Summer Adventure

Theme Park Tour

I promised a lighter story this time around. I will give a few highlights just to set the stage.

I was a teenage father and got married in high school. My grandfather got me and my wife a one night stay at the Sandpiper Inn Motel across town for our honeymoon. I remember laying awake in that motel bedroom, while my pregnant wife was asleep and freaking out because it dawned on me I might be a grandpa in my thirties.

My first grandchild was born one month after my fortieth birthday and I was not sure how I felt about it. I hated that I was not all that excited about it, but it was just the circumstances that I was not excited about. It was not about actually being a grandpa.

I waited for word for when my daughter was going into labor and raced the five and a half hours to be there when my grandson was born. Still, it had not really set in.

I made regular trips to see my grandson and they even came to Austin once.

It did not take me long to fully embraced being pepaw.

Then my granddaughter came a little over three years later and I take the grandkids on many adventures. The grandkids are now fifteen (in 7 weeks) and the youngest just turned eleven.

Our first pepaw trip of the summer was hitting three theme parks in Texas. I love theme parks. I am first to arrive and last to leave. I typically arrive an hour early to be one of the first ones in. I am not leisurely making my way around at any time. I am still a kid racing to the next ride.

When I was a kid I feel like we always arrived late. We always parked a million miles away and had to have one of those parking lot trams take us to the front of the park. Every time I leave Six Flags in Arlington with the kids, we have to exit at the back of the parking lot and I tell the kids, this is where we always parked when I was a kid. I say this because they often complain about how far my car is at the end of the day and I’m always in this very front section.

Last Monday I was proud to have the first parking place.

This year I bought us all (my daughter, the grandkids and myself) season passes for all Six Flags and Six Flags water parks in the country, that comes with VIP fast lane parking, plus a ton of other discounts and perks. The kids have both a Six Flags theme park and a Six Flags water park near them in Oklahoma City, so they get to hit those as much as they want.

I have such wonderful memories of going to theme parks as a kid. I did not go to many and I do not know who took me to some of those, but they really made an impact.

My first big coaster was Space Mountain at DisneyLand in California. My cousins, who were older than me pressured me into riding it. I was terrified, but that started my love of roller coasters.

This is my sister and I coming back from DisneyLand and stopping at the grand canyon. It is weird to know that it had to be my dad taking this picture since we were traveling just with him.

I remember the magic of the theme parks turning from day to night and how they had employees walking around selling glow necklaces. In the seventies, glow necklaces were a hard thing to get a hold of. They were not in stores. Six Flags was the only place I ever saw these. I cannot tell you how cool a glow necklace was in the seventies. It is impossible to convey what a weird and fantastical thing it was to wear a necklace that glowed. Going to sleep in the car with a glow necklace on and waking up in a bed with a dim glow necklace on was about as good as it got.

Since twenty-twenty theme parks have cut their hours way back and I am not a fan of that. It used to be ten to ten or eleven, now it is eleven to seven during the week and til eight or nine on the weekends. I cannot believe theme parks are closing before dark. That is crazy and in general a giant ripoff, especially for the one-time visitors.

My grandson began loving roller coasters a couple of years ago. Sensing he was ready for the leap, but needed someone to ride with to give him the nudge he needed, I invited two of my friends, Lindsey Verrill and Garett T. Capps to go to Six Flags with us. They could take off with him and I could hang back with the little one.

After about an hour in the park, I texted my friends to see how it was going and they had already ridden two or three big coasters and he was on his way.

This year the youngest has begun to ride a few larger coasters, so I finally get to as well. It has been a long time for me and the last one I had ridden was the Titan at Six Flags Arlington quite a few years ago. My vision got very choppy on that ride and I wondered if that was it for me. I am very happy to find that I do still love them and have not had any more choppy vision. We rode one big coaster ten times last Monday.

