There was this little rain drop named ‘loofy’ who lived up in the clouds, with no worry in mind…

He was content and he had many friends… For there was no fighting or conflicts allowed up in the pristine clouds… All the raindrops had to live harmoniously together for it was all of the raindrops together that formed where they lived… if just one knowingly broke away, the cloud would turn dark and all the little raindrops would be ejected at a rapid speed…

And the one grand rule that kept this cloud together was that no one ever talked about leaving the cloud… You never even thought about it or you would be kicked out, just so they could save the meticulously pristine environment they had formed…

Well, one day, Loofy was enjoying a fluffy “Don’t drink the Yellow Snow” martini… When his best of all friends, streaky, came slushing over, very depressed…

Loofy: What’s wrong Streaky?

Streaky: I just feel under the weather today, Loofy…

Loofy: But how could that be, we are up in the clouds… How can it be better than this? We don’t have a worry in the world?

Streaky: Well, I ran into a dirty rain drop today…

(Loofy almost drops his fluffy cocktail, whispering intently)

Loofy: Shhh! Are you crazy? You can’t talk about this here! This cloud hasn’t had a breech since I remember forming as a raindrop! You are stepping on dangerous ground here…

Streaky: I know, I know (whispering) but he was just so damn interesting…

Loofy: How in the hell did a dirty rain drop get all the way up here? Only pristine rain drops get to enter this cloud and even they are strictly screened… Have you reported this to the counsel? This could mean the end of this cloud!

Streaky: Oh he was ejected pretty damn quickly… And guess what?

Loofy: Holy crap, is this cloud becoming a dark cloud? This is what they say…  how it happens…

Streaky: He was happy…

Loofy: What?

(Streaky smiles off into the distance. Then lightning strikes and Streaky suddenly drops down into the fluffy, white abyss below.)

Loofy: Oh no! Streaky, you can’t think about it…

(Loofy stops himself, stares off into the distance and puts his hand over his mouth.)

Loofy: Oh crap!

(Loofy suddenly drops from the cloud, through a white, fluffy atmosphere)

Loofy: No! No! I didn’t think it! No!

(He drops out of the fluffy cloud to enter a blue vastness. He screams as he looks around in amazement.)

(The passing air makes ripples through his liquid body.)

Loofy: Wow! This isn’t so bad… This feels pretty damn awesome… Like having a fluffing up in the clouds…

(Then he looks down and sees the actual earth from 1,000s of feet above and screams.)

Loofy: What the hell is that?

(He tries to frantically climb the air. Then he looks at the sun.)

Loofy: Please warm up extremely fast and get me back up into that cloud. Please!

(Loofy looks down. The ground is quickly getting larger as Loofy pummels towards it. Loofy squints his eyes, anticipating the impact.)

Loofy: Ahhhhhhhhhh!

(He then splatters onto a small patch of grass, surrounded by snow. Loofy slowly reforms on the blade of grass.)

Loofy: What in the hell… (exasperated) You can’t go through this… (Excited but also weary) I’m standing on ground! Wow! This is weird!

(Then Loofy’s mouth starts to seal up.)

Loofy: (Mumbling) What? Whaaa…..

(Loofy freezes solid. We see him frozen along with many, many other raindrops. Some look petrified. Most look happy.)

(The course of many weeks passes. Loofy stays frozen in the same position. You can see angst in his eyes with a single teardrop frozen below it.)

(Then the sun slowly gets brighter one morning and the whole area around Loofy lights up and snow starts to melt.)

(Loofy slowly thaws as millions of other frozen rain drops melt also. Enthusiastic laughter and tales of adventure generate the area, as grass starts to pop out of the melting snow.)

(Loofy just sits in awe, looking around at all of the other rain drops. They were all talking about forbidden things. Things Loofy had never even imagined. He notices another rain drop that just thawed right next to him. This rain drop is very dirty and has very lazy eyes.)

