It's Spring Break, and, as I mentioned, I'm back to being a Youth Development volunteer. Only this time, I'm related to the youths.I've got my two 7-year-old nephews 24/7, and my niece, who's 9, all day. We're mostly enjoying it -- Mackenzie is bossing the boys around a lot, and Kocur is getting quite a bit of unwanted attention -- and yesterday might have been the high point.
Today, we're heading over to Wendy's to see the animals, but since the 4-wheeler is broken, horse rides will be the big item on the agenda. But I don't think it can top yesterday.
We went to Wild Adventures, sort of a redneck, low-budget Disney set in big time Georgia country. (The boys had a lot of trouble believing we were in Georgia.) I hadn't known this place existed, really.
So, we plunked down $206 for five people (that's the in-advance AAA rate) and ventured an hour and a half through azeala and rose territory, which included -- quite randomly -- fire hydrants spaced about 200 feet apart along farmland. That was weird.
Anyway, Barry and I herded three kids between the two of us on varying rides. Sometimes we all went, but usually one of the adults had to sit with a spare kid who didn't want to go on that particular ride.
Each kid had his or own phobias, so there was usually sitting out at some point, though. We did all agree, foolishly, on two: the Dizzy Dragons and the Ferris wheel.
Dizzy Dragons, which is basically the teacup ride tamed slightly, was a mistake in that we had eatend an early lunch before we got to the park. Barry offered to spin us fast and we agreed. Lesson learned.
He spun us really fast and Nic started feeling really green. So did I, but he spoke up first. Mackenzie accused him of faking it, but he wasn't And I was so thankful to slow that sucker down. Oh, my. And I felt queasy the rest of the day, including and especially the second time we did Dizzy Dragons.
The Ferris wheel was wrong in that Nic and I went in the same car. We're both not heights people. He absolutely panicked. I mean, sheer terror, when we went up the first time. I talked him through it, which really was mostly for me. I had him look at me until we stopped, then encouraged him to look out. He did and I think he enjoyed it.
I told him it was sometimes goood to do things we're scared of because we get used to them, and as we went around again it became easier for him to look around as we did it. We even found Barry's truck in the parking lot.
A failure, though, was bumper cars. Nic is a sensitive soul. We had four cars between five people, which made up the bulk of the cars out there. (I think there were six.) Nic got rammed once in the corner -- I think by me -- and I pulled away. He had a little trouble with his car and got bumped by someone else (not in our group). Barry and Mac pulled in to slam him, and did, but as I wound up to give them payback, Nic's tears turned on.
Immediately, the ride stopped. Nic was done. His little faucets started up. I tried to get him to sit with me, but he made a "throw up" motion and I was out of there with him.
Both the guys working thought he was really hurt, but it was like, uh, no, he is just sensitive. He was definitely OK and went through the Coke coin returns, plus all of those in the arcade, while we were waiting on the other two cars to finish pummeling each other.
Barry said Zac got them good, and that he knew it. He said he saw Zac coming all the way, and the look on his face was maniacal.
We broke for lunch, and while they were sharing their nuggets, I went in search of the adult roller coaster. Not the Cheetah one, but the one that didn't go upside down. It was situated to where I could see it, but I couldn't figure out where the entry was.
I walked around that thing four times before asking about it. Turns out, I was on exactly the back and eventually got to it. I had to ride in the first car, which wasn't my first choice but there were only three cars anyway.
As I wound back to the kids, I went ahead and did that thing to where you're dangling and they jerk you up high, then drop you and bounce you a couple times. It scared me but I was glad I did it.
When I got back to Barry, he only had Nic with him, feeding the fish. The other two had gone to the baby one of the high-up-bouncy thing. Barry said they'd done it seven times.
We pried them away from that one and tried this bird thing. It's one of those hang-from-a-chain-and-spin things. They raise you up, and once you're spinning in the big circle, you can move the bird's head to change directions.
Holy cow, they loved that thing. Since there were no lines, they essentially ran off and ran back on until we made them stop.
We saw the animals, briefly, and fed the giraffe. That's the only that that gave Mackenzie pause. She'd start to do it, but as soon as that tongue came out she dropped it. Nic and Zac weren't so freaked out at that.
They really were good the whole time, which was a relief. They had different tastes in rides and entertainment -- only Nic was into the snakes, for example -- but they all cooperated nicely.
Barry told me later that they'd watched me trying to find the roller coaster. He said, "Look at her, she looks like she's homeless, wandering around like that."
He said Nic thought about that a few minutes and observed, "Well, she is homeless."
A nice reminder of what's next.
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