Hot Springs, Arkansas: Adams Family Vacation -Day 2

Today we visited Magic Springs and Crystal Falls, an amusement/water park in Hot Springs. We arrived just as they were opening at 11:00 this morning and were in the car headed to the house at 6:00. It was a long, tiring, but really fun day.

We started off this morning riding all of the dry rides in the Magic Springs part of the park. They have a lot of kiddie rides and then we did a few family-friendly bigger rides. Everyone got pretty hungry for lunch and the kids just wanted to get in the water, so we ate lunch and started to cool off in the pool shortly after. Nick had a couple more thrill rides he wanted to do, so I went along with him. The first one he talked himself out of due to safety issues with the restraint system, so we headed over to The Gauntlet, which is one of those coasters where you hang below the track and your feet dangle. 

I didn't really intend to ride it too, as I am not a huge fan of roller coasters and they typically mess with my head and overall well-being pretty good. But he sort of talked me into giving it a try, so I did. I was a nervous wreck once they strapped me into the dangling seat of death. Then we took off, up the first hill that would send us flying, twisting, rolling, upside-down, and around in circles for what felt like 5 minutes, but in reality was probably like 45 seconds. I screamed the entire time and kept my eyes shut for about 85% of the ride. Every time I would try to open my eyes we were upside down or about to hit something before flipping again, and I just couldn't force myself to watch. It didn't keep me from screaming though.

We exited the ride and I felt very funny. Not dizzy, not nauseas....but definitely felt fuzzy, like I was floating almost. Very light. Breathing hard. Dry mouth. I needed water but I couldn't hardly walk up the hill to the water fountain. Nick said I looked drunk or drugged heavily, both of which I think might have been more fun. But I survived, although it took me a good hour to recover from the side effects of that coaster. No more danglers for me.

We joined the others in the wave pool and then spent the afternoon riding water slides and swimming. The kids all had a blast, but by 5:30 or so we were all pretty much done for the day. We changed and headed home to grill hamburgers for supper, and then Jason started enough of a fire that we made s'mores with the kids before everyone showered and headed to bed.