Totally tubular

Do you remember laughing uncontrollably? Hard to remember sometimes, in these hectic days of running around, "getting stuff done", working, and fixing this and that.
Sometimes you wake up and realize you cannot even remember when you've had such fun.

I'm not trying to get all depressing here.. so I'll get to the point. This past weekend I went to Cranmore Mountain in North Conway, NH and went tubing. Yes, tubing. What seemed like an overpriced thing to do to "fill the day up" actually turned out to be something awesome.

On the outside, it seems pricey - $18 for 2 hours or $24 for the whole day. So we figured that as long as we went down the hill at least six times, it'd be worth it for the all day pass. We got our tickets and headed towards the pile of tubes. We each grabbed one and headed towards the lift line. (Yes, they even cart you up to the top of the hill -- making that $24 a bit more bearable).

We got to the top and found that a few steps away was another lift. Thinking it'd be less crowded, we headed up there. The lines were about the same, but it didn't matter. It took less than five minutes to wait in line and get to the top. Now -- there were three tracks ajacent to each other. You could go alone, or in groups. Some tracks were "too fast" for 3 adults to go at once, so they limited it.
My first journey was solo. I brought my tube to the top of the hill, sat in it and waited for the go-ahead from the teenager working on the hill.

"Spin or straight?" the kid said to me with a blank stare.

I looked nervously around -- what should I do? Finally I realized I was taking way too long, so I just said "spin". I have no idea WHY I said spin -- I hate to spin. But it was too late to change my mind. The kid spun my tube around and shoved me off - fast. Let me tell you, if you've ever felt like you were heading down an icy slope in an old Yugo with no roof or no working brakes - you know kind of how it felt. It was scary; but it was fun. Although I screamed my head off (I *think* I might've swore ("ohhh shiiiiiiiiiit") too - probably a big no-no at a family friendly location - but it couldn't be helped.) I had a blast. The wind whipped through my hair as frantic thoughts of flipping the tube over and bashing my head in ran through my head. When I reached the bottom, I instantly ran back to the lift line for more.

The second time I went in a group of two. I went with my sister. We each sat down at the top and when faced with the "spin or straight" we both emphatically said straight. We flew. If going alone and spinning like a whirlygig was fun, than going in twos and flying was like fun on steroids. As the day went on, we rode alone, in a group of two and even in a group of three. We rode sitting in the tubes, sitting ON the tubes, and also on our stomachs face first.

Whichever way we went, we smiled ear to ear and laughed like idiots. It was truly fun and something I need to remember to do everynow and then.