Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Day 8 - 30 Day Blog Challenge

Day 8 - A place you've traveled to

I was thinking about what I could blog about today and decided to get back into the 30 Day Blog Challenge I started forever ago... My last post was back in January!! How awful is that?!

I remember back then trying to decide what place I'd use for my post. I think the ones that came to mind were the Bahamas or Disney World. I haven't done any travelling abroad (yet), so I'm kind of limited... But I think I'm going with a Girl's Trip we took in May 2010.

My lady friends and I took a long weekend trip to Banning Mills in Whitesburg, GA. The purpose of this trip... to go on the Zip Line Canopy Tour! : )    (click here to go to their website for more info)

I'm not necessarily afraid of heights, but they're certainly not my favorite. So I was a little nervous about this trip... but mostly excited. The girls and I always have fun no matter what we're doing! ; )

We all pitched in and rented a lovely little cabin on site. It had 5 beds I think, 2 or 3 bathrooms, a small living room and a nice little kitchen... which even had a big wooden column in the center, perfect for dancing on! (Haa, ha, ha... I'll be nice and not post any videos, Jennifers)

So the night before the Zip Line appointment, we drove over to the nearest town (30 minutes away) to have some dinner and do a little dancing. This is where we ate:





You may recognize that picture... I edited it to make my Weigh-In Wednesday header. : ) Then after we ate, we got directions to some place where we could dance. And since I'm not a big drinker, I volunteered to drive. Wow... that was almost as much of an adventure as the zip line! We got lost several times... did several circles... then finally made our way to some hole-in-the-wall bar. So we danced for an hour or two, then decided to just go back to the cabin. We needed to get up pretty early, after all.


Me and my cousins, Summer and Heather


Mary and Jennifer
 The next day, those of us who signed up for the Zip Line Canopy Tour got up at the crack of dawn and sleepily made our way over to the huge lodge to check in. Some of us were pretty nervous at that point (Summer), but after the first zip line, I think we were all excited.


Jennifer B, Jennifer K, me, Heather, and Summer
 It was so gorgeous out there! After the initial shock of jumping out of perfectly good tree, I tried to see as much of the beautiful scenery as I could as I flew through the air to the next tree. And though I was a little worried I'd pull a "George of the Jungle," I didn't ram into anything or anybody. : )



Getting ready to jump


And there I go
Our guides were the best! (They were probably glad to see our crazy group leave though!) I did have a little mishap with one of them... The Big Daddy zip line (I can't remember what it was called... it may have actually been "Big Daddy...") was supposed to make you go so fast that you'd have no choice but to brake near the end lest you crash into a tree and a couple of guides. I was looking forward to braking, because I hadn't needed to on any of the other lines, and I wanted to try it out. So I enthusiastically set off on Big Daddy and... something didn't feel right. I wasn't going very fast, and the harness around my legs started hurting me a little... and it hadn't done that before then. But I didn't think much of it because the view was unbelievably gorgeous. But then I was nearing the end, getting ready to try out my braking when... I stopped. A good 50 feet from the tree. What the heck!? So I did what I had been taught and started pulling myself towards the end, but apparently I wasn't doing this fast enough, because next thing I know, one of the guides had come to rescue me. Well, apart from being a little embarrassed about being rescued, I was sort of ticked that I didn't get to practice my braking! So I asked one of the guides about what went wrong, and he thought my glove had gotten stuck and wedged itself in the hook thing, which is what slowed me down. But when I told him that didn't happen, he told me then it was probably that I hadn't been properly hooked up before I jumped off...        WHAT?!? So I was zooming hundreds of feet in the air and wasn't hooked up correctly?? That was lovely to know. It was fine though... they take extra precautions, so I knew I wouldn't have fallen or anything. I was still mostly mad that I didn't get to brake. ; )

One of the guides coming in for a landing


Heather, Summer, and I after the last zip line
 In between most of the zip lines were rope courses. They weren't as fun as the zip lines, but I enjoyed them too. A couple of our party were more nervous on them then on the actual zip lines, and I may have been one of them! I guess it was because you moved so much slower and had to wrap yourself around trees to get from one rope to another. Plus you had to essentially tight-rope walk from one tree to the next. But it was fun! I hummed circus music to myself as a distraction if I started getting nervous. : )


Summer on the ropes course



We made it out alive!
 Next on the list was horseback riding. And it was my first time doing that as well, so I was a little nervous again. It didn't help that our guide showed up late with a black eye that her horse had given her that morning... And although there were a couple hiccups along the way (my horse kept falling behind to eat then trotting to catch up & our guide's horse almost bucked her off), I'm glad I got that experience too.


Heather getting on her horse

Jennifer B looking right at home
I think we all had a really great time, and I hope we'll get to go back soon. I'd love to go with Matt at some point, but I definitely want to do another girl's trip there too! : )

6 comments:

  1. I actually have a few comments. :) I love that most of the places you wanted to pick were places we went to together! I had a great time on this trip as well and highly recommend it for anyone! I'm so glad u posted all of those pictures of us looking hot in our safety helmets! LOL

    Great post!

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  2. Looks like you girls had the best time!! Glad you are enjoying your summer :)

    Zip lining is loads of fun, I zipped thru the rainforest in St Lucia and had the time of my life. Doing a Tree Top Trek in 2 weekends, totally thrilled and excited at the prospect.

    xoxo

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  3. I LOVE ziplining. Your trip looks amazing. Although the ropes course would have freaked me out for real.

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  4. Oh ziplining looked like so much fun!!!
    What an awesome adventure :)

    xo Kary xo

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  5. Oh wow what a fantastic girls trip :) I haven't been ziplining before but it looks awesome. I've done a basic ropes course when I was about 11. So it wasn't very high.

    Thanks again for getting things from my shop! x

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  6. Lol! Not the most fashionable head gear but it was so much fun. We have to start planning the next girl trip!

    Jennifer K.

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