Cartmanland!

I can't believe I haven't written anything for two weeks.  It seems like I wrote something just the other day.  I did finish painting the bedroom yesterday.  It's now a creamy white, has art on the walls and has new curtains.

Today was the day that GiantMediaCo bought out Six Flags America for it's employees.  Since I love roller coasters, I was very excited about this idea.  You know, no lines and all that.  There are hidden disadvantages to this, however:

1) Going from one thrill ride to another with no waiting allows your equilibrium no time to recover.  I've never felt sick from a roller coaster before, but I felt sick today.  I was actually afraid to go on two of the roller coasters because I was afraid of getting sick.  More on that later, but this has never happened to me before.

2) None of the regular food stands are open -- the only food available was in the picnic pavilion -- the free company food.  I don't really have a problem with that, but we didn't want food until 5pm and by then, there was none to be had.  In fact, we still haven't eaten as I am waiting for Tino to take a shower right now.

3) Running into your boss, his wife and his children while your wearing a bathing suit and are dripping wet, barefoot and disheveled is just weird.[1]  Maybe if he'd been also, it would have been less weird.

Regarding the motion sickness thing:  as I said, it's new for me.  I think that having the upside-down roller coasters back to back may have something to do with it, but it also seemed like the loopy roller coasters had very small footprints and very, very tight loops.  That may also be a factor -- it's hard to say.

First, we hit the wooden roller coaster near the entrance (Roar!).  It was one of the better ones I've been on.  Next up was Jinx, a very small footprint very loopy metal coaster.  The best part about that ride was that the start of it is like being shot out of a railgun.  The rest of it is really irrelevant after that.  This one both made us kind of tipsy.  

After that, we paid extra to ride go-carts.  These sucked, and the line was in the blazing hot sun.  Yes, there was a line for this, probably because it looked fun.  It wasn't.  Next, we had to make a run for cigarettes for Tino because, although you can smoke wherever in the park, they don't sell cigarettes.  Frankly, that seems like an absurd decision to make in a situation where you can charge a premium stuff like that, but I'm sure it's a "What about the children thing."  The United States is so fucking focused on children that no one cares if adults are happy.  Anyway, we walked back to Two Face, one of the looping hanging-car coasters[2] where you do the whole thing forwards and backwards[3].  It made us both a bit sick, but was sort of cool.  In hindsight, I wasn't wild about it, but all roller coasters I've ever ridden pale in comparison to the last one I rode today.

We hit the other wooden roller coaster, The Wild One, and it was fun, but not over the top.  Shortly after that, we rode one of the water rides (it was hot out at that point because it was about 2pm), Splashdown something or other.  We got pretty wet on the ride, and afterwards, we watched the ride from the bridge.  I had closed my eyes going down the hill because I was expecting to get hit with a face full of water (which I did).  I have to say that it looked amazing from the bridge[4], but we got completely soaked just watching other people come down the hill.  And I do mean completely soaked.

Since we were already very wet, we decided to go to the water park next, but I really wanted to check out the other coasters first.  We watched the Mind Eraser, and we both said "that will make me barf", so we didn't go on it.  It was another small footprint hanging-car coaster with many loops and this incredibly wicked looking horizontal corkscrew which was really the deal killer for me.  We then walked back to the Superman: Ride of Steel attraction.  This is a metal roller coaster that doesn't go upside down, but has a 200-ft drop on which you accelerate to something over 70mph.  Really, it's just like a wood coaster times ten.  Tino wasn't into it, so I went on it alone.

This was the best roller coaster I've ever ridden.  It kicked so much ass, that as soon as I got off, I tried to get Tino to go on it so I could ride it again.  It certainly didn't make me queasy, but it shot so much adrenaline into me that I was a babbling hyper idiot for the next 20 minutes.  I can't say enough good things about that ride, really.  I wish I didn't have this motion sickness thing going on, because we skipped the Batwing, the one where you lie down and are face down way up in the air.  I ran into some cow-orkers, and they said that it had made some people they were with very queasy, and that was enough warning for me.  

At this point, we went to the water park.  It was fun, but it was a very standard sort of water park.  You climb big flights of stairs and ride a tube down a long water slides.  Lather, Rinse, Repeat.  It also had an enormous wave pool which we spent some time it.  It was neat, but not incredible or anything (the wave pool, I mean).  A couple of the water slides are enclosed and dark, which was unique.  Like Space Mountain, it makes them scarier.

So, overall, there were a few problems with Cartmanland, but it was pretty fun to be able to ride whatever rides you wanted with no lines.  I do have an injury from my day-o-fun.  One of the water slides scratched me from above my hip to about 1/3 of the way down my thigh.  It was enough to draw blood even.  I'd blame the park, but frankly, I've been a total klutz for a few days now.  I've been so clumsy that I was afraid to use a utility knife during a home improvement project because I was sure it would land me in the emergency room.