More Flags, More Fun!

For the past couple of years we have participated in the Six Flags reading program, it is called Read to Succeed. Basically your child has to read for six hours, a goal that is usually accomplished in less than a week around here. When you have completed your reading you send in your form and a few months later you receive your free tickets. One of the bonuses of the program is that teachers can also participate so I kept a log and faithfully did my reading. What a chore! (Not)

Our tickets came in the mail two weeks ago and we decided to hit Great Adventure on the first day that the tickets allowed us to, June 14. The day dawned overcast and muggy with a slight chance of a thunderstorm. Add to that the fact that the public schools are still in session and you have the recipe for a perfect park day. The crowds were light, the cloud cover kept us cool.

We had three get in free tickets and one BOGO ticket. We bring our own food and have a tailgate lunch party to further keep costs down so that we can spend money on more important things, like funnel cake and cotton candy. Funnel cake and cotton candy, also known as The Dinner of Champions, is an essential, if not necessary part of the Great Adventure experience. Oh, the sweet cottony, powdered sugar joy!

This year I was the designated rider of roller coasters with the older boys. In past years Kevin has done it, but this year he was just not feeling it so I stepped up, a decision I would regret after riding Nitro.

As a young child I loved the big coasters. I loved going upside down and spinning around and hanging precariously over the cement from a shiny metal car filled with screaming people. Something happens, however, after the age of 35 that makes that once thrilling experience a vertigo inducing, nausea activating, fear generating all around unpleasant affair. Nitro did that to me. My boys, on the other hand, loved it and rode it over and over. Thank-you short lines!

After riding Nitro I was completely shaken up. Literally. I felt as if someone had taken my head, loosened the dura mater, grabbed my head and stuck into one of those things at Home Depot that they use to mix paint after they have added the colors to the gallon container. It was awful, I wanted to lie down or cry or eat more funnel cake.

My boys were genuinely upset that I was feeling so ill. After they were assured that I would not die right there in front of the Wiggles Park they asked if they could ride Nitro again. Apparently no one loosened their dura mater. Youth, it is wasted on the young. We let them go and took Joe to ride the roller coaster at the Wiggles park.

Kevin also turned Joe on to the Buccaneer. Joe was hesitant at first, but we convinced him that it would be fun because- HEY! IT'S A PIRATE SHIP! Joe was fine, I was not. I should have waited longer after disembarking from Nitro because the forward and backward motion, combined with the gravity defying weightlessness of the swinging made me so nauseous that I had to close my eyes and breathe deeply to ward off the second coming of the cotton candy. Dear me, when did I get so old and decrepit?

We had a wonderful day together. We laughed and cracked jokes and acted ridiculous. It was awesome!

And I have a whole year to recuperate.