Lagoon

Before I tell you of the Lagoon Adventure we have to start with some back story. When I was growing up in NorCal my brothers and I used to ride our bikes down to the sand pits. It was a dug up area that had been excavated for sand, then later used by ATV's, and finally pretty much abandoned. At this time my brothers and I discovered it. We would ride our bikes on the trails that the ATV's had made for hours with playing cards taped in our spokes so we would sound like dirt bikes! There was one hill that was particularly steep on the way up. I could never make it up this hill because I couldn't get enough momentum built up to clear even the 1st third before all of my pedaling would just dig into the sand. Well one summer when I was about 5 or 6 my Uncle Marc came to visit. We took him out to the sand pits to go riding with us. While we were there I decided that the real reason I couldn't make it up that hill was because my bike was to small. I talked Eli into letting me use his for a run. I got all pumped up with the help of my 2 older brothers and an uncle, started waaaayyy back, and went for it! I was pedaling like a little demon child! I figured I must be going 100 miles an hour by the time a got to the base! I'm gonna make it I'm gonna make it! Still pedaling my little heart out! Half way up! I'm Half way up! I'm at the 2/3's mark and a start dramatically loosing speed. no no No No NO! I can make it! just a little further! at the 3/4 mark the bike stops moving. I go to plant my feet in defeat but Oh no! This bike is too big for me, I can't reach the ground! Everything goes slow motion.... the bike tips up on its back wheel, I've got a death grip on the handle bars. Time freezes with me suspended in mid air and then... WACK! bike flips me onto my back and the handle bars crash into my nose with a horrible Thud! I return to my senses covered in blood and sand and all the boys yelling! THAT WAS AMAZING!!! Well it wasn't amazing for me. This was followed by a nose that refused to stop bleeding and I'm sure some pep talk from Eli "Be a man, Abby"... I don't think he ever really got the fact that I was a girl. Many of my early childhood memories are of me bleeding or crying and Eli telling me "Be a man Abby, Be a MAN!" Anyways his pep talk must have worked because I managed to ride home at the same time using my uncle's shirt to sop up the blood that refused to stop flowing from my poor nose.

As you can imagine the are still some lingering psychological effects from this incident. One of these is a deep and penetrating fear of riding or driving up steep hills. I have miraculously managed to avoid them until Friday.

Oh yes and one other quick bit of info. I had never ridden a roller coaster prior to Friday either. I always thought they could be fun but I think the closest one was probably 5 hours away from where we lived, so I just never got around to it.

Ok so now here is the actual post:

LAGOON! and Lagoon-a-beach

The local theme/coaster park is Lagoon! Last Friday we were there from 11:30 am to 10:30 pm! We went on all the big kid rides. At first I was terrified!!! I screamed out of pure horror and was convinced we were going to die! I had to close my eyes and hold my breath as we got slowly dragged up all those steep hills. As we survived ride after ride Richard was finally able to use the logic of odds to convince me that our lives were not truly in danger. After that it just got AWESOME!! I am cured of my fear of hills! Hooray and by the end of the day I was even enjoying Wicked. This bad boy's specs are below:

GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Highest Height: 110 feet high

• Length of Track: 2,000 feet long

• Speed: 55 mph

• Max G-Force: 4.85 g

It and the Colossus:

GENERAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Highest Height: 85 feet high

• Length of Track: 2,850 feet long

• Speed: 55 miles per hour

were my top two followed closely by the Rocket:

Height of Towers: 217 feet each

• Acceleration: 4.5 G-force

I have to say I'm now some what of an adrenalin junkie. They have a deal where you can come the 2nd time for only 10 bucks so we are heading back tomorrow. I can hardly wait, though I don't think I will ever be able to trust those wooden roller coasters...

Something about a thrill ride built in the 1920's is just unsettling. They have a water park in lagoon (lagoonabeach) and it was fun. The lines were awefully long though. Honestly I liked playing in the kiddie park just as much as any of the slides.

So all and all it was a great time! Take that lingering childhood fears :P