Snowmobiling

Keeping in theme with the Year of Adventure, I got to have my first ever snowmobile experience on Saturday. Funny, I grew up in the Pittsburgh area and have now been in the great lakes snow machine area for over 10 years and somehow I've managed to never ride or drive a snowmobile.
I think I've discovered one good thing about winter.
Snowmobiles are fun...
Lot's of fun...
Huge fun...
I took a ride first then got to drive one wearing a nifty helmet that plugs into the snowmobile and defrosts/fogs the visor.
Now I can't wait for another opportunity.
We currently have over 3 feet of snow on the ground and the lake has finally started to freeze so we shouldn't get dumped on again.
For those of you unfamiliar with lake effect snow: Lake effect snow is caused when a cold air mass moves over an unfrozen body of water (like Lake Erie). The cold air picks up moisture from the relatively warmer lake and then dumps that moisture in the form of snow on the lake shore and more heavily on the snow belt area about 20 miles inland from the lake. By dump, I mean getting 1 or 2 day snowfall totals in the 1-4 feet range versus inches. Once the lake freezes the lake effect snow machine stops and we only get a couple of inches of snow at a time. The lake froze very late this year (i.e. last week) due to a mild fall so I'm up to my eyeballs in snow.
I don't ski or snowboard (my knees really couldn't handle the abuse) so I've never been very happy with having tons of snow on the ground.
Now I've discovered snowmobiling. While it doesn't completely make me happy in regards to the snow ( I still hate cleaning my car off and dealing with idiots who can't drive in snow on the road). Snowmobiling gave me a couple of hours of pleasure, I nice adrenaline boost and a sense that once in awhile a lot of snow isn't a bad thing.