It's called a "Death Grip" for a reason.

. This fun story takes place on my uncle's farm up near Hickory, North Carolina. It was in Autumn, when the leaves were turning those nice Autumn-ish colors. My brother and I had arrived very hopeful; our uncle had just gotten a new four-wheeler. Oh the excitement was sprawled across our teenage faces. Little did we know, our uncle had also made us some welcoming dirt mounds for us to jump on the four-wheeler. All around, the area was now perfect for four-wheeling. The farm had two horse pastures, a woodland area with a nice, muddy ground, and now mounds of dirt for us master on this new ATV.

. So, my brother and I took turns exploring the ways of off-roading on this ATV. We would speedily ride up and down these large pastures, tear into the mud spots in the woods, as well as climb a conveniently placed hill in the woods. As the day drew closer to it's end, I awaited my turn on the four-wheeler in my uncle's golf cart. My brother was just making a jump on artificial hills, when he landed wrong and slammed his chin on the handle bars and groin on the seat. Needless to say, he was done for the day. So, being the greedy little miscreant I was; I boarded the ATV and took off on my own little adventure. One that I had done many times that day. I had found a natural bump in the ground in the adjacent pasture to the one with the man made hills that I had taken a liking to. So, I did a few small jumps on it for a while.

. By this point, you would think I had a good feel for riding this man made work horse. My, how wrong that judgment turns out to be. It was almost time to call it a day, when my mother comes out to watch a little bit of the action. My uncle yells to me, "Hey Ryan, show your mom the jump you've been working on". Not one to turn down a prime opportunity to show off, I line up the jump and took off. I thought, "Huh, this is probably the fastest I've gone today", as I was approaching the launch point. I hit the jump and hurdled through the air. Exhilarating didn't being to describe the feeling of getting this much out of a jump. This was undoubtedly the best jump I had achieved all day, even though I was coming to an uncomfortable distance with a barbed wire fence. Upon landing, I instinctively grabbed the brake and squeezed it tightly to slow myself down. Unfortunately, the adrenaline going through me locked my thumb on the throttle. This canceled out the brake and allowed me to show a certain barbed wire fence a bit of affection.

. Passing through the thick chicken wire that made up the lower section of the fence, I noticed my lower body leaving my head where it was. This was because the barbed wire that lined the top of the fence had me by the throat. Darn near doing a back flip; I landed softly in, luck behold, a huge briar patch. Upon landing, I launched back up, as if on a spring board, to check my neck for punctures. Fortunately, the chin strap absorbed most of the barbs leaving neck with a small little rub rash. The briars I landed in did most of the work to my arms, near the biceps. After such a horrific and humbling experience, I did not shed a tear. I simply laughed it off and inquired as to the condition of the four-wheeler.