Two Very Different Walks, Part 2 - Sunday, April 22, 2018

I admit it, I am an adrenaline junkie. My addiction is roller coasters; the wilder, the better. Our second walk today was at Six Flags Fiesta Texas, a complete about-face from the nature walk earlier. 

After the 10k walk, I changed my clothes at the Comfort Inn from long jeans and hiking boots, to shorts and walking shoes. The windbreaker jacket stayed in the car.

We drove 1/2 hour to Six Flags Fiesta Texas amusement park where we have Season Passes and Dining Passes (Dining Pass = lunch, a snack, and dinner per person each time we go to Six Flags). I had my pass with me. Unfortunately, Bob left his pass at home. So, he dropped me off at the front gate of Six Flags and he made the one-hour round-trip drive home to get his Six Flags Park Pass. 

Meanwhile, I took photos, rode the Superman and Batman roller coasters, and rode the Sky Screamer (a drop tower) twice. 

Superman: the Ride

Superman: the Ride

Batman and The Hustler spin ride

Batman (up close!)

Sky Screamer

Then I got a text from Bob saying, "You will never believe this. I got my Good Sam card, not the Six Flags card. Headed back home. Talk to you in another hour."

Wow. He tried to use his Good Sam RV card to get into Six Flags. The guy at the entrance gate said, "What kind of card is that?"

I ate lunch because I was awfully hungry after walking 6.2 miles, and then almost another two miles around Six Flags. At Blues BBQ, a turkey leg was calling my name and I ate it. 

Bob still wasn't back, so I went on the BIGGEST coaster in the park, Iron Rattler, my favorite. It had been closed earlier for testing, but when I got there, the line wasn't very long. I figure they must have just reopened it. 

Fresh off the Iron Rattler coaster...all smiles!

When I got off the coaster, Bob texted and said he was in the park at our usual place to eat. I joined him at Blues BBQ just as he got in line. He got a pulled turkey sandwich and potato salad.

After Bob ate, we rode The Hustler (spinning ride), and Pandemonium (a roller coaster with cars that spin like teacups as they go along the track). Then, we went over to Hurricane Force 5. Bob sat that one out. 

Pandemonium coaster (cars spin)

Bob waiting in line for Pandemonium

Me in line for Pandemonium. Poltergeist coaster
is the blue one on the left behind me.

Hurricane Force 5 ride

We were going to go on the Scooby Doo Ghostbusters Blaster Ride, but it was all closed up. It looks like they're going to make a pirate-themed ride there instead. We'll see if they keep Scooby Doo and gang as characters.

The long-awaited Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster is built. The cars just arrived and are now on the tracks. The next two photos show the coaster. The train cars are single rider, with about 10 cars in a line. It should be interesting to ride this one!

Wonder Woman Golden Lasso Coaster

Wonder Woman statue

 The park is decorated for their Mardi Gras Celebration which starts April 27. 

Rockville High School

Bob and I sat in one of the air-conditioned restaurants to cool off. He got his snack, a cinnamon cookie. Mmm. I ate a Magnum ice cream bar earlier in the afternoon. 

I wanted to go on the Poltergeist coaster. That's the one that shoots you out of the station at 70 mph, then you go through what looks like a tangle of tracks. At some points in the ride, you don't know which way is up. Crazy! Bob stayed in the restaurant and waited for me. When I got off the ride, I had a burger and fries for dinner in the restaurant. 

Then he had a turkey leg for dinner at Sanger Halle. While he ate, I went on the Goliath coaster. That's the one with tracks on the top where your legs dangle free. After that, we headed home to watch "60 Minutes" and "Instinct."

Today was quite a day!

I have four days left until I retire. Then I plan to go on Social Security. Wow, I never thought that day would arrive. Now I'm looking it in the face and I like it!

Time for me to get some sleep. Good night all. 

Scream Queen - Sat., Sept. 24, 2016

Tired...four hours sleep on Friday night...ten hours of work on Saturday. I was a zombie when I got off work. Bob, on the other hand, had run 14 miles first thing in the morning as part of his marathon training. In the afternoon he drove to Austin to hear Gary Johnson, Libertarian presidential candidate, speak. He had to stand in the meeting room because it was so crowded.

What do you do when you're tired and you feel like a zombie? Why, go to Six Flags Fiesta Texas Fright Fest, of course! That'll wake you up in a hurry.

Bob and I rolled into Six Flags about 7 p.m. It was still light outside. Dark, gloomy clouds loomed in the distance. Would it rain? Was there a possibility of thunder and lightning? Maybe, but with our season passes it didn't matter, we could come back another time if we needed to.

The park had been open since noon and would remain open until 10 pm. Maybe that accounted for the extremely short line at Goliath, the roller coaster with the rails on top where your legs dangle freely. Bob and I walked right up to the loading platform and were able to get on the second coaster that came into the station. Oh, how I love that coaster! I did get a little dizzy and when Bob asked me if I wanted to return to line and do it again immediately, I said no.

It was starting to get dark and we were hungry. Our next stop was Old Blue's BBQ restaurant. Bob had a chicken vegetable spud and I had a Texas style spud. My baked potato had brisket, cheese and BBQ sauce on it. Bob's spud had diced chicken, broccoli and Ranch dressing on it. The potatoes were huge and we could have shared one. I got pumpkin pie and Bob got a berry cobbler. The pumpkin pie didn't meet my taste standards and was almost frozen. The cobbler, on the other hand, was warm and yummy.

Next, I really wanted to go on Iron Rattler, THE most exciting roller coaster in the park. Bob decided he'd wait for me and hold our water bottles. The line for Iron Rattler was pretty long so it took me a while to get to the platform. Because I was a single rider, I was able to go ahead of some people to get on the coaster. I sat next to a guy and I said, "I hope you don't mind, I scream...a lot." He said he didn't mind. I told him it was my first time on Iron Rattler. He said, "The first drop is straight down. It's insane." I thought he was exaggerating.

Well, come to find out, the first drop is straight down. We go 70 mph! OMG. What a ride. That is one of the most fun coasters  I have been on. It was dark outside so I wasn't really sure what was coming next. The coaster does some tricky maneuvers including a zero-gravity roll. Wheeeeeee! When I got back to Bob he said I had been gone 36 minutes.

For Fright Fest, Six Flags Fiesta Texas has areas they call "Scare Zones." In certain places, the walkways are pitch black with blowing smoke and creatures come out of the dark to scare you. We walked through one Scare Zone on the way to Sky Screamer, a 200' tall tower with a swing ride on it. I could barely see where I was going! We did see a creepy monster-type character in the gloom but we were walking as fast as we could so didn't really get a good look at it.

Sky Screamer (not my photo)

The Sky Screamer is wonderful. You sit in the little swings and they lift off the ground. When they start going around, you go up and up to 200' in the air. You are higher than the sides of the old rock quarry where Six Flags is built. The view was awesome at night with the lights on the amusement rides. The ride goes pretty fast.

When we finished riding Sky Screamer, it was coming up on 9 p.m. and we decided to head home. With season passes we can go back any time. The evening was great and we didn't have any rain.

We especially liked the fact that we were in the park at night; no sunscreen was required and it was much cooler to wait in the lines...no hot sun beating down on us!

Thanks, Bob, for going to the park with me. You are a real trooper after the day you had.

Travel Bug out.