It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s a Daffy Grandma!

Twelve year old Steven enlarged my horizons yesterday or taught an old duck new tricks—however you want to look at it! On his Grandma Day, we went to Great America—yes, and I do not like roller coasters—especially the drop. So guess where we started—on the Giant Drop! It starts with a 227-foot tower. There you'll settle into an outward-facing, open-air seat with your feet dangling below. Rise 20 stories for a spectacular view of the park-before the seats release and drop you to the ground at 62 heart-pounding miles an hour.

While waiting in a very short line, I wondered if the line was short because it was early in the day? Did others know something that I was unaware of? I just couldn’t believe that all of the other 40,000 people were just wiser? I showed Steven my cell phone. I told him to call 911 and Grandpa in that order if I looked like I was having a heart attack.

On the very long ride to the top, I had an epiphany! I remembered the LaMaze Method! Scary? I know! I have heard that when you are about to lose your mind you start remembering things from a long, long time ago. I told myself to relax, breath, and focus. Then I did a little self talk since I didn’t have a coach. I told myself that I could manage the pain and that it would be short. It totally worked! I think I only had to "hee, hee, hoo" one time and then the worst was over! And at the end, I thought, "That was not bad! I could do that again."

From there we went on rides with such friendly sounding names like The Demon and Raging Bulls! After awhile, I got quite confident and competent. I had another thought that helped, too. I remembered that I have heard that someone that is drunk does not get as hurt in an accident because they don’t anticipate and tense up. So I shut my eyes and tried to be real loose and relaxed, the rides were okay! I was so proud of myself that I even progressed to opening my eyes on some rides!

And then what happened next, totally surprised me! I liked a few rides! They were so much fun! The first time on the Superman ride, Steven reassured me that it would not be a big deal if I puked. Because of our position, strapped in with our stomach and face facing the ground, I wouldn’t get anything on myself and he pointed out that nothing was really under this ride so I wouldn’t mess up anyone else, either. Not to worry! The ride was my absolute favorite. We rode twice and would have loved to have repeated again and again except for the small problem that the other 39, 998 people at the park also liked that ride.


To Steven’s credit, he gave me a pass on three rides—The American Eagle, Vertical Velocity ("V2"), and King Chaos.

I was a Bahama Mama on a water slide and we rode out the ultimate storm in Tornado at Hurricane Harbor which was totally fun! When we needed to rest for a bit, we did a wonderful lazy river type ride that went on and on. Wonderful! We also had a great time in the wave pool.

Unfortunately, it was impossible for me to ride and take photos. Steven, did accommodate me by posing for one Daffy Duck picture. I thought it was an appropriate representation of my day.