London With My Besties
Two years ago I had the pleasure of meeting up with my best friends out here in Ontario. Covid put the kibosh to those meet ups except for our weekly Zoom call. What a blessing that has been for us all.
But Rose, Barb, and I finally had the chance to plan a ‘play date’ in London, Ontario and what a grand day it was!
For the entire week leading up to the weekend it was predicted rain and it seemed the closer we got, the more the rain predictions turned into thunder storm predictions.
But imagine our surprise when the fog melted away into glorious sunshine for the entire day!
Barb picked me up and we did our morning rosary together during the hour and a half trip to London. We were a bit late for our meeting point at “Wimpy’s” and Rose was early from her drive down from Waterloo…. but we soon were hugging and ready to start the day together.
We mentioned that there is just something about old friends….the conversation is so easy because you know each other so well. I met the girls in grade 9 (Barb) and grade 10(Rose) so we have been friends for almost 50 years!
We enjoyed our food at the cute diner too.
Rose had the foresight to bring her 12 string and with the weather so lovely we were able to find a park to pull up our lawn chairs (good thinking again girls!) and play our music together.
We sang the oldies in three part harmony (a throwback to our younger years when we used to do weddings as “The Rosebuds”.
And they asked me to sing some of my new music from my soon to be recorded 4th album. We chatted, laughed, and Barb even gifted us a few thoughtful presents as a surprise.
The most incredible part of the whole day was soon to come. Barb thought of a neat thing to do if it rained all day as predicted, but we still thought we would try it anyway because it sounded like so much fun!
We pulled up to a building called ‘Dreamland- Virtual Reality’. I could immediately feel my heart rate double because not only was this an “Escape Room” but it was completely done with Virtual Reality!!!
We got the tour, chose our price range, game, and room, and then we ‘suited up’ for our very first VR experience.
We told the young guys that ran the rooms that we wanted to make sure that the game we chose would be suitable for ‘old ladies’. They laughed and said for sure and that we just had to remember that the actual floor was flat.
In the second photo above you can see us suited up with foot sensors, hand sensors, backpacks, head/eye gear and headsets.(We chose to wear our purses because they didn’t have any place to lock our belongings.)
The third photo I pulled from the website and it shows you how we looked to each other once the game started and how realistic the ‘world’ was that we were in! My ‘storm trouper’ kind of suit was green and theirs were blue (Barb) and gold(Rose).
It’s amazing how your brain can completely fool you into thinking you are NOT on flat ground. We needed to bend over into lower caves, work together to find props (Like the torch…which I actually picked up and held in my hand), solve puzzles to be able to move from room to room, and be careful not to trip!
We could hear the guys (who ran the place) helping us when we were stuck and laughing at us ….quite often… HA HA.
At one point I yelled out, “A cat just ran by me!” And then “Ronaldo” said, “That was a rat!” and we all screamed!
With clues(ha ha) we did very well at advancing through the game but all of a sudden it got VERY scary for me. We came up to a cliff that was miles above the ground/lava and we had to step on the tops of these spread apart pillars to get to a raised platform that was also about 3 feet apart.
It looks SO real as you can see in that 3rd photo and I am afraid of heights so I was almost paralyzed with fear. Barb was laughing so hard (we could hear each other in our headsets) because apparently I just kept muttering, “I’m feeling uncomfortable. I’m uncomfortable” HA HA HA. ) I was supposed to go first because I had the torch but I literally was frozen with fear. What happened next shocked us all.
Rosemary is also afraid of heights but she grabbed the torch from me and hopped from ledge to ledge and made the last bigger leap to the upper ledge. WOW! (My hero) . But then….. the middle pillar crashed into the abyss and we were stuck apart from each other. Rose had to grab an actual large plank of wood and manoeuvre it across the two remaining pillars so we could walk across THAT. EVEN SCARIER!!!!!!
At this point, I pretty much decided I would just join the other skeletons that were scattered around the rocks because I was going to just die there rather than cross that void.
But when Ronaldo realized we weren’t able to do it he asked if we wanted a ‘ghost’ arm to help us cross. Barb felt his arm near her (He was obviously standing right beside us….ha ha) and he gave her balance but I asked for TWO guys to help me cross because I was that scared. I’m not kidding it looked REAL! HA HA. With the help of my ‘ghost helpers’ I quickly stepped across the actual plank and the girls helped lift me onto the next ledge.
There were also several rooms that lifted up or down with pullies and it felt super real.
Finally, we stepped on these mandalas that lit up with me on one and Barb and Rose on the other. All of a sudden…..we were flying! We were travelling up and away into the heavens and lo and behold, we saw the Diamond Skull which took up the whole rock wall. It was glowing and there were protruding crystals all over the cliffs. I felt like it was difficult to hold my balance but it was a gorgeous spectacle. We had completed our journey and it was a terrific experience.
After the game was over they posed us with heavy guns used in the ‘Kill the Zombies’ game.
Not. Gonna. Happen.
Before we parted we enjoyed a yummy dinner at “Crabby Joes”, more great conversations, and then time to go our separate ways. I hope to see Barb again during my month away but I will only be able to see Rose on Zoom as she is a nurse going into a very busy flu shot season.
It was SO good to be together again and I thank God for this opportunity.
Love you, my besties. (Hope Mary L. can join us next time)