August 10, 2009
Memoirs from fun-filled King’s Dominion trip…
We departed Potts Creek Road for King’s Dominion at 7:45, only 45 minutes behind schedule, which is a good morning at the Griffith House. We had our kids in the mini-van and Kevin’s folks had their other two grandsons (our nephews) in their truck and we were off! I remember stopping in Cliftondale Park for gas and most everything after that is a blur to me. This, my friends, is because I always sleep in the car. I believe I have some sort of motor vehicle narcolepsy. This is not at all a joke. I will fall asleep by Iron Gate on the way to Roanoke. There is something about that gentle lulling of the vehicle, the warm sun beating through the windshield, and the random screams of children fighting in the backseat that send me right into a deep sleep. Sometimes I take a book or magazine to just mix things up. I usually make it about 2 pages before I am doing the Jello neck bob trick, while my wide fly-catching open mouth gives entertainment for all passersby.
We made it to King’s Dominion a little before 11 o’clock which had my Rainman-like son, Riley, all out of sorts due to the fact that we were already an hour behind our perfectly mapped out riding schedule. That’s right folks, we mapped out a riding schedule. I am not a planner by nature, but for those important things in life…such as roller coaster riding…I need a plan of action. On our last visit to King’s Dominion, we were pure novices. We had no idea how to navigate ourselves in order to accommodate the thrill needs of the five people in our family. Two more years of thought and several inches of growth allowed my oldest child to be able to ride almost anything he dared at the park, and allowed my other children to have a lot more flexibility also. We got to the gate with our tickets and after my husband and father-in-law nearly stripped down, we finally were able to pass through the metal detectors and start our trek through this wonderland.
First ride was The Shenandoah Lumber Company…aka The Log Flume. All five kids plus Kevin and I enjoyed this fun ride! This would be the first and last ride that my husband would take in. He had a bad experience on the Scrambler at the Tazewell County Fair a few years back and he has whimped out on me a little. Let me come to his defense, however. Somebody had really messed with that Scrambler and I actually remember praying to God that if he got me off that thing that I would surely never be so stupid as to ever step foot on another ride and I would start giving double to charity. Well, he held up his end of the bargain, anyway.
The four older kids and I took in The Grizzly, The Hurler, Ricochet, and El Dorado while Kevin decided to take Wyatt over to the water park, as it was…THE HOTTEST DAY OF THE YEAR! Yeah, apparently that is God’s punishment for me for breaking my deal I made with him over the Scrambler. For the last two years we have visited King’s Dominion, it has been over 100 degrees.
Kevin, his dad and Wyatt left after 2 o’clock to check into our five-star hotel (Days Inn--Carmel Church) and rested in the A/C while Wyatt took a nap. While they were gone, Kevin’s mom and I took the other four kids over to the wave pool to get a reprieve from the miserable heat. Kevin texted me and told me it was 104 when they got into the van in the parking lot. Lovely. So we arrived at Tidal Wave Bay and nobody was in the pool. THEY WERE HAVING TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES!! You must be kidding me was my lone thought. Thank goodness, within 10 minutes, the problems were resolved and the kids and I were able to cool off for a little while and Kevin’s mom was able to score a chair and rest for a little while, although she nearly had to fight a middle-aged man for rights to it. After about 30 minutes of splashing in the pool, all the kids were ready to get back to riding, and so began the grueling task of sending everyone in to change back from their wet suits. Fifteen minutes later, we are ready to roll. Straight to the Rebel Yell we headed. This has always been a favorite of mine, and Natalie and Riley, along with my nephew Alex, all rode it with me! We wanted to do it backwards, but it was only running forward on Sunday. BOO! We rode it two or three times and it was great as usual. Glad we weren’t on the blue side because those poor folks got stuck on the way up and there they sat as we passed by them and there they still were as we finished the ride. I would not have done well in that situation, I’m guessing.
We were standing in line trying to get everybody situated to ride, but we had five people--odd number for coaster riding. Riley was going to have to ride after us and a guy who appeared to be alone came and stood in line behind him. Riley asked this guy if he could ride with him and he said Yes. Well, lo and behold if the two people in the front of the line were not together as we had previously thought. I told Riley to ask the guy in the front if he could ride with him and he said Yes. Riley turns back to the guy behind him that he had first asked and said, “I’m riding with him now. Sorry dude, maybe next time.” That’s our Riley. Such a card. I asked Riley later about the guy he rode with and he said, “His name was Tom Murphy.” I laughed and said, “You asked him his name?” He said, “Yeah, and I told him my name was Riley Griffith.” Lord help that friendly child and keep him safe because he would tell anybody anything.
It wasn’t too much longer and the guys arrived back with Wyatt and we went over and let the smaller kids ride rides in Kidsville. Wyatt loved the Scooby Doo Ghoster Coaster and he and I rode in the front car together. I am digging that all of my kids love coasters and are not scared. I started out my life scared, but by 6th grade, loved them.
Our perfectly mapped out riding schedule got all out of whack, due to the miserable heat of the day, and we missed all of the great coasters in Conga altogether. I was less than thrilled about missing out on some of those great coasters over there that I have never been on.
The highlight of the day was taking Riley and my nephew Alex over to ride The Dominator. We walked all the way around there and then walked under it and watched it pass through and the three of us were terrified. Riley was so scared, he was nearly in tears. As we walked the maze to get to the coaster, you could almost hear our hearts beating out of our chests! We were terrified! We picked a line to get in, and we stood there for about 20 seconds until someone in the front of the line asked us if we wanted to get in front of them, as they were trying to ensure riding with their friends. We said yes, and then quickly wondered what the heck we had just agreed to! So there we were. Me…the old one and the 12 and 10 year old. We had still not completely decided if we were going to ride this monster or not. Ready or not, the gates opened and it was do or die. We sat down and buckled in and I made sure to say a little prayer that I would not be caught upside down swinging on this thing like those poor people stuck in their cars on the Rebel Yell, just hours before. Off we went and it was AWESOME! I mean awesome! It was an incredible ride, but the incredible part was sharing this “big ride” with my son and my nephew. You always remember your first time…your first big roller coaster time, that is. I remember mine…I was with Robin Biggs at Busch Gardens and it was the Loch Ness Monster. It gave me my love for coasters and brought me out of my scaredy-cat shell.
Before leaving Kidzville, the kids decided that $90 on the pizza lunch and the other $60 on drinks was not quite enough to donate to King’s Dominion, so they wanted to play a game or two before departure. They all played that one where you squirt the water guns--I don’t do the game thing, so I have no idea what it is called, but Riley won a big ole Scooby Doo on the thing. Alex won two basketballs in the shooting game. Wyatt wanted to throw the baseballs, but the park was about to close and nobody was manning the baseball throwing station. Wyatt discovered the basket of baseballs was sitting right there, however, so he grabbed three balls and had at it. Two of the balls didn’t even register a speed and the middle ball registered 17 mph. All of our family, along with three or four young guys started cheering for Wyatt and Kevin hollers, “We have a winner!” And then Wyatt walks right in there and picks himself out a bear and off we went. I laughed so hard, I nearly peed my pants.
We left the park and went home and rested our heads on those perfectly hard as brick pillows at Days Inn and knew we had made some great memories with our kids and our family.
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