Annie's Amazing Blog

“Are you sure we should do it?” Thoughts flew through my mind a thousand
miles per hour. I was at White Water for my friend Chloe’s 11^th
birthday. We had done a bunch of brilliant rides like Dragon Tails, Bahama
Bobsled, and a ton more.  Anyways, we had
done all the rides we wanted to except for . . .  the Tornado. I was with Chloe, Lily, and
Allie and we were having a blast. I wanted to ride the Tornado so badly but I was
also a little scared. Chloe, Allie, and I were the only ones who wanted to ride
it. Lily, well we had to convince her.

The Tornado is probably
the scariest ride in White Water. It is the big ‘go to’ ride, meaning when you
go to White Water that’s the ride you want to go on. Everyone in the park wants
to go on it. It is so fast-paced and thrilling, but it also gives mixed feelings.
You’re so excited to go on it, but also you are pretty frightened by the fact
that you are on a cone shaped ride drifting up and down the walls.

Mrs. Park had gotten us Flash Passes so we
didn’t have to wait in line. Because as I said this is probably the most
popular ride so the line is VERY long. When time was up we all were walking
bravely over towards the ride. We grabbed a tube. Allie and I blurted, “Thanks”
to the person handing out the tubes and we walked towards the stairs. Once we
got there Chloe, Allie and I were so eager. We sang out “We are going to ride
the Tornado, and it rocks!” Well at least we were thinking that. I’m not so
sure our facial expressions gave that one away. When we had gotten half way up
the stairs I glanced at Lily and she was looking down. Oh great, she’s looking
down and we are up pretty high. Finally, Lily peeped, “Guys, I don’t want to do
this anymore. I really don’t, please, let’s just not go.”

Chloe complained,
“Really Lily? We are already up here!”

Allie shouted,
“Lily, come on, it’ll be fun!”

Lily shook her
head while a nice couple who had been helping us carry our tube (which was
double the size of us) said, “It’s okay and not as bad as you would think. We
have done this so many times I can’t count.”

Lily said, “Okay
guys, I’ll do it.” All three of us jumped up and down and hugged her.

I looked up, uh-oh, we were only three tubes
away.  The butterflies in my stomach
turned into cats trying to scratch their way out. I was having a huge bowl of
emotion soup. One minute I was so amazed and excited then the next I was trying
to find a way out of this. I finally blurted, “I’m so scared, are y’all sure we
should do it?” Well it was too late for any turn arounds  . . . we were up next. I bit my lip, looked
at my friends, and climbed in. The tube was actually comfy. All four of us
whined to life guard, “Do not put me backwards please, please, please I’m
begging you, put them backwards!” He just gave us an evil you’ll- thank- me-
later grin. Then I turned my head, that grin was for me, I was headed backwards
down a deathly slide, great.  At first
the slide just turned. I was thinking, oh this isn’t so bad. Then all of a
sudden my back was parallel with the ground. I was holding on so tight it would
have busted someone’s hand open in a heartbeat.
Once we got down the slide of terror, the tube drifted from side to side
up and down the curved wall. We were just drifting up and down, up and down. It’s
like time stopped but then it started again and fast. Plop, the water pushed us
out.

I sat there in
the tube and my mind went blank. Had we really just done it? Did we all make it
out alive? Did everyone like it, dislike it? Then I shook myself back to
reality and screamed, “Yeah I did it, I rode the tornado!” Chloe, Allie, and
Lily were all screaming remarks like me.

Then we all
looked at each other and our smiles were ear to ear big. We jumped out of the
tube and swam over towards the steps. There was a huge party going on in our
heads. We all hugged each other and were almost doubling over in joy. We were
all so overwhelmed we just kept talking about how breath-taking it was and
hugging each other.

Allie and I
blurted out at Lily, “We told you, we told you it was going to be awesome.” She
nodded and her smile was a mile long. We all made comments about the ride.

Allie shouted,
“That was so much fun! I want to go again!”
Chloe sang out,
“I did it, I love the Tornado!”                                                                                                       Lily
screeched, “Thanks guys for pushing me to do it. It was so awesome!”

I bellowed, “I’m
so happy that we did it. I can’t believe that we were scared.”

We walked
towards Mrs. Park and we were jumping up and down with joy. Mrs. Park exclaimed,
“Girls that was so scary looking! Did y’all have fun?”

We all spat out,
“Yes, totally, yeah it was awesome!”  We laughed,
smiled and thought about how amazing that was.

We
turned around looking at the people in line, nervously clenching their tubes and
excitedly telling each other that they weren’t afraid. Then we looked at the
people about to go, one or two tubes next, grabbing each other’s hands preparing
for the ride glad as they could be. Finally, we looked at the real thing,
people shooting out the slide plummeting towards the curved cone drifting up
and down, up and down, screaming with delight. Then, plop, they are shot out
before even realizing they are done.

I
mentioned, “Now that I think about it, I only remember two parts of that whole
ride. Being shot out the slide being parallel with the ground and one time we
went up the side of the cone.”

“Yeah, that was
so fast I only remember those two parts also,” laughed Chloe.                               Lily and Allie
both agreed that the Tornado was so fast but super awesome.

While
we walked back to the locker to get our stuff we shined with pride and glory,
WE DID IT! We wear so proud you might as well have thought we just won a Grammy!
We got our stuff from the lockers and sashayed over to the car. Chloe screamed,
“That was such a great birthday present! I love White Water so much!” We all
nodded and agreed with her. Then we all just busted out laughing while running
over to our car. Then we all hugged one last time and hopped in the car. Once
we pulled out we all of a sudden got quiet and turned around we just looked at
the park in awe. This place is AMAZING!

1.    chlpa1213 11.10.11 @ 5:30 pm      

   Wow! Annie you did a great job of describing that day! It was thrilling and we all definitely felt daring! I love the way you told it! We probably said those exact words that day! It was like you were taking me back to this summer ( and who would not want to go back to the summer and back to their birthday! Great job!