Well, it took two tries, but we finally went tubing again. In case you don't know, "tubing" is floating down the Chattahoochee River in an inter tube float. I had my first experience with it 4 years ago. It was not so fun. You can read about it here, if you wish. It was not that great of an experience, but the kids have been begging to do it again. Well, the boys have, anyway.
We made plans to ride up to Helen to go tubing on Saturday. If you've never been to Helen, Georgia...what are you waiting for? It's an Alpine Village in Northeast Georgia. Totally a tourist trap, but there's just something about it that I love! Everybody else in Georgia loves Helen too, apparently because what should have been a 40 minute drive took almost 3 hours because of all the traffic. We drove and drove, in our little car because the air isn't working that great in the Explorer. The kids did great until the very end, but I couldn't blame them for getting bored. After the first hour, I was ready to pull my hair out as we inched our way up to the mountains.
The truck in front of us provided some entertainment. They must have gone through a 12 pack of beer during the drive. I know because they kept opening up their rear window to throw away the empty cans. And one of those guys must have drank more than he could handle because he exited his vehicle and went to pee in the woods. He could do that, you see, because we were literally in stand-still traffic. The kids got a kick out of it. I was worried that we were going to be stuck floating down the river with a crowd of drunks for three hours.
We FINALLY arrived in Helen and Violet flipped out!
"Oh, it's a castle! We're in Arendelle!"
Bless her heart!
It took another 30 minutes to make it up to the tubing place. Because, again, the traffic was just nuts.
And then, we we got there, I shouldn't have been worrying about who we would be forced to encounter during our trip down the river, because there were so many tubers and the line was backed up so badly that no more tickets were being sold.
Oh, my word.
Talk about disappointed.
We were all dressed to swim with no where to go. We even had our sunscreen on already.
So, we promised we'd come back on Monday and just drove home.
The kids were so mad. So were we, truthfully.
A friend of mine took her youth group tubing the same day and said it was so insanely crowded. Shore to shore tubes. I believe it!
We woke up early on Monday and left the house a little after 8 to get to Helen by 9, right when it opened.
It was like deja vu. I put on my swimsuit, coverup, and floppy hat. (Don't get me started. I can't believe I wore that in public). Everybody packed changes of clothes and sunscreen and what not. The drive only took the regular amount of time and Helen looked deserted when we drove in. We drove over the little bridge and there was not one single person tubing in the river below. We really began to wonder if the tubing place was even open.
We drove up and there was a big OFFICE CLOSED sign in the window. I almost passed out. I told Chris to go see what was going on. He went up to the ticket window and then waved us on in. We applied our sunscreen and put Vi into her lifejacket. She was so excited until she had to put on that vest.
Here we are, before we got into the river.
By this time, other customers were starting to trickle in. Since we could only tether 2 tubes together, Violet and I paired up. Shaun and Jordan went together, and Chris was by himself. We walked down the little ramp and, right when we got to the river bank Violet said, "Well, I'm just not going in there". And then she tried to walk back up the ramp! I told her no no, it's going to be fun! And then she wanted to take her shoes off. She was starting to cry so I took her pink jellies off and put them with me in my tube. I sat on them and thought they'd be safe.
Then, we were off. It was smooth sailing. I The water was lots higher than the last time we tubed, and we were able to actually float most of the way, instead of dragging our tubes over the sharp rocks in the shallow water.
Vi and I were in the lead at first. She was a little scared at first. Terrified might be a better word. She calmed down but kept the look on her face that she had in the above picture. She'd say, "NO" when I asked if she was having fun.
The only really dramatic, eventful thing that happened was when I almost drowned. Seriously. We only got stuck a few times. Chris helped us out the first time. The second time, we were stuck between two rocks and my tube just would NOT fit through it. I had the brilliant idea to hop out and then pull Violet's tube over. Well, when I hopped out, the current swept me over the rock and my tube ripped over on top of me. I had chosen a tube with a bottom, so I was trapped. I was so scared! Vi was still in her tube right behind me. Chris was in front of us and turned around in time to see what happened. He tried to make his way back and I was swept under again. OMG! I got up and just waited on him to help me. But Violet's pink jellies were gone! :(
This whole thing took 5 or 10 minutes and I was freaking out because the boys had kept going down river. They'd been ahead of us, and now the were REALLY ahead of us. A few minutes later we ran into a friend of ours who said they had passed her a few minutes earlier and that they were okay. Small world! We ran into them a little while later. They'd pulled off to the side to wait for us. Jordan didn't want to wait, but Shaun made him. Ha!
The rest of the ride was uneventful and Violet even started to have fun. In her words, "Just a little bit of fun".
We met a family vacationing from Ohio. They were here for a week all the way from Ohio. We really take Helen for granted!
We had a fun day together. Chris has worked really hard this summer and it was nice to do something together. We had lunch on the way home and then had time to rest before Jordan's first football practice.
At the end of the day, the trip was so enjoyable that I wouldn't mind doing it again. In fact, my small group has made plans to go tubing in a few weeks. :)
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