not for a good thing either: yuppie young tubers going down the mighty sugar river
https://www.nbc15.com/2020/07/07/concern-over-weekend-crowds-at-tubing-business-in-albany/watch the video is UNREAL waiting well over 2 hours to go down a 3-4 hour float down the mighty sugar river, WOWIEE! If you really want to blind your eyeballs watching hoochee mommas over 200lbs. in a 2 piece thong go for it!
A guy I use to work with got an eyeful and then some when he did it with a group of his and the out of towners youngsters mostly Madison WI area come down to Albany and they took off all their clothes while floating butt naked spread eagle in a floatty tube. Nearly every single weekend the police or ambulance gets called down there somewhere along the river for medical attention either heatstroke, drunk, or broken body parts jumping off a tree alongshore into shallow water. Am really surprised no one has been killed yet since happens regularly every single weekend. A few long timers who have houses along the river are super upset picking trash they throw into their yard also.
Or, I am just upset that I was not smart enough to think of this idea some 30 years ago when I still lived in that small town age 20 on down, since have heard the owners clear 100K profit in only 3 months of work is all. That is a TON of people mostly on weekends paying 20 bucks per tube and ride back to town. WI Dells mega waterparks have nothing on this one horse town of Albany WI.
Would you wait in a line at any WI Dells waterpark ride for over 2 hours just to get on a floaty tube?
If they were smarter, these youngsters from out of town, just go buy a nice big floaty tube yourself for 40-50 bucks, pump it up, and there is access easily anywhere along the riverfront not just at that tubing company in town and do it yourself parking a car downstream if having 2 vehicles of people going along. I refuse to swim or float down that river in inner tubes but have done it dozens of times in a jon boat or canoe for I know what swims in that river having fished it for years growing up from snakes to huge snapping turtles and the runoff from farmers fields am sure is not pleasant either.
Is sad when this town of only 1100 people easily have well over that on a weekend just going down the sugar river on weekends. I wonder of the 5 bars in that 50 yard downtown stretch how much business they get from them as well since most all bring their own coolers along paying extra for a floater tube to carry their alcohol since most get too drunk to drive when done. Heard rumors that they get so drunk floating along the river in rural farmland that some have sex as well which am sure happens. That is a nice family outing to see aye when the 5 year old asks mommy and daddy why is the tube a rockin with 2 of them on 1 tube?
I have a picture somewhere from long ago in the 1970s and 1980s when the runoff from businesses being dumped into that river created foaming bubbles that stunk about 50 yards up past the bridge in that picture and some people thought it would be cool to get into that river at the time coming out all covered in bubbles/foam. Lucky they did not pass out from toxins when I was a kid growing up.
