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kjpepperSo considering this is going to be a looooooooooooooong illustrated entry, I'm not only LJ-cutting, but I also don't trust Semagic with it - writing it in editpad beforehand. So there!
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sundart, gossamer_gull, inle_rah, and gossamer_gull's boy Jonothan all went to Six Flags New England yesterday.
Short story: we had sooooo much fun going on all the rides and getting the pictures taken and stuff. I'm so tired, but in a good happy sore way.
Long story: First of all, we had a gorgous sunny day for our amusement park adventure! In the morning around 10:00, Jonothan picked us up to go toinle_rah's, and from there we departed to the far away land of Agawam, MA and six flags New England (formerly Riverside.) We parked in F section (F for "Where the Fuck is my car?") then gleefully made beelines for the parking lot tram. We made some observations about how our amusement park experience would rule because allegedly, we were the adults - no one to tell us we couldn't go on this ride or that ride, or that we couldn't have a cherry ICEE and two hot dogs and ice cream for lunch, and then go on the roller coasters! Conversely, we don't have anyone to set a good example for yet! So obviously our day was going to rule. Hopefully that realization perturbed the parent/kids groups sitting behind us.
After an absurdly short tram ride, we descended (literally - there's a huge foot bridge with an enormous staircase you have to cross before you get into the park) upon Six Flags, where Jonothan and I set the hair tweak precedent for the rest of the day. I had my hair in two little afro puffs on top of my head, a style which has caused friends to use them for game show buzzers in the past, which of course, "Dinging" abounded this day! And Jonothan would have long hair except that his is very curly and falls in thick spirally ringlets. So of course, you want to reach out, stretch one, let it go, and say "Boing-oing-oing-oing!" So there was much "Boing-oing-oing-oing!"-ing and "Ding!"-ing during the waits for rides. And one amusing point wheregossamer_gull used my head as race car handlebars.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. In the interest of not getting all messy and sweaty during rides and having it show in the pictures later, we had all agreed to visit the old-time photo booth first. I love these things. I had only had one of these taken of me before at Virginia Beach where I was dressed as a wild west saloon girl, and my brother and his wife and his then 5year old daughter had their first and only (to date) family portrait taken where the parents were dressed as outlaws complete with rifles, cowboy hats and bandoliers, and the daughter had a miniature version of my outfit, complete with fishnets. It's such a great picture. But I digress. I immediately gravitated towards a large, lacy bright purple Victorian gown (somehow I had instinctually found the big people rack, yay!) and everyone else took their costuming cue from that, and then we went to get dressed. The dresses they give you tie in the back like a hospital gown, it's very amusing.sundart and i were both wearing tank tops into the park today, and we stuffed both of them under her boobs because she needed more chest for her dress. And then we came out, armed ourselves with hats and props, and sat for the picture. They took four pics of us, and two came out really really good - the one where we were all smiling except for Jonothan, and the one where we were instructed to do something silly:
After the photos, we jumped on the New England Skyway (big metal purple bubbles that take you across the park.)sundart and I rode in one, and goggled at the size of the park (we didn't know Agawam had enough space to hide a park this huge in it!). After we all got off the skyway we set upon our quest for rides.
Our first stop was the Time Warp, this thing where they strap you in and your legs dangle, and then it sweeps you back and forth and upside down and over. Not a bad line, we only had to watch it go twice before it was our turn.sundart was very dubious about going on it at first, but after much screaming, she enjoyed it. This was the only ride I took my glasses off for, but I could see well enough to be a little concerned by how close the fence around the ride appeared to our feet as we were swept around, so I kept trying to tuck my feet up closer to me! After this ride I just trusted that my glasses wouldn't fly off, and they didn't.
