On the afternoon of October 18th, the pledges and brothers of the Delta Lambda Phi fraternity took a trip to Center Grove Orchard. We had so much planned. From a trampoline bounce, to a bunch of farm animals to a 4-acre corn maze, there was a hell of a lot of fun ahead of us. We all started off with apple cider. I had never had a frozen apple cider before, it was like an apple cider flavored snow cone. SO GOOD! We all headed out into the yard to be greeted by about 15 free-roaming goats. I know petting zoos are usually a kids event, but when a pen of goats and cute little pigs are oinking up at you, how can you not feel the love. They were all adorable, but none were so sweet as the massive work horses. Two HUGE horses who could not have sweeter. They were very friendly and I must have smelled pretty good because they kept trying to eat my sweatshirt. That, or they must not be Cyclone fans.
After saying goodbye to my new equestrian friends, we headed into the nearest barn to find the corn pool. An area about the size of a four-lane, 25 meter swimming pool was barricaded with hay bails. The enclosed area was filled with about 18 inches of off-the-cob corn! It was an interesting experience. Wading through a pool of corn was much harder than I'd assumed it to be. We decided to race, because what could be more fun than racing through a pool of corn where a person can barely walk without toppling over! After the first race, which I lost by a mile, we decided to up the level of difficulty. Some brilliant person voted we race on our knees, with our hands behind our back. EPIC FAIL!! We all face planted after a few strides! Ha ha. With me face down in the corn, the brothers decided the best course of action was to finish the job, and bury me in corn....I'm still finding colonels of corn in my jeans.
We then headed off to the Jumping Pillow. It is basically one of those blobs that one would find on the water for jumping, except it is bolted to the ground and used as a trampoline of sorts. I hadn't been on a trampoline in many many years and I'd forgotten how much it can take out of a person. It was soo much fun though. We are men between they ages of 18 and 26 and we were all releasing out inner 12 year old. We played "break the egg". One person balls themselves up in the center of the trampoline and everyone else bounces around them until the sprawl open. A lot of fun, but possibly almost dangerous, as I rolled off the edge when it was my turn to be the egg. Ha ha.We were all pretty tuckered out at this point, so we headed off to the Corn Maze, the main purpose of our visit to Center Grove. After getting only a tad bit lost in the orchard, we made it to the maze just as the sun set beyond the horizon. Good thing we brought flashlights! The corn maze has two purposes, to either just go in and try to find a way out OR to search out and document all 10 of the different wooden animals placed throughout the maze. We were only in the maze for forty minutes, but it felt like hours. Once you get in, you can ind many different ways out but it seemed harder to find your way back to the beginning. My big brother, Ben, and I were only one of two groups to find all 10 animals in the maze before we headed out. *sorry no photos of the maze as if was very dark*
