Yesterday was a fun-filled day!
Ok, so it wasn’t exactly perfect, but I still had a really good time. We went to Paramount’s Carowinds, which is kind of a mini-Universal Studios type of place – Six Flags-esque. Tons of really big roller coasters, a bunch of water slides in the “Boomerang Bay” water park, carnival games and three dollar bottles of water. I was the one that pushed for us to have a day when we would be able to go. Brock took the day off of work, and we got there right as it opened. The lines were short, the day was hot, and there were plenty of double-diamond coasters for us to find.
I was very excited to take some scary thrill rides. I haven’t been on any serious roller coasters since I went to Disney World the summer of my 16th birthday. So it’s been a while. I know my mom used to say those kinds of things just aren’t as much fun when you start getting older, and I never wanted to believe her. Mom. You were right. We started out on a smaller, non-flip style ride. I enjoyed that one. Thrilling, yet not piss-your-pants-ifying. Our next ride was the Top Gun Jet Coaster. Definitely a big step up from the first “The Goldrusher.” The jet coaster… very accurate description… made me start to second guess my decision to have a day of thrills.
It was the third coaster, however, that put a stop to my thrill-seeking ways. The “Borg Assimilator.” Picture this. You get into a coaster section that is four people wide, and five rows deep. You are semi-sitting, and you pull heavy, thick, padded leather sections across the front of you like a vest. They buckle together, and hold you securely against your seat. Then the lap guard comes down, holding your thighs to the seat, as well as calf guards that keep your feet close to the back of the car. Once everyone is secured, the car starts moving…not forwards or backwards, but instead your car lies down. So now, you are laying on the roller coaster tracks, with your head pointed towards the direction of movement. This alone was scary. However, most of the ride had you flipped over so that you were hanging in the seat, facing the ground. Throw in a few loop-de-loops, and spiral turns, and it was too much for me to handle. I ended the ride crying, and didn’t go on another one for the rest of the day.
I still had fun, everyone else continued riding, and at the end of the day, I was still glad that we went. I guess I’m just not the thrill seeker I thought that I was. Oh well!