At least we got to sleep through the night last night. We wondered if that was going to happen when we saw a mother with several children check in next to us. But God was gracious to allow us a full night of sleep.
Mike (from Helena) and his dad, who works at the marina by CP came by and picked us up just before 10:00. They were kind enough to drop us off at the side entrance.
We went straight to the Top Thrill Dragster. It was funny to see people running to the entrance. I decided to not ride this one being I was still a bit wanny from yesterday, but Gerry went and got in line. His wait was only about 20 minutes to the time they had to shut down the ride for about 10 minutes. After he got in line, people flooded in behind him. At one point, there were probably 1000 people behind him. I was the photographer for this. Gerry said it wasn’t as hard as he thought it might be.
Mike (from Helena) and his dad, who works at the marina by CP came by and picked us up just before 10:00. They were kind enough to drop us off at the side entrance.
We went straight to the Top Thrill Dragster. It was funny to see people running to the entrance. I decided to not ride this one being I was still a bit wanny from yesterday, but Gerry went and got in line. His wait was only about 20 minutes to the time they had to shut down the ride for about 10 minutes. After he got in line, people flooded in behind him. At one point, there were probably 1000 people behind him. I was the photographer for this. Gerry said it wasn’t as hard as he thought it might be.
It’s a 20 second ride that goes from 0 to 120 mph in 4 seconds along a flat stretch, then shoots you straight up 400' where you loop over the top and come straight back down with a twist.
This is what it looks like when you're coming over the top and heading down the other side.
That's Gerry in the blue, waiting for the ride to start.
We went right to the Thunder Canyon raft ride after that. We got in a raft with a family of dad, mom and two girls from Germany. The dad said they don't do these there because it's not warm enough to get dried off. The ride was a kick because they got caught under one of the water falls and they'd all scream and laugh.Then we went to the Snake River Falls, did one ride and I stood on the bridge for three more.
(Nancy, remember when you and I stood on this bridge and took several walls of water? I still remember how we were laughing so hard we could hardly stand up!)Now we were totally wet so we went to Soak City and enjoyed a couple hours of water slides and lazy river floating.
Yes, I was covered up. After an encounter with skin cancer last year and having six precancerous spots frozen off just before we left on this trip, I'm being VERY concientious about sunscreen and time in the sun. I know that sounds a little wacky considering that we're riding in the sun for hours each day. (My dermatologist was not as excited about this trip as I was for that reason.) But we slather on the sunscreen every day - very high SPF - and I use a zinc oxide stick on my face and arms. We haven't burned yet and we're not as tan as one might expect to be after all these hours. But the tans we do have are pretty weird looking!When we left the water park we thought we’d take a stab at one more roller coaster. We’d been watching the Magnum XL all afternoon and it looked tame and smooth enough. Our wait in line was only 10 minutes. Wow, were we wrong about a smooth ride! It didn’t have any 180’s or loops, but it just about shook the snot out of us. I knew after the initial drop that this ride was going to be longer than I wanted. On the second drop I had to hold my neck with one hand because it felt like every vertebrae was banging into the next one. Gerry wasn’t making any noise at all so I knew he wasn’t enjoying it either, but I couldn’t even turn my head to look at him. When the car finally stopped, we looked at each other and asked if we were okay. While I was trying to keep my head on my shoulders, he was bracing himself in the car to protect his lower back. We agreed that we probably should’ve skipped this ride. We went in to view our coaster picture and burst out laughing: there I was holding onto my head, Gerry was straight up, and we both had fierce grimaces on our faces!
So, again, we both have come to the realization that these roller coasters are a thing of our past. We’ll be happy to do kiddie rides with grandchildren!
We hopped on the Space Spiral(kind of like a mini-mini Space Needle) in order to get some last pictures of the whole park. This was when we learned the camera had died. The lens won’t come out. So the whole thing is worthless to us now.
We caught a ride back across the causeway with David and Frank. David told us he had a rock band in the 60’s and he toured a year with Van Halen. (?!)
So, again, we both have come to the realization that these roller coasters are a thing of our past. We’ll be happy to do kiddie rides with grandchildren!
We hopped on the Space Spiral(kind of like a mini-mini Space Needle) in order to get some last pictures of the whole park. This was when we learned the camera had died. The lens won’t come out. So the whole thing is worthless to us now.
We caught a ride back across the causeway with David and Frank. David told us he had a rock band in the 60’s and he toured a year with Van Halen. (?!)
After resting a bit, we rode over to the library to update the blog and check email. That was an extremely frustrating time. The first computer wouldn’t let me get into Google, the second and third computers couldn’t handle what I was tring to do, which was only to transfer pictures from the SD card to the flash drive. These computers just didn’t have enough RAM to do the job. After almost two hours, all I finally managed to do was download the Alphasmart and put one picture folder onto the flash drive.
We finally left about 7:45 and stopped at a Subway for some dinner. While there, I discovered that I didn’t have the flash drive lanyard. Panic! We asked for a phone book to call the library but I couldn’t find the number. It was about 8:10 so we still had time to ride back to the library which closed at 8:30. We prayed before we got on the bike. I was ready to lose it emotionally; all I wanted to do was cry: everything - pictures, journaling, expenses - is all on these flash drives. When we got to the library, they had found the lanyard on the floor and had it waiting at the desk. Thank you, Lord!
Ready for the road again,
Gerry and Pat
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