Max’s First Tubing Adventure!
We woke up this morning and packed up quickly so we could get the long drive over with earlier today. We also wanted to see how far we could get before the heat of the day set in (see yesterday’s post about the air conditioning). We got on 495 in Massachusetts and headed west, toward New York. The exterior thermometer said it was 84 degrees outside. It also seemed less humid than yesterday. We drove and drove and drove and the highest it ever got all day long was 85! We were thrilled. It was very comfortable in the RV all day long!
I drove the first couple of hours this morning while Richard sat in the back and played with Max and Mason. Richard introduced Max to Mad Libs so we were all entertained by giggles and silly words like fart and poop for awhile. At one point, Max said, “Mommy, guess what word I learned how to spell?”
I asked, “What word?”
He replied, “b-o-o-b-s!”
We stopped for a quick lunch and Richard took over driving. Mason went down for his nap so I was able to spend some time with Max. Then, he fell asleep, too, so I got some reading in. That was nice. Mason woke up first and wanted some entertainment. So, I pulled out the toddler toothpaste and his new toothbrush (it blinks) and he pretended to brush his teeth for awhile.
Then, he wanted to brush my teeth. And then, I started to tease him by putting his toothbrush between his toes (not the bristle part!). After that, we entertained ourselves by setting my camera on macro and taking really close photos of Max’s face while he slept.
We finally arrived at our campground and, boy oh boy, were we surprised and excited! It’s right on a river and they having tubing!! Max and I quickly got dressed and practically ran to the campground store for innertubes and some water shoes for Max. I then blew up the innertubes (with some help from Richard)…
…and away we went, down the path to the entrance area for tubers. Max was SO excited! He was talking non-stop. I must admit I was pretty excited, too! I haven’t been tubing in probably close to 15 years. The last time was in the Guadalupe River in the Texas hill country.
Anyway, it looked very shallow so I didn’t worry about putting Max’s floaties on. I put the tubes in the water and helped Max into his, all the while holding mine, too. The current was pretty quick. I sat in my tube and held his and off we went! Within seconds, we hit a big rock and Max panicked and jumped out of his innertube. Then, I panicked because he didn’t have his floaties on so I jumped out of mine, too. And…there we stood, in about 4 inches of water, watching our innertubes racing down the river without us. The guy behind us said that, if we hurried, we could grab them downriver.
We walked back to the RV (which was downriver) and waited…but they never floated by. So, back to the store we went. “Two more innertubes, please.” I explained to the lady what had happened and added, “I don’t mind paying the money. It’s the blowing-them-up part that I’m not looking forward to.” She laughed.
We came back to the RV and I once again solicited help from Richard, even though he insisted that I’m a better blower (snicker…). Just as I was about to start blowing again, a family came by with our innertubes. They found them in some trees and walked all the way back to our RV to give them to us! That was so nice!! We thanked them profusely and I was so relieved! Then, I went back into the RV and cut off part of my laundry line, and tied the innertubes together, leaving plenty of extra line on the end so I could hold onto it, just in case. And off we went again. Max was just as excited as he’d been before and so was I!
We got into the river, sat in our tubes, and shoved off. I explained to Max that his tube would just bounce off the boulders so, when he hit the same rock again, he didn’t panic again. Instead, he laughed as first he and then I bounced off. We raced down the rapids, giggling and squealing and having a grand time! The water was cool, but not too cool, and so refreshing. The river was bordered on one side by the campground and the other side was forest and cliffs. It was spectacular! I pointed out how beautiful it was to Max. But, he was just scanning the water farther down the river, wondering when the next set of rapids would apper.
We tubed past the RV and waved at Richard and Mason.
Too quickly, we got to the end and had to climb out of the river. We walked back to the RV, let Richard and Mason know we were okay, and then went and did it all over again! It was such a special day!
When we finished again, we all went to the pool together. Mason decided he didn’t want to swim. Instead, he showed off his beach bod to all the nice old ladies who always seem to be attracted to him.
He does seem to draw a crowd of RVing grandmothers wherever we go!
It was getting chilly so we returned to the RV, got dressed, and went to dinner. We drove into town and had a delicious meal. We all had steak (I had lobster with mine), except for Mason. He figured out that dipping your fork into ranch dressing and then into a plate of cracker crumbs is just delightful! He made quite a mess. He then turned around and started babbling to the people at the table behind us. Of course, none of us could understand anything he was saying, but he just kept right on talking!
For dessert, we had different ice cream dishes (Max and I had fried ice cream).
Mason dove right into his vanilla ice cream and whipped cream…literally. It was everywhere!
We came back to the RV and, unfortunately, now that the sun has gone down, I can no longer pretend that I don’t have a real job and I must get some work done.
We like this campground so much that we’ve decided to stay an extra day. So, we get to do it all over again tomorrow! 