Live an Adventurous Life by Changing Your World View

I never planned to live this way — taking part in adventures, expeditions, and entrepreneurial ventures worldwide.

My adventures started after leaving a mafia marriage where I had 3 children by the time I was 21. My first child, my son, was killed when I was 19 — and our home was burned to the ground the same night. Several years later, I experienced another home burning to the ground.

I started a new life while running from my old life. I learned, I slew dragons and tigers and became wise. I had many heartaches, fears, and failures. After some years, I realized a new path.

I learned by expanding my worldview.

My first venture was building a skydiving center in the middle of the desert in Arizona. I became a jumpmaster at age 24 and managed this commercial operation.

Within a few years, I decided to train to win a spot on the U.S. Parachute Team. I accomplished this and won 4 gold medals in the World Parachute competitions.

This accomplishment prompted a Hollywood producer to hire me for an adventure expedition into the jungles of East Irian Jaya, New Guinea.

I share this adventure as to date, it is one of the most adrenaline situations I’ve been in and what started me on a life of being a nomad adventurer.

Guns — Drugs — Prison and Head-hunters

The expedition was being filmed for a movie. I would be traveling with several other women who were also world champions in different extreme sports. It would be the first-of-its-kind expedition into East Irian Jaya, New Guinea a closed country at the time. We would start the movie parachuting into a native village to find tribesmen to join our expedition. Our specialties were skydiving, white water river running, and mountain climbing.

The Plan was Epic — and Stupid

The movie started with me training the other girls how to skydive. Then we would parachute into a remote village in the mountains and surprise the natives.

After our arrival, we were to make a deal with the tribesmen to carry our mountain climbing and river running gear through miles of jungle to a never-before climbed 17,000 ft. mountain. After we scaled the mountain, we were to white-water raft down a river through headhunter villages to the ocean where we would be picked up by our crew.

What a crazy idea.

I thought it was laughable!

Because it was.

I definitely had mixed feelings about taking part — and I would only be paid $500. I was told the real payment was the big damn deal and honor of just being invited.

Meeting the Producer –

I met the husband and wife adventure producers at their Hollywood home. They were a rather impressive couple traveling the world producing movies for a variety of brands, including National Geographic.

I called the husband “Hollywood”, as he was like a meme of the typical movie producer. He wore colorful Hawaiian shirts, shorts, and hats. He was incredibly loud, arrogant, and rude. But, I loved his wife — she became my hero.

Though somewhat intimidated and not fully trusting “Hollywood”, I signed on. We would leave in less than two weeks.

Our first challenge: Arrive in Jakarta, Indonesia, and clear customs with about 200 lbs of river running, mountain climbing, and parachute gear!

While on a stopover in Singapore, Hollywood told us he was working with a lawyer friend in Jakarta who was making a deal with customs so our gear would not be held up.

He said the payoff was guns, drugs, and pornographic movies! I also learned that our expedition plans were totally illegal.

I was incredulous as I saw Hollywood become more and more the Ugly American. I sort of panicked and did not know what to do.

Arriving in Jakarta, we were exhausted. The airport was full of officials with machine guns due to the political unrest in the country at the time.

And they were eyeing everyone.

It was crowded, hot, and humid.

Hollywood told us to sit on the gear coming through baggage. In the meantime, he would search for the customs officer to make the trade.

I can’t describe the fear and how ridiculous this scene was.

Four girls sitting on top of rafts, parachute gear, mountain climbing gear, food, and other rations as we waited to see what would happen with Hollywood’s brilliant plan with customs.

We were glaringly obvious to the military roaming customs area.

After some time, Hollywood came back and said he could not find the right customs officer. At this same time, Hollywood’s lawyer friend came storming through the airport door motioning with his hands to stop everything. The friend quickly informed Hollywood not to talk to any of the customs officers, as the right guy was not on duty that day!

Switching to Plan B — Hollywood used fake paperwork.

From this moment, the expedition started going downhill. We were held up in Jakarta for weeks, trying to get the paperwork to travel into East Irian Jaya, New Guinea, a closed country — still 2,500 miles away.

Getting to New Guinea

True to his nature, Hollywood decided we would just skip the legal paperwork and go without it. His mission then was to find any small aircraft flying in that direction and buy our way on board.

Within the week, Hollywood managed to find the first plane headed to East Irian Jaya with room for two people. He decided his wife and I should go first.

We would be traveling on a small aircraft called an Otter, along with about 20 Indonesian construction workers.

The airplane was the worst piece of shit junk airplane I’d ever seen and was nowhere near safe.

As we loaded, it was over 100 degrees. We sat on the tarmac for over an hour, with the workers shoved right up next to me. I have never had a panic attack, but I did now and I was ready to claw my through the side of the airplane.

I was so done and started to leave the airplane and quit the whole trip!

But it was too late. The plane took off down the runway. The flight would take us 2,500 miles across the ocean, on a plane with no instruments and no flotation gear.

Halfway to New Guinea, we landed to overnight on the island of Biak, an old World War II base that had a few old Quonset huts to stay in. My room was small, with a single dim light bulb hanging from the ceiling and a hole in the floor was my toilet. I stayed awake all night, ready to attack the first guy who came through my door.

