Snow Machine Riding

The Friday after Christmas, Dave and Laura invited us all out to their house on the lake to go snow machining. Now I suppose this is comparable to riding four wheelers in south Arkansas ...... in a very loose way. I was somewhat nervous about flying over the snow at 30 to 40 miles per hour in weather well below the freezing mark. So I started pulling clothes out of my suitcase to "layer up". The resulting fashion attire can be viewed a little further below.

This is the lake behind Dave and Laura's house. I assumed we would take very short turns riding on the lake, cut a few do-nuts and then go back inside by the nice warm fire and hibernate for a while. But Dave had other plans.

I got all layered up, five layers on top and three on bottom. Like I said my suitcase was cleaned out for this outing. In addition to my own clothes, I borrowed Kristy's nice thick mittens and wool socks, Dave's Carhart overalls and Mike's lace up boots. Needless to stay I walked very stiffly because there were almost too many layers to allow me to bend my knees. Not to mention boots that were a bit too long for my feet.

That is Dave standing behind the snow machine, Carhartless. What a compassionate, giving soul! I don't know about him but the only part of me that got cold on the ride was the exposed part of my face. And for about half of the ride my face was plastered to his back.

We're off onto the lake. I may not can walk on water but I can now say I have snow machined on water! What an awesome thing for me to experience getting to see a lake completely frozen over. I have successfully avoided such extreme cold until now. But I must say that it is an experience I will never forget.

Mike started out in the lead but when we got onto the lake, Dave overtook him and led the way down the lake until we came to a path into the woods. The adventure began in earnest. The woods were beautiful with the snow draped limbs hanging over the path. One thing I noticed was that unlike riding four wheelers thru the woods, there were no spider webs in my face. I was so thankful not to have to worry about where the spiders were.

We bounced and swerved down the path until we came to a snow bank between us and the road which we needed to get on. Dave yelled hang on and up we went and just as quickly down we came on the same side of the snow bank. Of course, our unintended descent kicked up a little bitty avalanche of snow which landed smack dab in my face and down my collar. What a shock! At least we were still seated on the snow machine. God is good!

Then to my dismay, Dave said "You will have to walk thru the snow bank and I will try to drive the machine over." I was thinking, "Yeah right" but also did not want to go airborn on that thing. So Mike gallantly walked me out a path thru the bank .... or so he thought. When I attempted to go thru it, each step I took only packed the snow down where I was standing. After what seemed like three hours, but I know was only a few minutes, Mike and Dave managed to push and pull me to the other side. I am glad no one had a camera! Remember all those warm clothes? Try walking thru a snow bank when you can barely pick up your feet! And I never knew you could break a sweat in sub zero weather.

Dave then took off over the snow bank. The snow machine made it over. Dave did not. He landed in the snow, jumped up and whooped, we loaded up and finished the ride with no further mishaps. What an awesome adventure for me!