Memorial Day--finally a day all to ourselves!
Just us and a few thousand others!
We arose somewhat early to get a good start on our day, in order to be at "Six Flags" before the entrance lines got extremely long. Well, you know how it so often goes with well-made plans . . . we didn't get out quite as early as we had hoped, but still left the house at a decent time. The traffic volume wasn't terribly heavy, so that helped make up for some lost time . . .until we got a little closer to the park. Then we lost that bit of made up time.
By the time we finally got into the parking lot and then walked quite a ways to the entrance, long lines had already formed. However, we suddenly realized that the longest lines were only for buying tickets. We have annual passes, so we happily sailed right on past those lines . . . only to find another set of lines at the entrance gates. Fortunately, those lines weren't nearly as long. Unfortunately, after getting into the park, we had to go over to a third set of lines that was incredibly long! That wait was about 45 minutes just to get our season pass receipts transformed into official laminated cards with picture I.D. (We bought the annual passes on December 30, 2010 when we were there with our whole family who had come for the Christmas holidays, but we hadn't wanted to take the time to get them registered and made into actual cards.)
About an hour and a half after the park opened, we were finally choosing which ride to go on first. (Six Flags is a themed amusement park.) We rode just a few rides and then stopped for lunch. Then we spent the afternoon riding lots more rides, and browsing in several shops. At long last, we were finally ready to take the plunge--the water rides.
The first was a "flume" (hollowed out log) ride that was quite pleasant,. It had just enough hills and speed to make it fun, but not too scary, plus we barely got wet. It was just the perfect water ride for someone who wants a really enjoyable ride without getting too wet.
Then we moved up a step to a white water "raft" ride in a huge, round, floating tub (kind of like a giant inner tube) that held about 8-10 people sitting around the circle. The "river" was really wild, and the bobbing raft turned freely in the strong, fast current. Everyone got their turn at getting wet (some more than others), but no one wanted to be the unlucky ones stuck at the front of the tub (with their back to what came next) when it got to the last and strongest white water waves. Guess who was in that dreaded position when we hit that final set of the wildest rapids of the entire ride? Larry and me! For us it was an instant backwards plunge into really big waves of rushing water! (Don't worry, we were strapped in.) The waves just inundated us! When we climbed out of that "bathtub", we were both totally soaked, almost as though we had just taken a dip in the pool. We were shocked, having not realized as we watched the ride while waiting in line, that we would actually get that drenched! Fortunately, the day was quite warm, so the wetness was refreshing, but not chilling!
We had planned to leave the park after that ride because it was getting to be supper time, and we had planned to stop at a restaurant on the way home. Due to our thorough soaking, we were forced to stay for another hour or so, hoping the hot sun would dry our clothes quickly. Walking around in totally soaking clothing seemed a bit strange, and felt kinda yucky! We finally gave up on drying out completely, and headed for the car, still quite damp. We did stop at a restaurant (The Cracker Barrel) on the way home, even though we probably didn't look that great. In addition to our unkempt appearances, I was a bit uneasy about sitting down on a wooden chair, wearing damp pants. I just hope we didn't ruin their nice wood chairs.
It was around 9:30 when we finally arrived home, tired but happy! The next morning it was time to go back to work as usual--no sleeping in to recoup the whopping amount of energy expended over the past four days of total fun!
Thus ended our four-day whirlwind!
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