A Sleigh Ride That Wasn't Meant To Be

A number of years ago, we got a huge evening blizzard, much like the one last night. 

One of the things I always loved to do in the winter was to ride sleds and toboggans at Fox Hill Golf Course in Baiting Hollow. 

When we had about a foot of snow on the ground one night in the middle of the storm, I called my good friend Jeff and repeatedly asked him to go up to the golf course to go sledding. 

On this night, he wasn't having it, as he was totally comfortable staying inside and not braving the storm. 

Being the eternal optimist always looking to have fun, I wouldn't give up, kept saying "dude, let's go, dude, let's go, dude, let's go...." Like it was one word: "dudeletsgodudeletsgodudeletsgo......" 

After literally about 100 "dude, let's go"'s, Jeff, already so annoyed from me hounding him, relented and said "Stop! OK, OK, I'll go!!! I'LL GO!!!!!" 

He (very) reluctantly picked me up about 20 minutes later in his Jeep and started to drive to the golf course in the middle of the storm, 40-50 MPH winds, snow blowing sideways and treacherous driving conditions with drifts left and right. 

After a hair-raising drive to the golf course, we get out of the Jeep and trudge across the tundra and climb out way to the top of the hill. 

Snow is blowing in our faces to the point where we can't see, it's pitch black out, winds are whipping, we are thigh deep in snow, it's bone-chilling cold, but we continue to press on toward the top. 

And, Jeff is furious, as he can't believe I dragged him into this adventure. 

We finally get to the top, and we get ready for our first run - we have two of those green, plastic round flying saucers that I picked up at Toys R' Us as our sleds. 

As I drop my saucer on the ground to jump on it for my first run down the hill, a HUGE gust of wind literally grabs my saucer and launches it hundreds of yards away in one shot, down the hill and into the woods in the blink of an eye, like it came from the tornado of the Wizard of Oz. 

Gone. 

When the saucer disappears into the Riverhead night in literally 3 seconds, I turn to Jeff and say "DUDE! Did you see that?" 

He replies "No, what?" 

The saucer disappeared SO quickly, he didn't see it vanish, so my meek, sad and devastated reply was "Um, never mind....." 

There we are stuck on this hill in a blizzard with only one flying saucer to share between the two of us, which wasn't ideal as it would have taken too long to take a run, trudge up the hill and then have the next one take their run, ultimately and completely killing our winter adventure. 

So, we started to laugh our heads off, turned around, trudged back down the hill and walked back to the Jeep without taking one single run down the hill. 

I guess it was a sleigh ride that just wasn't meant to be.