Carowinds Day part the Third

So I hadn't really thought this through but for some reason I thought that Jackie would like the chance to ride rides alone like the weirdos that work at Carowinds do once they get off of work. Alas it's not that she was against it as much as she said well I don't mind going along and also we ate at Cici's Pizza while we were out. I don't even think I had ever eaten at Cici's before but if I did I had vaguely bad memories of it. But this one was good, I had like like 5 or six little slices of Italian meat pizza and then a slice of sausage and pepperoni . There was some deal I got for being a Carowinds employee that I didn't know but I had to take out my ID card to get to the debit card and the guy saw that. I'll take it. Needless to say like just about every other contest we had on the day (barring the hotness contest which I'm willing to concede) I ate the most pizza. Then we hustled to uptown Charlotte then over to my moms job, we picked her up, stopped at the grocery store and dropped her off at home to continue on our merry way.

Once we got back we made the mistake of going on Rip Roarin' Rapids a ride that boasts "Caution: You will get wet, you may get soaked". Whelp I figure there's not that great of a chance so we get on which we had decided to do before we left, and of the six people on the raft I got it the worst. Jackie got it the second worst and those other 4 didn't get anything. Worst part was I was the only person wearing socks and shoes, damn you hippies, but I did clip her flip flops a couple of times getting into and out of rides.

After taking the time to squeeze the water out of my socks and shirt we went and got our faces painted. I was only willing to get as much done as Jackie who was going first, if she got something that was full faced I would have as well but then she got this:

Blows the mind huh, only problem is the T-Rex looks more depressed then fierce or at least just really unsure about her future. It's pink so I think it's safe to assume it's a lady. As for me it was a little more difficult to choose one. There was a baseball but that was just to much as far as how much face is takin up by it, like I said Jackie got the T-Rex so I was looking for something that could take up a similar amount of space. All I really had going for me was this:

As you can see there are unfortunately some downsides to being black, mostly in the face/body painting arena, this isn't the first time I've been disappointed. Settle in kids story time. Back in my Freshman year at State me and the guys I lived with on my floor decided to get painted up for a Thursday night game against Clemson. Just about everyone else was white or light skinned and we wanted to spell out "Go NC State Wolfpack", lets just say we had to pick up two random guys to finish but we got it done. Anyway, once we slapped the paint on me I quickly noticed that I was turning orange not red, did I mention we were playing Clemson, you should google Clemson Tigers and see what comes up. Anyway I know that most likely this Dragon of awesome power would not show up all that well and he didn't. You can't even see the fire he was spitting over my left eye.

So anyway we go strutting off from the face painting lady and the stares come but really who cares, those losers wouldn't know cool if it slapped them in the face. We went back towards Vortex but we didn't ride instead we went to Ricochet. I had only ridden it once before and I think that twice is enough. It's not high or steep, it's built for kids but it has sharp turns and pretty good drops but yeah it is exciting just not for me or apparently Jackie either. Then we went to the Hurler again it was rougher this time. I actually got thrown around this time and down the first hill and around the turn I may have hit Jackie, with my elbow, to the back of her neck. We basically doubled back and rode everything else again.

In Scooby's Haunted Mansion, I won again. But it was closer, from the back seat I was much worse or Jackie was just that much better. I was more equal so I think sitting in the front makes a difference. We rode T-Road again 2 times in a row then went up to After Burn again where my friend Derek was working, Here's Derek and Me:

I guess I should say "was working" I was shocked and saddened to learn that basically on the next day he was fired along with someone else I worked with. But it was good to see Derek cause since he was working at a different ride I didn't see him basically at all. We rode After Burn probably 3-4 times until someone was in our line then we skidaddle back to Kiddie land, which I have to admit as a guest in the park it is surprisingly fun.

We went and got some water and waited in line for the Phantom Flyers and took this picture:

It's sad T-Rex getting a drink of water and I'm not quite sure whats wrong with Jackie... constipation??..concentration?? I can never get a full read on the girl. The Flyers seemed, surprisingly enough, just as dangerous and therefore fun as the first time. Then we rode the Merry-Go-Round.

I jumped on a black stallion that was named (by me) "Peanut" because it was awesome and it happened to be next to the one Jackie was on.



Good times were had by all at the merry go round but the best ride for taking pictures on while going was the Flying Dutchmans revenge Featuring a whole lot of us. For the sake of brevity,(brevity? you've had two complete posts and now this monstrosity of a post why stop now) I'm just gonna dump the rest of the pics at the end of the post. Anyway by this time in the day it was 7:30 and we wanted to go out at least riding semi grown up rides so we jumped on Thunder Road for another 2-3 trips then the Yo-yo a swing like ride that flings you around, before wrapping up on the Bumper Cars. I was called back into service to push the cars and end the day then we left bought a cork gun, then I dropped Jackie off at her car and we went our separate ways. I went home and it was probably at least an hour until I washed my face and the dragon was gone. After that straight to bed. Good Day.










Also it's slightly hard to tell and I didn't know it until Jackie told me but we were in fact both wearing orange shirts. A fact I didn't know until we had this conversation.
Jackie: "I'm glad I got the memo to wear orange"
Bernard: "Who else has a bunch of orange on?"
Jackie: "Uhh, you do"
Bernard looks at shirt
Bernard: "I guess I do."

The 10:30 Post #16: Carowinds featuring no good pictures part 2!!

