BONUS WEDNESDAY POST!
Speaking of weird millennial phenomenon like Goat Yoga, have you heard about Van Life and Axe Throwing? These two things have nothing to do with each other, I’m not talking about some weird van destroying activities. No vans were harmed in the making of this blog.
This past weekend we went to the CNY RV Show in Syracuse, NY. Technically this trip to Syracuse was my “Birthday Redo” because for reasons I cannot understand, my actual birthdays tend to be unequivocal failures. And yes, for my birthday redo, I wanted to go to an RV show. I’m exciting, I know. Is it at all redeeming that we went Axe throwing afterwards? See? No van murders, just RVs and Axes.
Me and my husband clearly have a disconnect on our RV exploring choices. He liked to look at the biggest ones, I wanted to tour the tiniest. I can’t tell you how many hundreds of campers were there but I can tell you that there were too many. We cruised through four buildings full in about 2 hours and walked 11,000 steps. It was a great time.
When the RV show closed at 9pm and they kicked us out, we left for Axe Throwing. It’s tough to do new things with my husband because we’re both super awkward at being people. In the end I was able to ask a very nice human for help getting signed up. All of the lanes were taken so we had to wait on a couch mode futon while I drank a $7 hard cider and we listened to the bang of misthrown axes. My husband was clearly not super psyched about the whole thing so I was thinking this was maybe a mistake. We waited like 30 minutes and it was totally worthwhile because we had a whole lane and two boards all to our anti-social-selves.
My husband was immediately successful at axe throwing. The jerk. It took me about 30 minutes to even stick an axe to the wall. And then it took extra training from the nice humans working there. And a special axe that they specially sharpened for me. And a chalk line so I knew where to stand. And I still only landed about 1 in 5 throws.
My husband’s review of axe throwing: “It was better than I thought it would be at first. I could see how it would be good with some beers and a big group. But it won’t last. Soon it will be like bowling alleys.”
My review of axe throwing: I found that I did better when I relaxed and breathed, but that’s tough to do in a loud room where people are constantly moving around and you’re worried about axing them. Maybe I’ll set up an axe throwing board next to my slackline.
All told it was an excellent birthday redo.
Action item for you:
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of GETTING stuff for my birthdays, so instead I’ve started trying to DO stuff for my birthday. Pick something to do to celebrate your special day. I guarantee that you’ll remember the experience more than any things.
If you want to do what I did:
The CNY RV show happens twice a year in Spring and Fall. Wear comfortable shoes and bring snacks and water because you will do a lot of walking. While there, dream about #vanlife even though there was only about one camper van out of every one hundred trailers.
Bad Axe Throwing has locations all over the US. Just book a time if you have a group of 6 or more or find out their walk in times if you are 5 people or less. Expect to pay about $7 per drink and if you go on a weekend night you may have to wait, but they kept things running pretty smooth. We had a lot of fun, and I’m not going to lie, I am considering buying myself this throwing axe.
PS: If you are in Syracuse, eat at Dinosaur BBQ.