After Friday at the water park and Roland thanking me for encouraging him to get on a ride I decided a one on one trip to Busch Gardens was in order. It was a good day even if the results were a bit lackluster.
I knew it was a Saturday and would be crowded but I forgot just how crowded it could get. I was both surprised and not surprised when we got off the exit and had to wait in a long line to get in. From the time we hit the car line to scanned our tickets to get in an hour had passed.
Roland was also hungry. Which meant our first stop would be an expensive one. We got some food, ate it, and then proceeded to the ride we came to ride, Escape from Pompeii. After a brief detour into Sesame Street we made it to the Pompeii area, but ran into our next sort of trouble. The kiosk for the lockers had the spinning circle of doom. Someone forgot to finish loading the program.
After a few attempts at getting this computer to work I gave up and headed back to the lockers near where we ate and deposited all off our stuff. That included my wallet, keys, cell phone, and the drink cup. That last one was my least brilliant idea of the day.
With that done we returned to the line for Pompeii and noticed the ride wasn’t running. The voice recording said it would restart soon so we waited and as people in front of us cleared out I figured once it restarted we’d get on sooner. As we were making it near the front of the line we were told it was going to be longer than expected and to clear off.
With that we took the sky ride to France and proceeded to ride the log flume and scrambler before heading to the merry-go-round and then The Big Bad Wolf. Friday evening at Ocean Breeze Roland was more than ready for The Big Bad Wolf, but now he wasn’t so sure. A promised trip to Target and some motivation got him through line and into the seat, but then he started to change his mind. The ride attendant talked him up and off we went.
The ride was ok. I kept checking on him and he told me at the end he was scared. I told him that is because your body is telling you a story and it’s a lie, and that it is fun to be scared. It was at this moment that we were told that our ride was stuck and our return to the docking station was at a delay.
After this Roland decided it was time to head back to Pompeii and finish our trip. However as we came up to the ride he decided he had had enough. He wanted his dipping dots and to dip. We made it back to the locker and I was ready to get our drink cup and my wallet. However I had forgotten I had a cell phone. I was surprised to see it, and it made me realize how great the day had really been and how much better my future days would be if I didn’t use that infernal contraption.
That moment completely changed my life goal. I told Roland that I’m going to get enough money that I can throw that thing in the ocean and then I will sell my car and get a Datsun with maybe a tape deck, and that will be it. A simpler, better life.
David Huzzard Writes 