Northerners Aren't Supposed To Have To Pay For These Things
Considering I have been known to take a route that adds an hour to a trip just so I wouldn't have to pay a 50 cent toll, it's kind of surprising that it was my idea to pay to play in the snow last weekend. We've only been sledding twice this year, though, and WTH? TWICE? It's February! I'm supposed to be on the verge of being sick of snow at this point.
Instead, I was all, "I want to see snow SO bad I'm willing to give up Starbucks for a month for it."
OK, not really, but I was ready to cough up a tiny bit of our tax refund.
So we took advantage of a rare convergence of schedules and headed to Nemacolin to play in the snow. I picked Nemacolin because it was the cheapest place we could go for snow tubing. I was willing to pay, but not any more than I had to. It's possible that I spent HOURS researching the whole thing in the interest of saving a buck or two.
After a long drive, we pulled into the parking lot and bundled up. Then we trudged through the mud and headed for the snow tubing hill. Yes, mud. That's what happens when snow melts, you know. Mud shows up. Considering it has been entirely too warm all winter long, I was impressed the mud wasn't deep enough for a wrestling tournament.
By the time we reached the snow tubing hill and started walking on the man-made snow, that whole "bundled up" thing started to seem like a mistake. If we had walked even ten feet further, I'm certain we would have started to strip layers. We could have found out for sure if there was enough mud for some wrestling.
I somehow managed to convince Alexis that she needed to leave her coat on just in time for it to be our turn to hurl ourselves down the hill. She Who Is Generally Game For Playing In Snow froze in place. "I don't want to!" she cried.
"Too bad," I replied as I told her to sit her butt down in the inner tube. I linked our tubes together and launched us down the hill through a flurry of protests and complaints. Less than two seconds after we started gliding, the whines broke free and turned into giggles.
Of course.
Two hours later, Alexis declared snow tubing to be The Best Thing Ever.
I just might agree.
But could we PLEASE get some snow so I don't have to pay to do it again?
(Cell phone pic because I was too chicken to take my camera snow tubing.) (You're really lucky I didn't imbed one of the many videos I took of us going down the hill. I'm only sparing you becuase I don't want to be responsible for making people puke with my horribly shaky video "skills.")
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Reader Comments (5)
Oh, you should add a video for those of us that haven't even been sledding once!
I've alway driven past Nemacolin on my save-a-buck routes home and wondered how it was.
@Jayna--Nemacolin isn't bad, at least as far as snow tubing goes. It's not the craziest hill ever, but it was plenty for Alexis.
I'll put the video up on Flickr. tomorrow just for you. :-)
Not enjoying snow activities (other than walking around taking pictures) myself, FireMan took FireGirl tubing at our nearest man-made snow place Wednesday night. They were gone for four hours, and he had to drag her out of there.
I may not be into it myself, but with as much as my kiddo likes it, I declare man-made snow one of the best inventions ever. She's already asking when Daddy will teach her to ski! Love it.
praying for snow in early march.
:)
I totally think you should post a video. that way I can see what's it like to go tubing, seeing as I've never done it because i'm chicken :)