Snowmobile Fun

You’re probably expecting a Christmas blog out of me today, but it’s not gonna happen. I think I’m suffering from some sort of Christmas shock or something or maybe I’m just done with it all, but nothing Christmasy is coming to mind right now so I’ve chosen another topic.

Snowmobiling. We went last night with some friends who have snowmobiles. I wasn’t going to go at first because I wasn’t properly dressed – slacks, satin shirt, cute pumps. But then I realized that I didn’t care how I was dressed and that I wanted to ride a snowmobile! So I put on my MIL's boots (she's a good six inches shorter than me so you can only imagine the discrepancy in boot size), a crazy hat and some fuzzy gloves and went on out. It should also be noted that in the frenzy to find appropriate outdoor gear Joe ended up wearing a ski glove on his right hand and a garden glove on his left.

Growing up, we had snowmobiles that we spent a lot of time on. We would run them all through the horse field and even down the road. We pulled sleds with them, jumped hills and even crashed them sometimes (Susan). It was fantastic! I’m really not sure how my Dad kept those crazy old machines running. They were NOT top of the line machines and were probably pretty old. Still, he maintained them and they ran like crazy for us.

One of them was all orange and the brand name was Johnson. This thing was a BEAST. It could carry three of us on the seat while pulling at least two more on saucers behind it. We’d play a game where we would have equal lengths of rope going to each saucer so that you were side by side. Then we would try to knock each other off. Now that I say it, it sounds like a bad YouTube video, but it was actually a lot of fun at the time…

It all came back to me last night. The feel of the wind, the sound of the engines, the smell of the gasoline. But it’s not all the same as it was back in the day. For one thing, the snowmobiles go a LOT faster than they ever did back then. Plus, I was riding with my brother-in-law and, while he’s a very safe driver, I was still pretty scared to be riding one of those things going that fast.

The other part that is not at all the same is my body. Every part of me hurts today. Muscles I didn’t even know I had are screaming out in agony with every move. My back is completely wrecked too. I keep forgetting that I’m supposed to act my age.

I was thinking a lot yesterday about childlike trust. I remember riding snowmobiles with my Dad and it never occurred to me that anything could go wrong – that we could flip it or crash. That could never happen with my Dad at the wheel. I had complete faith and trust in him. Of course now, being a wife and a mother, there’s a lot more at stake if something goes wrong. If I get hurt or killed things won’t go well. Joe couldn’t tell you Max’s underwear size if you put a gun to his head.

I kind of wish that I could return to that state of childlike innocence, just for a little while. It would be nice to feel the magic again if only briefly before going back to being an adult again, wouldn’t it?