After that, we jumped on line for the Cyclone, a very big wooden rollercoaster that evoked memories of its ancient rickety ancestor of the same name at Coney Island. It was at this point thatinle_rah began feeling ill, so she sat the ride out. This one didn't look like such a big deal from the ground, but it turned out to be surprisingly scary - I only realized what we were getting into at the top of the first drop when it dawned on me that not only could I see the entire park from there, but that we were a bit higher than the skyway line had been. I said "Uh-oh," but by then it was too late and we were whizzing around the track screaming our heads off. Wooden roller coasters, I think, are scarier than the metal ones. There's the inherent shakiness of the structure as the cars whizz around on it, and also metal roller coasters have a lot of open space between the tracks and the cars and the supports, so you never feel like you're in danger of hitting your head on a passing support, while wooden ones are so tightly latticed in that you intinctually tuck in your head when you're being whipped around a corner. And additionally, my seat belt had come off in the initial drop, so I was hanging onto the lap restraint (which did a great job of holding me down) for dear life! But it was really fun. At one point we passed a flashing light on the track, which meant we got to go to the end of the ride and if we liked, pick up a picture of ourselves whizzing by and screaming our heads off. We managed to find a shot that had all four of us in it despite the fact that we were in two different cars:
After the cyclone we were all starving, so we went to get food. I swear, the lines to get the frozen drinks were longer than the ones for rides, ugh!inle_rah was feeling truly oofy by this time, so she only accompanied us for one more ride after that, the Shipwreck Falls log flume ride, where we all got very very wet. Of course, there was a bridge over the track, so you could jump on the bridge and get even wetter in the spray from the boat after yours. So I did. Like twice. I was quite soaked and happy afterwards, though apparently not everyone one was - this little boy was loudly and angrily proclaiming to his mother that he was NOT expecting to get that wet and he was VERY angry about it. We were all very amused.
After this, we bid goodbye to an oofyinle_rah, who opted to go home at this point and take our pictures from earlier. She also tried to ask if anyone had picked up her pentacle pendant which she had lost at the booth, but was told that someone had claimed it. The guy at the counter remembered who it was though, and told us he would try to get it back for us if they came to pick up their pictures later.
I decided to brave the Scream (known formerly as the Hellevator - apparently this name was not family friendly enough for Six Flags to keep) next, andgossamer_gull gamely agreed to go with me. Jonothan and sundart most decidedly sat this one out. This ride was where they strap you it, shoot you up 205 feet up this tower (yep, I know the height, gossamer_gull and I were on line long enough to hear the canned announcer run through his schpiel at least fifteen or so times) and drop you. I had been watching the towers in operation earlier, and noticed that one of them they simply shot you up and then let you fall, while the other one lifted you at a leisurely pace, left you at the top for about eleven seconds to contemplate your doom, then dropped you. At first I was like hmm, I don't think I'd want to be left up there, yikes that would make it more scary, but when we had to pick our elevator, I chose doom. Scarier yes, but more fun, I thought. Just to be funny, gossamer_gull made the sign of the cross at the people on the ride ahead of us - this little Latina girl with braids on the ride saw us and laughed her ass off. Then it was our turn. We got stapped in, waved to sundart and jonothan, who were waiting for us on the side and taking pictures of our nervous faces, and then they started lifting us. My goodness. My kindom for a camera. The ten seconds they leave you up there, we got to contemplate our doom whilst looking at one of the most breathtaking views of the lower Valley. And then it was all over - I yelled "She chose DOOOOOOOOOWN!!!!" from Labyrinth, and we were hurtling towards the ground at warp speed before the ride's hydraulic system caught us, tossed us up in the air again, and let us fall again. Wheeee! what a rush! gossamer_gull and I had some trouble walking afterwards . . .
After a quick trip to the bathroom (Yay tampon dispensers that work! Boo industrial strength bleach that gets all in your mouth when you inhale it! Aaaagh self flushing scary toilets!) and a wonderful leisurely flight on the swings ride (observed that they always hide the swing carousels in the German Oktoberfest sections of theme parks - what's so inherantly leiderhosen-y about swings rides? and damn it why are swing ride seats so damn tiny? my ass barely fit into one, and I had a bit of a struggle securing the safety strap) we headed for the Batman, after collectively deciding to skip the long lines and Scream-caliber drop of the Superman. It was a surprisingly short line for this one, we were only on line for about 20 minutes before they stopped the ride two turns before we got there for about half an hour. (someone had puked on the ride, we think. Mmm, biohazard.) Which was a minor annoyance to us now wearying adventurers, but you had to pity the people in the ride after the pukey car, who were stuck in their restraints for about half an hour. They finally sent off the front cars empty, let the people out in the car behind, and started the ride running again. The batman was very yummy - very twisty and smooth. They took our pictures on that one too, but on ours no one was screaming, simply grinning our faces off, so we decided to skip buying those.
