Roller coasters/the drive home

  February 23, 2012

  Well today was our last day in Vegas. We had a late start and walked across the street to Circus Circus to go to what I thought was going to be the worst day of my life; going to the theme park for roller coaster rides. In my earlier posts, I talked about going on the New York roller coaster. I thought I had met my maximum for rides for the next ten years after I went on that one, apparently not. This theme park deal was also part of the Aquarium and New York roller coaster deal. So we had to do it. We showed up at 10:30 thinking it opened at ten. It actually opened at eleven. I thought McDonalds was a good idea which was about a five minute walk away. As I ate my mcgriddle (if you’ve never had one, they are fantastic) I thought it would be my last. I thought a mcgriddle and a strawberry banana smoothie sort of qualified as a prisoner’s last meal before he is put in the electric chair. The electric chair being the roller coaster.

  We walked into the theme park and there was one ride that went around the whole park. Of course the second Brett sees it, he wants to go on it. I told him no because it goes upside-down twice. He promptly walked to the entrance and forced me onto the cart that didn’t look like it would hold me in at all going upside-down. I called the roller coaster assistant over and made him promise me I wouldn’t die. All he did was say,” This ride isn’t all that bad.” All that bad meaning I may only be paralyzed for the rest of my life but still live, or not that bad meaning it’s just scary. With that note I felt my body tighten up and started to sweat profusely. We went through the same process as the New York ride by having them “supposedly” strap me in, tell me good luck and without warning we were already going. The first thing I heard was clicking noises as we tried to gain speed. I screamed, “Brett is this normal!?” I could barely finish my sentence before I began to lose my stomach to the point where that was all I could focus on. I shut my eyes and said a prayer that I would not die. How can anyone think that screaming because you are scared is fun? I had several kids sitting behind me who I didn’t think looked like they were height eligible for the ride, and they loved every second of it. Brett tried to make me feel terrible by telling me that this was a kids theme park and I shouldn’t be scared. Let me tell you, I cannot wait to have kids and take them to Disneyland so that I can go on all the little kid rides. That’s my dream.

  The next ride I had to put up with was called the sling shot. If you have ever seen the ride on the stratosphere at the top, it’s the same idea. There is a huge pole about 10 feet wide with seats all the way around it. The pole is probably 100 feet high. You sit in a seat, the guy says three, two, one and you are catapulted to the top of it in less than two seconds. Then you are dropped in under a second. I had a meltdown once we got strapped in. The poor guy who checks to make sure everyone is buckled in tight looked like he could be snapped in half, had major scoliosis, and looked like he maybe weighed 110 pounds. I felt so bad for him but would you trust a guy like that pulling on your seat strap to make sure it’s fastened? I was really scared for my life. Brett reassured me it would be ok, but my eyes welled up with tears because of my fear of heights kicked in. Three, two one we were up then down in about three seconds. I actually kind of liked it. I went a few more times and my goal was to keep my eyes open. It was hard but I did do it.

  I told Brett it was my choice next for rides. I wanted to go on the pirate ship. All it does is swing really high back and forth for a few minutes. There were five of us on the ride and we made sure to sit as close to one side as we could to get the full effect. There was a couple who sat on the far left as we sat on the far right and one guy sat in the middle facing us. The wife from the left side took turns with me screaming each time the ship would swing. Brett made me lift my arms and legs several times and it made me feel like I was falling off of a building. I liked it because it was low stress and I didn’t feel like I was going to die. Brett said it made him sick. What a blessing, we were done for the day. I got excited too quick. The fire alarm went off and we waited probably twenty minutes on a bench for everything to be checked out. Once Brett had sat for a bit he was good to go again. Kill me now.

 Next thing we did, played laser tag with a bunch of kids. In my defense, I was wearing white so I was really easy to see. These kids looked like they were all of about four years old for how little they were. They were probably ten or twelve. I think most of them beat me. Ok not most of them, I got last. Haha. Brett got first though. He wasn’t going to let a group of ten little boys beat him. I wanted to show those boys whose boss. That same group happened to go on the bumper cars with us next. After I was done with them, they will never want to go to a theme park ever again. I made one boy cry because I hit his car so hard and I corned two other boys so they couldn’t keep going. Next time they’ll rethink kicking my trash in laser tag because I may kick their trash later. Ok I never did make anyone cry, but I thought he was going to cry. Bumper cars were a riot but we only ended up going on them once.

 There were a few other rides we went on that were fun, but Brett said we couldn’t leave without going on the roller coaster and we had to go in the front. He begged me and pushed me to the entrance. I was strapped in the front and Brett told me it would be fun. Well I had already been through this once and I don’t remember any of it being fun. For the ninety second ride, I think I opened my eyes for about six seconds of it. I was proud of that. I screamed the whole ride and I’m sure that the rides people have never had to deal with anyone my age that was that immature about a roller coaster. Brett thanked me a thousand times for going and facing my fear of heights.

  On the agenda next, shopping. We went all the way out to Primm, Nevada. It’s right on the Nevada California border. They had the really expensive name brand stuff like Gucci, Juicy Couture, Coach, LV, and Anne Klein. I never did find much there. I could not bring myself to spending a hundred dollars on a purse. I bought a few shirts and a pair of pants. I found some really cute heels but of course they didn’t have my size. Brett did get some really nice church shoes to go with his new suit. Those were worth the trip in itself. Sixty dollars for two pairs of expensive shoes. Brett’s outfits were now complete with his new shoes to match his suit.

February 24, 2012

I woke up at six thirty and we left the hotel at seven, Las Vegas time, but we lost an hour by the time we hit Utah. So we really left at 8 o clock a.m. We stopped in St. George to get fuel and I sweet talked Brett into letting me go to a modest outlet store. I got some new skirts and shirts and was quite satisfied with my purchases.

We made a quick stop that we wanted to make on the way down but it didn’t work out so we did it on the way back. Going to see Ryan. We had lunch with him (which he paid for, thanks Ry).He works at the Huntsman Cancer Research Institute in Salt Lake. Brett and Ryan are less than two years apart but could not be any more different considering they grew up so close together. First off, they look nothing alike. Brett is tall and dark, Ryan is tall and blonde. They both have different takes on subjects like politics, schooling and entertainment but they have one huge thing in common, good grades. They are both nerds and would be a great addition to the show Big Bang Theory. Ryan has always said that someday he and Brett will be sitting at their lakehouse in Mexico, retired at forty and look back on life and laugh. If that were true that would be nice. We enjoyed visiting with him and catching up on life. Hope your date goes well tomorrow night Ry.