More Flags, More Fun

On Wednesday night, I had a bit of a funny interaction. Tucker had called me, and while I was talking to him, his wife Keely called me.

"Why is your wife calling me?"
"I don't know, she just called me too."

A few seconds later, I had a message. Intrigued. Sometimes Keely will call me if she's looking for Tucker, but she was just with Tucker. So this was something different. I check the message, and Keely is purposely vague about a "proposal" she had for me.

A proposal, huh? My mind started racing with the possibilities. All dirty stuff aside, maybe her former employer Michael Young wants to try me out as his backup. Maybe she and Tucker wanted to pay me $100,000 to mow their lawn. Maybe she's finally found a cute girl to set me up with.

The real answer was a bit different - the little girl she babysits for hurt her toe, and this gave Keely an idea. Six Flags would be fun - and if your child is injured, you can get him/her a wheelchair for going around the park - and kids in wheelchairs don't wait in lines. Yeah, we were taking advantage of a rule designed to help disabled kids. We were going to be five young and healthy people at an amusement park going to the front of the line because one of our fifty toes was busted up. It didn't seem fair, but I wasn't going to complain.

I tried to remember the last time I'd been to Six Flags. I know I went sometime in high school, and I think I went with my sister Lane sometime between then and now. I know I went on the Titan, which opened in 2001, and I don't think the Superman: Tower of Power was opened when I went (that opened in 2003). So it's been at least seven years since I've been to Six Flags, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. But it sounded like a fun idea, and I agreed to go.

Let me take a second and talk about roller coasters. For some reason, I've never been as excited about roller coasters as the next guy. It probably has something to do with my fear of heights (which makes rides like the Texas Giant and Titan a bit unnerving) and my lack of complete trust in the rides themselves. I had a dream that my car was thrown from the Shockwave once...that wasn't very fun.

And in my previous trips to Six Flags, I had fun on the Batman ride and Mr. Freeze ride - the only ride that I remember not loving was the Titan. It just goes too high for my blood, and I don't necessarily love that feeling in my stomach when I'm free-falling.

Of course, when we get to the park, the first place we go is the Titan. And as we're waiting to go on the ride, I'm starting to get a bit nervous. Again, I don't like heights. But I look over at these 12-year-old girls who are really excited about going on this ride - and the countless kids in line who are also pumped about going - and I realize that it's time to just not worry about it.

But as I'm sitting on top of Arlington, above Jerry World and just a few feet below an American Airlines 747, I don't feel great about it. I try to regulate my breathing as the drop goes, and then we race down. It's over before I know it, but then I'm at the sadistic part. They completely stop the car as it's hanging sideways on this huge drop. And since my biggest fear is falling out of the cart - this is the part I hate the most. But then there are more twists and hills and the ride is over. Not as bad as I remember, and I feel like I've passed the first test.

Then we're going to the Superman: Tower of Power, another ride that I'm not thrilled about. This one is all about heights, and I'm not really happy about that. But it seems to be everyone's favorite ride, and I suck it up again.

Let me now talk about the heat. As we're sitting in line for Superman, we are just baking. There's an awning over the waiting area, but it doesn't matter. It's 100 degrees, and I have a relatively fresh sunburn on my neck and shoulders from tennis Tuesday. The heat had luckily kept the park relatively clear, but it was relentless.

So we finally got to the ride, and it wasn't that bad. It shoots you up and then takes you up and down a couple of times. It was actually pretty nice to have the wind from all the movement because it really just cooled me down. And safely strapped in and looking out (not down), the view of the city was actually pretty cool. In fact, I'd say "calmed" was my number one emotion - moreso than "thrilled" or "scared."

And that's when Keely got an inspired idea. They were selling souvenir cups for $12.99 with infinite refills on the day of purchase. She decided that we could get one for the group and share it...refilling it as many times as necessary. I'm not sure if this was also taking advantage of the system, but it didn't really matter at this point. We quickly drank the first cup and immediately had it refilled. So far, so good.

After that, we knocked out most of the rides. The Shockwave. Batman. Mr. Freeze. The Flashback. These were all rides that I liked, and I wasn't really worried about them. I love the Batman ride, an inverted coaster that's more about cool twists and turns than actually tricking you into thinking you're going to die. And Mr. Freeze is fun because it's so fast that you don't really know what you're doing.

At the end of the day, only the Titan was legitimately scary to me, and it was still a lot of fun. Despite the heat, it was a really nice day.

And what was pretty cool were the little girls with us. They were really fun and excited about everything, and it was pretty cool to be there with them. Their enthusiasm about everything made the rides more fun for me, and they were basically the driving force behind everything we did. When they were excited, we were excited. And when their exhaustion grew and their excitement waned, we knew it was okay to start talking about going home.

I've always liked kids, and I don't think it's a coincidence that people start having their own kids about the same time that they start feeling old. Because kids can be loud and annoying, but they can also make you feel young again. For a day, I didn't feel like a JPMorgan employee in my mid-20s - I was a high school student going on rides because rides are fun.

And that's why, at the end of the day, I was very happy with the "proposal." And I guess I can admit that more flags does mean more fun.