We are working on our December issue of CITYVIEW magazine, which will be on stands and online starting Dec. 6. Our cover story will be on places you can sled, skate and ski in central Iowa. We don’t have the mountains of Colorado or the frozen lakes of Minnesota, but with a bit of effort and a little creativity, one can find plenty of places to enjoy Iowa’s winter weather.

As a child, my buddies and I would bundle up in our “snowmobile suits,” as we called them, and head for the hills of River View Cemetery. Yes, a cemetery. And, no, we didn’t try to swerve around the tombstones like moguls. We found a steep hill on the back side of the cemetery that didn’t have any graves at the time. That was our Copper Mountain.

I would call it sledding, but we didn’t have sleds. We had inner tubes. And the bigger, the better. Today’s fancy inflatables weren’t available when I was a kid, so we simply made do with these black, rubber donuts. Most were a standard size, but when a massive tractor-sized inner tube was available, my friends and I couldn’t strap on our snow boots and mittens fast enough. The challenge was to see how many of us could stack up on that inner tube while it slid down the hill. And, if you were lucky, you weren’t the first one to fall forward and be run over by the oncoming circle of childhood angst.

As a child, I didn’t experience ice skating or snow skiing, and it was my mother’s fault. Kind of. She told me a story of her childhood friend falling backwards on her skates and having the back of the blade stabbed into the back of her, well, you can guess. This friend had to make a trip to the doctor — with the blade still intact. No thanks. I have since tried skating a handful of times as an adult, but that image continues to be stuck in my mind.

Snow skiing certainly looked like a lot of fun, but that required ski equipment and money, neither of which I had. Once out of college with a few bucks in my pocket, I did give it a shot. The first effort wasn’t so great, though. Lessons were for sissies, I mused. So I strapped on the skis and jumped on the lift with my now-wife, Jolene. I assumed she would tell me how to unmount from the chair lift while we were being transported to the top of the hill. What she gave me instead was complete silence… and I landed head-first and then did somersaults down the hill, with my skis and poles following. Once I gathered my equipment and swallowed my pride, the next stop was for ski lessons.

So, ice skating and snow skiing are OK, but tubing is still more my style. Maybe you can relate. If you can, or even if you can’t, you should seek out a central Iowa location where you can sled, ski, skate — and even tube. Send me a note and share some of your favorite spots. And when you go, bring a tractor tire innertube — if you dare.

Have a magnificent Monday, and thanks for reading.

Shane Goodman 

President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com
515-953-4822, ext. 305
www.thedailyumbrella.com

View Shane Goodman's archived columns from past issues here.