Sledding- Stacey Cardalines Reporting...

 

Winter can be a drag in the real world, with freezing cold temperatures, driving on ice and all that. It is important to remember that it is also a season of fun, especially when you factor in sledding. January and February need not be a season of misery. You just have to know where to go to find fun winter things to do. Enter Stacey...

Sledding is a lot like her cousin, skiing, but sledding is easier to do. Skiing involves buying a bunch of gear and driving up to Vermont to go to the mountains. Sledding can be done in your hometown (if your hometown has snow) with a sled you got for $9.99 at Target. You don't have to buy a ridiculous spandex bodysuit to go sledding, although I did so. 

I have an image to uphold, and I also wanted to dress brightly so the St. Bernard dogs could find me in whatever snowbank I sledded into. I then went off in search of somewhere to go sledding.

I went to a place called Brave Island, which has the Wonderful Winter Wonderland theme going, at least for the season. I had the place to myself, although I keep odd hours and the place might be jammed during different parts of the day. Either way, I went to the top of the mountain and got ready for some downhill work. It took me a while to find the sledding part, but you are most likely less stupid than I and would probably fare better in a search.

Brave Island provides the sled for you, a simple one for a single sledder and a team bobsled (?) type for couples or very good friends. Once you sit on it, you start heading downhill. You get a good ride, not too fast. The ride could be a little longer, but you can extend it somewhat by sledding through the non-sledding parts of the sim. It's very impolite, but I was there by myself, and someone had to do it.

I would estimate that I got going 35 mph or so, which is like 70 kph for all you Europeans reading this. I never quite figured out how to stop, other than crashing into something that halted my forward progress. I used a head-first sledding methodology, as I'd rather crack my head than break both legs and maybe the ol' Five Hole as well.

Sledding into a wall is usually the worst-case scenario, but the other sledding sim that I tried out- one with a mammoth luge-style elevated track- actually saw me fail to negotiate a curve and sled off the sim into whatever passes for outer space in SL. I actually had a picture of me doing so, but I was very small in it and would have been unrecognizable without the caption.

I did think of a sport that I would like to try... Sled Bowling with humans! Line ten people up in Candlepin formation at the bottom of a hill, go to the top of the hill, come down heavy on the sled and see how many people you can deck. It's got speed, exotic settings, violence, humor and appeals to a wealthy demographic... what's not to like?

I'll have to get Lanai to pay me enough to hire ten models to act as bowling pins, but I think I can make a go of it. Some clever animator will have to make an animation that mimics pins falling. Who knows? Maybe I can give up journalism and feed myself by running a Human Sled Bowling operation. It might be illegal in the US. Someone told me to maybe try Indonesia.

There was no NBA or NFL 150 years ago, and now you can't turn on the TV without seeing someone dunking or throwing a touchdown pass. Who's to say Human Sled Bowling won't catch on in a similar manner? 

The fun thing about SL is that Human Sled Bowling probably exists somewhere, perhaps in BDSM form. I just haven't been crafty enough to find it... yet. 

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Slip Sliding Away: Sledding At Merry Lane! - Stacey Cardalines Reporting

 

There exists a chess/checkers relationship between skiing and sledding. 

I prefer sledding to skiing, which is odd because I grew up in a wealthy Massachusetts suburb and really should be on the skiing side of the question. You only have to drive to a local hill for sledding, as opposed to driving through half of New Hampshire and spending $1000 for the family to go skiing. Skiing is a very skill-driven sport, and you will hit a tree if you don't know what you're doing. You can hit a tree while sledding, too... but you don't have to waste all that time with Skill Acquisition. You'll be as skilled as you're going to get at sledding after your first ride.

Skiing is the more sophisticated sport, and a good skier is viewed as a superhero in some Alpine countries. Skiing is a snobby way to spend a day. Price some skis/boots/resort vacations and tell me that it isn't a rich man's sport. That's not a problem with sledding. You can spend $10 at Target and be all good and ready to go get Sleddy. 

I'd like to see NASCAR guys race with sleds on a really steep and long hill. They'd be a bit disadvantaged as Southerners who aren't used to snow, but their racing skill would be a fun thing to see flexed on Mount Washington in a blizzard. I bet that Dale Earnhardt Sr. would have been a good sledder if he applied himself to it.

The people who run Merry Lane: A Winter Wonderland understand the appeal of sledding. I know this because I was at their sim and they have sledding. Lanai lets me write about whatever I want, but I am a Sportswriter at heart and I walked by numerous interesting things as I bee-lined to the Sledding hill. Did you really have any doubt?

It's very easy to go Sledding at Merry Lane. You hoof it up to the top of the hill (I saved you that walk by landmarking the sim at the top of the Sledding hill), where you will find a sled. Click on it, and a second sled appears. The sled is bigger than every bed I had before I was married. Hop on that second sled, and off you go. 

The hill is admittedly short, and it would disappoint even a scared 4 year old in real life. However, a clever sledder can use the Arrows keys to keep the sled going forward. You can even go into reverse, an option not available to RL sledders. I made a few runs and was able to tour much of the sim by just powering forward until I hit a hill that my sled momentum couldn't surmount.

Don't go sledding in a dress, like I did. There is no modest way for a girl in a dress to sit on a sled without giving anyone nearby a the view that a girl should only share with her husband and her gynecologist. I was able to work around it because I had the sim to myself when I went, and because I was the one aiming the camera.

The sim is also fun for a walk. Most of it is set up for this purpose and this article is focused on sledding because the reporter who visited the sim is really a very curvy 9-year-old, at least mentally. 

They have a hot cocoa stand, a carousel with reindeer and polar bears, a sort of Christmas village with various trees and toys, a snow globe that you can hop inside of, and a bunch of other seasonal stuff. If you enjoy strolling through a winter landscape, this is the place for you. It's very large, and you can kill a lot of time strolling the acreage.

Like many winter sims, they are only open seasonally. This one closes in early February. By February, most people are sick of Winter and are looking forward to Spring. It just doesn't pay to keep winter sims open too late into winter. So hurry :)

Merry Lane: A Winter Wonderland = http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Breton%20Cove/64/156/2014

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