Lack of Zen Tubing

 

After many discussions about when and where to meet up, we all agreed that Zen Tubing in Asheville had the best reviews and was a good option for tubing today.  Although it was a bit tricky getting there due to heavy traffic and a few accidents on the interstate, we finally made it just in time for our 2:15pm reservation.  However, we quickly discovered that there was no way we were going to be tubing anytime soon.  

First of all, the location was totally full, with ZERO parking available.  They directed us to a church about a half-mile away to park where they set up an overflow parking/check-in.  Only when we tried to check-in they said that we had to wait for tubes to be able to check us in?!  Okay, so we waited until it was finally time to get life jackets for the little kids and get checked in . . . only then there was no bus available to shuttle us to the start of the tubing.  So we waited some more.  Finally, we boarded the bus and headed to the start of the adventure.  I'm thinking thank goodness this chaos is over and we can finally enjoy some Zen on the river.  LOL 

 Much to our surprise (anger), when we arrived at the start of the trip and got off the bus we discovered that there were no tubes available.  They continued to bus people to the start and the line grew longer and longer of people waiting to get a tube to start the journey.  Finally, over 1.5 hours after our reservation time, we were stepping into the river.  The sky was beautiful and the temperature was great  . . and we were all so thankful to finally start our 3-hour tubing journey.

However, after about 75 minutes down the river, the sky got really dark and we could hear thunder a bit away.  Trying to weigh our options we realized there was really only one . . to keep going and get off the river as quickly as we could, but we knew we had at least another hour plus to go.  We paddled hard and tried to navigate through the intoxicated people and rocks as quickly as we could as the storm grew closer and closer.  Then it started to rain, a cold rain too.  I was a bit panicked, but thankfully we made great progress and safely exited the river in just over 2 hours.  Of course then we had to wait for another bus to take us back to our car and there was no place to change at that point.  So we said our goodbyes, quickly jumped into the car with our wet suits and headed to the nearest Chick fil A for dinner.

There was absolutely nothing zenful about this adventure and I'll definitely be leaving my online review to make sure future guests are prepared for the disaster that may await them.  BUT, it was fun to be able to see the Weninger crew and Corey for the afternoon!