Swimmy: Hey new dude… Welcome to an adventure…

Loofy: (taken back by his appearance) What? Do I know you? I’ve never met you before…

Swimmy: Easy there dude… It’s all good… No reason to be worried…

Loofy: (Puffing out his chest) Well… I’m not worried… How do you know I’m new…

Swimmy: Look at you dude… I don’t think you have ever seen earth (Laughing) and it shows…

Loofy: (Looking down at him) Well… Look at your appearance… You have definitely seen a better day…

Swimmy: (looking at himself, chuckling) Oh yeah, I have definitely been through it…

(Then suddenly Loofy and Swimmy’s bodies melt into a tiny puddle and run down the ground. You now realize they are on the top of a huge mountain with snow melting on its peak.)

Loofy: (nervously) What… What’s going on?

Swimmy: Just go with it dude…

(Loofy and Swimmy start racing down the mountain as they join other rain drops. Most of them are dirty and having fun. A few are clean and are scared out of their minds.)

(Swimmy grabs Loofy’s hand as they slide down the side of the mountain. They catapult off of a boulder, streaking through the air, screaming. Then they soon hit the ground, rushing towards a cliff)

Swimmy: Yeah dude! This is the best one yet!

Loofy: I want to go home!!!

(Loofy and Swimmy soon meet with a bunch of other rain drops, flowing frantically together on the ground. All are different in their own way. Each is having a different experience. We soon see that all of the rain drops are forming a crystal clear river, flowing down the side of the mountain.)

Swimmy: You just hit the mother load on your first trip! We are going off the side of this mountain, dude!!!

(Loofy looks straight ahead and screams in pure, utter fear. Swimmy looks like he is having the time of his life. Loofy squints his eyes in a show of pain, as they both go catapulting off of the side of a mountain. You see all of these individual rain drops forming this huge waterfall. Loofy and Swimmy are heard over many other rain drops’ screams)

(The two, now with Loofy clinging onto Swimmy for dear life, drop into a volatile, fizzy white water below. They sink deep as they drift to calmer waters. They both float to the surface to bask in a bright sun, with green and white all around them.)

Loofy: (out of breath) Holy God… I get up this morning, ready for a normal, peaceful day and I get this! What the hell?

Swimmy: I know, isn’t it awesome…

Loofy: Awesome? (In Shock) Awesome? Are you crazy?

Swimmy: I was going to ask you the same thing… hahahaha…

Loofy: This is not a joke! I was living a perfectly normal existence… Now I am stuck with a bunch of dirty water on the side of a… What did you call this god awful thing? A mountain?

Swimmy: Well, yeah… we did fall off of the side of a mountain… but its called a water fall…

Loofy: well how grammatically genius… “Waterfall… “Ha! More like ‘Water Suicide!”

Swimmy: No, no… you don’t get it… We are so important down here that they name a ton of things after us…

Loofy: Really?

Swimmy: Yeah, we are pretty much like gods down here… I think because we never die…

Loofy: Well, shit… this is worse! What kind of a God would want this?

(This gigantic water bug jumps up to them. You can hear loud thumping, splashing as he approaches.)

Loofy: (jumping back) What in the hell is that?

Swimmy: One of the many creatures that worships us…

(The bug jumps over to Loofy and starts to suck on his head. Loofy slowly gets sucked into the bugs mouth.)

Loofy: What is going on? If he worships me than why is he sucking on my head?

(Swimmy grabs onto Loofy.)

Swimmy: Don’t worry dude… I’m coming with you… You have the best luck… (screaming) Whooo!!!!

(Then a huge fish jumps out of the water, swallowing the bug, Loofy and Swimmy. They both escape the bugs mouth as they fall into the fish’s mouth.)

Loofy: Oh boy… This doesn’t look good at all…

(Swimmy holds Loofy by the hand as he looks around in complete awe… You see a slight fish skeleton with meat on its bones… the sun can be seen glowing through the fish…)

Swimmy: Wow! I have never been inside a fish before… You are like a good luck charm… I have experienced more with you than I have the thousands of trips I have made before…

Loofy: Luck? Are you kidding me? Why are these things swallowing me? I don’t get it?

Swimmy: They rely on us… They need us to exist…

Loofy: Well, this little rain drop wants nothing of it! They can exist on the rest of you! How am I ever going to make it back to the pristine cloud? I am so tainted and dirty already…

Swimmy: What are you talking about? That cloud is for losers… For people who don’t want to live life…

Loofy: You call this living life pal? I could be drinking fluffy martinis up in the clouds right now… But here I am, stuck inside of a creature’s body with you, for what ever reason… Who the hell knows…

Swimmy: (smiling) Yeah, its pretty horrible isn’t it?

