Doug and I had a great date afternoon yesterday. Doug's mom was kind enough to watch E&S for the afternoon and evening while Doug and I went to Park City. Back at the Marchant Mountain Retreat, I spun a wheel at the Olympic Park and won a ride on the Bobsled (worth $60!) and Doug's mom won as well and offered it to Doug so we could ride together. We've been looking forward to it and got the oppotunity to experience the Olympic bobsled track in an actual bobsled on wheels (in winter you can ride an actual bobsled too...insane.)
There was an observation deck where spectators stood to watch the Olympians compete in the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic games.
The luge used the same track, but had a different starting point. They had an actual sled sitting there with a little tiny rope. Doug thought of trying it out. That sled was so tiny with no way to really 'hang on'. Again...insane.
When we got in line, we were told it would be a 20-25 minute wait and there were about 30 people in line or so. Well, about an hour later, we took this photo while still in line. At least we got to watch people pushing the sled and seeing who had the fastest times down the track. I made a few friends in line as well. Doug wasn't surprised at all.
We had to gear up for the ride. There was 1 driver with 3 passengers. The heavier the passengers, the faster the sled. We met Zack who hopped in as rider 4. Doug hopped in second as rider 3. Then the pilot got in next. That left me for last.
It was a bit of a tight squeeze and felt kind of funny nearly hugging the driver, so I had to ask his name since it felt like he was in my personal 'bubble'. His name is Nick...now I felt like he wasn't a total stranger!
Nick has been driving bobsled in the summer at the Olympic Park for 8 years and is in the control tower in the winter. He was a little guy and I am a little small myself so our sled wasn't super fast. We hit 70 MPH and had some turns with 4Gs of force on our bodies. We had some strict instructions to shrug our shoulders to prevent our head from bobbing around with all the force in the turns. It felt a lot like a wooden rollercoaster, but probably twice the 'turbulence' and twice the force on your body. About half way through, I had a headache from all the pressure in the turns. There were 15 turns and I am glad there wasn't another. My headache vanished almost immediately when we came to a stop after a 59.64 second ride. We took 11th place for the day out of about 48 sleds down the track.
At the bottom, a tractor pulled us to a position where they could move the sled into the back of a pickup truck and we rode alongside our sled to the top of the track to get our things. We asked Nick a few questions and found out there was an actual winter bobsled at the starting line that they use in the winter to drive people down the track. He said it costs about $40,000 but a competition sled for Olympians costs at least twice that much. It is pretty much just metal and not comfortable for a ride like this at 85 MPH in the winter. Not sure who invented this sport or what those sleds are made of, but it seems just a little crazy to me.
We walked down alongside the mile-long track and loved the scenery as well as watching the bobsled pass us on the way down.
Not sure if we would've paid $120 for both of us to ride, but it was fun to experience to do once...for free!
We picked up Cafe Rio for dinner and ate our dinners on the ski hill at Deer Valley Resort waiting for the concert to begin at the Deer Valley Music Festival. The show was Broadway Rocks and we had a GREAT time. We stood up and danced a little in the chilly night air and loved the music. "Oh What a Night!"
1 comment:
That is so fun you got to do that! I've always thought that would be fun, but yes, the price holds me back. lol
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