4 Wheels 4 Girls

June 12th, we arrived at a campground. It was called the Crooked Tree Motel and RV Park. We discovered that there was a playground and an indoor pool. The indoor pool was what got my attention. I asked if we could go to the pool and the parents said yes, but we kept not going. Finally, it was time to eat dinner, so we ate and I wondered if we were ever going to go to the pool. So I asked again. This time, they told us to get our swim-suits on. I already had mine on so I grabbed a towel from the cabinet and pulled my goggles out of the swim-bag. I was ready.

An indoor pool, what a special treat during a cold, rainy week!

Eventually, Dad made it out the door and we all walked over to the pool. We got inside the building and Dad sat down on a bench with his computer. Ellie, Ana, and I went over to the other side of the pool, where the steps were, so that we could get in the water in a different way than just jumping in; a way that went more slowly. I stepped onto the first step, so only my feet were in. It didn’t feel very cold on only my feet, but I stepped down two more times, and it was now a little over my knees, and it was getting colder. I stepped down again, and by then, it was up to my thighs. It was starting to get really cold. I shivered. Meanwhile, Ana was coming in behind me, and I noticed Ellie stepping out of the water. She walked over to the ladder that led into the deep-end, and she was about to jump in. I threw my goggles on and yelled, “I’ll be the first one all the way in!” ,and held my breath and went under.

After I’d gotten used to the temperature, Ellie, Ana, and I swam around for a while. We practiced doing handstands and front-flips and back-flips. Ellie and I did a competition: Who could do flips the fastest? First, we did front-flips, and Ellie won. We did it again and we tied. We tried it one last time and we tied again. Then we did back-flips. I won the first one. Then I won the second one by about two thirds of a second, and won the last. It was really fun.

Then I swam into the center of the deep-end, where it was the deepest. I hovered at the surface of the water, getting ready for my experiment. I had never in my life been able to touch the deepest part of a pool before. Not with my hands, at least. And only, like, once or twice with my feet. But that pool wasn’t very deep. This one was. And I have never been very good at holding my breath for a long time, even though I’m on swim-team and have been for three years. So I took in a deep breath and went under. I pushed with so much force that immediately my ears popped and my feet thudded into the ground. Quickly, so I wouldn’t take in a gallon of water, I shoved off the bottom of the pool, felt my ears unpop, and was back up at the surface. Ellie had been watching me and she smiled at me. She’s always been really good at holding her breath for a long time and being able to do things like swimming all the way across the pool. But even Ellie doesn’t beat Ana. Ana can swim to the bottom of a pool and touch the bottom with her hands in THIRTEEN FEET!! Isn’t that amazing!? Even if you don’t, I think it is.

So anyway, I was grinning ear-to-ear when I came up. And guess what? I had to teach Ellie how to do it until she finally got it! And then guess what? I touched the bottom with my hands, even though I swallowed some water on the way back up!

The next day, we went to the pool again. This time, Greta came. We swam around the pool and had a lot of fun. We played this game where we had to swim around and do fancy things to get letters from Greta. Then, when we’d gotten all the letters we needed, we’d go to her and she’d tell us to unscramble them. We would, and we’d find a word. Then we’d have another activity and we’d get another word. We’d keep doing that until we made a sentence. It was pretty fun. It was really mysterious… and it was called the Quest. Then, sadly, it was time to leave.

We came back again the next day, and had fun just swimming randomly. We had to leave early, which wasn’t exactly what I wanted, but I was happy when I realized that it meant going to get huckleberry milkshakes. We had a great night, and I slept great, too.