(A gurgling sound is heard in the distance. A little stream of piercing light enters the fish’s body as Loofy and Swimmy start to morph, being pulled into the light.)

Loofy: Now what?

(They are sucked through the body of the fish quickly, as they exit out of a tiny hole along with all kinds of other debris, which floats off into the distance. They experience a moment of calm. Loofy looks back and sees the rear end of a fish, swimming away.)

Loofy: I don’t even want to know what just happened… My imagination is doing cartwheels right now…

(Loofy and Swimmy float slowly towards another stream of screaming rain drops, whipping down a water path.)

Loofy: Not again!

( Swimmy and Loofy, holding hands, whip down the path… twisting and turning, every which way…)

Swimmy: Dude… This is so awesome…

( A collection of rain drops directly ahead of them start spinning into a circle and disappear down a tiny, metal hole…)

Swimmy: Whoa! I’ve heard about one of these! Wow!

Loofy: You heard? What? You haven’t done this before?

Swimmy: Nah dude… this is extremely rare…

Loofy: Figures…

(They both join the swirl as they scream and disappear down the hole. They race down a narrow, metal tunnel. Then it suddenly stops.)

Loofy: I don’t know how much more I can take of this? No wonder no one talked about this place up in the pristine clouds…

Swimmy: hahaha… wrong again…

(You hear a rusty, creaking sound in the distance. All the rain drops slide forward again, rushing down a metal luge…)

(Swimmy and Loofy, holding hands, look at each other. You see a small grin form on Loofy’s face.)

(There’s a couple quick, twists and turns, as the speed of the flow picks up and the tunnel narrows. Loofy and Swimmy are squashed together as they are squeezed out of a tiny hole. They enter a white vastness, as they are shot up into the air. Loofy looks up in utter fear, as they approach a beige balloon knot looking hole. Swimmy looks back to see a gigantic shower head spitting a bunch of other rain drops into their direction. )

Swimmy: Yahoooooooo!!!!

(Loofy and Swimmy grab each other in a full embrace as they are hurdled towards the beige colored balloon knot. They head right for the center of it. As they get closer, you notice little black hairs surrounding the balloon knot, as they are shoved up the center of it.)

(Loofy looks all around him and sees deformed raindrops clung to the sides, all covered in brown muck. As Swimmy and Loofy slow down and stop, squished together.)

Loofy: Not much room in here…

(A brown rain drop clung to the side, reaches out in despair.)

Brown Rain Drop: Help! Help! Please! I’ve been stuck up here for what feels like an eternity.

Loofy: Oh my…

Swimmy: Stop being a drama queen… He’s just trying to scare you…

Brown Rain Drop: No please… please… I can’t take it anymore… I need to get out of here… I don’t know if you’ve noticed but this is kind of a shitty place…

Swimmy: Hey, you signed up for the ride…

Loofy: Hey, do you know how to get back to the pristine clouds?

Brown Rain Drop: (laughing) Why in the hell would you want to go back up there?

(Loofy looks at the rain drop like he has four heads.)

Loofy: Are you kidding me? It’s a lot better than this…

Swimmy: (to the brown rain drop) New comer…

Brown Rain Drop: Wow! This is his first time and he ended up here?

Loofy: (looking around) You’re telling me…

Brown Rain Drop: You are so lucky!

Loofy: Well, I guess anyone is lucky compared to you…

Brown Rain Drop: (to Swimmy) I can see why you are holding onto this one… Wow!

Loofy: Are you kidding me dude? Look, I know you are stuck to a shitty wall but that doesn’t improve my predicament any…

Brown Rain Drop: It’s all temporary… well, from my understanding at least…

Loofy: (shocked) Wait… You are happy?

Brown Rain Drop: (looking at Swimmy) oh, only if we could go back…

Swimmy: (Chuckling) I know…

(Loofy looks at them like they had lost their minds. Then screams are heard below. When they all look down, rain drops are falling out from underneath them.)

Loofy: (stretching his hand out to the Brown Rain Drop with a disgusted expression) Here! Grab my hand! I will get you out of here!

Brown Rain Drop: You will do that for me?

