Friday night, Indi and I were sitting at home with our friends Nikki and Brad and playing World of Warcraft. Brad gets a call from his friend Paul asking if they want to go to Six Flags. In, like, an hour. About two hours later, that phone call turned from Paul and Malinda (two other friends of ours) going to Six Flags Over Texas in Dallas to Paul, Malinda, Brad, Nikki, Rhys, Indi, Niki Smith, and No D (real name Nick, but never goes by it) making the four+ hour drive to Dallas at 1:30 AM to go to Six Flags on Saturday.
Before our world trip, this kind of spontaneous travel would never have been possible for me. Being a bit OCD and having a need for control, I don’t think I’d be able to relinquish that control OR just up and go somewhere like that without planning first. I am quite happy just in the fact that I was able to take this trip without any of those issues. The road to Dallas felt like freedom. It was traveling again, this time with a caravan of friends to share it with. I say share, which is totally true at Six Flags itself, but due to the dramamine I don’t remember the drive well at all. We did eventually arrive at a small Super 8 Hotel at about 4:30 and slept immediately.
We left the hotel later that morning at about 11:30, a bit groggy and some not terribly happy to be up after such a short sleep, but we were all tremendously excited. We arrived at the park just after noon and were greeted with a sign proclaiming it was Christian Youth Weekend. Also being Easter Weekend, this meant a packed park…but the weather couldn’t have been nicer! Once sorted, our first stop as a group was the Mr. Freeze Roller Coaster. I am not a roller coaster person, so I spent most of the day waiting, taking pictures, or holding loose items like purses and drink cups…but that’s not a complaint. I love to people watch, and you can’t beat amusement park people watching. Plus, otherwise we’d have had to rent lockers and they are EXPENSIVE.
So, yes, Mr. Freeze. It’s this CRAZY coaster that gets started with the help of giant MAGNETS. It goes around in a loop and then into a straight-up climb…where it slows, stops, then goes backwards. It is evidently terrifying. All the riders that opted to get on came off a little shaky but all tremendously excited to have gone. This is pretty much how it went for the day. We even split up for a bit so more of the park could be covered. When some of the party went to stand in line for the Superman tower (a long drop type ride) I sat on a bench underneath an extremely tall swing. They strapped riders in, pulled ’em up, and let ’em fly. It was amusing to watch them screaming overhead.
Other rides included an indoor runaway-minecart coaster, the Batman coaster, a few smaller rides like the Scrambler, and capped off with the enormous Titan coaster. The Texas Giant was, sadly, closed until next year. They are evidently converting the old wooden structure to steel. Doesn’t make a bit of difference to me, seeing as how I’m not into roller coasters much, but it felt like something was dying. Aren’t wooden roller coasters the ‘old guard’? I wish they’d have kept it that way.
The day was full of food, fun, and friendship. I even got on some (less roller-coasty) rides and enjoyed myself thoroughly. Everyone had fun and it felt so good to get out of town; especially the jump-and-go nature of it. I hadn’t visited a large theme park of this nature in a real long time, and it was the first time I’d gone with a group of friends instead of family. It got us thinking about where else we can travel on a whim and how we need to do it, rather than just think about it and never go. Things are possible if we really want them to be.
Rhys' Pieces 