Today was the day we decided to go tubing. Actually, we were supposed to go this past Saturday, but, well, life happened. Here we are about 6 hours post-tubing and I still feel like I’m floating down the river and bumping along rocks.
This was quite the adventure and really went much more smoothly than I had anticipated. We got there just before 11 and headed right out. We decided to take Cool River since that is where we always tubed growing up.
The hardest part was maneuvering through some areas that were really narrow with 2 tubes connected together. I especially didn’t want to dump my 3 year old out in the water, although both little girls were wearing their Puddle Jumpers and the big kids had on life vests. The water level was perfect and we never had to get out and walk.
I am a little sad I wasn’t able to take pictures during this adventure, but my husband brought his cell phone in a ziplock bag and took some. His is a rinky dink old phone, whereas I have an iPhone, so I didn’t want that to be lost forever in the Chattahoochee. It’s also worth noting that they take photos of you on your tubing adventure at Cool River. I really loved the photos they took, but my husband said to pass on purchasing them. We will still have those memories.
The only negative we had was when we got back to our cars. Cool River has a stand with ice cream. Since we were having such a fun day, I decided to let the kids indulge in a sweet treat. I had a couple questions about ingredients (kid with an allergy) and was met with a really rude employee. She refused to be helpful and acted like I was crazy for even asking her a simple question about the product. I asked if she could look on the packaging and tell me what ingredients were in it and she flat out refused. She never even stepped away from the counter or even bothered to check. Just told me no. As I told the kids we would just go to Wendy’s and get frostys instead, her and another employee were mocking me and making a big joke out of it. I promise you I was not being rude, I was simply inquiring about an ingredient list for the ice cream, which they should have either had or been able to get. Or heck, they could have even offered to ask a manager or find someone else to help me. We gave Wendy’s our business instead since it wasn’t worth dealing with them.
Other than that, every encounter was great!
There is a couple things that I learned on this trip.
*When taking a bunch of small children, definitely take an extra adult! We took my husband’s brother with us and he helped out a ton! I was tethered to our 3 year old and my husband was tethered to the almost 5 year old and we had our other 2 older kids just floating along. They would periodically get stuck and he was able to help them and let us focus on our littles.
*Don’t underestimate the power of a good stick! This tubing company had sticks you could rent or purchase to help you along the way. Next time, we will bring a stick from home. They would have been of great use navigating our journey.
*Be helpful! There was an older couple that kept getting stuck. I found out by talking to them that tubing down the Chattahoochee was on their bucket list but it ended up being harder than they anticipated. Several times we were able to help free them from rocks. In turn, several other people helped us as well. You never know when a giant rock will stop your tube!
*Don’t wait so stinkin’ long before going tubing again! Seriously, my kids had never been and I hadn’t been in like 15 years! The kids had a blast and we did too!
Where is your favorite place to go tubing?
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