In Which Bekah Signs Another Waiver...

 

Love takes on many forms, doesn’t it? Ryan shows love to me by supplying me with coffee and ice cream. And sometimes coffee ice cream. I show love by signing waivers to participate in adventures that are wildly outside my comfort zone.

                You remember the waterfalls.

                And the whitewater rafting.

                And the ziplining.

                And on this vacation, as I hinted at earlier this week, I signed yet another waiver. To be fair, I was less terrified than I was last summer in the raft. And at the waterfall adventure. And probably even on the ziplines. But it was still scary.

                Ryan found a UTV adventure in Hocking Hills and asked if I’d be up for it. First I had to ask what a UTV even was.

                Well, here’s a UTV, in case you don’t know:

                We drove out into the middle of nowhere, pulled up to a garage, and met a guy named Dylan, who served as our guide. We were joined by a party of six – all family – and I begged Ryan to let us be the last vehicle in the parade. He said yes, and that helped. I didn’t want people in our party riding too close behind and pressuring us to drive faster than I wanted to go.

                (He did tell me that we’d have to go faster than I wanted to go. Apparently 2 miles an hour isn’t acceptable on an excursion like this??)

                We donned helmets and safety glasses and strapped into our UTVs. Dylan said passengers should hold onto the handle at all times, and you better believe I did.

                We started out down a main road, but it wasn’t long before we were on trails that had first class potholes filled with mud. We traveled through deep ruts and around tight curves and I did a lot of praying, quoting Scripture, and singing hymns.

                Right in the middle of the tour, we stopped to see if Dylan’s friend Billy the Goat would make an appearance. It turns out there really is a goat that lives back in the woods, and he is every bit as tame and friendly as a dog, and he begs for food like one too. He was not too proud to beg snacks off anyone in the group who would share, and he posed with Ryan for some funny pictures.

                I appreciated Billy the Goat. He gave me a good stress relief break.

                Back on the trail we went, and things were going quite swimmingly until we came upon a tree that had fallen across the path. Ryan climbed out of our UTV and picked his way through the mud to the front of the line to help Dylan pull the tree out of the way so we all could pass.

                We bumped our way down trails and roads that I thought were trails, but it turns out they were real roads!

                We stopped for a while at a lake, and Dylan admonished us to stay clear of the tall grasses. Never know when you might see a rattlesnake or copperhead. I got back in the vehicle. No need to test that theory of his.

                We made it back to our starting point without tipping over, losing a tire, overheating (the vehicle, anyway. I may have overheated a few times) or getting too terribly muddy. I eventually relaxed my grip on the handle, though I never fully let go.

                Ryan had fun, and I made it through the adventure!

                Maybe our next trip will be waiver-free? Maybe.