The Ride of My Life!

     In July, my husband, some friends, and I went to Branson, Missouri, to shop for Christmas presents at the outlet malls. I know… I start my Christmas shopping really early. Anyway, Friday when we got off work, we headed out to begin our journey. I love going to Branson, but I hate riding in the car for any period of time longer than 30 minutes. By the time we arrived in Branson, I was starving. Our friends, my husband, and I all decided to eat at this great restaurant, Charlie’s. We always make it a point to eat at Charlie’s before returning home. They have the best baby back ribs that I have ever eaten.

     Next, we went to the hotel to check in and unload our luggage. The hotel had two different swimming pools: one inside and one outside. Our friends brought their two children along and the children decided it would be fun to go swimming since it was extremely hot outside. A cold dip in a pool always cools me down. We all decided to swim in the indoor swimming pool. As we were swimming, we noticed this sling-shot sort of thing flying into the air about a mile away. We kept watching this thing fly into the air and then return back to the ground again. One of our friends said, “Wouldn’t that be so fun to ride?” My husband thought our friend was crazy because my husband is extremely afraid of heights. I told our friend that I would ride this ride with him if he wanted to ride it. He immediately agreed and we jumped out of the pool to go get dressed.

    Once we got dried off and dressed, we decided to go up the strip and check this ride out. We pulled into a parking lot that included two go-kart tracks, miniature golf, a child’s train on a motorized track, and the ejection seat ride. As soon as we got out of the car, the ejection seat flew into the air as if it were a bullet soaring into the sky. We went to get tickets to ride on the ejection seat. As we watched other people fly into the air, holding on as tight as they could, we became more excited and more scared at the same time. The line we were waiting in kept getting shorter and shorter. My heart started to pound in my chest as if it might explode. I told our friend, Jerry, who was going to ride the ejection seat with me, that I felt my stomach knotting up. He was sweating profusely and I could tell he was scared.

     Finally, it was our turn to get in the ejection seat. The male ride attendant advised me to cross my arms so he could strap me in. He strapped the harness across my chest and the straps around my ankles. Then, he strapped Jerry in and I knew it was time. The ride attendant lifted up the ejection seat a little bit, which scared the crap out of me. I was laughing hysterically because that is what I do when I am scared. Jerry was talking so fast that I could not even understand him. Three, two, one, BAM! We were off! We soared into the air. I kept my eyes shut all the way up until we started to fall face first to the ground. I opened my eyes for approximately one second and all I could see was the entire city of Branson. Jerry and I were cursing like sailors; we were terrified! We kept bouncing up and down in the sky until the bouncing finally slowed down. I knew the ride was over. It lasted approximately three minutes, even though it seemed like an hour. As the ride attendant returned the ejection seat to the ground, I let out a giant sigh. Once we got off the ride, Jerry asked me if I wanted to ride again and I replied, “Oh yeah!” I thought to myself, “Oh, here we go again!”