Hello again, I think I'll just pick up from where I left off which is now walking towards the area with Thunder Road and After Burn (formerly Top Gun). We considered playing a game cause they had those huge prizes for climbing the rope ladder but I was just not feeling it. Plus it was drizzly and overcast, which is better for keeping the people away and lines short is just a downer until you start moving at great speeds and then that rain is smacking you in the face at 40-50mph. Anyway we moseyed on over to Scooby's Haunted Mansion and went front seat, back seat and play against each other. I crushed Jackie. It wasn't even close but fun. My right hand was over 1000 points and the left was at like 500. Jackie said her guns didn't work so we decided on a rematch later in the day where we would flip and she would sit in the front seat.

So we left and I was fist pumping and we went over towards the bumper cars and rode those good time hit a lot of other people not just Jackie, talked to some of the people that I work with then went up and rode Thunder Road. I kept trying to tell Jackie that the Silver side is way rougher then the Hurler, which it is. Unfortunately only the Blue side was open so no racing and no checking out the roughest ride in the park. We still got a car that was plenty rough and she was impressed. She was upset that one of the trains didn't go backwards but I think it was still fun, I mean I like it so I always have a good time. After we rode that we went to After Burn which she swore was now her favorite ride since they changed Thunder Road and we rode that. It's always fun but I don't know why but it felt faster or maybe it was the constant humidity that made riding it, a sit down dangle your feet style coaster, like pushing through cotton the entire ride it just felt heavy. So that was an interesting sensation.

We ventured to Kiddie Land afterwords and rode something that I had wanted to ride for a while, the Phantom Flyers, these are hard to explain so I'll just show a picture.



This is a bad kind of picture from later in the day when we went back. The first time we rode in the same little car because, we were standing in line behind a group of four and the person working was like "I got 2" I was like sweet and we walked out and there was only one left. So we jumped in. We got high, really really high. We were over the station like above it, the wires were acting a little crazy and there were trees that Jackie wished that they would have cut cause let's be honest they were kind of close. Needless to say I don't really think the ride was built to take a relatively large male or the equivalent of that 2 pygmy adults that weigh like a combined 270. It was a pretty scary ride for adults, probably the funnest one in the park. Plus Jackie admitted to being scared and I was the one driving so I scared her. Good times, we rode the Fairly Odd coaster and Runaway Reptar and Jackie got a Frozen Lemonadem which is apparently her favorite food/drink ever and we rode Sky Tower and then went to lunch at Cici's Pizza. This was the beginning of our mid day break at around 2:40 that included a trip into Charlotte to pick my mom up from work.

The 10:30 Post #15: Carowinds, the one without the pictures

Went to Carowinds yesterday and it was da' bomb as the kids say. I had one extra ticket so Jackie tagged along this post will cover the first half of the day which as the post title implicates, has no pictures.

So we had agreed to arrive at 10:30, a half hour after the park opens. We were to meet at a gas station and then go to a park and ride. Jackie was gonna jump in my car cause parking is $10 and I don't have to pay so you get the point. Needless to say as tradition goes Jackie was late only 10 minutes though, so I went and sat in the Park and ride and she called and eventually we were there. We get in the park and the first thing we ride is the "Vortex" we had considered riding "Nighthawk" but the line was already pretty long and no other rides had lines so we skipped that for the day, which is fine cause I've ridden it once and it wasn't that great. It's a laying down roller coaster so everyone thinks it's the shit but not really. Vortex was however no line and totally awesome. Very fun as always and a good way to start the day. After that we headed to the far end of the park that I kind of imagined we wouldn't spend a lot of time in, the side with the "Hurler", it's the other wooden roller coaster in the park and it was fun. Jackie commented on how much it beats you up and I said the silver side of thunder road is rougher which it is, not to say the Hurler was slow and a easy ride but Silver side of Thunder Road is quicker and rougher.

After that we strolled towards the center and I asked if she wanted to ride "Scream Weaver", which is like a ferris wheel on steroids. She declined so we went on "Carolina Cyclone", big blue if you will, two loops and two other inversions in a horizontal helix setup very fun a good time was had by all. Then we went to "Goldrusher" the oldest coaster in the park and Jackie was excited because the driver was semi-enthused and was saying "choo-choo" as the train was leaving the station for the train before us. He did it when they came back in and I thought it was pretty funny cause as someone who does that I could feel the resignation and sarcasm in his voice. He did it for us and again a good time was had by all.

Then we went to the new ride "Carolina Cobra", Jackie was bummed that Thunder Road doesn't go backwards anymore but I tried to convince it was just as good. As we watched it a walking up to it she was kind of impressed and it was actually funnier as we were on it at the top cause we rode at the back, you're probably up around 130ft before they drop you back through the station and she was kind of giddy. It was entertaining since I'm now immune to roller coasters and don't scream unless I want to. So to see the look in her face and eyes at the top and then again at the end was priceless. This was also the first coaster with a camera that was open so we got to see our pictures for the first time while somewhat panicked. Hee-Larious friend.

You know what this is a lot longer then I thought it was going to be so it's probably going to be 3 posts, two without pictures and the final with cause everything that has happened has happened before around Noon or 1pm and we were there for quite a few hours after that with a trip to uptown Charlotte mixed in.

Quitting day change

Just got back from work and they put up a new schedule for the rest of the month. Funny thing we didn't have a schedule until the end of the first week and now we have a revised one that, wait for it, cuts down on everyones hours for the rest of the month. We used to get just 2 days off a week and now we get a third day off. Hurrah! or not. It also means that I'll be quitting one day sooner than planned because they gave me Thursdays off now. I can deal with that because it's just one day closer. One less day and not just one day but two more days because it's atleast two extra days and could be more depending on what the do for the first 5 days of August but that's it for tonight I'll chat you up in the morning with the 10:30 post