I Think I Am Therefore I Am I Think

In honor of Carrie's birthday last month, Eileen gave her the gift of a Zipline tour! So this past Saturday we (Carrie, Eileen, Stuart (Eileen's Son), & I) drove up into the NC mountains for a little adventure! Scream Time Zipline located in Boone, NC was our destination. It was a crisp 44 degrees and rather cloudy, but that didn't dampen our spirits.

Once parked, they loaded us into an open air jeep and drove us to the zipline area. To say it was cold and windy is an understatement.

Here's one of the jeeps hauling its victims toward certain doom

Eileen and Carrie in the jeep. Blowin in the wind.

Me and Stuart.

Upon arrival, they fit you with your harness, helmet and pulley thingie

Stylin in our Zip gear
L-R: Carrie, Me, Eileen, Stuart

Then they loaded us into a Pinzgauer 6-wheel drive Swiss Army transport to drive us what felt like straight up the side of a hill. With no seat belts we all held on for dear life....Important note: Sit near the driver for this because if you are in the back everyone slides down onto you LOL

We disembarked at the top of a hill overlooking the valley..... with all the trees ablaze in their fall colors it was a spectacular view

To be honest, around this time I started to get cold feet about the whole idea. Sure I like to talk the talk but much like my roller coaster issues with sudden drops I started to consider that this might not be the best thing for me. Especially whilst I was admiring the fall foliage and view of the zip course I spotted this..... A cemetery!?!?!?!?

A cemetery pretty much placed right under the lines we'd be zipping on so that if the lines broke then it'd be a quick drop right into your grave. How convenient.

This idea was sounding better by the minute. Who's idea was this anyways??? Oh yeah, that Brit, Eileen...it was her idea wasn't it...hmmmmm

So here we are about ready to take our first zip. Don't I look excited?

At least Carrie looks like she's enjoying herself

Well surprisingly enough, it was GREAT!!!!!! 2 seconds after I stepped off the mountain and started zipping, I loved it! It's sooooooooo not like a roller coaster at all, it's very smooth and feels like your flying. What a great idea this was Eileen!!

So the zipline tour we paid for is actually 6 zips which criss cross from hill to hill till you reach the bottom. Only one person is on a line at a time so once you reach the end of your zip, they unhook you from that cable and hook you up to the next one which is right beside it.

Does this harness make my butt look big?

Here's proof that I didn't chicken out!

Most of the zipping was just over the valley but what I was really hoping for and what I had read about zip lines (at least those in Costa Rica)was that they usually go through the trees. The ones in Costa Rica have you actually zipping through the rain forests. Well, for the 5th zip we actually did get to go through a small wooded part.

I took this pic while on the zip line! How cool am I? I'm a multi-tasker zipper

Carrie, coming in for a landing

Zipper Grrrrrls

So once we completed our 6 zip tour we were still pining for more and decided to do the

SUPER ZIP !!!!!

The Super Zip is apparently the first 2000 foot long "triple wide" zipline in the U.S.! Triple wide, meaning that there's 3 ziplines so 3 people can zoom along side by side..almost like a race!

So we jumped back on the Pinzgauer and went back up the mountain.

Carrie, I squeeze your head in your little baby helmet

So Carrie, Eileen and I line up and get on the super zip. Here's a pic of where we need to end up.

and where we don't ;-)

And awaaay we go.

Thus ends our zipline adventure. But the day's not over yet. On the drive back we had to stop at the nut warehouse. How apropos considering the company I keep ;-)

Carrie, mulling over her nut choice. So many nuts, so little time.

Then because the adrenalin was still coursing through our veins, we found we were famished so we stopped at some local place called Sledgehammers. This was a real upscale joint as they actually served martini's BUT

Seriously.......

I guess I should have realized that even though they had martinis on the drink menu, we were still basically in the mountains of North Carolina, so I shouldn't have been surprised by the name of this drink.

We DID NOT order one of these...but we did ask what the secret garnish was that made it look like "poop in a pool" and the waitron told us it was that old candy staple...a Whopper. Gag me with a spoon! Not to mention that their drink mixing skills were seriously lacking because I ordered a Baileys and coffee and they brought me a watered down coffee with a touch of Bailey's in a big old styrofoam cup. Needless to say it went straight back to the bar and I settled for the old southern staple that no one can mess up. Sweet tea & lemonade

However all was not lost because we ordered this appetizer and it was just as yummy as described!!

Thus ends another Grrrrrls Adventure. Next stop hopefully will be getting our Eileen on as a parabolic mic holder for the Monday Night Football game Dec 8. She's a big football fan so I'm gonna pull some strings and set her up. That's just how I roll.