Snow Tubing

Ryan and I were given the treat of going tubing the Friday following Christmas.  Neither one of us had been so we were pretty excited (and nervous).

I had never been to a ski resort at all which would prove evident.
I told Ryan on several occasions that if it the snow would not come here then I would go to the snow.  Well, we're driving up to the mountain and I'm looking for a mountain covered in snow (ski resort, right?).
Unfortunately, we drive and I finally see lanes of white, but it was not covered in snow.  There was just enough snow to cover the hills where the tubing and skiing took place.  I was a little disappointed, but hey, it was snow and more than we had here.

We had asked for the tubes that held two people, but found out they were out and we had to take two individual tubes and link them together.  Apparently it was more fun that way anyway.  So we get the tubes and begin to head up the hill.  No one told us how much energy it would take to get up the ramp.  It moved like the ones at the airport, though those are flat, but somehow it was hard.  I have to admit that I wanted my inhaler.  Maybe it was the tube that we were holding, the layers of clothing that we had or the fact that there were tons of people that wanted to hurry up and get up the hill so we all ended up walking.

Once up the to the top of the hill we waited in line and waited and waited.  There were 8 lanes, kind of like the ones at the waterparks, the higher in number you go the faster and "straighter down" you go.  The farthest we went was lane 5.  Well, lane one was first of course and it was very intense.  Ever have that moment where you're strapped in and then decide maybe no, but it's too late?  That was me.  We were strapped in, the ski assistant pushed us down and we were off.  Wow!  Very fast, very scary, but yet so much fun!  Then we had to get off of the tube....
Once, while we were trying to get off the tube, we got two rides in one.  The hills move up at the end to stop the tube from going.  Well, we were in the process of getting out of the tube and then tube begin to go backwards.  We had to lay back in and enjoy the ride.  We're both screaming, I'm looking back to make sure they didn't send anyone else down the hill and we're trying to get it to stop.  Talk about an adrenaline rush...that was fun.  Now the walk back towards our hill of wonder.  One of the scariest moments was walking from the bottom of the hill to the ramp.  It was covered in ice so we're trying to very carefully get there in one piece.  I did fall once, but fortunately not too bad.

At the end of our tubing adventure we went inside for some hot chocolate then headed to the fire outside.  It was a nice adventure, but we'll take a break.  Maybe next season.