Silverwood

Day 10: Silverwood

Since the theme park didn’t even open until 11AM, we had a relaxing morning at the house. I scrambled up some eggs for folks, and we used up some left over diced ham from our pizza toppings.

I decided to run a few of our clothes through the wash and was amazed by the large capacity washer. I thought I had two loads worth of laundry. I put all of it in and went out to the car to find other stray clothes items to wash. What luxury and convenience! Not sure how much one of those costs, but Debbie and I both decided it was now on our wish list.

The kids played nicely together. One minute swinging on the swing hanging from an old, large, weeping willow, the next minute playing tag in the yard. Finnley even found a bike that fit him well enough to go for a ride. It has been so fun to have more kids join in yesterday and today.

I finally was able to load some pictures into this blog and post an entry. I enjoyed a mug of tea and we visited in the backyard in the cool of the morning, swapping stories about various trips we have taken and enjoyed.

We decided to fire up our little grill and grill some hot dogs for everyone before we headed over to the park. We ate our hot dogs, Pringles, fresh strawberries, and washed it down with the last of the lemonade from our big, blue jug.

We estimated how much we would have spent on that meal in the park, and congratulated ourselves on being so thrifty. Sunscreen was applied, and then we drove over to the park.

First thing, we took a ride on the merry-go-round. There was very little wait, and the kids were all smiles during and after. Then we headed over to the log ride. This ride was short, but fun. We got sufficiently splashed on the drop to cool us off a bit. It is supposed to be upper 80s today, so we are already staking out the ice cream places and water rides.

Next Finn chose an airplane ride. There was no wait and it was Dumbo-level fun for the kids. The adults were too big to ride (Nora barely made it on as she is taller than the rest of the kiddos). We stood in the shade while the kids enjoyed their plane ride.

Next the kids made quick work of a tree fort play area that was for younger guests. Following that, I suggested a ride that goes up in the air and whips around like a more exciting Ferris wheel (that I had been eyeing and thought I’d heard one of the kiddos talking about). However, as everyone began to opt out for various reasons (too long to load, fear of heights, might make me sick, that wasn’t the one I’d been looking at…) I suggested we skip it entirely.

Our family went in search of ice cream for a cool treat. The “single scoop” at the ice cream place was comprised of five regular scoops of ice cream. It was impressive, and Bryan was in a race against the heat to eat it before it melted. Desmond got the junior scoop which was about two regular scoops of ice cream. He chose chocolate chip cookie dough. A boy after my own heart. There were not any non-dairy flavors for me, so I went over to get dipping dots which I had been told, had a dairy, free flavor. The dipping dots were very strange. I had never had them before. The flavor name was rainbow, ice, and they tasted some thing like nerds. They were cold, I will give them that. So cold, in fact, that a spoonful of them tingled painfully in my mouth as they melted.

We made it over to the train ride in time to join our friends before it pulled away from the station. This was a strange mash up of a train ride, show, and fundraiser for charity. The script was not great. It didn’t seem to know what it was about. The speakers above us were quite loud. Looking out it was a toss up whether you would see a real bison chomping on hay, a plastic animal statue, or some form of taxidermy. A few of them moved. Most of them didn’t. The kids seemed to at least be entertained by the wildlife tour, turned hunt for Sasquatch, turned rescue mission, turned shoot ‘em up fight scene, turned charity collection in the guise of a holdup, turned time travel, turned informative tour of the park. I was happy to eat something cold and sit in the shade of the train car.

After deboarding the train, we made our way over to the rides again. Bumper boats had been requested by multiple kids, and so most of us stood in the long, slow line for this admittedly cool attraction. Eight of us rode, two documented the adventure by snapping photos. You get to drive the little motor float boats around. It has a tiny motor like a personal fishing boat, and the outside is a colorful inter-tube. On the same place where you steer the motor, you get to shoot water at other people in their boats. The water goes in a long arc out in front of you. So if you are rushing over to squirt someone (say, your son, just as a for instance) you will quickly pass by where the water is hitting them, and have to turn around, showing your back to your opponent. Desmond took little time in figuring out a solution. By tapping the spray button, you could send little bursts of water out, and they would fall short of the long arc, hitting your opponent up close. Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, I followed suite, adjusting my technique. It was lots of fun.

