The Pat-A-Pult

The week of my birth-dee I went to Lagoon. Have you ever been there? It's so much fun. I has really craving Kennywood and wouldn't you know it Lagoon was the perfect fix. Sure the rides were smaller and slower and shorter. But as nostalgic as I was feeling it hit the spot. Sheri and I decided upon arrival that we were going to ride every ride and not get sick. Neither of which happened. We missed "Wicked" and I got sick. We started with TerrorHouse which lives up to it's name. I'll admit I had my eyes closed and was leaning pretty heavy into Ken. (For you Pittsburghers think "Gold Rush.") We hit The Wild Mouse, Intergallactic Screamer, The Colossus, The Swings, Music Waverider, Cliffhanger... all were a breeze. I loved them. I had my hands up in the air screaming and laughing. Then we rode the Tidal Wave (KW: Pirate Ship) and I went green in the gills. I've never yelled to stop the ride until that day and I yelled it at my fullest lung capacity. I was sick. Weak in the knees, couldn't walk strait, didn't want to open my mouth in fear of spewing all over. I put the vote up for a lunch break and it was unanimous in the agree-ance. I sadly missed out on all the corn dogs, funnel cakes, and greasy amusement park food because I thought it would only make matters worse. I had a Subway (dream job!). From where we were sitting you could look around and occasionally you would see this huge red ball get shot into the air. If you looked closer you realized there were two screaming idiots in that red ball. It literally looked like it was just shot out of the trees. Me and Sheri looked at each other and said "I'll pass." But gash darn it.... the longer Sheri looked at that ride the more her eyes were sparkling. Wasn't looking good for me. She started throwing around phrases like, "You only live once" and "No one has died as long as we've been watching" and "they all come off laughing." We went over to the platform and watched for about half hour. Sheri asked if I felt better yet. No. Uh-uh. Not yet. So we did the Jet Star and the Bumper Cars and my fun gave it away that I was feeling better and before I knew it Sher and me were in line for what they named The Catapult. I still can't believe people get an inkling to get on with a name like that. Can I tell you that waiting in line is the hardest part? There were two groups in front of us and it took for-ev-ver (sandlot) and the whole time Sheri and I kept looking at each other and telling the other how sick we felt. Literally nauseated. After an eternity (in real time maybe 10 minutes) we were up. We had to completely empty our pockets and I had to take my flip flops off. Didn't want to catapult them into oblivion just myself. We get into the ball and they strap you in good. I mean to the point where you can just barely breathe. Not that you really are.

(I atleast gave a pretty face for the camera... Sheri looks.... scared witless?)

They give you a speech about if you put your feet up higher on the bar you'll spin more (I tucked mine in as close as I could while staying in proper launching position), they say the ball is going to tip backwards, and then you'll go. So the ball tips back and I hear all this clicking and winding and my heart beating. There is no count down- there is no green light. It's just bam. one minute safely locked onto the Earth and the next flying. 55 mph 250 feet in the air. Awesome. I totally lost my orientation of what is up, down, sideways, diagonal- it was pure exhilaration. I was laughing and screaming and Sheri was going "Let me down! Oh, Mommy let me down!!!" Which only made me laugh harder. It was incredible. Do it! go to Lagoon and do it! Turns out Sheri really liked it because as soon as we landed and were safely locked in she asked how much it would be to do it again. Another $10 a person and her and I were flying high again. The second time she laughed a lot more and had her eyes open.

I want one in my backyard.