(Loofy reaches out and grabs, barely getting a hold of his hand. Swimmy holds onto Loofy’s hand for dear life, as the pressure pulls them down, ripping the Brown Rain Drop from the intestinal wall. The three of them catapult down the tract. Loofy loses grip of the Brown Rain Drop.)

Brown Rain Drop: (As he is ripped away) Thaaaannnnkkkk yoooouuuu…….

(Loofy and Swimmy get ripped out of the tunnel. Loofy looks back as they quickly descend from the flesh balloon knot, which is surrounded by two fluffy butt cheeks. They whip pass the Shower head once again and meet a bunch of screaming rain drops in a stream below, which quickly swirls them down a drain. They twist and turn until they drop a huge distance into a brown, smelly murk below.)

Loofy: (excited) Did you see that? Did you see me save that guy from an eternity of shit?

Swimmy: Nothing is forever…

Loofy: Where is he? I want to talk to him about this! Wow, I am feeling kind of sad to see him go…

Swimmy: That is also temporary…

Loofy: Oh god, what is that smell? (He looks at his brown covered transparent body) Look how dirty and tainted I am… Oh my, I will never get back to the Pristine cloud looking like this. My perfect life is over…

Swimmy: Ah… it ain’t that bad… You have to learn to deal with such shitty situations… its apart of life…

Loofy: well, not apart of mine! I can’t believe you let me follow you here…

Swimmy: I was following you dude…

Loofy: How could you follow me? I have no idea where I am going…

Swimmy: Exactly…

(Swimmy then let go of his hand and swims off.)

Loofy: No wait! Swimmy! I didn’t mean it! Wait… what did I say?

(Loofy looks around a dark, brown, steaming pool of waste. Rain drops are crying in wallow everywhere he looks.)

Loofy: Is this what you all came here for? Is this the way you want to live?

(A bunch of the rain drops look at him and stop moaning to let out a little giggle.)

Loofy: You have all lost your minds! How the hell can anyone be grinning in a place like this? You’re all sick, I tell you! Sick in the head! (calling out) Swimmy! Swimmy! I’m sorry!

(Loofy slowly drudges through all of the muck. He passes floating toilet paper and all kinds of disgusting waste. He finally reaches a dirt wall. He grabs a small ledge and hoists himself up on it. Staring off into the distance. Covered in all kinds of muck and waste.)

(Lots of time passes. Every once and a while a fresh load of dirty rain drops would fall into the murky, black tank. The mood is solemn and silent. Then Loofy hears his named being called in the distance. He pops his head up.)

Loofy: Swimmy?

Off camera in the distance: Loooooffffffyyyyyy…..

(Loofy squints his eyes and sees Streaky slowly yet excitingly rushing through the sludge to reunite with his friend.)

Loofy: Streaky!!!! Streaky!!!

(Loofy drops off of the ledge and clumsily slops towards Streaky. They meet in the middle.)

Streaky: Wow! I never dreamed I would see you again! You wouldn’t believe what I have been through!

Loofy: You? You wouldn’t believe what I have been through…

(They both excitedly exchange their stories. You can hear snippets of each others’ adventures. A bunch of time goes by and they both finally stop talking, out of breath.)

Loofy: Wow! What an adventure!

Streaky: Who would have thought?

Loofy: I know… Who would have… Wow, the stories we will have when we get home…

( Streaky looks at Loofy shocked)

Streaky: You’re going back? You can’t get back there!

Loofy: Well it may take an eternity to get back but I am going back for sure…

Streaky: I don’t understand you… Why would you want to go back?

(A loud crash is heard in the distance. A sucking sound is followed as a huge beam of light encompasses the whole area. The light reveals all of this dirty, brown water with pieces of toilet paper and crap floating around. A large hole of light is seen above with the silhouette of a man working…)

Loofy: (nervously looking up) What is happening now?

(All of the rain drops scurry towards the light. Loofy grabs Streaky’s hand and pulls him towards the ledge he was sitting on. The ledge is illuminated with light. All of these little rain drops enter the light and then disappear like ghosts, floating up through the bright hole above.)

Loofy: We have to get into that light if we want to get the hell out of this shit hole!

(Loofy slowly gets close to the ledge, just inches from the light when the light starts to disappear. Loofy scrambles for the ledge, leaving Streaky behind.)