Following this ride we were looking for something with a shorter line. I found a ride with no line, (“Excuse me, is this ride running?” “Yes.” “And you have no line.” “Correct.”) and sent the four kids in to fly helicopters. That felt like winning after waiting so long for the last ride.

After that we all walked over to the arcade. They are the only place in the park that takes cash. Bryan and I never carry cash anymore. Fortunately, Debbi was pretty sure she still owed us from me taking a little trip into the camper’s village to buy things, so we didn’t have to use the ATM. We turned the ten dollar bill into a bunch of quarters, and set about enjoying ourselves in the arcade. Bryan played pinball machines, Desmond started out with Minecraft Dungeon, and I made my way around traditional games such as Skeeball, PacMan, and Duck Hunt. It was a pretty small arcade as arcades go, but that meant that you could see your whole family with one glance around the oversized room. And there was a fair amount of variety in their offerings. Eventually many of our group ended up around a fishing digital harpoon game as Debbi celebrated winning 500 tickets. I tired of watching the tickets dispensing, went and played another game of PacMan, came back and the game was still spitting the tickets out. I have to admit, it was pretty impressive!

After everyone had fed their tickets back into the ticket collector, and taken their ticket print outs to the counter and decided on their prizes, it was time for an early dinner. We had decided to do this in order to escape the heat of the day. We wandered in to the nearby BBQ place, but it was open air and warm inside, and the food options were limited. We decided to try the only sit down restaurant in the park, Lindy’s. We walked back out near the entrance, and looked at the menu posted in front of the door. The menu items looked tasty. A couple of us also noticed with foreboding that there no prices listed. Oh well. Let’s give it a shot. We went inside and expected a long wait as we asked if they could seat a party of ten. They found us a table across from a booth (which became the children’s table) and had us seated within five minutes of arriving. The service was very good. The food was tasty. And the prices were not at all as astronomical as we would have expected for them not being listed. They were barely more than we would have laid down the way in the fast food BBQ joint. We enjoyed our meal, and lots of ice water and tasty drinks, and were feeling very refreshed when we left.

We walked through the park in the direction of our next adventure, a ride called Thunder Canyon. This is a water ride where up to eight people get strapped in for a raft ride down some rapids. The Jameys sat this one out in order to get some pics of us all, and maybe drop a coin in the slot to spray an extra splash of water on us. More about that, in a bit.

This ride was a ton of fun. We alternated adults and kiddos round the circle in an attempt to even out our weight, and strapped in. The raft was a circle, so it would spin, and different people would get soaked as it crashed down a rapid and the water poured over the sides. This was not a get splashed or sprinkled kind of ride. This was a get completely drenched kind of ride. There were giggles of anticipation, screams of shock, and later, cries of dismay. Finn was not happy about being soaked, and cried loudly. Then all of a sudden he stopped, looking at his shoes in amazement, “My shoes are clean!” He exulted. We all laughed in happy agreement with him. Then he began to cry again. Poor buddy. I left the ride grateful I’d worn my little Mary Jane Crocs, and not socks and shoes as I’d considered. Feeling much as if we’d wet our pants, we waddled away and I began looking for a ride that could serve as a spin cycle to dry me off.

Kids and the other ladies broke off from myself and the guys, and we went to go do some roller coasters. First we did Stunt Pilot… a single rail roller coaster that doesn’t even stop to load and unload. It slows down, of course, but that is it. The line was short and moved quickly. Before we knew it we were speeding along doing loops and feeling the thrill of the ride.

Next I wanted to do a wooden roller coaster. Specifically the big wooden coaster with the Silverwood sign on the side of it that you see from the outside of the park. There was very little wait for that as well. We think our plan of doing an early dinner was paying off at this point. We rode the wooden roller coaster, and I had to agree with Bryan that it was definitely not as smooth a ride as the more modern coasters.

We rejoined the rest of our group, and some of them wanted to do the log ride again. So we split up. Two logs full of the group went on the ride, and the rest of us went to man the spraying stations, to pay a quarter and give their ride an extra thrill. As we waited for Desmond and our friends, Bryan and I spent a few of the quarters still jiggling in my pocket from our time in the arcade to practice our timing by splashing strangers. It was a very diverting way to spend the time waiting for our own friends. I am very curious at how much money they collect in these splash stations across the park. Great idea, whoever came up with it. Our friends did finally come by, and we dropped our quarters to give them an extra thrill on their ride. What fun.