Fearless and OLD!
|28.Sep.2010In the Fall of 1993, when Jeff and I were still pushing our way through college at Texas A&M University (WHOOP!), we decided to take a day trip to Six Flags in Houston–also known as Astro World to those of us who grew up there. We arrived when the park opened and were ushered out with everyone else at closing.
It was a loooong day.
We stood in line for ride after “adrenaline-rush” ride, including the 92-foot drop of the Texas Cyclone, the 131-foot free fall of the Sky Screamer, the first suspended-swinging coaster–XLR-8, and TOGO Ultra Twister, the pipeline shuttle coaster, to name a few of my favorites.
At the end of the day, completely worn-out, we hopped in my car to head back to College Station, a mere 2 hour drive.
We couldn’t drive 15 minutes without stopping on the side of the road to switch places.
Over and over again.
We were falling asleep at the wheel – both of us.
I dare say we put ourselves in more jeopardy stopping on the shoulder of the road to run laps around the car and do jumping jacks, then we would have if we’d just pulled over at a truck stop and caught a few zzzzz’s!
We will never forget that excruciating ride back to school
And so…this past Saturday, when we woke at 5:30 a.m. to get the kids up and loaded in the truck to head to Six Flags over Texas in Arlington, we made a verbal agreement. There was entirely too much precious cargo to take any chances. If push came to shove and traversing a theme park at our youthful age of almost 40 nearly killed us? We would MOST DEFINITELY get a hotel room and spend the night.
EVEN WITHOUT TOOTHBRUSHES.
We are just SO adventurous.
P.S. The Titan is fantastic, but I CANNOT WAIT for the renovation of Texas Giant coming as part of the park’s 50th anniversary in 2011. A hybrid rollercoaster of wood and steel, it will run on an entirely steel track. It will stand 10 feet taller than its older 143 feet and run faster, to a top speed of 65 miles per hour. It will also feature a 79-degree first drop, and have several 95-degree banked turns. I AM SOOOOOOOO THERE!
12 Comments
Whitney
my husband and I have made trips like that… i wonder how we made it back in one piece!
chocolatechic
I used to live in Houston.
My sister and I have fabulous memories of Astro World.
Angela Stone
Awesome! I remember riding all those rides and yet last time we went to a small amusement park I had to bring someone else along to ride everything my with my six year old because I’m a great big nauseas wuss!
The Wife of a Dairyman
What fun!! I’m sure you and your family will have a fantastic time….how can you not at such a fun place?! Spend the night:)
Blessing Oshin
Love the picture…you both look like you were having way more fun than we did in college.
I have a huge question. I want to set up an ecommerce site and I know you don’t do that, but I do love your design work, is there a way you can design my online store but find someone that can work with the ecommerce part? Plus I want to incorporate a blog to it.
Thanks. Please contact me at oblessing@gmail.com
jessica
I used to love, love, love Lagoon (Utah’s smaller version of a six flags) but this last time? My head was aching on every ride. I don’t know what happened!
Mrs. Wilson
Sounds AMAZING. I’ve done one of those horrendously sleepy drives before. NOT FUN. I now use Spitz when I drive, whether I’m tired or not because they keep me ALERT.
Have fun OMSH family!!
MissCaron
LOVE IT! I live about 2 1/2 hours away from Orlando and will do trips to the theme parks but I usually stay over night. If not in O-Town, then at my mom’s which is about half-way between my place and the parks. I LOVE roller coasters… wish I could afford to go to all the parks in the US. Wouldn’t that be awesome!?!
naomi
oh, how i miss carnival rides. alas, having had many ear infection my inner ear is not tolerant of much in the way of gravity defiance and rapid body position changes. dang!
Mr. OMSH
The picture was us with tardive dyskinesia after riding too many rides. I think it’s also called ‘perma-grin.’
jen
SO fun!
I’d have to get a toothbrush somewhere though! ;)
Lea
So glad y’all had fun! I’m in Arlington, so when you come this way again I’d be happy to fill you in on some of the discounts for Six Flags. If you guys make a weekend out of it I can tell you some other fun and educational places around town to check out too. In fact, we have a really awesome nature park that would have been a great visit to go with your tracks project!