Holiday World (2013)

by bill - 2013-05-24 ( family / holmes / elizabeth ) [html version]

I rode a rollercoaster for the first time in I don't know how long. It was a blast! The Raven has been voted "most awesome [or whatever] wooden coaster" several times in the past ten years. The Voyage, now the reigning champ of wooden coasters, was temporarily unavailable. Surprisingly, it was good therapy for my back. When the bottom falls out from under you while the lap bar holds you down, it is, in effect, a couple seconds of traction. It helps stretch out the spine.

I was so proud of myself, I tried to post that to my Facebook status -- without the "traction" bit -- but FB has been weird on my iPhone ever since the last couple of updates, and the post never went through. Where did it go? I clicked Send. Maybe it posted that to someone else's status and now all his "friends" are asking what he was doing at Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana when he was supposed to be at the Rotary Club fish fry in Manhattan, Kansas or something.

There were very few parents like me -- at least in the water park Splashing Safari area -- going on any of these rides. It was 90% under-18 there. Part of the reason for that might be that you first have to climb sometimes five or six stories high before riding down. I got a good workout.

I had ridden The Raven alone while Tara and Elizabeth rode the Tin Lizzies where, I'm told, Elizabeth almost had her first road-kill! A squirrel jumped out in front of them with Elizabeth behind the wheel. Luckily for the squirrel, you can only go about 3 mph in those things.

We spent 3/4 of our time in the Splashing Safari side. And while those water rides were all great, Elizabeth's favorite part was probably the Bahari Wave Pool, the more elaborate one of two wave pools. We all got some great swimming exercise.