Last weekend I had the opportunity to go to a conference in the mountains of Pennsylvania. It was a wonderful weekend with friends, making new friends and being really encouraged…all in all a very blessed time!
One evening after supper, we had some free time before the last session for the day and decided to take a walk. It was a nice walk in the crisp air and being surrounded by mountains. 🙂 (Remember that here in northern Indiana, all we have are mole hills, so we love it whenever our travels take us to/around/through/by/past mountains. 🙂 )
The conference center, as I mentioned above, is surrounded by mountains and the lodge itself is on the side of a mountain. On our walk we saw that there were marks on this “hill” where people had gone sledding…and we wanted to go sledding too. So once we got back up to the lodge we asked if they had sleds…they did! 🙂
A guy brought the sleds out for us, gave us a few instructions and left…
By this time it was dark, but that was no problem we could still see well enough to have fun sledding. 🙂 There was a large toboggan that three people went down on together, it looked fun so I grabbed a sled, hopped on and down I went…
“Oh man, this is fun!” I thought, “Wait till I tell my family about this!”
Down I went, me on my little sled atop the thick layer of ice on the snow, gaining speed as I went…down, down, faster and faster!
I was f-l-y-ing!!! If there were a policeman around he’d probably would of given me a speeding ticket! 😉
Suddenly about half way down the fun came to an end…my sled hit something and I was no longer sledding but snowballing…no time to think, no time to do anything but keep being beaten against the icy snow. Bam…Bam…Bam…Bam…bambambam…bam…bam! You know how they show it in movies…they’re pretty accurate!
After a bit I came to a stop flat on my back, then I started to move, but oh man, everything hurt. Especially my back, and my face was burning from being beaten and scraped on the ice.
(since I was away from home without my family, I wanted pictures so I could show them later. 🙂 )
The three friends who went down before me had also derailed but they were closer to the end of the hill when it happened so they didn’t snowball, but they had some cuts and bruises too.
They came over and asked if I was okay…I was but it took me several minutes to get up.
I was so sore…not really sure why, I mean all I did was just tumble down a mountain. 😉
As I was laying there I suddenly realized “MY GLASSES!!!!” They were not on my face like they should be. “Oh no, they’re probably all smashed, the glass will be shattered and it probably cut me too!” I started saying “my glasses, where’s my glasses?” They found them laying close by in the snow, nicely folded up and not a scratch on them! I’m telling you, that was God!
Someone handed me a glove to put on my bleeding face and another one helped me up. Ironically all three friends were either a paramedic or EMT. 🙂 (Actually the whole conference was centered around medical people, a handful of EMS people, a doctor and a lot of nurses.) So hey, if I’m going to get hurt, I picked the right place to do it! 😉
Thankfully someone from the top of the hill saw it all happen and drove her car to the bottom of the hill, and gave us a ride back up. We were all glad because obviously with all our cuts and bruises we didn’t really feel like making the trek back up.
That guy that helped us get the sleds and then walked away, I think he knew we were going to die and didn’t want to watch. 😉
We went to our room, started cleaning and bandaging ourselves up and made it to the last session only a few minutes late.
A week later I’m feeling pretty good, overall. Still a sore back and my wrist is bothering me some but I’m just so glad I didn’t have any broken bones. It could of very easily been much worse…God is good!
I can now cross off on my bucket list “go sledding down the side of a mountain”. It never was on there but I think I’ll add it just so I can cross it off! 🙂
~Cassia 🙂
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Oh my! You certainly did have a scary experience! Here in Colorado we live pretty close to the mountains, and I wake up to a view of Pike’s Peak everyday! I know for sure that I would want to tumble down some of the hills we have here! It is a blessing that nothing was broken, for sure! God Bless,
Natalie
Oh wow, Natalie! What a view you are blessed with! 🙂 ~C
I am so glad you are OK. I am just glad you didn’t hit a tree! That would have been really bad, but it still looks like it hurts.
Yes, thankfully no trees were involved!!! 🙂 Actually, while my face did hurt, it was my back that gave me the most pain. 🙂
Wow, Cassia! I’m so happy that you’re feeling better as that was quite the fall/tumble. I’m a wimp…would be crying & milking it for all I could…LOL. <
LOL, Ann! 🙂 ~C
I’m surprised you’re smiling, it looks painful… Could you guys do the common white girl tag?
Oh my goodness! You really got scratched up! Glad you didn’t get seriously hurt!
Poor Cassia! That looked like it hurt!
Wow! God is good! That could have ended up much, much worse. I hope you are feeling better soon!
~Lydia
That looks like it would have hurt so bad! I hope you are feeling better now!
What did your parents say when they saw your injuries?
LOL, at first they were like wow, what happened? But after I told them the story we all had a good laugh! 🙂 And of course they were happy that I didn’t get hurt really bad. 🙂 ~Cassia
Ouch! Glad you’re okay! I used to live in Indiana (about 45 minutes away from Indianapolis, if I recall correctly). My dad would take us to a pretty nice-sized hill located in or near our little town and my siblings and I’d have a blast sledding or snowboarding down. He and my mom would occasionally take us to a MUCH larger hill where we’d sled. I remember there was a huge snow bump that braver folks would aim their sleds to and ‘fly’ off it. I don’t know if I ever worked up the nerve to go over that, but I did like the smaller jumps. : D ~ Lauren : )
Wow, I bet that was a lot of fun! 🙂 Oh yes, the ramps to fly off of, those are fun but I agree, definitely got to work up a nerve to do it. Because sometimes you fly off the wrong way, or land hard. 🙂 ~Cassia
Oh my!!! That looks bad! This year I was outside playing with my siblings and I feel off our snow hill as well. Well..someone pushed me. 😉 It was a game! But, I ended up with a scratch on my head as well! Not as bad as your’s though! I’m so glad you were all right!
Besides the injury, it seems like you had a lot of fun! I didn’t know there were conferences like that for EMTs; I became one two years ago. (And I’m taking my recertification test this week- please pray for me!) Where do you find out about conferences like this?
Hi Jessica, 🙂
You are right, I certainly did have a lot of fun! 🙂
A friend told me about the conference last year and invited me to go with her, that’s how I came to know about it.
Yes, I will be praying for you. I’ve heard about the tests, sounds hard. 😛 Let me know how it goes!
~Cassia 🙂
Thanks for praying! I wanted to let you know that I DID pass! 🙂 What are your plans for medical studies? I became an EMT thinking I would likely never end up working on an ambulance squad. Instead, I use it to help at Christian camp health centers. When I lived in Nebraska, I would also help for former EMT instructors by playing “victim” for student exams and practice. And of course, it’s just good things to know for emergencies that could happen as you go about your day. (So far, I’ve used my skills in a “good Samaritan” fashion once on a person who needed it… fortunately it wasn’t that bad). It’s a surprisingly diverse skill!
Woo Hoo!!! Glad to hear, I knew you could do it! 🙂 Thanks for letting me know.
That’s neat how you use your training to help out, and yes, good skills to know. I’m certified in CPR that’s the furthest I’ve gone, but I plan on getting my EMT and working with our local ambulance crew. 🙂
Oh my goodness! It looks like that had to have hurt! ~ Sarah