Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Ride.

My heart began to pound as I stepped into the train and took a seat. What was I thinking? was the only thing crossing my mind as I pulled the lapbar down to my lap.

A flash of a t-shirt came running by me, quickly pushing and pulling on my lapbar, then another lapbar, and another and another... until finally, the teen at the control panel grabbed the mike and announced the golden words: "All clear, dispatching train."

Off we went. The sneaky train made a quick U-Turn to the right and we began our ascent. It felt like forever as the train's backstops loudly rattled up the hill with us, like heavy metal thumping on a hollow, metal pole. My heart began to pound even harder. Still climbing. It felt like we had been climbing for about five minutes, but in reality, we were only halfway there. Sheesh. Will we ever get to the top?

Finally, as I began to think my heart was going to literally pound its way out of my chest from all the adrenaline I had, we reached the top. Monumental. I looked around and could see clearly the Rangers' Ballpark in Arlington, a local hotel, and nothing but air. Suddenly my stomach was tickled and I screamed as we made a rapid, 85-mph descent into a long, dark tunnel. We were suddenly back in the air again as the cars took a U-turn then dipped again, careening us into a mangled-looking maze of track. 4 G's and two spirals later, we were back into the station.

The ride for which I had waited literally months to take on had ended. My adrenaline turned into endorphins as I exited the train and couldn't help but to jump up and down to release some of it. While the ride of my life was over, the rush was not. I had tackled the long-anticipated Titan, and it was everything I thought it would be, and then some.

There is something about roller coasters which has basically made me gaga. What it is exactly I can't quite put my finger on but whatever it is, I feel the bug to ride again beginning to wiggle inside me. Being pregnant last year knocked me clean off the riding roster, as did a chicken of a husband. And while K doesn't like roller coaseters, he is occasionally generous enough to get on one with me. The Titan was no exception. At over two centuries tall and breathtaking speeds, it had certainly proved its worthiness.

A roller-coaster fanatic friend of mine posted on Facebook about this Intimidator in Virginia this morning and it brought back the golden memories of the many adrenaline rushes I have lived through to tell about. But this thing appears to live up to its name- at over 300 feet tall and lashing speeds of over 90 miles per hour, it's definitely no joke, but I look very forward to the prospect of conquering it. One day.

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