Saturday, August 4, 2012

Zorbing: Pigeon Forge, Tennessee


We awoke in Tennessee and drove into Pigeon Forge for Zorbing. We were surprised to see that Pigeon Forge is actually a big tourist town. There are resorts, restaurants and all sorts of fun things to do. I’ll have to come back for the other stuff. We were there for one thing and one thing only. Zorbing. 

After a hilly drive we arrived at Zorb HQ. We entered our information into the touchscreen kiosks, changed and waited for our van. Yes, there is a van that takes you to the top of the hill. In a way that you would expect if you were on safari, this maroon van came barreling down a gravel path to pick us up. We got into the van (who needs seatbelts?) and proceeded to speed up the hill. 
Jaimie and I are in these balls
This is something I’ve wanted to do for a while and to be honest, I was quite nervous. It’s not every day you get zipped into a bubble with water and pushed down a hill. Of course, I volunteered to go first. The way it works, for those of you (read: most of you) that don’t know what Zorbing is, is as follows: You have the choice between two tracks, straight or zig-zag, and two types of rides, strapped into a harness and rolling with the Zorb or unharnessed. Unharnessed means you sit in the Zorb with some water to reduce the friction and they push you down the hill. Simple. Awesome. It was pretty hot and stuffy inside the Zorb, but the water was nice and cool. I must say, there is something pretty calming about being inside these things. That is, of course, until you start rolling down the hill. It wasn’t long before the gate was opened and I was off. (The guy that launches you yells Zorb on every run. It adds a nice touch.) It’s difficult to explain the sensation of Zorbing, except for the fact that it’s a controlled fall. For me the fun of going downhill without being strapped in is that you end up in some pretty interesting positions on your way down the hill. One of the guys working there informed me that they were opening a location in Boston, but there’s no info on the official Zorb site yet. As of right now, Pigeon Forge is the only place in North America you can do this. At the end of the run, the handler at the bottom of the hill opens the Zorb and takes some pictures, both inside and outside the ball. 

Once we were finished, we were given the option of buying some of the pictures. In the spirit of saving money and not making decisions, we had them put all of the pictures on a flash drive.

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