I could be a professional family vacation planner. Outside of music and writing, planning family trips is my happy place. I spend a great deal of time researching places, cities, attractions, oddities, etc. I watch videos of the theme parks, I study the map so I have it all in my head. I make giant lists, itineraries, budgets. It starts off as a giant collection of ideas and eventually narrows down to a loose itinerary, like the one below.

I am not sure what other adventures we will do this summer, but I have already begun laying out a plan that involves theme parks, water parks, Caverns, Beach, The Cliff Carver Alpine Coaster in New Braunfels, Screen printing art, t-shirts and making art books.

Here is a scaled down list from this last trip.

Triple theme park summer extravaganza June 29th-July 7th.

Get hotel room DONE Courtyard by Marriot 210-558-7774 Right outside of Six Flags. Has nice pool and outdoor gaming area. Pool is open til 11pm

Back pack with sunscreen, goggles, towels, water bottles, quarters for food machines (to feed flamingos, ducks and fish), bathing suit, sun hat, water shoes, flip flops, portable batteries

Have medium cooler in car for cold drinks and snacks

Research Fiesta Texas layout for me and Pennie

POSSIBLE SUNDAY FILLERS
Ft. Worth Zoo, $55
Meow Wolf Grapevine, $130
Dallas World Aquarium, $80
Sunday night Six Flags, because it is the only night on this trip that they are open into the night time and I want to be there in the dark.

Hours for all three parks for all three days

SIX FLAGS ARLINGTON
11-7 all three days
But Sunday it’s open til 9, so maybe go Sunday night just so we can ride rides in the dark

FIESTA TEXAS, SAN ANTONIO
11-7 and 12-7 for the water park all three days
Wonder Woman coaster gets a long line, maybe hit it early
Rockville area has the pool ball ride Pennie might like
German town has Bugs Bunny white water rapids
Boardwalk has great rides and a medium coaster
DC area has two medium coasters, Batgirl and Kid Flash
Straight ahead from gate is an arcade that does tickets and tokens
To the far left is the boardwalk
To the right of the gate is the water park 

Find something to do Tuesday night after leaving the park. Probably just swimming at the hotel pool and ordering pizza, but maybe Incredible Pizza Company.

SEA WORLD
10:30 - 9 all three days
Seaworld will have the fireworks show at the end.

SUNDAY
Ft. worth Zoo, Meow Wolf, Grapevine Mills Mall/Movie theater, Dallas World Aquarium
7-9 Six Flags

MONDAY
Six Flags Arlington, 11-7
Drive to Austin after (3.5 hours)

TUESDAY
Six Flags San Antonio 11-7 (1.5 hour drive)
Swimming and gaming at hotel after
Order Pizza or go out to eat (Kerbey Lane near hotel)

WEDNESDAY
SeaWorld 10:30-9
Late night dinner
Drive back to Austin after (1.5 hours)

THURSDAY
Fourth of July cookout party
Arts and crafts at shop

FRIDAY
Arts and crafts at shop
Maybe Peterpan golf
Maybe go see Troll in the Park
Go check out SkyLine Park
Go check out the Tree House food trailer court
Game night with friends
Go to Toy Joy

SATURDAY
Pool party in Dallas with friends (3.5 hour drive)
Cookout

SUNDAY
Take them back to Norman, OK or meet mom somewhere (3.5 - 10 hours depending on where we meet)
See some friends in Dallas area til dark
Drive back to Austin (3.5 hours)

Now I am back in Austin, recovering from the trip. I got in around 1am Monday morning. Monday I have begun re-working on a song about childhood trauma and guilt. It is quite a switch, but it also ties in and is just part of the fabric of the real world. I think I might go in the studio and lay down a solo piano version of this song in the next month. Hope you are well out there and get to have some good summer adventures as well. Thank you for reading.

Shout out to Lindsey Verrill and Garrett T. Capps for helping my grandson get over the coaster hump!

P.S. The kids are not too much into taking photos these days, so I did not really take many. I did get this one though!