You're As Cold As Ice

So on the first warm day of the spring, what did I choose to do? Go snowtubing. Makes sense, right? To be fair, we had scheduled the activity while it was still freezing and snowy out, and warm weather or not, we were going! Three Brakes and I headed north on our quest, stopping on the way for dinner at the best restaurant in Thurmont - Sheetz!

After eating, we continued to Ski Liberty It was much colder there, so we added layers to stay warm.

When we were ready, we headed to the lodge to get our tickets.

We took a quick break inside before we started,

and then headed back outside to get our snowtubes.

Snowtubing is awesome. It's like sledding, but for lazy people. After you get your tube, you get in line. There were actually two lines, and we were convinced that we were destined to always be in the wrong one. The line guards let the lines take turns, but were not at all even about how long the turns were.

Eventually, you made it to the conveyor belt that takes you up the hill so you don't have to walk.

The conveyor belt is covered, but you can see out the sides to watch people going down the hill.

They go really fast, too.

From the top, you can look down at all the lanes.

After you choose a lane, you sit on your tube and one of the lane guards starts you down the hill. Note this young lady's shorts - I told you it was warm earlier that day! (Either that, or they're crazy. Also possible).

It's a very exciting ride, although I couldn't keep myself from spinning around when I rode upright like that.

If you're more ambitious, you can get a running leap and ride down face first.

I had a much easier time staying forward this way.

You can also ride in groups linked together sometimes, like Jeni and Mr. Brake tried before the lane guard told them they weren't allowed. Apparently, the lanes were too icy and people riding alone were already going ridiculously fast and running into the staff at the bottom of the hill. Not that I did that. More than once.

Even without having to walk up the hill (except when the line was too long), the activity was starting to make everyone tired by the end of the night.

It was also getting really, really crowded toward the end of the night.

A youth group of what appeared to be middle schoolers showed up, and were not very well supervised. Jeni had to educate them on what a line was. But luckily, our time didn't overlap them for too long, and they were still outside when we finished and went inside to get refreshments. Which were very welcome - despite the lovely conveyor belt, we were exhausted and thirsty. Apparently snowtubing is a bit less lazy than I thought!