I wasn’t nervous one bit! We had done this before, well two of us had. I went into the Adventure Zipline in Branson, MO ready to go with whatever they had planned for us, but I was not planning for the kind man behind the counter to deny me use of my camera. I wasn’t planning on taking pictures while ziplining, just while waiting and watching as the other two of us went by. I even pleaded that if I lost it I wouldn’t ask to go look for it, and it was securely in place around my neck and under my arm, but no, it wasn’t gonna happen. So I stomped walked out of the building and left it behind in the car. As fast as it all went, I probably wouldn’t have had the time to get it out and put it away before it was time to move on anyway. Plus, I was assured that pictures would be taken, for a cost, of course!
There were seven ziplines, three suspension bridges, and two ATV rides – three if you count back to the headquarters. We started on the bunny line. This was where we got the run down on ziplining and how to put our hand correctly above our heads, behind the mechanism which would serve as our brake. WHAT! We have to put our hand on the cable and stop ourselves! Okay, now I was officially nervous. And even more so for my eleven year old boy who had never done this before. It didn’t help either that the 13 year old girl in our group started to put her hand in front of the mechanism right after take off! We had a pretty sturdy glove with reinforced leather to guide on the cable as we went, and the braking was only gonna be needed to slow ourselves down if we were approaching the end of the line too fast. I really only had to do this three times, and after the first two, I was relieved when my hand was still in tact and all my fingers made it off of the cable. I knew all was good and really, despite that, enjoyed every second of it!
The course was right in the middle of town and one line even went over the parking lot. We were so high up that my car looked even minnier than it really was! The ATV ride was just for an added bit of adventure because where it took us was just an off-the-road ‘short-cut’ to not many feet away from where we started, just across the street from the parking lot. There were plenty of perfectly placed boulders and rocks plus a few puddles for an added adventurous effect.
Everything was very safe and we were cabled and harnessed at all times. Once we reached each platform we were attached to a steel cable that was then hooked to the tower we were waiting on. Even the suspension bridges had a cable running down the middle, we couldn’t fall even if we wanted to!
It was awesome! I would have to say that ziplining the Hawaiian canopy was much better scenery wise, but this was pretty close as far as adventure goes. The guides were very laid back and even let us free style on the last run. I couldn’t quite let go long enough as I was trying to hang upside down, but the boy and my guy got it figured out right away!
I did actually let go a couple of times but not long enough to have proof of it.
At least two of us got the freestyle thing down!
I recently became aware of a zipline just out of Nashville, so we will be ziplining again soon, hopefully.
Rejoice for the Day 