My brother and his family are in town this weekend, and one of the things we did to have some fun and entertain the kids was to go to Adventure Landing. The place has go-karts, laser tag, video games, and stuff like that -- so it's somewhere that I like to take my son on weekends when I can, but now that the weather has brightened up they've finally re-opened the water park part, complete with wave pool, slides, and raft rides.
The thing of it is though -- there are some slides there that are just a little too hairy for my son to handle yet at his age. This is helpful for me, because as anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm not exactly a "roller coaster guy." I like thrill rides to a point, but I don't really do well with big drops and stuff. Of course, as karma would have it, my brother absolutely loves those kinds of things, so over the years it became kind of a point of competition for us. In fact, most of the coasters I will ride are a result of my desire not to appear chicken in front of him.
Anyways, we're at the water park and Josh catches sight of one of the bigger slides, and immediately his eyes light up and he says, "Hey how about that one" -- and I'm all like "eh, I don't know about that one" to which his immediate response is "Oh now we have to go on it."
The slide in question is a half-pipe a lot like the photo here -- except that instead of riding with two or three people you're asked to sit in a single inner tube all by yourself. This was the closest photo match I could find on the web, so it doesn't do the thing much justice -- but I swear it has close to a 90-degree drop on it.
So obviously my spider-senses are already tingling while I'm climbing the stairs to get to the platform where I'm I'm directed to sit in my inner tube by the lifeguard/attendant who's standing there. But once I try to squeeze my ass into the tube I start to have a real concern, at which point I look up to her and say,
The thing of it is though -- there are some slides there that are just a little too hairy for my son to handle yet at his age. This is helpful for me, because as anyone who knows me will tell you, I'm not exactly a "roller coaster guy." I like thrill rides to a point, but I don't really do well with big drops and stuff. Of course, as karma would have it, my brother absolutely loves those kinds of things, so over the years it became kind of a point of competition for us. In fact, most of the coasters I will ride are a result of my desire not to appear chicken in front of him.
That's just the way it is with siblings, I suppose.
Anyways, we're at the water park and Josh catches sight of one of the bigger slides, and immediately his eyes light up and he says, "Hey how about that one" -- and I'm all like "eh, I don't know about that one" to which his immediate response is "Oh now we have to go on it."The slide in question is a half-pipe a lot like the photo here -- except that instead of riding with two or three people you're asked to sit in a single inner tube all by yourself. This was the closest photo match I could find on the web, so it doesn't do the thing much justice -- but I swear it has close to a 90-degree drop on it.
So obviously my spider-senses are already tingling while I'm climbing the stairs to get to the platform where I'm I'm directed to sit in my inner tube by the lifeguard/attendant who's standing there. But once I try to squeeze my ass into the tube I start to have a real concern, at which point I look up to her and say,
"This tube seems a little snug -- is it possible I'm too big for this ride?"And as she gave the tube a yank and sent me careening over the edge I heard her answer
She looked me over and flatly replied, "Yes."
"Are you saying there's a chance I might tumble over and fall out?"
"Probably."
[Listening to: Van Halen, "Romeo Delight"]
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