Holiday World, Part 3

After the log flume, we were already wet, so we headed for the waterpark, where we found a sunscreen station. Wow, Holiday World; you rock. I put on so much of that stuff that I was even whiter than usual. I also layered it pretty thickly on Chad & Becca (everyone else was unwilling to let the crazed sunscreen wielder near them) as well.

I have never been a fan of waterparks; I expected to hit a couple of slides, get bored, and head back to the "real" rides. After getting agreement from my brother that we need not escort the children round the park personally, Chad & I headed to the nearest slide. One trip down-- and I was hooked. (Pics are taken from the Holiday World website; since I'm raving about how great it was, I doubt they will mind the free advertising.)

So, we moved on to the next set of slides. The first time, we had gone individually; for the remaining slides, we got those tandem inner tubes & went down together. It got more fun as we went along, and I knew I wouldn't be ready to go until we had tried them all.

We met up with the rest of the gang after a couple of hours, and decided to go as a group to the remaining slides-- the first one we went to was the Wildebeest, which is new this year and is billed as the world's longest water coaster. We started to get in line with everyone else, but Chris noticed that there was a shorter line on one side, so we went there instead. Jennie & I wondered why 1) there was a shortcut line at all, and 2) more people weren't in it. Mystery was solved when a young man got in line behind us & we asked him; we were in the single riders line. Oops.

Turns out it worked fine; we all rode separately with strangers, but it was a much shorter wait. And totally fun, although the water was fre-e-e-e-ezing. That was the coldest water I was in all day.

The rest of the slides had inner tubes for four people, so we split into boys' team and girls' team for the descents. On the final one, I was riding backwards, and knew that there was quite a drop at the very end before entering the giant funnel. And I also knew that we were coming up on it, because Becca looked ahead and shouted, "Oh, no!" And I yelled back, "Don't say 'oh no'--aaaaaah!" Yeah, we went down the drop right then.

So, after getting wet (and cool-- it was really hot that day) and having sore feet from walking around on hot concrete with no shoes on, we finally had to leave the water behind and go see the rest of the rides. Chad, Jennie and the boys went to the final roller coaster-- The Voyage-- while the rest of us went back to the swings and the Scrambler.

Amanda also wanted to try the vertical drop, but I was unwilling. I wanted to ride the Spider and the giant spinny thing that doesn't require much safety equipment because the centrifugal force keeps you in place, but Amanda & Becca were unwilling.

So, we puttered around until the return of the brave Voyagers, all of whom wanted to try the vertical drop, so they & Amanda went that way. The rest of the rides were shutting down, so the only thing left was the spinny thing. Becca & I tried that.

I've wanted to ride this ride since I was little & they brought it to the fair, but at the time I was too small, and by the time I was no longer too small, the carnival company had left the old-school spinny thing behind for the Gravitron.

The centrifugal force required to keep grown humans in place on a ride that starts up horizontal and ends up vertical is pretty strong, as it happens, so this thing spun around fast. I could feel my roller-coaster panic rising, but a couple of deep breaths later & it was all good. I think I'll try that the next time I'm on a roller coaster. I could feel my head bobbing as we went round and round. Altogether, it was a fun, fun ride, and I intend to try it again when next I have the chance.

The aftermath.

We headed to the cars, discovered that the nearest food available was about 40 miles away (some entrepreneur who decides to open any fast-food restaurant in Santa Clause, Indiana, will make some serious money), so we headed for the Tell City Taco Bell.

I was exhausted, but still had to drive home, so I loaded up on all the caffeine I could find. We got back in the car (Denise & I had the kids with us) and I told the kids they could talk until we got to the interstate, and then they had to be quiet for half an hour to see if they could sleep. They all assured me that they were not tired at all and couldn't possibly fall asleep. (No prizes for guessing how long that lasted!)

I told Denise it was her job to keep me awake. She did not do this job well. Apparently I was swerving enough to scare Chad & Amanda in the car behind me, and I was certainly swerving enough to scare myself (particularly when I could feel myself starting to doze while passing an 18-wheeler). I told Denise to consult her navigator & find out where the nearest Starbucks was; 12 miles, she said, and it's already past midnight so they might not be open. So, Denise directed me to a gas station instead, where I purchased a nasty Red Bull and did a considerable amount of jumping up & down and running laps around the car to wake up.

It worked, really well, and we all arrived at home safely and then I delivered Chris to his house. He woke up long enough to get himself inside, then (reportedly) collapsed into bed where he stayed until noon the next day.

I, on the other hand, was wide awake due to the taking of Red Bull at midnight. Dang.