Holiday World

Yesterday, I chaperoned Tanner's 5th grade graduation field trip to Holiday World. Holiday World is an amusement park/water park that is about an hour away from where we live (yes, it is out in the middle of nowhere). Neither of us had ever been to Holiday World before yesterday in spite of the fact that a lot of people living here frequently talk about what a great amusement park it is.

Tanner was pretty excited to go and was excited to have his Dad take a day off of work to come with him. I was excited too. We rode the school bus there and back. The ride there was okay, but the ride back was miserable. The 60 screaming fifth graders weren't so bad, but the heat inside the bus was stifling. Even our Arizona friends would have found it extremely uncomfortable.

Our experience at Holiday World was much more pleasant than the bus ride. They have several great rides including three very intense wooden roller coasters. Tanner was the only kid in our group of about eight kids that rode all three roller coasters. The longest of the three is called the Voyage. They call it a roller coaster, but by the end of the ride I was convinced that it is really a human pinball machine. I also realized that Tanner has a much stronger grip than I thought. I had virtually no feeling in my left arm after the ride since Tanner's death grip had apparently cut off the circulation somewhere just below the middle of my left forearm.

Our favorite part of the park; however, was the water park. Our favorite water slide is a brand new slide called the Wildebeest. It is one of the world's longest water coasters. It is an amazing ride. The sensation of accelerating up the uphill portions of the track without any visible signs of mechanical acceleration is thrilling. It uses magnets to send a raft of up to four people accelerating uphill at speeds up to 25 mph.

Tanner and I had a great time together. We both got too much sun, but it was worth it. The rest of the boys loved hearing about our adventures when we got home and can't wait for their own fifth grade graduation party. Who knows, maybe we'll all go to Holiday World together sometime soon?