June 29, 2011

THRILL Rides.

My friend Robin and I took our boys to the Montreal amusement park, La Ronde. Her son had made a fabulous recovery from appendicitis thanks to my PICKLEWeasel Bandaid, and had just been given the Doctor's all clear to celebrate by being hurtled through space on a number of death-defying thrill rides. Factor in the junk food and this place is paradise for an eleven year old.

Everyone knows that if you don't want to lose your lunch on a ride, the best thing to do is to scream non-stop. My screaming muscles were in tip-top condition. I was ready!


The first really scary one we went on was called The Vampire, aptly named as it will suck the life right out of you.


Robin sat this one out. I swear I could not figure out where the ride began and ended, it really looked like a bunch of spaghetti to me. Which is pretty much how I felt when I got off it.

We decided to recover on the kiddie ride that looked like it was made of Swiss Cheese.


Then the boys managed to convince us to go on The GOLIATH. Even Robin decided to join us. This rollercoaster is huge! I mean it covers a lot of distance. No way could I fit it all on one drawing.


They start you off by slowly cranking you up a 175 foot incline and then drop you almost straight down. And up. And down. Etc. Crazy fun I tellya.

Just as you're dropping down that first big drop they take a picture of you - FLASH! - so not only are you terrified but you're also seeing spots everywhere.


Unless you're Robin, in which case your eyes are shut tight pretending you're at the spa.

Afterwards, Robin said my hair was "bigger". I won't need another blowdry for at least a year. We agreed the Goliath was the funnest. But I'm all screamed out!
Most terrifying thrill ride you've ever been on?

Share the thrills.

20 comments:

  1. My most terrifying ride, outside of the one that jumped tracked, slightly, just before it made it's plunge to the earth, when I was 14, thus suspending us at the top for what seemed like FREAKING ETERNITY...was a leisurely sky ride with my 3 year old. My dear lovely child, who was absolutely THRILLED to be riding this REALLLLLLLY high ride would sit there and bounce & scream GOOOOO anytime the ride had to stop to allow someone on or off, depending on who was having trouble just stepping off....so we're dangling 100+ft in the air, with nothing more than a handle bar thingy that doesn't even latch across us, she's sitting at the very edge of her seat so she can see over the edge...and refuses to let me at least hold her hand, all while she shakes the thing. Thankfully there was a drop off point 1/3 of the way up the mountain where we could get off then take a huge slide back down the mountain. Fun times.

    Yes, that topped the rollercoaster getting stuck at the top of the big drop. Also? It added another stick to my fire pit of reasons why I was given giraffe legs - no need to be high up, this includes footstools!!

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  2. Hahahaha! Stephi is made of awesome!! That's hilarious. Do you really have a fire pit of reasons for giraffe legs? I'd love to hear more of those!

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  3. I LOVE thrill rides. But the best part? Getting off alive. :D
    Loved the drawings!!!! ♥

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  4. OMG I cannot do rides. I did one (first & last) and dry retched for 15 minutes after that.

    Awesome drawings as always!

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  5. Space Mountain.
    Scared the bejeezus out of me when I was 4.
    Scared the bejeezus out of me when I was 28.
    Roller coaster in the dark so you can't see what's coming or even the track beneath you?? NOT COOL.

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  6. I haven't been on a roller coaster in years! But I worked at La Ronde for a year as a teen, and I tell ya, there's nothing better than the feeling you get from skipping a lineup for a roller coaster and riding it three times in a day! You'd think they'd get less exhilerating--but nope!

    Should drag the boyfriend to an amusement park this summer. Apparently I may be going on my first ever Disney trip this winter--more roller coasters!

    Great drawings JC! Evocative as always.

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  7. Um, I'm one of those weird adults who still adores roller coasters, but I did find the "Mustang" at Cedar Point terrifying for how much it rattled me around. I think I needed a spinal adjustment coming off that thing. 8P

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  8. Oh that explains the frog and the Hoarse throat :)

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  9. I really can't make myself get on any of them that go around or upside down. I hate the feeling of being carsick all day. Now, the Tower of Terror, that I like! It only goes UP....and then OMG DOWN! I feel for Robin!

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  10. I absolutely hate rides that spin round and round...aka Barf-O-Meters!

