Cedar Point-A Fond Farewell

I spent the day at Cedar Point on Wednesday. It has been over 10 years since I have been there, so I was both excited and nervous about going. Excited about the rides and the fun and the thrills and nervous that in aging, my body would reject all of the above and do so in some sort of embarrassing way.

The day was much too hot and sticky to be called good weather and there were a couple of evening rain showers thrown in for good measure (I used to go to Cedar Point about once a year in my pre-teen and teen-age years and I honestly can't remember a trip where there wasn't at least one downpour. )

I was hanging out with my good friend (I will call her Danielle), which was a definite plus and the beginning rides went well. The Scrambler, The Matterhorn, The Iron Dragon, The Wave Swinger...and then came The Monster...the cursed, cursed Monster. You know the orange and black ride that looks kind of like an octopus and at first glance looks perfectly innocent and boring. Well, it had some sort of evil intentions and while riding it, I started to feel that awful feeling in your stomach when it is reminding you that it doesn't have to keep all of it's contents if it doesn't want to. Thankfully, I did not throw up and after what seemed like 47 minutes, we were released from the creature and I wanted to just go home. I felt like a little kid at a sleepover that just can't endure the whole night away from home and has to call her parent's to come and rescue her. So, since I am a grown up and can't do that, I text messaged my husband and said that I was ready to come home!!! I was hot, sticky, nauseous, sensory overloaded, possibly hungry, and I had 9 hours left to the nightmare. Believe it or not, I was not alone. Danielle was in a similar condition at this time, minus the nausea and sensory issues. So, we went to an air-conditioned restaurant for lunch, watched about 3 cheesy, but relaxing shows and discovered that even though we were old enough to get effected by the whole place, we were still young enough to bounce back.

So, it was on to the Gemini twice, the Iron Dragon again, The Mine Ride, Disaster Transport, dinner at the van, ice cream at Tofts, etc. etc. It was actually quite fun and the 9 hours went by much quicker than I thought they would.

There is one more unfortunate event to report, however...The Mean Streak. Even though I enjoy some rides, I am not into most of the extreme ones, so I am cautious about what I choose to go on. I had never been on the Mean Streak and Josh C. and Kim F. joined us at this point and made the suggestion. I don't know what I was thinking, but it didn't have any huge drops and it didn't go upside down so I thought..."Bring it on!" I should never, ever think that. It just leads to heartache. We boarded and were off and all was well for about 3 seconds and then we took our first turn and I realized that this was not a roller coaster, it was some kind of hideous torture device. It took all of my bones and broke them to bits in a split second and somehow managed to put me back together again in time to do it over and over and over again! My only defense was to squeeze my eyes tightly shut so I wouldn't see the horror as it happened. I wasn't scared, I was just in excruciating pain. Danielle kept yelling "Are you okay" and I figured that was a good sign, because I if I was as broken as I felt, I was sure she would be yelling something like "Hang on Jen, the ambulance is on it's way." or "Oh, that just can't be good". My life didn't flash before my eyes, probably because they were rolling around somewhere in the back of my head, but I do remember thinking "My chiropractor is going to be so disappointed in me!" The ride finally came to an end and to my amazement, I was in one piece and able to walk. I question whether my spine was put back together quite right as I have a spot that has been complaining ever since, but all in all, I feel fortunate. Let me state one more time, that is not something anyone should do for fun, it is something that should be saved for hardened criminals and people that have very important information that needs to be extracted .

I think that I could continue on for awhile, but this is quite long, so I won't. I went to Cedar Point. I found out that I am not too old, but I am not as young as I once was either, and I don't think that I am going to feel the need to go again.