Waivers and Helmets
A meek, mild mannered writer-type takes a vacation spent in harnesses, steel-toed boots and helmets.
I survived our vacation this year.
Ok, probably not exactly what most would lead with when talking about vacation, but trust me, in this case, it makes sense.
Last year we were unable to get away due to my parents’ health problems which required me to be around to help and my husband starting a new job after an unexpected lay off near Thanksgiving the prior year. So this year, we splurged a little. After all, we survived last year and son-the-second graduated from law school AND got a job!
Since it would be said son’s last real family vacation with us, we decided to do something memorable. A unique activity our family enjoys is caving. We’ve been visiting caves with the kids since son-the-second was in a back pack. In fact, his first tour of Mammoth Cave was strapped to his father’s back! After a little research, I discovered a series of caves in Sothern Indiana that we had never visited, two of which offered wild cave tours. So, we had a plan.
Oh, what a plan.
For the uninitiated, a wild cave tour is one of those that heads off the commercially developed parts of a show cave into largely undeveloped areas. Very dark underground areas. Often very wet, muddy and even cold areas. Sometimes very small, crawl on your belly and don’t take a deep breath sorts of areas. Yeah all of that and more. Did I mention the cave crickets?
As if that were not enough, we also ended up trying zip-lining for the first time. I’m not certain exactly how that happened. It wasn’t in the original plan. But somehow it seemed we had time for one more activity and that seemed to be the one that got picked.
Naturally, we didn’t go for the pretty, tree top variety ziplining. No, we signed up for ziplining in a defunct limestone mine, underground, in the dark, seventy plus feet above the stone floor. Of course, we did.
In case you didn’t know, zip lining attached you to a rope suspended across a gap—in our case some as long as the Titanic—ok, probably not the best analogy—by a harness with trolley sort of affair. Then a helpful guide tells you to jump off said platform so gravity can send you hurtling through empty air to the next platform. Oh, and by the way, don’t let the harness smack you in the face when the zipkey (a sort of breaking device on the far end of the rope) catches you before you hit the stone wall.
That was … interesting.
In short, I spent the majority of our summer vacation in a hard hat (usually with a light), safety harness and steel-toed boots, signing a waiver acknowledging that what I was bout to do was dangerous, probably stupid, and not their fault if I got hurt. Exactly the sort of thing you would expect of this mild-mannered writer/mother/grandmother, right?
Even the most sedate thing we did—a side-saddle riding lesson for me—required a helmet and a waiver.
Seriously, do I look like the kind of woman who needs a helmet and waiver for her entire vacation.
I didn’t think so.
But apparently I am. And so the adventure began.
Stay tuned for continuing adventures Into The Darkness…
Well in answer to the last question? NO! NO WAY! DEFINITELY NOT! Even if I didn’t now suffer from claustrophobia I still couldn’t do that, I am too fond of my home comforts.
Many years ago I did go down two of the Blue John mines near Castleton in Derbyshire and I could possibly manage those again as I seem to remember that the tours didn’t involve shuffling on my stomach, zip lining or crickets!
But as they say ‘each to their own’ and ‘whatever floats your boat’, Seriously I’m so impressed that you did all that and enjoyed it. (I couldn’t even manage the side saddle as my only attempt at riding a horse was at a fair when I was about 7 and the man leading my horse let go of the reins to help someone else, my horse put its head down to eat the grass and I slid off ? never again! (Don’t tell Darcy! )
I can’t breathe… No way, no how will I go somewhere where I have to crawl on my belly in the bowls of a cave. Breathe… just breathe. Even though Mammoth Cave is in my neck of the woods. Nope!
I imagine that lesson on riding side-saddle was interesting. I am with Glynis, my ONLY experience with a horse was a visit to a classmate’s home and I was given the obedience school dropout. Or perhaps he was expelled. Either way… they knew what they were giving me and what happened was not pretty… I don’t want to talk about it.
I am so happy you made it back safe and sound. That was some adventure. You will now have first-hand research should any of your characters find themselves in harrowing situations. LA! I need my salts after reading that.
My initial thoughts are No Way! However…if my husband and son encouraged me I would absolutely give in and strap on that helmet (ask me about those difficult blue runs when I’m a green run only kind of girl)! And we did Mammoth Cave when our youngest was 3 and we’d go back in a heartbeat!
Zip lining out in the open I could do. In a cave not so much. I have been to Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico and Longhorn Caverns here in Texas with no problems, but free-caving is not my thing. You can go free caving in the new part of Carlsbad, but need to have reservations etc.
The side-saddle riding sounds interesting. I have been reading Revelation by Kirstin bij’t Juur, wherein Lizzie and Darcy ride from London to Netherfield in the snow, on horseback. Lizzie is riding sidesaddle.