Loofy: I’m sorry! I can’t take you with me!

(Loofy scrambles up onto the ledge and just barley evaporates into a ghost and into the bright hole above. He smiles as he floats into the air. He then sees Swimmy floating next to him.)

Swimmy: Whoa dude… How are you man? This is my favorite part…

Loofy: (giggling) Yeah it tickles… Wow, what a feeling…

Swimmy: Yep, feels like the weight of the world has been lifted off of you…

(Swimmy looks off into the distance, as they float into the large sky. He notices a ferocious, black cloud in the near distance.)

Swimmy: Well, I’m going to head over to that cloud over there…

Loofy: What? Why in the hell would you want to go to that one? It looks so hostile…

Swimmy: Well, which one are you heading to…

Loofy: (looks around and sees a nice white cloud way up) I think that’s the one I came from…

Swimmy: What? Why would you want to go back to that cloud? It’s so boring…

Loofy: That’s exactly why I am going to scratch and scrape to eventually get back there… Even if it takes me an eternity…

(Swimmy just smirks at him and drifts off.)

Swimmy: Suit yourself…

Loofy: Hey wait a minute, we hardly got to chat…

Swimmy: I have nothing to say…

(Swimmy drifts off to the dark cloud, where several bolts of lightning strike, making a thunderous roar.)

(Loofy just stares at him in bewilderment. He looks towards the pristine cloud and floats his way in that direction.)

(Tons of time passes as we see Loofy struggling to get to the pristine cloud but intercepted by dark clouds and being shot back down to earth only to struggle back up again. After an eternity of doing this, we see a disheveled, torn apart, dark Loofy stumble onto a white, pristine cloud. He is exhausted but has a content grin on his face.)

Loofy: (kissing the fluffy ground) I made it! I made it! Thank god, I finally made it!

(He looks around to see all of these pristine rain drops conjuring together, nervously looking at him. One single rain drop slowly edges his way over to Loofy. He looks almost exactly what Loofy looked like when he was on the pristine cloud.)

Single Rain Drop: (very cautiously) Hey, how did you get up here? You’re not supposed to be up here…

Loofy: Oh boy, do I have a story to tell you!

(We pan back to see the pristine white cloud slowly turn dark.)

THE END:

Folks, this is what #TheTravelingMac thought about while hiking #ZabriskiePoint,DeathValley… I thought about the journey of the rain drop while I hiked this amazing area which was once covered by a lake…

Zabriske Point was named after the Vice President of the Twenty Mule Team which mined Borax from this area… Borax is mainly used in soaps and was a very popular material to mine back in the days.. The borax was formed from the many old lake fossils in the area, broken down by hot springs, forming this slippery mineral used in soaps…

#ZabriskiePoint was once a lake many millions of years ago… It’s so thrilling, knowing you are  probably #hiking the deepest dried up lake in North America…

The fact that all of this water used to be here with millions of creatures swimming around it, boggles my mind completely…

And that’s what prompted the thinking of a single rain drop’s journey… For water never truly disappears just like energy can’t… It just disperses and reforms… It is used and abused then goes up into the clouds just to do it all over again…

It’s kind of romantic when you think about it and it can teach you many lessons in life… Take what you want from the story and form your own lesson because there are many lessons to be learned from this mighty earth…

I hiked Zabriskie Point alone on the eve of my birthday… It was a good 4 to 5 hour hike where I got lost for a few minutes here and there… The #trail took me all the way from a high ground in #FurnaceCreek to one of the lowest points in the world…#TheBadLands… You also find the #SaltFlats out here and the history of #TheTwentyMuleTeam..

I was turning forty three tomorrow and I can’t say I was thrilled about it… So, I decided to do a hike by myself to lift my spirits…

The instant tale about the single rain drop soon cheered me up…

I like to think something out in that vast #Universe was talking to me, trying to explain life to me in some sort of way… Well, whatever the reason, this hike was one to definitely remember…

We are all single rain drops with some sort of purpose in life, folks… Stop focusing on the good and bad things that happen in life and just accept that you are on a journey and have purpose… And on that journey good and horrible things are going to happen… But at the end of the day, if you are not experiencing life, what’s the sake of living?

Happy Birthday!