If you read my camping post, you know that it rained (a lot) while we were there. We woke up that morning to go to the park and it was pouring. Not a nice mist but a downpour. Since we had all day we decided to just wait it out. Lucky for us, the skies cleared and we headed to the park by 10:30. The day was pretty cloudy but for someone like me with alabaster skin (a.k.a pasty white), I was fine with a few clouds. Plus it also meant that attendance was very low.
We took the shuttle over from Lake Rudolph and prepared for a day of fun. My big kids (meaning my husband and daughter) immediately got in line for The Raven which is a big roller coaster. The boy and I decided to find the lockers and stow our swim gear. We met back up and checked out the rest of the park. I don't enjoy roller coasters. I feel like if God wanting me soaring through the air he would have made me a bird. Honestly, I don't even like my kids to go on these big rides because I'm paranoid that some freak accident will happen and they will plummet to their death. But....I keep my anxiety issues to myself and let them enjoy the day. I don't want to turn their minds into the freak show mess I have going on in my head. So the two big kids enjoy all the bigger rides. My son opted to go on the "less scary" rides.
They decided the last ride before lunch would be The Voyage.
It's ginormous and scary. It's 1.2 miles long and you have "air time" of 24.3 seconds. That means for 24.3 seconds of the ride, your butt is lifted off the seat. Um, no thanks. But since it's ranked among the best roller coasters in the world, they wanted to ride it. I opted to stay on the ground with my son. Now my husband is a big man. He's well over 6 foot tall and is just a big guy. At Disney, he had no problem riding any of the rides. Holiday World, not so much. However, he always takes one for the team and wedges himself in there. His knees came back bruised. They got off that ride and didn't have much to say. It was that intense. I was a little (ok, a lot) worried because as soon as they boarded they shut the ride down. Luckily, I saw them fly past so I knew that they were fine.
We decided to take a break and have some lunch before heading to the water park. While it was nice that attendance was low, it was a bit of an inconvenience because over half of the restaurants/snack places were closed. I understand why they do this but when your family is getting hangry, you just want to grab whatever is closest.
We changed into our swim clothes and checked out Splashin' Safari. My kids immediately started asking which water rides I was gonna do. Even though my husband is always willing to go on these rides with them, they always want me to go too. The last time I did a water ride I was about 6 years old. I went down a water slide with my dad and came back up with no swim bottoms. That was probably also the last time I was able to wear a bikini. I remember my Uncle diving to the bottom to find my bottoms. My mom and sister rode the same slide and my mom tried to slow them down and scraped her arms all up. I don't think my mom has ridden a water ride since either. I'm not a great swimmer and just don't enjoy the "thrill" of flying through water. Again, God didn't make me a fish. But, my husband started heckling me and calling me a fun sponge. He told the kids that if I went into the pool, I'd soak up all the water. Yeah, he's mean like that. So I promised I'd go on one and try it out. Again, I don't want to pass my fear on to them.
They did a few rides without me. There are tons of different slides, wave pools, a lazy river, and water rides like Raging Rapids. We talked to one lady and she said that the Mammoth and Wildebeest were her favorites and that they were pretty calm. Plus you don't have to climb a million flights of stairs to get on them so I thought one of those would be a great option. I don't want to call a stranger a liar but she's a dirty liar. The kids thought it would be best for me to start on the Mammoth. It's the longest water roller coaster in the world (I think). And looking at it from afar, it looked pretty calm.
It's the blue one pictured above. I mean, really, it looks long but no major dips right? I think I can handle it. We got in line and your group has to be weighed. Because nothing is more fun than being weighed in a crowd while wearing your swimsuit. Luckily, no big numbers flash on the screen and our light stayed green. Our family of four loaded into the raft and off the conveyor belt took us. The big long black thing in the picture is a conveyor belt where they pull you up to the top. As we got closer and closer to the top, I started to rethink my decision. I'm not sure if it was all the screaming I heard coming from other rafts or the fact that I'm now facing backwards and have no idea what's behind me. Now looking back at the "fact sheet" on their webpage, I was very wrong to assume it was mild. It's a 1/3 of a mile with a 32 foot drop at a 45 degree angle. I'm pretty sure it was on that drop that I called my family a bad name. And my son replied "this is so awesome". Not only is it super long and scary but the entire time, water is being thrown at you. I had just lectured my son about how he shouldn't puke in the pool when he gets water in his mouth and I'm about to puke on this ride? Maybe it was the massive amount of screaming I was doing or the fact I was still backwards and getting plummeted by what felt like firemen hoses, I don't know. I just know that I swallowed gallons of water and did not enjoy myself one bit. And did I mention the water was freezing?? I'm pretty sure they pumped it straight from some crazy pipeline in Antartica. Maybe in August when it's 110 degrees it feels good but on a cloudy June day, not so much. I did survive and my kids were in their glory that I was drenched. After that I sat the next few rides out. I did do one other "boring" slide so over all they were happy.
We spent some time on the lazy river. Hopefully they weren't filming for any promotional videos that day because trying to get on a wet slippery raft in two foot of water is not something I've conquered just yet. I'm not sure why this is so hard. Once I get on there, I'm good to go but my attempts were quite funny for my husband. At one point, I fell/slid off. You wouldn't think this was a big deal because 2 foot of water is nothing. That almost makes it worse. It's too shallow to just float in and for some reason, it was too deep for me to just kneel in. I somehow dragged my self along in the current, scraped up my elbow on the wall and scraped off the polish on my toes. My husband said "Um why don't you just stand up?" Apparently fun sponges don't float that well.
Part 2 of this post is coming up next.....How I watched my slide to his near death (or so I thought).
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