A Loooonnnngg "Amusing" Story (I hope)

Gee it’s been over 10 years!

Since visiting a local amusement park here in Des Moines. The children and I used to visit Adventureland yearly as opposed to the famous Iowa State Fair which was approximately three times as expensive.

A fellow church member and friend invited me to go visit Adventureland as she had gotten some discount tickets and was taking her children and friends. After accepting the offer, I called my “Little” (from Big Brothers/Big Sisters, and off we went for a day at the Amusement Park.

I was pretty content with the idea of taking my “little” after all “she will have the other kids to go on rides with her” I thought. Upon arrival, the three other youth decided they wanted to go their separate ways. My little, being quite shy wanted to stay with me. Well, so much for my plan of having the other kids join her on “scary” rides, which left only me to accompany little “Rach” as I call her. But wait, first of all I asked her if she liked the roller coaster and she said “yes.” I thought I used to ride it years ago but I think they have built bigger ones since I was there last, so with my quick thinking I asked the other kids to meet us at a certain place at 3:00pm to go on the roller coaster with Rach. Whew! I thought that takes care of the one ride. I want this young lady to have a great time and it’s my duty to see that it happens. Up above us were people riding high in the air in those bench like seats that move way up in the air over the park. “Well that looks sort of harmless,” even though there is a fear of heights going on here. “Remember Sharon I thought, you must have faith in God and he is not going to let anything happen to you,” so up, up, up we went way up over the whole park (it felt like flying in a plane). “Is this scary?” I bravely asked Rach. She said yes, I’ve never been on this before. Even though I closed my eyes most of the way, I tried to act as though I wasn’t afraid. At the end of the ride, I was relieved. The next ride was on a boat like log that goes way up (like a roller coaster). “Looks harmless to me,” I thought. We got in a very long line and it seemed as though we waited an hour, all the time, I was content until it was our turn. “Rach.” do you want to sit in the front seat, I half-way teased.” “No” she said. Since there was room for approximately two other people and there were two girls behind us waiting to ride, I offered to let them ride with us (thinking they would take the front seat) but while I was trying to convince them to ride with us, I almost missed the boat (pun intended). So again, up, up, up we went. “Oh this isn’t that bad” I thought, but then we got to the ultimate high loop. I looked up and all I could see was up. “Steady yourself girl -- it’s just a ride.” Dowwwwwwnnnnn we went -- splash! Water got all over me. It felt and looked as though I wet my pants. “Oh, that was a breeze.” We decided to walk around a little when we came upon a ride that looked perfectly harmless. “Let’s get on this ride, okay?” I bravely said to her. “This swings back and forth like a swing -- no biggie.” We began to watch the riders ahead of us. “Oh no!” This ride keeps going up further and further -- how am I going to get out of this one without looking like a wimp?” I turned and asked Rach would she mind going on the ride without me if someone would let her ride with them. To my surprise, she said “yes,”and enjoyed the ride. After that we ran into the other kids. They accompanied her the rest of the time, but guess what? Noone wanted to ride the roller coaster -- we all turned out to be wimps. ha, ha What a day! It was quite enjoyable and the weather was perfect. Thanks to God