Monday, August 28, 2006
TUBING, ALMOST
Last week, a bunch of my friends decided to go inner tubing down a river and they wanted to have as big a group as they could. I have never been tubing, so I happily joined in. The main organizer e-mailed suggestions for what to bring, directions on where to meet, and instructions for renting or buying your own tube. Saturday morning, I packed up my beer (in cans, no glass in the river), a mesh bag (the river water will keep the beer cold, but a cooler will sink), and a change of clothes (because you’ll want something warm to wear after soaking in the cold river).
I drove up I-83 to the Mt. Carmel exit, drove a few miles down Monkton Road (which wasn’t actually marked from the road but was easily identifiable as the only road it could be if that makes sense), and rented an inner tube at Monkton Station. Monkton is in a charming area in the country, and the station sits at the crossroads of Monkton Road and a popular bike trail. Given the large number of people with inner tubes heading down the trail, I imagine the river must be nearby as well.
I was driving to the nearby rendezvous point when I got a phone call telling me the tubing was canceled. Since it was cloudy with a chance of rain, they decided to call it off. Apparently, if it isn’t blazing hot out it can get uncomfortably cold on the river. I was disappointed, of course. I never even found out the name of the river we were intending to float down. I returned the inner tube, and thought about where I wanted to stop on the way home. There was a winery in Mt. Carmel, and if I had remembered the crap that local wineries had been dealing with for the past year I would have made a point of stopping there to pick up a bottle. Eventually, I just went straight home and helped my wife paint the room we’re converting into an office.
What I kicked myself for later was not realizing that I had a case of beer in the car and no place I had to be for a while. I should have called up one of the tube trip organizers and said, “Okay, so where ARE we gathering today?”
It’s probably a good thing I didn’t, since the obvious response to that is “Your place.”
Last week, a bunch of my friends decided to go inner tubing down a river and they wanted to have as big a group as they could. I have never been tubing, so I happily joined in. The main organizer e-mailed suggestions for what to bring, directions on where to meet, and instructions for renting or buying your own tube. Saturday morning, I packed up my beer (in cans, no glass in the river), a mesh bag (the river water will keep the beer cold, but a cooler will sink), and a change of clothes (because you’ll want something warm to wear after soaking in the cold river).
I drove up I-83 to the Mt. Carmel exit, drove a few miles down Monkton Road (which wasn’t actually marked from the road but was easily identifiable as the only road it could be if that makes sense), and rented an inner tube at Monkton Station. Monkton is in a charming area in the country, and the station sits at the crossroads of Monkton Road and a popular bike trail. Given the large number of people with inner tubes heading down the trail, I imagine the river must be nearby as well.
I was driving to the nearby rendezvous point when I got a phone call telling me the tubing was canceled. Since it was cloudy with a chance of rain, they decided to call it off. Apparently, if it isn’t blazing hot out it can get uncomfortably cold on the river. I was disappointed, of course. I never even found out the name of the river we were intending to float down. I returned the inner tube, and thought about where I wanted to stop on the way home. There was a winery in Mt. Carmel, and if I had remembered the crap that local wineries had been dealing with for the past year I would have made a point of stopping there to pick up a bottle. Eventually, I just went straight home and helped my wife paint the room we’re converting into an office.
What I kicked myself for later was not realizing that I had a case of beer in the car and no place I had to be for a while. I should have called up one of the tube trip organizers and said, “Okay, so where ARE we gathering today?”
It’s probably a good thing I didn’t, since the obvious response to that is “Your place.”
# posted by Renfield @ 12:29 PM 
