Holiday World (2009)

by bill - 2009-05-29 10:00:00 ( in family, holmes, elizabeth) [php version] rebuild

Tara just brought me back from the pharmacy where I'm having a prescription filled. We used CVS because Tara had a coupon. She is the coupon queen. Doesn't buy anything without a coupon these days. It's a hobby. You should check out her blog at tarasfavorites.blogspot.com.

Anyway, the reason for the prescription is because my back went out again. It happened Thursday at Holiday World (Santa Claus, Indiana) as Elizabeth and I were getting out of a raft at the bottom of a water slide. I turned or bent awkwardly or something and that old familiar raw nerve pain hit me. It made me mad more than anything else because I knew it was worse than just a temporary pain. I'm all too familiar with the feeling of my spinal cord being jabbed by a ruptured disc.

Tara had tried the next day to get me an appointment at a pain management clinic where I've received epidural steroid injections before, but she couldn't get a hold of anyone. I called again today, and had the same luck. My regular doctor's office couldn't do any better Friday or today, either. So, I went to see my regular doctor for a steroid "dose pack." Those work, too, sometimes. Other times, the pain returns as soon as the dose pack is used up. My doctor promised that if these dose packs don't do the trick, he will call the pain management clinic himself and have me scheduled for a steroid injection.

What about Holiday World, you're wondering? Well, first of all, we only went because Tara scored two free adult tickets courtesy of the local JackFM radio station. Secondly, we got another couple bucks knocked off Elizabeth's ticket just by bringing in an empty Pepsi can. And, finally, it's just a great place to take a kid. Luckily, we have one. Her name is Elizabeth. She's "this many" (four).

She had a great time. I mean, she was in heaven, with the look of utter bliss on her face. First, we hit the kiddie rides which you can see here. Then we all rode a ride that I don't know the name of. It's like an octopus with bucket seats on each arm, and everything spins around. It went much faster than Tara and I had thought. We were afraid Elizabeth might be scared, but she wasn't. She's fearless.

Then we went to the water world half of the park. We rented a locker for our cameras, purse, change-of-clothes bag, etc. The locker broke. The lock just came off in my hand. Three or four staff tried to fix it before they gave up and gave us a new locker. Tara wondered why they couldn't have done that right away.

Anyway, the first thing we did there was the kiddie pool, then the wave pool, which was really cool. It felt like swimming in the ocean. I held Elizabeth while she "swam" around (wearing a life jacket). Then we went on the water raft slide. That was really fun. Again, I thought Elizabeth might be scared. She wasn't. Unfortunately, at the end of it I screwed up my back. I had planned on going on the roller coasters by myself, but the injury cancelled that. Tara accompanied Elizabeth on most of the rest of the non-water-park rides, which took another hour at least.

Tara kept saying to me, "If you're hurting and we need to leave, we'll just leave." But I said no. I wasn't going to ruin Elizabeth's trip just because I'm a broken down old man. Elizabeth was enjoying herself so much, it was fun just to watch her. At one point, I put my arm around Tara and said, "They don't have this sort of thing in Russia."

They probably do, but we never saw it when we were there.