It didn't look like the Mind Eraser was running when we passed it previously, but when we came out of the Batman and immediately headed for some shade and some liquid refreshment, they were test running it, then opened it up.sundart was a little over-sunned, so she opted to sit out the Mind Eraser. The rest of us went. The Mind Eraser is one of those track-on-top, feet-are-dangling roller coasters that are great because you're being whipped around from a different point of rotation. It's very very twisty too. and what more fun is that the line for it wound in and out through the supports for the ride so wer were constantly being passed by riders screaming their heads off. At one end, we were passed by the sprawling track of the Superman, where we would giggle at the people passing us at 77 mph, so fast that their hair was streaming perfectly horizontally behind them. Anyway, we at last got on the ride, and were gleefully hurled about through space once again, though the vibration against the head and shoulders was more intense this time - ow!
gossamer_gull and I went for one more ride before more or less quitting for the day - the Buzzsaw, which had no line for it and we had precious little company on. The Buzzsaw is one of the more stomach turning rides, as it goes back and forth and all the way around (but doesn't turn you upside down or anything). I got to tell gossamer_gull that my dad once accompanied me on a similar ride at Busch Gardens Virginia and he nearly got sick, though I was having a fabulous time, and gossamer_gull said her dad had once said that this ride just wasn't meant for dads! hee hee hee. It wasn't meant for Jonothans or sundarts either, apparently, ha ha.
We began to work our way back towards the Main Street strip of stores at the entrance to the theme park, but we were waylaid by the arcade, wheresundart was immediately sucked into the mindtrap of skeeball, I leaped into the Cruising Exotica car races and observed the scary wonder of people who are GOOD at DDR (there have got to be satanic hoardes living in those machines). sundart got a buttload of tickets, and invited me along to see what we could get with them. We saw a pink glitter lava lamp for 750 tickets, and a very determined sundart set our to play enough skeeball to win it. And she was good - she was pretty consistantly sinking the 4000 and 5000 point holes and once even got one of the 10,000 point holes! After about forty minutes, 14 dollars worth of skeeball, a contribution of gossamer_gull's 200 tickets and sundart's tendenitis flaring up, we all marched up to the ticket redeemer triumphant, as we had a total of 789 tickets! We got the lava lamp (we had to take the pink display one - it was the last one!) a mandala toy necklace for inle_rah, and some small plastic sea creatures.
We wearly travellers were now ready to leave the park, amid exclamations of what a fabulous time we had all had. We stopped by the photo place, with no success oninle_rah's necklace but the guy running it gave us $10 bucks for it. On our way out, gossamer_gull asked if we were adverse to the big carousel as a final ride, and we all enthusiastically leaped onto the idea (and onto the backs of some nicely painted horsies) I was really amused by the fact that the calliope was playing "Dixie" . . . but we rode around and around, and then it was over!
We piled into 'Thusel and went back togossamer_gull's, where there was food and kitties and tummy problems galore (both human and feline apparently!) but the tummy problems did nothing to daunt the wonderfulness of the day. This had to be the most fun I have ever had at an amusement park, and I await with baited breath the pictures that gossamer_gull and inle_rah took of us. In the meantime, I have these three and the soreness of the experience to remind me. :)
Today I was supposed to go to work and get a jump on all of the work that awaits me, but as I am sore and exhausted, I think I will go tomorrow. I will take it easy today and tend to some household chores (laundry, hair, scrubby overlong nails, dishes, returningsundart's library books) instead. Tonight I think darkling_dreams is coming to crash for the night as well, so at some point I have to haul out and repair the AeroBed for her, as BritGirl is currently staying in Ho4's room. But I am tired and happy, and there will be Samurai Jack tonight, and good friends, and maybe my tummy will have recovered enough to handle that chicken carbonara I ordered from the italian place by gossamer_gull's last night but couldn't really eat. *happy wiggle* Thanks to everyone that hauled our asses out to Agawam and then made the afternoon an unholy amount of fun. *hugs to all*
That said, me,
sundart, gossamer_gull, inle_rah, and gossamer_gull's boy Jonothan all went to Six Flags New England yesterday.Short story: we had sooooo much fun going on all the rides and getting the pictures taken and stuff. I'm so tired, but in a good happy sore way.
