Defying Gravity

We spent the weekend at my parent's cabin in the mountain over the weekend. (Yes, I know we live on a mountain here, and no, the cabin isn't on a higher mountain, it's actually on a lower mountain. But it's a different mountain than we live on so we can "vacation" there. Please don't ask me to explain more, because I'm starting to see the absurdity of this conversation.)

While the cabin has most of the modern conveniences such as electricity, running water, and indoor plumbing, it lacks things like a telephone, internet, and good cell phone reception. While I'm 176% okay without the modern conveniences of computer and phone, the kids are not. I go to unplug, relax, and unwind. The kids are all about having a good time, and one can only sit in the cabin playing Apples to Apples and watching videos for so long before boredom sets in. We take walks, and play ball, and make meal prep a family thing, but there are still too many hours in a day for the kids, so we have to get creative.

This past weekend we took the kids to Gravity Hill. It's an out of the way little place where things roll uphill. Granted, the hill is not big at all, and in comparison to most of the roads we normally travel, it's rather flat, but there is a slightly definite uphill grade to it. Gravity Hill is a Thing, featured on TV even, and has a Start and Stop painted on the road where you're to stop (at the Start), put your car in neutral, and then let off the brake. You will then coast up the tiny uphill grade to the Stop. It's whacked. We took a ball to allow the kids to further experiment with, but the sad fact is that the road is not flat. It has a bump in the middle and the balls rolls down off into the ditch.

Yes, people, this is WAY out of the way, where we CAN let the kids play in the middle of the road. Welcome to our world. It's slower paced and rather awesome-ish. For entertainment we roll balls uphill and play on the road. And we love it.

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3 comments:

Keri said...

Don't you LOVE living in an area where your kids can play in the road? I'm almost that far out in the boonies.

There used to be a "gravity hill" in Huntsville, Al. Then they built I-565 and changed the intersection. It was always a lot of fun taking a friend or future husband there and tell them to put the car in neutral and watch it roll uphill. It was merely an optical illusion with the slope of nearby hills making you feel as if the road were pointing downhill, when, in fact, it had a slight uphill grade to it.

I may have to visit your corner of PA sometime and enjoy the solitude it holds.

Roger Miller said...

Looks and sounds like you had a great weekend away from it all, and even messed with the laws of physics - which is always fun. :)

Cindy said...

I lived near a Gravity Hill growing up! Ours was in La Presa, a suburb of San Diego, CA. It IS a very cool thing to see the balls rolling uphill!