Ice-Blocking
Élan and Devaki hold their “adventure blocks” high – hillside, here we come!
Night fell, and the sound of the wintry rain created a somber mood. I was home with my two girlfriends, Devaki and Annie, and we threw out ideas for kicking off an evening that was painted with cloudy skies.
Naturally, our first thought was to break from this gloominess. We decided to defeat the weather – by rejoicing in it!
So, ice-blocking it was.
We prepared ourselves for the raining weather and the muddy mess that would cover our clothes. We dressed for war: sweatpants and heavy sweatshirts; they would both pad us and keep our bodies warm. Then we hopped in my car, brimming with the excitement of our adventure and our resistance of allowing the weather to control our fun!
We stopped off at the nearest grocery store and bought 3 ice blocks. The checker looked at us with confusion and asked, “What are these for, are you having a party or something?” I answered with enthusiasm in my voice, “Yeah, we are having a party! We are celebrating the weather!”
The checker was quite confused but understood after my accomplice Annie answered with a better explanation than I had given: “We are sliding down some hills with blocks of ice,” she said. We had decided to go to a local golf course because it had great steep hills, so much potential for an exciting, fast and thrilling ride!
We drove up to the parking lot, popped out of the car and slyly jumped the fence to our destiny. There we stood, on top of the hill, holding our blocks of ice, our “adventure blocks.” We looked down the hill, nothing but a steep grassy descent curtained by nightfall.
“Okay who’s going to go first?” Annie asked.
I volunteered. Sitting the block down, I set it at a perfect angle on the hill to start out with a better position to create momentum. I sat on the block and pushed myself a bit to get started, and crept down the golf course. Beginning to pick up speed, I was drawn in to complete darkness from the rapid decent, escaping the lights of the golf course, night all around me, fast air in my face as I whooshed down the hill.
Gleaming with the thrill of the rapid flash of speed, I wailed out with laughter and uncontrollably flailed my arms and legs while sitting on the chilly block. I finally reached the bottom of the hill, where I was immediately thrown off the block and onto the slushy muddy muck.
“Élan, are you okay?” my friends yelled down.
“Yahoo!” I sang back. “That was such a thrill!”
“Okay, we’re heading down!” they yelled.
I waited. I could only hear them rush down the hillside, hear them fill the cloudy air with screams of laughter. Devaki appeared through the curtain of darkness; she raced past me, nearly hitting me as she was only an arm’s length away. Annie was still on her way down the hill when she slipped off the side of her block, bouncing off and sliding along the muddy slope.
Ice-blocking queens Devaki and Annie strike their victory poses.
We all hiked back up the hill for another thrill ride down, but the hill seemed like a mountain on the trek back up. We couldn’t get enough of this little adventure. We sloped down the hill, racing and competing between the three of us. Falling off our blocks, we bruised our derrières, that were only partially padded by our layers of clothing.
We repeated this insanity numerous times, until our bodies were too tired to trek up the hill with our “adventure blocks” in arm. The muddy remains of the earth that painted our clothes and tattooed our skin was a souvenir of our grand defeat of the weather and the rain that attempted to keep us indoors.
“Shhh! Get down!” I suddenly whispered to them. We all dropped to the ground, tainted with fear: I had seen a light, shining on the path next to us. We heard a noise: creak.
“Is it a cop?” Annie asked.
Creak, the light replied.
Fearful of the trouble we would get in for trespassing, we glued ourselves to the hill, in complete silence, watching the light draw closer and closer to where we lay.
Creak. We held our breath. The light creeped by us just a few feet away. Creak.
And we burst out into a thunder of laughter. Creak went the pedals of an old, cranky bike, and it creeped by us, still lying in the muck, but laughing with all the air we’d been afraid to breathe out.
Unarrested, we returned to my house and began to peel the drenched and messy clothes from our bodies, and to reminisce about our thrilling rides down the hill. Comparing all our war wounds from our falls, we sat in front of the fire, drank hot cocoa and enjoyed the warmth that the hearth provided. Then we bundled up and watched a movie, to cap the night off as we relaxed and let the experience soak in.
How to Ice-Block
The coolest thing about this adventure is that anyone can do it, and it only costs 99 cents! All you need is:
An ice-block
Padded clothes
A hill
Get a friend or a group of friends and enjoy your sledding adventure, even without snow or sled! Expect nothing but a thrilling adventure – and maybe a few bruises. This is an easy way to soak up some fun, literally without having to leave your backyard.
What Do You Want Élan to Do Next?
Click here to send Élan ideas, suggestions or comments on ways to fire up the local hometown traveler experience.