Long story: First of all, we had a gorgous sunny day for our amusement park adventure! In the morning around 10:00, Jonothan picked us up to go to
inle_rah's, and from there we departed to the far away land of Agawam, MA and six flags New England (formerly Riverside.) We parked in F section (F for "Where the Fuck is my car?") then gleefully made beelines for the parking lot tram. We made some observations about how our amusement park experience would rule because allegedly, we were the adults - no one to tell us we couldn't go on this ride or that ride, or that we couldn't have a cherry ICEE and two hot dogs and ice cream for lunch, and then go on the roller coasters! Conversely, we don't have anyone to set a good example for yet! So obviously our day was going to rule. Hopefully that realization perturbed the parent/kids groups sitting behind us.After an absurdly short tram ride, we descended (literally - there's a huge foot bridge with an enormous staircase you have to cross before you get into the park) upon Six Flags, where Jonothan and I set the hair tweak precedent for the rest of the day. I had my hair in two little afro puffs on top of my head, a style which has caused friends to use them for game show buzzers in the past, which of course, "Dinging" abounded this day! And Jonothan would have long hair except that his is very curly and falls in thick spirally ringlets. So of course, you want to reach out, stretch one, let it go, and say "Boing-oing-oing-oing!" So there was much "Boing-oing-oing-oing!"-ing and "Ding!"-ing during the waits for rides. And one amusing point where
gossamer_gull used my head as race car handlebars.But I'm getting ahead of myself. In the interest of not getting all messy and sweaty during rides and having it show in the pictures later, we had all agreed to visit the old-time photo booth first. I love these things. I had only had one of these taken of me before at Virginia Beach where I was dressed as a wild west saloon girl, and my brother and his wife and his then 5year old daughter had their first and only (to date) family portrait taken where the parents were dressed as outlaws complete with rifles, cowboy hats and bandoliers, and the daughter had a miniature version of my outfit, complete with fishnets. It's such a great picture. But I digress. I immediately gravitated towards a large, lacy bright purple Victorian gown (somehow I had instinctually found the big people rack, yay!) and everyone else took their costuming cue from that, and then we went to get dressed. The dresses they give you tie in the back like a hospital gown, it's very amusing.
sundart and i were both wearing tank tops into the park today, and we stuffed both of them under her boobs because she needed more chest for her dress. And then we came out, armed ourselves with hats and props, and sat for the picture. They took four pics of us, and two came out really really good - the one where we were all smiling except for Jonothan, and the one where we were instructed to do something silly: |
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After the photos, we jumped on the New England Skyway (big metal purple bubbles that take you across the park.)
sundart and I rode in one, and goggled at the size of the park (we didn't know Agawam had enough space to hide a park this huge in it!). After we all got off the skyway we set upon our quest for rides.Our first stop was the Time Warp, this thing where they strap you in and your legs dangle, and then it sweeps you back and forth and upside down and over. Not a bad line, we only had to watch it go twice before it was our turn.
sundart was very dubious about going on it at first, but after much screaming, she enjoyed it. This was the only ride I took my glasses off for, but I could see well enough to be a little concerned by how close the fence around the ride appeared to our feet as we were swept around, so I kept trying to tuck my feet up closer to me! After this ride I just trusted that my glasses wouldn't fly off, and they didn't.After that, we jumped on line for the Cyclone, a very big wooden rollercoaster that evoked memories of its ancient rickety ancestor of the same name at Coney Island. It was at this point that
inle_rah began feeling ill, so she sat the ride out. This one didn't look like such a big deal from the ground, but it turned out to be surprisingly scary - I only realized what we were getting into at the top of the first drop when it dawned on me that not only could I see the entire park from there, but that we were a bit higher than the skyway line had been. I said "Uh-oh," but by then it was too late and we were whizzing around the track screaming our heads off. Wooden roller coasters, I think, are scarier than the metal ones. There's the inherent shakiness of the structure as the cars whizz around on it, and also metal roller coasters have a lot of open space between the tracks and the cars and the supports, so you never feel like you're in danger of hitting your head on a passing support, while wooden ones are so tightly latticed in that you intinctually tuck in your head when you're being whipped around a corner. And additionally, my seat belt had come off in the initial drop, so I was hanging onto the lap restraint (which did a great job of holding me down) for dear life! But it was really fun. At one point we passed a flashing light on the track, which meant we got to go to the end of the ride and if we liked, pick up a picture of ourselves whizzing by and screaming our heads off. We managed to find a shot that had all four of us in it despite the fact that we were in two different cars:After the cyclone we were all starving, so we went to get food. I swear, the lines to get the frozen drinks were longer than the ones for rides, ugh!
