Facing My Fears: This Weekend

817 miles + 72 Hours + 3 States + 16+ friends = Exhaustion 

You wanna talk about Zombies? This girl is a zombie.

This weekend we (Myself, my sister Robyn, my brother Evan, and friend Rebekah) drove to Alabama (then to GA, back to AL, then back to TN), to celebrate my (our) friend Kim's 26th birthday with food, fun, and Six Flags. :)

We had a blast, but honestly that was the.most. exhausting trip I've been on in a while.

Friday happened like this:

Got up at 7:20 AM, rushed the dogs out of the house, threw clothes on, bagged up last minute trip things, fed dogs, made sure all their "supplies" were in an obvious place, thinking about getting something to eat, realizing I don't have time, do "something" to my hair and dash out the door.

Get to work, get everything done within the hour, and then find things to do until its time to leave. Field multiple random questions from my dear dear brother through out the next five hours.

2:00PM - Change back into street clothes, and race to the nearest gas station to re-inflate my tires and vacuum my car a bit.
2:10PM - Drive to a near by music school to pick up my brother.
2:15PM - Drive back to my job and pick up friend
2:30PM - Drive to Papa John's a pick up a pizza for my brother
2:45PM - Drive to friends job and pick up my sister.
3:00PM - Stop and get some food and hit the road.

Once we got on the road, we were fighting traffic and the random heavy rain storms all the way to Alabama. I hate driving in the rain anyway, but I was hyper vigilant after nearly crashing my car that morning. Oh.. I didn't tell you about that? Yeah.

Did I mention my car is not insured?
Don't ask ok? Just.don't.ask.

We can all be thankful to God that nothing happened on the way down or back.

INTIWAYS.

We arrived at the pre-birthday celebration picnic, exhausted, tired, but happy to see familiar faces. The grills had just been fired up, the food was laid out.....when it started to rain. Complete with lightning and thunder.

".. and the Rain, Rain, Rain came Down, Down, Down in Rushing Rising Rivlets, till the River crept out of its bed, and crept right into Piglets....." 

Noo Piglet wasn't there. You guys are so silly. 

So we crammed lots of people and kids into the house and noisy craziness ensued. Finally around 12PM we decided to head home, since we had a 5:30AM departure time. As soon as we got to Kim's house as soon as I could politely remove myself, I climbed into bed and went to sleep.

Next thing I know, someone is banging on my door, and lights are being flicked on. Can I just take a moment and say how much I hate it when that happens? It is THE most annoying way to be woke up.

My mother used to do that to us all the time. It drove.me.crazy. Luckily I have matured past that point and can handle these things with more, grace, shall we say. So instead of strangling whomever woke me up, I just pulled the covers back over my head and stayed in bed until the last possible second.

TAKE THAT. WHOMEVER.
:-P
Thats maturity right there. 

Anyway once I was up, I was awake and ready to get on the road. However, when you are traveling with multiple people.... well lets just say it took us a while to decide who was riding where, how many cars were going etc.. etc.. Once that was solidified we took to the road like white on rice.

Right.

Four hours, a bathroom stop, and a breakfast break later we arrived at Six Flags over Georgia.

Did you know that Six Flags strictly enforces their clothing policies? And if they deem your T-shirt offensive they Will.NOT let you into the park unless you purchase another one? Yeah.. apparently pictures of guns qualifies.

That held us up for a while.

As we started into the park, it came out that I am vehemently against roller coasters. Let me tell you something (those of you who don't have roller coaster loving friends) roller coaster lovers feel personally affronted if they have a non-roller coaster lover in their group.

"You don't like roller-coasters?"

"You're not going to ride this one? You're sure?"

"We need to get you on a ride Erin!"

"Why don't you like roller-coasters?"

"WHAT!?! YOU DON'T LIKE ROLLER COASTERS? DO YOU KNOW YOU COULD DIE IN A CAR WRECK FASTER THAN YOU COULD ON A ROLLER COASTER?"
Yes all the caps were necessary. That would be my brother who is talking like that. :) 

"What are you going to do? You came all this way and you're not going to ride anything?"

"Oo! You should ride this one, that's not too bad.."
Hmm the one that says MAXIMUM THRILL/FEAR FACTOR? Forgive me if I'm highly skeptical of your roller-coaster loving opinion. :) 



However, halfway through the park I decided I was going to face my fear and PERHAPS get on one ride. I also decided that instead of sitting on a bench while everyone stood in line, I was going to make them carry all their OWN bags and I'd stand with them, and walk to the other side should I decide not to ride a particular ride.

Sixteen people have a lot of bags. 

After standing in line for an hour, I decided that Batman: The Ride was going to my thrill ride of choice. After all it met my many requirements for a roller coaster.

1. Height: It only had one initial drop which is my biggest point of contention with roller coasters, and stayed fairly low to the ground.
2. Length: It was a pretty short coaster, so should I be out of my mind scared it was going to be over quickly. 
3. Safety: Was I going to feel like I was going to fall out? 

I didn't actually decide to ride until the last possible second and I had to have a moment while waiting for a car to come available (otherwise known as pounding heart, sweating hands, tears and deep breaths), but once it was actually my turn to get on the ride, I was calm (aka not hyperventilating), and once I realized how secure the safety measures felt, my confidence levels went way up, and I actually looked down as we were being pulled up the initial climb. 

The first drop was the scariest part of the whole ride. It literally felt like my stomach, intestines, kidneys, liver etc..etc. were attempting to force themselves into my chest cavity, which was THE WEIRDEST feeling ever. I was too busy trying to breathing to remember the rest of that first part, but once we hit the loops and I wasn't feeling as if I were slipping towards the earth below, I realized that it was actually pretty fun.

And then it was done; and I found myself surrounded by my friends who were congratulating me for actually doing it.

Then I was on the other end of the emotional scale, tearing up that I actually did something I "swore" (in a sense of that word) I'd NEVER do. Roller coasters? You have GOT.TO.BE.KIDDING.ME.

Oh yeah, I just did that.

Whaaaaaaaat?!

After that, the day just involved a lot more line standing.

Standing in line for lunch. (btw on WHAT PLANET Is $39.99 a DEAL for a meal?!?!)
Standing in line for Thunder River (or whatever that clothes soaking water ride was)
Standing in line for the Great American Scream Machine (well OK, actually i was back hanging with the bags again, but I had some company this time)
Standing and watching some friends do the free fall ride thingy.
Standing in line for the Sky Buckets
Sitting through a Erin Hill Band concert while waiting for everyone else to ride Dare Devil Dive
Standing and watching some of our group ride the Georgia Scorcher 
Standing outside the closing park trying to decide where to go eat.
Standing in line at Wendy's for a hour because there was no other place close/open.
My legs ached so badly by the time we headed home, even sitting didn't bring any relief.

We got home our 1:30AM and immediately crashed, knowing we had to be up in time for church the next day.

Sunday we stayed for church, lunch, another service, and dinner before tearing ourselves away and hitting the road home.

We got home in excellent time considering, my dogs were happy I was home, I was happy to see my bed. It was a good time all around.....

THE END.