I used to be alone in a crowd

[austin_dern]

Remarkably -- at least, it's remarkable to me, because it didn't feel like so little time had passed -- we had only been at the pier for a few hours by the time we had enjoyed a healthy number of rides and gotten my foot injured. Some of the time passed with activities such as looking at the `Skyscraper' ride, which was not included in the $15-all-day wrist tags, and which was also apparently not open or at least not being ridden. The implication from the large tower was that this was something to bring people up to a great height, possibly quite rapidly, but it would be later in the day that we finally actually saw it moving. It seems to swing the passenger cage up. This gave me good excuse to talk about the Reverse Bungee ride at Singapore's Clarke Quay, and riding it with spaceroo, and bunny_hugger assured me that she would never ride the Reverse Bungee, or other rides in that genre such as Skyscraper. (The web site, which we hadn't studied before going, says it takes one up to 162 feet at 70 mph.)

But after a healthy time sitting on the park benches, in partial shade, after cleaning off my scraped ankle and looking at rides we had ruled out for one reason or other we realized we needed something to drink. The day was getting sunnier and hotter and the logical thing to do was find something to drink. Maybe getting something on the pier would have been better, but we instead walked into the town on the assumption we'd be able to find something probably better and maybe cheaper. So this started out by walking proudly past the water park which is not on the pier, and turning in a couple blocks down. Eventually we settled into a convenience store which, it turned out, was directly across the street from where we had parked. With this additional event quite clearly there was no way we could have problems locating the car again whenever it was our day did come to an end. But the important thing is we got some fluids into us and cooled down a bit, and we were ready to explore more of the pier.

Trivia: Although the games organized for the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900 were identified by Pierre de Coubertin as the Second Olympic Games, the games did not claim to be Olympics, and the name was not used in any contemporary documents or advertisements. Source: Encyclopedia of the Modern Olympic Movement, Editors John E Findling, Kimberly D Pelle.

Currently Reading: The Arms of Krupp, 1587-1968, William Manchester.

Comments

[orv.livejournal.com]

I love roller coasters but I absolutely refuse to ride vertical drop type rides.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I am the same with that. It causes me to get made fun of by my coastering partner, but I'm not likely to give in.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, there's naturally going to be different levels of comfort with different types of rides. There's clear differences between even a good steady diagonal drop and a direct plunge toward the ground, for example.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

Oh, but I ride vertical drop coasters, and ones with "greater than vertical drops," without any problem. Top Thrill Dragster (http://www.rcdb.com/ig1896.htm?picture=27), for instance. Actually, I admit that I find that one to be scary enough that it's hard to get myself to ride it (though I have done twice), but it's the launch that frightens me and not the drop. By the time it gets to the drop I'm so relieved that the launch is over that I hardly notice it. I just can't bear the "freefall" types of rides where you sit in a chair and get lifted to the top of a tower. (Actually, many of the modern ones thrust downward -- hence are faster than freefall.) I have no problem riding the kind that blast upward, peculiarly, even if they go up just as high.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a slightly more general sort of difference, I suppose. But a phobia isn't going to be perfectly rational, and obviously there's something in the context of a roller coaster that makes the height less alarming than a simple freefall would be.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I don't have much reason to ride roller coasters, although the direct vertical drop ones terrify me. I don't even ride them on Roller Coaster Tycoon.