Adventures in Merryland: The Adventure Park at Sandy Spring Friends School

The day finally came. We were going to the Adventure Park at Sandy Spring. Over the summer, we saw an ad for it in a local paper and I wasn’t completely sold on the idea of going. Jaz, of course, was. Then I wrote that post after my flight to Vegas about conquering “fears” and being more adventurous. Lo and behold, a Groupon popped up for the Adventure Park and it was on from there.

Satruday afternoon we got in the car and headed to uncharted land. Sidebar: there is a whole “religious row” in Maryland. Has anyone ever seen it? There is a house of worship for like EVERY religion there. Crazy. Anyway we soon found ourselves amongst big houses with huge yards for a moment I thought I was back home , horses, and grass.

We arrived to a clearing, parked in the grass, and were met by stink bugs and this furry little caterpillar.

After putting our name on the list, we waited around for them to call us. The place was pretty busy and there was a wait. In the meantime, we asked some people who were finishing up-what their thoughts were. Surprisingly there were quite a few brown folks there. There was even a group of about 4-5 sistas doing the course together. I was quite proud of us actually.

They called our number. We got harnessed. Got the gloves. And went to safety training. All was well at this point. Then we started to climb to the main platform and I felt a wee bit of a “punk out” coming on. I convinced Jaz to start on a beginner course and we got started. Once we got going, it wasn’t so bad. We crossed a few bridges, walked some rope. And then got to the zip line-Jaz went first. I was left on the platform with two strangers. And I wasn’t sure I could go through with it. I mean, really, who thought that being suspended from a wire connected to two trees was a good idea. I hooked in and sat on the platform and the chick behind me just said- “scream if you need to”. So I let go and screamed realllllllllly loud. OMG I loved it. By that time the course was starting to get a bit backed up, I’d missed calls from 27 who was meeting us there, and there was a set of deer getting their eat on below us. OK, I know we are in their “home” and what not, but why were these deer so firkin comfortable just eating while there are folks flying and running around them? I was absolutely not ok with the deer. By this point, the reason for the back up had been identified. These three women were waiting on each other before starting the next bridge. So now everyone is pissed and finally someone yells at them to keep it moving. 27 arrived and watched us finish up the course. She and I hit another beginner course which we finished in like 5 minutes. There was a little girl on the zip line who was soo scared to go. I guess her dad got fed up with her crying and just left her there. Talk about tough love. I guess he figured that if she really wanted to get down, she would get a rescue or hook onto that zip line and keep it moving. Anyway, that one was much easier. Perhaps it was because I’d just done one on the same level, I’m not sure. We finished it quickly and I think that Jaz was only like halfway done with her “green” course so we started on a “green” of our own. It was cool, lots of bending around structures and walking on tightropes. It was a bit tiring though. So we did about half and decided to use the escape ladder to call it quits for the day. UMMM…the ladder wasn’t anchored to the ground. And I was beyond sure that I was going to smack right into that tree, but I didn’t :).

We got down, got water, and started talking to Dan, the lumberjack-carpenter-outdoorsman, and all around sweetheart. Dan was building a campfire for the Night Crawl event. (Sidebar: I don’t know who in their right mind would do those courses at night wearing only a head light and a glowstick, but to each his own I suppose). Anyway, we talked to Dan for a while and then the evening got interesting.
I pulled my ticket out of my shirt pocket as we headed towards the car. And went over to the other pocket to get my key. Umm…it aint thurr. Yes, read that out loud. WHERE IS MY KEY? So I tell Dan that I lost it and he gives me a headlight to go into the woods and search it out. After a few minutes of looking, we had nothing. Then we get stopped by some chicks to take a picture of them and I think I snapped at first. I didn’t mean to, heck they didn’t know that I’d just misplaced a $300 key. Anyway, as we are thinking out the options- Jaz asks if AAA would be any help. Yes, AAA can open the car, I can pop the trunk, we can get the keys to my apartment and I can get my spare and get my car. She gets on the phone with them and I decide to call my apartment complex to see if someone could let me in just in case AAA is going to take hours to get here. The woman says that my complex doesn’t offer lock-out services after hours. WTF. Yep, it’s more than time to move for soooo many reasons . AAA says it will be like 45 minutes. 27 offers to take me home to get my spare. She leaves to get some food but because there is NOTHING out here in the woods, her adventure takes a while. Jaz and I sat around Dan’s campfire until the AAA man arrived. He didn’t call first. He pulled right up (he later told us that he’s been here a few times for lock-outs). He was also bumping rap music. The AAA man MUST be a rapper. David gets out the car, very Eminem-esque. Tatted up- but so professional. He broke into my car (legally) and the alarm went off, simply because the iKey wasn’t around. I tried to pop the trunk. NOTHING! Apparently as a security feature, the trunk won’t open without the iKey present. ARRGH and just as I’m freaking out- David tells me to calm down. He climbs into the back seat, pulls down the seat, and gets my purse and Jaz’s bag out of the trunk. He put everything back where it was. Yes, I’m harping on his good service because lots of customer service people give TERRIBLE service but David was GREAT! We get into the car, turn the alarm off. Jaz retrieves her AAA card and 27 pulls up. Perfect timing. We go home, get the key, and we return to my car. I leave my info at the park just in case someone finds the key.

At this point, I’ve accepted that I’m down to one key because I just don’t see myself purchasing another iKey anytime soon. Oh well, at least it made for an interesting story right?

Fast forward to Sunday. I got a call from an unknown number and since black people don’t answer calls from unknown numbers, I let it ring / . I listened to the voicemail. It was John. Another guy from the park. SOMEONE FOUND MY KEY! I went right over and picked it up. Dan was there, harnessing folks. He and John were happy that someone found it and so was I! Great ending to an eventful weekend.