inle_rah was feeling truly oofy by this time, so she only accompanied us for one more ride after that, the Shipwreck Falls log flume ride, where we all got very very wet. Of course, there was a bridge over the track, so you could jump on the bridge and get even wetter in the spray from the boat after yours. So I did. Like twice. I was quite soaked and happy afterwards, though apparently not everyone one was - this little boy was loudly and angrily proclaiming to his mother that he was NOT expecting to get that wet and he was VERY angry about it. We were all very amused.After this, we bid goodbye to an oofy
inle_rah, who opted to go home at this point and take our pictures from earlier. She also tried to ask if anyone had picked up her pentacle pendant which she had lost at the booth, but was told that someone had claimed it. The guy at the counter remembered who it was though, and told us he would try to get it back for us if they came to pick up their pictures later.I decided to brave the Scream (known formerly as the Hellevator - apparently this name was not family friendly enough for Six Flags to keep) next, and
gossamer_gull gamely agreed to go with me. Jonothan and sundart most decidedly sat this one out. This ride was where they strap you it, shoot you up 205 feet up this tower (yep, I know the height, gossamer_gull and I were on line long enough to hear the canned announcer run through his schpiel at least fifteen or so times) and drop you. I had been watching the towers in operation earlier, and noticed that one of them they simply shot you up and then let you fall, while the other one lifted you at a leisurely pace, left you at the top for about eleven seconds to contemplate your doom, then dropped you. At first I was like hmm, I don't think I'd want to be left up there, yikes that would make it more scary, but when we had to pick our elevator, I chose doom. Scarier yes, but more fun, I thought. Just to be funny, gossamer_gull made the sign of the cross at the people on the ride ahead of us - this little Latina girl with braids on the ride saw us and laughed her ass off. Then it was our turn. We got stapped in, waved to sundart and jonothan, who were waiting for us on the side and taking pictures of our nervous faces, and then they started lifting us. My goodness. My kindom for a camera. The ten seconds they leave you up there, we got to contemplate our doom whilst looking at one of the most breathtaking views of the lower Valley. And then it was all over - I yelled "She chose DOOOOOOOOOWN!!!!" from Labyrinth, and we were hurtling towards the ground at warp speed before the ride's hydraulic system caught us, tossed us up in the air again, and let us fall again. Wheeee! what a rush! gossamer_gull and I had some trouble walking afterwards . . .After a quick trip to the bathroom (Yay tampon dispensers that work! Boo industrial strength bleach that gets all in your mouth when you inhale it! Aaaagh self flushing scary toilets!) and a wonderful leisurely flight on the swings ride (observed that they always hide the swing carousels in the German Oktoberfest sections of theme parks - what's so inherantly leiderhosen-y about swings rides? and damn it why are swing ride seats so damn tiny? my ass barely fit into one, and I had a bit of a struggle securing the safety strap) we headed for the Batman, after collectively deciding to skip the long lines and Scream-caliber drop of the Superman. It was a surprisingly short line for this one, we were only on line for about 20 minutes before they stopped the ride two turns before we got there for about half an hour. (someone had puked on the ride, we think. Mmm, biohazard.) Which was a minor annoyance to us now wearying adventurers, but you had to pity the people in the ride after the pukey car, who were stuck in their restraints for about half an hour. They finally sent off the front cars empty, let the people out in the car behind, and started the ride running again. The batman was very yummy - very twisty and smooth. They took our pictures on that one too, but on ours no one was screaming, simply grinning our faces off, so we decided to skip buying those.