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  11. The most terrifying thrill ride -- and thrilling terror ride -- I was ever on was the one my DH was too chicken to try. : D It was at Wonderland outside Toronto. It was freaking petrifyingly scary and I thought I was going to hurl and die -- at the same time -- but I got off beaming, smiling as big as I could. And nonchalantly tried to pretend that I liked defying gravity.
    The other time was at the snow park outside Quebec City. The four of us (whole family) went on one uberspinny, downhill rocket and though we (barely) survived, 3 of 4 of us were done for the day after that. DH crawled off the hill. The eldest -- he of the cast iron stomach -- kept on going.

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  12. I LOVE roller-coasters… LOVE them!!! When I was about 12 (now 35) Magic Mountain had one that looked like the old Viking ship. The one where they swing you back and forth, but this thing was painted like a spaceship and it slowly spun all the way to where in the pendulum madness we were left upside-down for about 20 seconds, it really hurt. In this position, if you were brave enough to look down… up… umm… toward the ground, you could see everyone’s loose belongings falling about 200 feet (or more) to the ground. Glasses, hats, keys, and wallets all fell past the metal cage net and to the ground where they landed in a concrete room about ten feet below ground level. For the life of me I can’t remember the name of this ride but I have pictures of it from when we were waiting in line. It’s the most memorable of rides for me. I think because my lap was bruised afterward.
    The free-fall made me scream like… like a 12 year old girl (but I was a 12 year old girl at the time).
    Truly the most horrific ride that I have ever been on was at the fair. It was called The Zipper and as we were all being loaded into metal chicken-wire like cages in sets of two, I looked out the window, as we slowly went up. It was like looking out a 2 to 3 story building. My eye caught something, I saw what looked like an over grown bobby-pin. I glanced to the other side… bobby-pin. My little seat in a take apart and rebuild roller-coaster was held together by hair-clips… I screamed before we even started. I was about 13 and have NEVER been on a county fair ride since.
    Sorry my writing skills are blah this morning… I still have not had my coffee,
    Sarah

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  13. the one memory I have of rides like this comes from Valley fair in Minnesota and a ride called the Mouse, it was on this i found that there is a reason you keep your body parts in the car.

    I leaned out for some dumb reason, probably to see how much farther we had to go, when I felt something and my glasses flew off.

    Come to find out I'd leaned my head just a bit to much and my head hit it. I think this explains a lot LOL.

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  14. Rachel - I'm with you on the spinning rides. I can't handle those.

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  15. Sarah - bobby-pin?!? Whatever you do DON'T go and read Stephi's comment at the top there.

    Rendal - Whaaaa...? You hit your head - ow! Were you bleeding? I'm def telling my son this story.

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  16. I LOVE ROLLERCOASTERS! When I was little I was finally tall enough to ride the Wildcat at Idora Park. Someone found footage and post it on Youtube. I screamed bloody murder! You were jerked around as well as having SERIOUS hang time on that ride. It was 1982. I was looking forward to it. The following year unfortunately fire destroyed half the ride and I cried. To make matters worse the entire Park had shut down for good due to low sales and competition. Fast forward to 2003 I rode the Raptor at Cedar Point. I screamed bloody murder as my feet dangle while being flipped over 6 times. Not all at once but it's similar to the Vampire. Love them to death! It's been eight years since I've been to Cedar Point. Time for me to go back.

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  17. I did what I was told not to do and read Stephi's... of course. Hehe.
    EEK!!! With the 3 year old baby!!! OMGaaaaaa! I would soooooooooooo freak out. I think I would cry out of worry. And as mom you can't just shut your eyes and pray. You have to watch in case you need to grab her. @_@
    And really, they looked like 3 inch bobby-pins.

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  18. I love the lost organ.

    You just reminded me of the time that I learned I swear like a pirate when I am scared.

    That might make good blog.

    (That sounds naughty.)

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  19. Easy: Tower of Terror at Disney World.

    You see, I have this fear of falling. Not heights, mind you, but falling. I'm fine looking out of the window of a 20th story building, but put me on a 2nd story balcony and I slowly inch away.

    The Tower of Terror lifts you up 13 stories and then drops you down (falling) and then you go up and down again and again. So why would I go on it? Easy. My then-5 year old son wanted to go on and I couldn't be outdone by a five year old.

    So we went on and it went up 13 floors and dropped us down and then up and down about 7 times. (Each time going up or down a random number of floors so you didn't get used to it.)

    When it was over, there was only 1 reason that my legs consented to function: My brain told them "If you stay here, we're going on the ride again." Meanwhile, my son loved the ride and wasn't scared by it at all.

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Cuz You Rocketh.