Enjoying The Thrills Of Life

I love amusement parks. I have always, as long as I can remember, loved amusement parks. Above is a picture of me with my Dad on the boardwalk in Wildwood, New Jersey in 1978. This is right at the beginning of my love affair with thrill rides.

This past weekend, my husband and I drove from Nashville up to Cincinnati to Paramount's Kings Island--just to ride roller coasters. Think about it--we left work early, got a dogsitter, booked a hotel for 2 nights and drove 4.5 hours each way just to ride roller coasters.

While we were there, we determined that there are a lot of advantages to being children disguised as grown ups. We can (and we did) eat chili dogs for breakfast at Skyline Chili. We can ride our favorite rides over and over. We can eat blueberry ice cream with sprinkles before dinner. We are tall enough for all of the rides. We can stay until the park closes. Then, after the day is over, we can have a cold beer with our 10:30PM dinner at Outback Steakhouse and then stay up too late watching TV. Sometimes, life as a grown up is good.

We got to ride Delirium, a non-coaster thrill ride, which made me laugh and whoop out loud. (And it takes a lot to make me "whoop".) It was a huge spinning wheel that would swing you back and forth at incredible speeds to incredible heights. I loved it and we excitedly got in line for a second ride later in the day.

But the greatest thrill of all--the reason for going to King's Island in the first place--is The Beast. The Beast is the world's longest wooden coaster. It is over 25 years old (built in 1978--the same year as my Wildwood trip) and it is still rated as one of the top wooden coasters in the world.

The die-hard Beast fans line up as the sun starts to go down because that is when the true thrill begins. Riding the Beast after dark, especially in the front car, is one of the coolest experiences ever. After dark, people cheer as they ride the coaster up the first hill. When they return, the whole train applauds. People in line knowingly line up for the front. It's dark. It's fast. It's scary. At times, it feels as though death is certain. And the whole ride is almost a full 5 minutes long from beginning to end.

At the end of the day, we were bruised, tired, dehydrated and our feet hurt--and we can't wait to do it all over again.