It didn't look like the Mind Eraser was running when we passed it previously, but when we came out of the Batman and immediately headed for some shade and some liquid refreshment, they were test running it, then opened it up.
sundart was a little over-sunned, so she opted to sit out the Mind Eraser. The rest of us went. The Mind Eraser is one of those track-on-top, feet-are-dangling roller coasters that are great because you're being whipped around from a different point of rotation. It's very very twisty too. and what more fun is that the line for it wound in and out through the supports for the ride so wer were constantly being passed by riders screaming their heads off. At one end, we were passed by the sprawling track of the Superman, where we would giggle at the people passing us at 77 mph, so fast that their hair was streaming perfectly horizontally behind them. Anyway, we at last got on the ride, and were gleefully hurled about through space once again, though the vibration against the head and shoulders was more intense this time - ow!gossamer_gull and I went for one more ride before more or less quitting for the day - the Buzzsaw, which had no line for it and we had precious little company on. The Buzzsaw is one of the more stomach turning rides, as it goes back and forth and all the way around (but doesn't turn you upside down or anything). I got to tell gossamer_gull that my dad once accompanied me on a similar ride at Busch Gardens Virginia and he nearly got sick, though I was having a fabulous time, and gossamer_gull said her dad had once said that this ride just wasn't meant for dads! hee hee hee. It wasn't meant for Jonothans or sundarts either, apparently, ha ha.We began to work our way back towards the Main Street strip of stores at the entrance to the theme park, but we were waylaid by the arcade, where
sundart was immediately sucked into the mindtrap of skeeball, I leaped into the Cruising Exotica car races and observed the scary wonder of people who are GOOD at DDR (there have got to be satanic hoardes living in those machines). sundart got a buttload of tickets, and invited me along to see what we could get with them. We saw a pink glitter lava lamp for 750 tickets, and a very determined sundart set our to play enough skeeball to win it. And she was good - she was pretty consistantly sinking the 4000 and 5000 point holes and once even got one of the 10,000 point holes! After about forty minutes, 14 dollars worth of skeeball, a contribution of gossamer_gull's 200 tickets and sundart's tendenitis flaring up, we all marched up to the ticket redeemer triumphant, as we had a total of 789 tickets! We got the lava lamp (we had to take the pink display one - it was the last one!) a mandala toy necklace for inle_rah, and some small plastic sea creatures.We wearly travellers were now ready to leave the park, amid exclamations of what a fabulous time we had all had. We stopped by the photo place, with no success on
inle_rah's necklace but the guy running it gave us $10 bucks for it. On our way out, gossamer_gull asked if we were adverse to the big carousel as a final ride, and we all enthusiastically leaped onto the idea (and onto the backs of some nicely painted horsies) I was really amused by the fact that the calliope was playing "Dixie" . . . but we rode around and around, and then it was over!We piled into 'Thusel and went back to
gossamer_gull's, where there was food and kitties and tummy problems galore (both human and feline apparently!) but the tummy problems did nothing to daunt the wonderfulness of the day. This had to be the most fun I have ever had at an amusement park, and I await with baited breath the pictures that gossamer_gull and inle_rah took of us. In the meantime, I have these three and the soreness of the experience to remind me. :)Today I was supposed to go to work and get a jump on all of the work that awaits me, but as I am sore and exhausted, I think I will go tomorrow. I will take it easy today and tend to some household chores (laundry, hair, scrubby overlong nails, dishes, returning
sundart's library books) instead. Tonight I think darkling_dreams is coming to crash for the night as well, so at some point I have to haul out and repair the AeroBed for her, as BritGirl is currently staying in Ho4's room. But I am tired and happy, and there will be Samurai Jack tonight, and good friends, and maybe my tummy will have recovered enough to handle that chicken carbonara I ordered from the italian place by gossamer_gull's last night but couldn't really eat. *happy wiggle* Thanks to everyone that hauled our asses out to Agawam and then made the afternoon an unholy amount of fun. *hugs to all*
