Do you know what's good about being in your mid 50s? No seriously. Do you know? Because I would really like to find out. I'm sure someone in their mid 60s or mid 70s would give me plenty of reasons but I doubt they could help me with today.
I just woke up from a three hour nap. Sounds delightful right? Well It was more like a horrible hangover nap than a nice summer day one. The problem is, I didn't have a drop to drink. Nope. I was hung over from... roller coasters!
Today my daughter and I visited Six Flags Great America which is about an hour outside of Chicago. We go once every summer and it is one of my favorite days of the year... if you don't count the roller coasters. Just hanging out with her and talking about music or whatever on the ride there and back is probably the best part of the day. Then there is walking around talking to her at the actual park. Heck if it weren't for the roller coasters it would be a perfect day!
I'm not afraid of roller coasters (unlike scary movies that actually can't hurt me). I used to like them a lot when I was younger. Up until about 20 years ago, I still went to Great America once a summer just to ride all of the rides. I would try out every new ride. Actually I just looked it up and the last time I went on my own for fun was 2003 when the new Superman Ride opened. Since then, it has been a very steep American Eagle sized ride downhill.
Luckily for me, my daughter takes after her old man and prefers speed to loops. And thank god! Because I'd still be asleep if we did a single loop. Sadly, there is actually a biological reason why. If any of you are Modern Family fans, you may remember the episode where Phil is so happy to find out he has the flu because it means his body has not rejected roller coasters, which is a sign of youth for him. As we get older, the hair cells and structures in the ear canal become less responsive. Sudden movements (like loops, spins, drops) confuse this system more easily, causing dizziness or vertigo. So, my old body is confused. (My daughter could have told you this years ago). and I'm sure my brain is confused too thinking "Why the Hell are you doing this? You got enough excitement on the highway driving here. Did you forget how to weigh rsik vs reward?!"
But alas, sometimes as an old man you need to just tell your body "Screw you body! I'm having fun!" and you go for it. Luckily for me my daughter likes to hit a few rides and get the heck out before it gets hot. So really all I had to endure was two rides on the Viper which is a wooden roller coaster built in 1995. The fact it was a wooden coaster in 1995 was kind of a novelty. It has an 80 foot drop, no loops and gets up to 55 mph on a good day. We were able to ride that twice without getting off again. And this is why we go early! Next we rode Raging Bull which, although it also has no loops, has some pretty significant twists, has a 200 foot drop and reaches speed of over 70 mph. (We just added this one to our repertoire last year). We hit some other smaller rides and always end with the American Eagle which is another wooden roller coaster built in 1981 shortly after the park originally opened. This one is OLD (even though it's more than a decade younger than me). It drops 147 feet and reaches a very rickety 66mph. It also rattles your bones like crazy.
But I did it! I survived another trip without my daughter thinking I'm totally lame!
Any roller coaster fanatics out there? Any old people want to rant about getting old?