Snow Tubing!

Yesterday I took a little trip to Scaly Mt., North Carolina with my germaphobic friend. (She'll get dirty as long as she can washup ASAP!) We wanted to play in the snow and since it never snows here in Meto-Atlanta, we headed north to the nearest patch of snow (and although it is mostly machine-generated, it still counts!) for some snow tubing! And (real) snow fell from the sky all day.

We had a blast! We slid down the snow bank backwards, forward, on our stomachs, on our butts, spinning out, and nearly jumping the side banks. Oh yeah, and we did have one collision to speak of. (No broken bones, so no big deal!)

The sweet guy working the top of slope must have liked us. He always set us up to go spinning down the mountain or showed us a new "trick" so we would fly down even faster. One time he had Germaphobe and I linked together by having us face one another and holding on to one another's ankles and he sent us swooshing downhill, spinning like a carousel all the way to the bottom. We had built up such speed that I thought for a moment we would jump the side bank and wipe out. However, we avoided a crash that time.

Our tubular accident occurred when I plopped down on the tube on my belly and sped off. Germaphobe took off right behind me on her bottom, her feet hanging over the sides of her tube. I spun around backwards, my feet now pointed downhill and my head pointed uphill now facing Germaphobe's feet that are speeding toward my face at an alarming rate. I try to spin back around, but can't. Germaphobe taps her feet into the snow to slow down, but it doesn't brake her at all. She screamed and I screamed as we watched the gap between us close. With her feet still on track for impact with my face, we stared wide-eyed at one another in what seemed like slow-motion, our mouths still gaping wide open in screams. God, help me keep all my teeth, I prayed. Her feet swung just to the side as we collide and our tubes bounce off one another. I'm thrown off at the bottom of the slope and look up just in time to see a group of kids with their tubes linked together heading right for me! I escape unscathed but drenched and a bit muddy from waist down.

"Outdoorsy Girl!", Germaphobe called. "Are you okay?" She was laughing hysterically.

I licked my tongue across my teeth. Yep, they're all there. I answer through fits of laughter, "Yeah, just a little bit wet. My ass is soooo numb!"

In fact, my butt didn't regain consciousness again until an hour or so later, despite the fact that I changed into dry clothes. And when it did regain feeling from this cold-induced numbness, it was not a good feeling! I felt like a fire-breathing dragon had kissed my rear end.

We drove home the scenic route through Highlands, NC, through the Nantahala National Forest and through the Cullasaja River Gorge. We stopped along the way to see the waterfalls and other sights through the flurries of snow. Along the road, we found a natural spring. Someone had placed a PVC pipe in the rock to create a faucet for collecting water. I took a few sips of the refreshing, icy water. Then to my surprise, even with Germaphobe being as germaphobic as she is, she took a drink from the pipe, too! (This pipe was not clean or dirt-free, by the way!) For the second time a miracle has occurred in the life of an antimicrobial girl! Germaphobe drinks H2O straight from the rock without any microfiltering involved! (Once before Best Friend and I coaxed...okay, taunted...her until she drank water from a spring in Utah.) But this time she did it voluntarily, without any coaxing/taunting, and through an unclean pipe! And, Best Friend, if you are reading this, I have the picture to prove it!

Though I wouldn't mind going another round down on the tube, it certainly feels wonderful to be in my warm home today. But I seriously think my butt is frostbitten! I surely hope not. Now wouldn't that be a strange body part to have amputated?

Almost to the bottom! Watch out below!






Germaphobe poses near our crash site.

Hitching a ride up the slope via the cable that nearly beheaded me.(three times!)

It's a miracle! And here's the proof!