shydawg
02-13-2009, 04:20 AM
Tubing the Salt River Clean!
By Belinda M
It had been a while since I had gone tubing â€" I’ve gone down the river both ways, clean and well not so clean. But either way it had been well over 15 years since I had done this. Yep, took the long way there but it was quite the little adventure, especially when Power Road was under construction â€" thanks to the Jetta boys for getting us there! And my best girl Heather for making all those mixed CD's to jam out to on the way there. Gotta have music for road trips!! Every other minute is me squealing "ooooooooooooh I love this song". So we finally get to the parking lot and it looks like a bazillion people are wanting to tube. It was a little crazy, but fun crazy. Some of the buses had music cranked and it spilled over into the scenery that just seemed a little funny -- all these people greased up, holding these big ass tubes and ice chests to float no less then 3½ hours down the river in 100+ degree weather. I kept thinking to my self “how many of these people are going to get sick from drinking and getting dehydrated”………… I was really glad I wasn’t going to be one of them. Instead I look over at my daughter and think how lucky I am that she’s with me because if I had been drinking I wouldn’t have wanted her there. What a gift of being clean. We manage to get on the bus, some of the groups getting separated, but we end up down by the river. The music is really loud now â€" you know how some people NEED to be noticed. Well there was a group that had one hell of a music system, oooh yeah I want to float close to them. We get in the water and you can’t help but sigh with relief on how nice and cool it is. So our big group of people, like 30 I think, got split off into smaller groups, and my group had the ice chest full of water â€" next time we might want to split it up â€" but so we tie it up to my tube and get in the water and we are floating. You know you really don’t feel like you’re moving all that fast and then you see the bend come around the corner and everyone screams “ass up”…………we float by these people that look like they are tending to some drunk person who passed out only to find out she didn’t lift her ass up and hit the rock so hard it literally flew her out of her tube and she came back down on her head. Ughgh, made me sad but you can’t help but think was she loaded? And then you hear it “what is that I ask”…………I swear I was just thrown into that movie Water World………..and then you see it, it’s one of those swamp air boats and boy does it sound cool, you almost think the rocks are going to turn into Transformers, okay wait that’s my imagination, but it was cool. They get to the girl that was hurt and take her to a helicopter. I say a prayer and hope she’s okay. Then I hear a voice “excuse me” and I look and it’s some girl, obviously a little intoxicated, and I say “hello” and she’s says to me “hey man could I ask you for a beer”………..she clearly doesn’t need one and well guess what I don’t have one to give her and I say “we don’t drink” nicely, and somewhat proudly, and she’s says “yeah right, then why do you have that big’ole ice chest”……….and one of the other addicts that’s floating with me says “it’s water”………… she says “no way man, that ice chest aint full of water”……….and I open it and the look of disbelief was almost funny and then I say “we don’t drink because we are in a 12-step program”……and she says “oh well, gosh, man, well I don’t drink that much, but yeah it’s okay”………….and you can’t but over hear her say to the guy she’s floating with “oh my God, they had only water in that ice chest”………funny, all I could think of was thank God it’s not me because I’m sure by now my smokes would’ve been soggy wet and I’d have been begging someone for a cigarette and a beer. Another gift of being clean. One of the other groups finally bumps into us and they are desperate for water, it’s only then do I realize we had all the water……. sorry guys. Live and learn. The rest of the float was great, we all laughed at my daughter freaking out every time some weedy green thing attached it’s self to her, or when mating dragonflies flew on her……..ha ha that made me laugh again just typing this. We had really great conversations like me asking the only male addict that was floating in our group about his pierced nipple, I asked him “what did that feel like when you got your nipple pierced”……….he gets this smirk on his face, like he often does, and he says to me “it felt like a hot steel poker being pierced through my nipple”…………OUCH is all I can think, what a smartass. We look for spots to have a meeting next time, but every little beached area was pretty much taken over â€" I wonder if we could have a floating meeting next time? The groups finally meet up at the end and only then do you realize how fast the water is moving when you try and get out of your tube and pull it out of the water. I’m so happy I didn’t get fried by the sun, that continuously reapplying SPF 50 kept my pale self un burnt, yay! We walk towards the busses and you hear the moans of those not so lucky as me, burnt is one way some of the people there look, fried was definitely another. We get on the bus and this one has some great music playing; Aerosmith's Kings and Queens. I love that song. Me and another addict start singing at the top of our lungs -- “Long ago in days I'm told were ruled by Lords of greed”…. I was feeling good, nope I wasn’t sick and sitting next to me yet again was my beautiful daughter, embarrassed that I was singing so loudly. Another gift of being clean. We get back to the parking lot and eat the sandwiches I brought (thanks to the Activities Committee) and drink some water and stuff our soggy wet towels in bags and look in the mirror and think “whoa, I got some sun”………and then everyone starts to say good-bye. Oh yeah, we’re going the back way this time to get home. Me and my crew jump into my new car (another gift of being clean and hard work), it’s so nice to have glass windows. We’re a little quieter as we head down the road and I just can’t help but think what a great day it had been. It could’ve been a little more organized, I go there because I’m a little anal that way, but you know it didn’t matter. It was just the way it was supposed to be. We had a great time. We all got home safe. We all managed to stay clean another day. So many gifts from being clean!
