn’t want to startle the rhinos with any sudden movements.  As he was clutching his phone, he slowly pulled his hand away from the dashboard and BAM – he hit the windshield washer arm and send windshield washing fluid all over the windshield.  The wipers swished back and forth and boy oh boyk, were the rhinos alarmed.  A sense panic quickly rushed through each rhino.  What was once a very calm scene turned into fear, rage, and a feeling of unknown.  One rhino rushed quickly toward a nearby tree.  It proceeded to turn it’s massive body toward our vehicle, stomped it’s emormous foot against the ground, snorted several times (I could see the nostrils flair and moisture appeared around them), and charged at our car.

My father was screaming, my mother was saying, “calm down, he won’t do anything”, my siblings were watching the scene not knowing if they should laugh or cry, and I was afraid that I was going to die.  As the rhino ran toward the car, I could reel the ground beneath me shake.  I thought to myself – this is the end.  The rhino came withinin inches of the front of our car then turned toward the right and rushed passed the side of the car.  It’s body was so close that our vehicle shook.  I think it bumped against the driver’s sideview mirrow.  The other rhinos ran after the angry rhino, coming so very close to our car that it shook every time one passed.

When they were all passed us, we all took a deep breath of relief.  Luckily, they moved onto another area and started grazing on the grass, as if nothing ever happened.  How quickly the rhinos were able to overcome a situation that I will hold with me for the rest of my life.