I Went Skating and Tubing

Yes, yes (insert sarcasm here).  I have and extreamly original title for this.


Well, as my un-unique title says, I went skating and tubing. 

It was with my youth group (as all out-of-the-house activities of mine usually are).  We all headed over to the church at a mite before 10:00 in the morning.  We registered ourselves with our youth leader and sat around in the gym-type-area to wait for departure.  After all kids had arrived (it was bothe senior and junior youth) we all piled into a bus.  Which was an experience for me.  I hadn't ridden in a bus for ten years.  I'm homeschooled, that's why.  So we bounced and jounced around in the stale smelling vehicle for about 45 - 50 minutes, finaly ariving at our destination.

We all piled out of the bus in the snow covered parking lot and stood still (for the most part) while our bus driver parked.  While we were standing around, my brother, Michael as I call him online, dicovered a unwelcome fact.  He had forgotten his gloves.  And we were going to be there all day. 

We headed dwn to the lower parking lot (where busses don't fit) and stood in lines to get our passes for skating and tubing.  I attached mine to a zipper on a pocket.

I depositied my lunch inside the lodge (like everyone else did) and headed off to the tube hill with my cousin, An, and a few other people.  We had a few slides down, then most of us got cold and headed back inside (not me as I had gloves, a touque, a zippie, my winter jacket, jeans, a pair of athletic pants, and thermals on).  Besides.  It was lunch time.  I took one more slide down then zipped into the lodge.  My lunch didn't seem very appetizing (granola bars, cheese, and something else) so I got an over-priced item from the small restraunte thing inside.  I ordered chicken strips and fires along with two hot chocolates (one for my half frozen little brother).  Those fries were some of the best fries I have ever had!  They were crispy-ish on the ouside and creamy on the inside.  They didn't have as muh salt as McDonald's fries, but still enough.  Delicious!

Afterwards I decided to rent skates and go skating, even though I hadn't skated for two or three years.

They didn't have my size of women's skates.  I'm size eleven women's.  Yeah, huge feet, right?
So I rented men's hockey skates.  I tried a size nine first, but they were too small.  Then the skate rental lady had me try another air of skates that I think were size nine and a half.  And they fit perfectly for my ankles and my feet.  They were too long so my toes had a ton of room, but that was easily dealt with.  Besides, I like it when my toes aren't crammed into my shoes. 

I was able to get out the rental shack and down the steps to the snow with no trouble.  Then I had to cross about fiftenn feet of snow to the pond.  That was much much harder.  I slipped and wobbled as my skates sand unevenly into the snow, sending me lurchng forwards or reeling back.

Miraculosly, I made it to the ice without mishap.  Mishap being defined as falling over.

The ice at the entry was extreamly roungh and I bumped and wobbled over it to get to the smoother area.  The smooth area was a little better.  I still wobbled, but from normal I-haven't-skated-in-several-years balence issues than the the-ice-needs-a-zambonie! type of balence issues. 

My cousin and brother were also out there, along with a couple other of the people with whom we were tubing.

Naturally, Michael was already whizzing around.  Though in my defense I hadn't skated in several years and he had skated more recently.  I felt like a beginer skater as I carefully skated.  My arms were held stiffly in front of me, elbows crooked slightly.  I stepped more than I really skated, and my torso was really quite stiff. 

Michael was skating circles around our little group.  Being his slightly competitive sister, I tried to chase him, simply speeding up my skating.  But of course, he had already re-discovered those powerful gliding strokes that send you flying accross the ice.

I gave up.  Instead of chasing him I worked on turning.  I turn to the left the best.  There's just someting about it that works for me.

When I bored of turning, I chased my brother again.  This time I noticed the sweeping gliding motions he used and tried to mimich them.  Naturally, I couldn't do it. 

Once again I gave up chasing him.  But this time instead of practicing turning I concentrated on gliding.  During this time I balenced on one foot then tried to gracefully switch feet, pushing myself powerfully along.  I also kept ordering my arms to relax by my sides and I ordered the rest of my body to relax.  Things don't normaly work as good when you're stiff.

By and by I managed to sweep nicely along.  My new technique was much more effective than the previous step-skating I had been doing.  I decided it was time for speed.

It's like my piano teacher says.  Start slow and when you've got it down slow you can speed it up a little.

I was able to speed around.  So then I practiced turns again, but this time at my 'high' speeds. 

I can't turn sharply.  Just trust me on that one.  It will take a lot of practice before I am able to turn in a circle less than fifteen feet in diameter from a higher speed without falling.  (ouch ouc ouch!  My knees!)  My knees stung for a few minutes after that.

Later I was able to nearly keep up with Michael at my highest speed.  Which is pretty amazing considering he's this extreamly athletic guy who has been able to beat me in races and nearly all things athletic for about four years now.  Athletics generally aren't my thing.

Of course I had to fall again.  This time I was speeding around and the toe of my skate caught in a crack that needed zambonieing.  Ker-thunk!  I hit the ice again.  And once again my knees hit first.  Owchie.  I knew I'd have a bruise later.

While the smarting stopped, I watched Michael preform controlled fall after controlled fall.  Several people were kinda staring as this skater, who had looked so good before, hit the ground time and time again.  I never tried falling on purpose.  Not my thing.  Falling on purpose would probably ingure me more that falling by accident.

A while later we returned the skated and tubed for a bit.  Then we felt like skating again and wished we had waited the return the skates.  That was when we made a welcome discovery.  If you rented skates, returned them, then wanted to skate again you could do so without paying again!  So I got another pair of skates.  This pair pinched my ankles and the blades were off kilter, forcing my feet to turn out.  So it wasnt as fun as before and I couldn't go nearly as fast.  It was soon getting dark.  We returned our skates for the last time and headed off for a bit more tubing before we left. 

The powdery snow stung sharply on any exposed skin as we nearly flew donw the hill.  Soon enough we were freezing and popped back into the lodge.  Turns out five minute later we were heading back out to the parking lot where we were counted and packed onto the bus.  We stopped at Tim Hortan's on the way home.  An had texted her dad to pick her up there and didn't stay.  Michael and I sat mutely at a table with our snak and waited for the time when we would get bak on the bus. 

Half an hour later we stepped off the bus into the church parking lot.  We thanked our leader for organizing this and saw our mom waiting for us in the truck.  We climbed in and soon were home.


And that was my adventure with skating and tubing.  Oh yes.  I did get bruises.  Horrific bruises the size of 2 - 2 1/2 inch diameter circles below my kneecaps.  It's two weeks later on Sturday and I still have shadowy bruise marks on my knees.  My bruises don't seem to heal quickly.

Anyways, till next time!