We had waffles for breakfast, and then hit the road yesterday morning.
And then I set foot in a theme park for the first time in well over 10 years. I rode a ton of scary rides, and I had a BLAST.
We got to Kennywood, and it was rainy and overcast, and Rick pointed out a roller coaster and suggested we give it a try. I shuddered like the delicate creature I am, and said “After all these years, I should start with something a little tamer…”
And then Rick and I went on this.
You get in these seats – there’s nothing under your feet – and they hoist you way up to the top of this tower, and then you hang there for 20 seconds or so. Just as you’re starting to think “Okay, I think we’re stuck. How the hell are they going to get us down?”, they drop you.
I screamed at the top of my lungs, and then I took a gasping breath, and I screamed some more. I did a LOT of screaming yesterday, because we rode a lot of rides, and except for the carousel, they were pretty freakin’ scary. Rick and Trey and I rode a good number of the rides in that park, some of them twice.
Nance only rode the carousel – the rest of the time, she waited for us to get off rides, and snapped pictures, and carried all our shit around.
She’s a very good pack mule (I didn’t get many pictures, because she carried my bag around most of the day, and my camera was in it).
We played games, and to Nance’s everlasting shock, I am not completely horrible when it comes to getting a basketball in a basket. I got the first basketball in, and I won a small prize. I got the second basketball in, and traded up to the medium prize. Then I choked on the third one, which is probably a good thing because Nance had to haul the medium prize (the Steeler’s bear sticking out of her KATG backpack, which I won for Shirley) around all day long.
We played other games, too, so I’m going home with a couple of small stuffed animals.
Did I mention that I had fun? Because I had a LOT of fun. The last time I remember setting foot in a theme park is when the spud was about 3 years old and I weighed over 300 pounds, and my ex-husband and I got on a roller coaster to ride it, and the bar couldn’t go down far enough because I was too fat for the ride, so I had to get off the ride with thirty zillion people watching.
Although I had no problem fitting on the rides yesterday, I was paranoid that the bars wouldn’t go down far enough. They did, though – and I didn’t have to do the Walk of Shame. THANK GOD.
Today, we’re off to the Fiesta factory to see how Fiesta Ware is made, and so that I can spend the gift certificate I got for my birthday. I know I’m a total dork, but I can’t WAIT.
(I’ve already told Nance and Rick I’m coming back next July and escorting them to Kennywood. They were thrilled, of course.)