The next day, we flew to Jayapura, East Irian Jaya, where we stayed for another two weeks while the rest of the team was still in Jakarta trying to find another plane coming our way. It’s now been over a month and we have not even started the filming.

Every day, Hollywood’s wife and I would sit at the little airport, waiting for the others to fly in. When a plane finally arrived and they were on it, the tension in the air was so thick that success of any magnitude for this expedition became a remote possibility.

Suddenly, one wrong word was said, causing Hollywood and his wife to get into a huge yelling match. It turned into an all-out drag-down fist-fight to the end. No kidding. It was brutal.

And the beautiful native people were standing there in horror, watching the fight like it was a western movie. I was so embarrassed.

Now, we were pegged. We had flown into the country illegally in an under-the-radar sort of thing. Now everyone in this small village and country knew we were here.

Next Challenge; Get to the village of Wamena to start the expedition –

Thankfully, the missionaries Hollywood hired were cool people. I immediately liked them because they flew airplanes and helicopters.

They quickly got us out of the village and flew us to Wamena four and a half hours away into the jungle.

We arrived in a mountainous area that Hollywood had planned to use as the site for my jump. The natives there were still considered headhunters.

Over the next couple of days, the missionaries flew me into the mountain areas to search for the best village to parachute into.

However, we did not get far before the Indonesian government radioed the pilots. The missionaries told us the government had learned about our illegal entry into the country and had instructed us to immediately fly all the way back to Jayapura.

No doubt, the local villagers announced our arrival after seeing the outrageous fist-fight.

Now, we had to fly back to Jayapura and face our illegal entry

We were told to not even take time to collect our personal items! Four and a half hours back to Jayapura we went in the small Cessna 180.

When we arrived, we were immediately put into their prison house

We sat there for days. The mice and mosquitoes were so bad that we were finally given a little tent to set up inside the room. It was kind of like being in a prison within a prison.

Next Challenge; Get out of Jail

The missionaries told me that the “General” for this area was in the military and had made a parachute jump at Ft. Bragg. Thank God, I thought. This could be our “get out of jail card.”

I requested to see the general.

With my request granted, I cleaned up the best I could and was escorted to his office. The general was totally cool. He was a very little guy sitting behind a huge desk — he looked like he should be in the movie. We talked about skydiving the way fishermen tell fish stories.

His English was good.

I shared with him how I wanted to make a jump in his country, the way he had when he went to the U.S. I let him know I realized it cost his country a lot of money for us to be there, and that we could arrange payment of our “expenses.”

Done!

Hollywood made the payment and within 24 hours we were released!

Now, we had to fly the four and a half hours back to the jungle in the small Cessna 180.

Exhausted! We all got sick.

We had no time to rest — I had to find the best village and terrain where we would make the parachute jump.

I found a good village, but every day it was so windy I could not let my teammates make the jump. After a few days, I just wanted to get on with it, and said I would go a lone.

Next Challenge; Make sure I get good video footage from the air

The helicopter pilots were ready to go. I got my camera ready while I made another quick safety check with my rig. As we flew out, I spotted my jump far beyond the village as I knew the wind would be blowing me backward.

When I exited the helicopter and opened my parachute, sure enough, the wind rapidly blew me backward. I had to stay in this position until I got over the river, then turn around quickly and fly downwind right into the center of the village.

I made it dead center and landed perfectly square on the target within the village. Another World Champion jump!

All the villagers gathered around. The women were wearing only grass skirts and the men just had gourds over their penises.

It was pretty cool! The villagers had no idea what a parachute was; and who was I? My blue eyes intrigued them.

The next day when I left my little hut, there were many native men waiting for me. They followed me everywhere, wanting to carry my gear and touch me.

I thought the gentle spirit of the native people was so precious. It made me want to stay with the missionaries for some months, flying around in their neat helicopters and helping these people.

But Hollywood never sleeps.

Next Challenge; Climb the Mountain

Now we had to switch gears and get ready for the Mountain — a 17,000 ft. technical climb that had never been done — because no professional climbers had ever been here.

However, that morning as we were leaving our tents, Hollywood discovered the production money had been stolen. Now, we were not only in the middle of a jungle with few resources but also without money to buy our way back to Jakarta.

Of course, no one in the village admitted to taking the money. Getting it back was a lost cause.

Just about that time, a big cargo plane flew into the field, carrying supplies for the village.

There were only one of these flights landing each month. I heard they would be flying back to Jakarta.

Since my parachute jump had been made, and we had to again split up for each person to get out of East Irian Jaya, it was decided I should be the first to go and skip the rest of the expedition.

The others would have to do their time on the mountain and river, getting the rest of the movie footage.

Getting Home –

It was a bittersweet adventure. The movie should have been about what it took to make the movie — that is where the real story was.

I learned invaluable lessons I would never have learned without having to deal with all the challenges and personalities. But, the most important lesson I learned?

Don’t trust Hollywood!

This was my first expedition — which led me to spend the next 30 years being a nomad adventurer and entrepreneur.

Some years later, Hollywood and his wife were in a helicopter crash while powder skiing. The head of Disney, Hollywood’s wife, the pilot, and a few other major celebrities died. Hollywood was the only person to survive.

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