There are two types of people in the world when it comes to amusement park rides those who love them and those that hate them. Most of my life I’ve been firmly placed amongst the lovers of rides.
I once had no fear when it came to rides and the taller, the faster and the more spin to the ride the better I enjoyed it. As I’ve gotten older however things have changed quite a bit.
While I still love the idea of rides I’m no longer quite so fearless and my stomach can no longer handle the spinning. I suppose as an adult having heard many more horror stories about deaths or injuries resulting from an amusement park ride gone wrong you can’t help but develop a little fear.
What this is leading to is Valley Fair in Minnesota where we spent this past weekend and in particular to a roller coaster aptly named Wild Thing. I looked it up this morning and it is identified as a “hyper coaster” which means it has a drop of over 200 feet, 207 actually. It is also over a mile in length reaching speeds of up to 74 miles per hour. There was apparently also an incident in 2006 in which a train derailed, good thing I looked this up afterwards.
As a kid I wouldn’t have thought twice about going on this ride now however I thought twice and third and forth times. Wild Thing as the biggest and longest coaster in the park it can be seen from every area and so it was constantly looming catching my eye time and time again.
Finally I had the chance to go on some adult rides and after a coaster ride I loved and a swing I hated the Wild Thing was up next. As we stood in line and got closer and closer the more my anxiety grew.
By the time I actually got on the ride I had begun to think that this was a really bad idea. While sitting in a train car waiting for the ride to start that first 207 ft hill looks REALLY big. As soon as the cars began to move I decided that getting off would have been the much wiser decision.
It takes quite a while to get up that first hill and with each click-clack as it went higher and higher I had plenty of time for recriminations and ample time to prepare for what at that ever increasing height felt like my imminent death.
I’m not ashamed to admit I screamed, in fact to give an idea of just how high this coaster is, I had stopped screaming before we reached the bottom of that first hill. Not because I was no longer scared half to death but because I had run out of air.
I survived, I got off with a smile on my face but I’m no longer quite as sure of my place in life as a lover of amusement park rides.