By Belinda M
It had been a while since I had gone tubing â€" I’ve gone down the river both ways, clean and well not so clean. But either way it had been well over 15 years since I had done this. Yep, took the long way there but it was quite the little adventure, especially when Power Road was under construction â€" thanks to the Jetta boys for getting us there! And my best girl Heather for making all those mixed CD's to jam out to on the way there. Gotta have music for road trips!! Every other minute is me squealing "ooooooooooooh I love this song". So we finally get to the parking lot and it looks like a bazillion people are wanting to tube. It was a little crazy, but fun crazy. Some of the buses had music cranked and it spilled over into the scenery that just seemed a little funny -- all these people greased up, holding these big ass tubes and ice chests to float no less then 3½ hours down the river in 100+ degree weather. I kept thinking to my self “how many of these people are going to get sick from drinking and getting dehydrated”………… I was really glad I wasn’t going to be one of them. Instead I look over at my daughter and think how lucky I am that she’s with me because if I had been drinking I wouldn’t have wanted her there. What a gift of being clean. We manage to get on the bus, some of the groups getting separated, but we end up down by the river. The music is really loud now â€" you know how some people NEED to be noticed. Well there was a group that had one hell of a music system, oooh yeah I want to float close to them. We get in the water and you can’t help but sigh with relief on how nice and cool it is. So our big group of people, like 30 I think, got split off into smaller groups, and my group had the ice chest full of water â€" next time we might want to split it up â€" but so we tie it up to my tube and get in the water and we are floating. You know you really don’t feel like you’re moving all that fast and then you see the bend come around the corner and everyone screams “ass up”…………we float by these people that look like they are tending to some drunk person who passed out only to find out she didn’t lift her ass up and hit the rock so hard it literally flew her out of her tube and she came back down on her head. Ughgh, made me sad but you can’t help but think was she loaded? And then you hear it “what is that I ask”…………I swear I was just thrown into that movie Water World………..and then you see it, it’s one of those swamp air boats and boy does it sound cool, you almost think the rocks are going to turn into Transformers, okay wait that’s my imagination, but it was cool. They get to the girl that was hurt and take her to a helicopter. I say a prayer and hope she’s okay. Then I hear a voice “excuse me” and I look and it’s some girl, obviously a little intoxicated, and I say “hello” and she’s says to me “hey man could I ask you for a beer”………..she clearly doesn’t need one and well guess what I don’t have one to give her and I say “we don’t drink” nicely, and somewhat proudly, and she’s says “yeah right, then why do you have that big’ole ice chest”……….and one of the other addicts that’s floating with me says “it’s water”………… she says “no way man, that ice chest aint full of water”……….and I open it and the look of disbelief was almost funny and then I say “we don’t drink because we are in a 12-step program”……and she says “oh well, gosh, man, well I don’t drink that much, but yeah it’s okay”………….and you can’t but over hear her say to the guy she’s floating with “oh my God, they had only water in that ice chest”………funny, all I could think of was thank God it’s not me because I’m sure by now my smokes would’ve been soggy wet and I’d have been begging someone for a cigarette and a beer. Another gift of being clean. One of the other groups finally bumps into us and they are desperate for water, it’s only then do I realize we had all the water……. sorry guys. Live and learn. The rest of the float was great, we all laughed at my daughter freaking out every time some weedy green thing attached it’s self to her, or when mating dragonflies flew on her……..ha ha that made me laugh again just typing this. We had really great conversations like me asking the only male addict that was floating in our group about his pierced nipple, I asked him “what did that feel like when you got your nipple pierced”……….he gets this smirk on his face, like he often does, and he says to me “it felt like a hot steel poker being pierced through my nipple”…………OUCH is all I can think, what a smartass. We look for spots to have a meeting next time, but every little beached area was pretty much taken over â€" I wonder if we could have a floating meeting next time? The groups finally meet up at the end and only then do you realize how fast the water is moving when you try and get out of your tube and pull it out of the water. I’m so happy I didn’t get fried by the sun, that continuously reapplying SPF 50 kept my pale self un burnt, yay! We walk towards the busses and you hear the moans of those not so lucky as me, burnt is one way some of the people there look, fried was definitely another. We get on the bus and this one has some great music playing; Aerosmith's Kings and Queens. I love that song. Me and another addict start singing at the top of our lungs -- “Long ago in days I'm told were ruled by Lords of greed”…. I was feeling good, nope I wasn’t sick and sitting next to me yet again was my beautiful daughter, embarrassed that I was singing so loudly. Another gift of being clean. We get back to the parking lot and eat the sandwiches I brought (thanks to the Activities Committee) and drink some water and stuff our soggy wet towels in bags and look in the mirror and think “whoa, I got some sun”………and then everyone starts to say good-bye. Oh yeah, we’re going the back way this time to get home. Me and my crew jump into my new car (another gift of being clean and hard work), it’s so nice to have glass windows. We’re a little quieter as we head down the road and I just can’t help but think what a great day it had been. It could’ve been a little more organized, I go there because I’m a little anal that way, but you know it didn’t matter. It was just the way it was supposed to be. We had a great time. We all got home safe. We all managed to stay clean another day. So many gifts from being clean!