Friday, August 31, 2007

enough with the centrifuge

Alex and I went to the PNE last night. We bought "Twilight Ride Passes," good after 7pm, and maxed out the the rides, with occasional stops for fatty snacks. Alex had been looking forward to this since the fair opened almost 2 weeks ago, and finally he had a night off work.

I am very sure now, that I love roller coasters. I am equally sure that my days of enjoying being tied to a string and flung in wild loops (sometimes upside down) are over. A lot of the rides were fun, but I needed recovery time in between, so we'd ride one together, then I'd breathe out slowly while he rode another on his own, then we'd ride together, etc. My biggest regrets of the night are two rides that I skipped onto without watching first how they worked. Normally, I like surprises, but this time it was a mistake. One was called "Spin Out." It caused my brain to spin out of my nostrils in spiraling loops so that I could not walk or talk normally when it was over. Something about being upside down, 50 feet in the air clamped under the legs of a neon tarantula doing break dance moves. The other was called Orbiter. I call it Vomiter. Luckily I did not (vomit, that is). Getting to ride the coaster in the pitch dark made it all worthwhile. Up at the top of the hills you see the whole fair, but in the looping and rushing inside tracks, it's just dark and clackety and amazing - a study in brown and grey and wind and speed and laughter that's over in less than 2 minutes. We left the park at midnight. The rides were still churning, the mini donuts still sizzling, but we had our night of g-forces and were ready to ride the wild Honda home to Port Moody.

question: what is your favourite carnival ride?

mompoet - coaster, coaster, coaster

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Me too MP!!! I love the roller coasters! But now that I'm older I don't like the rides that spin and go upside down. Good for you to ride some of them.

J. Andrew Lockhart said...

sounds like fun to me! :)

Muhd Imran said...

I love roller coasters. Wifey and I would ride any roller coaster we saw, locally and when overseas.

The best one was in Vegas, on top of a building. Stomach churning, but every bit worth it.

Wifey's legs turned to jelly, so I had to carry her out from the carriage to a seat on solid ground.

Funny-fun memory.

mompoet said...

I saw film of that Las Vegas roller coaster on TV once. I'd love to try it, although I don't think I'll ever be in Las Vegas!
mp

Anonymous said...

I'm all about the spinning! Spin me in circles, please.

Tilt-a-Whirl, Octopus, that thing that goes backwards really fast while the spotty teenaged operator yells "Do you want to go faster??!!!" over the microphone...those are my faves.