vikingshadow
06-07-2006, 03:10 PM
Long story short - my youngest daughter sold a BUTT load of Girl Scout Cookies (top seller) so she helped her troop win a trip to Six Flags over Texas. To make it even better, the day we went was my youngest daughter's birthday! Well, the trip was this weekend, and man, am I beat!
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Our local paintball field and Catalyst held a beginner's tournament Sunday morning and had about 8-9 teams show up - I was a little upset because I helped in the very beginning planning stages, but since I quit the team, I've been really left out of the loop and didn't get to participate in any way, shape or form of it, but went out there to watch it anyways. It was a decent turn-out and was kind of fun. I had to leave early because I was leaving for Six Flags at 11:30.
However, if you know anything about the female gender, we ending up leaving town Sunday afternoon about 12:45 :rolleyes: and drove about an hour and a half to another town to eat lunch at McDonald's - makes no sense to me at all....since we have one in our own town. Took about an hour with all those girls.
Well, I was told I had to lead the whole pack of vehicles, which would have been ok, but they wanted to take this weird route there that added about two hours to the trip, but I drove about 80 the whole way, nearly losing them a couple of times! We pull into Arlington at about 7:20 and ALL the girls decide they MUST go to the restroom IMMEDIATELY!!! So I pull into this station to let them go and try to figure out where I was - I've been to Arlington to a Rangers game, but never driven there or in the city....I was feeling pretty lost at that time!
So, I talk to the guy behind the counter since the map is just a jumble of lines and find out we're like two minutes from the road we're supposed to be on! I was totally lost and it was like a major rush hour (Texas needs to put a few more road signs up - I was lost from about Rhome on because the only highway signs were about 10 miles apart and very small! In Arlington/Ft. Worth, forget about it! Oklahoma people, it's like driving in Tulsa - no exit signs anywhere except like 20 feet from the actual exit!)
So the girls decide they want to eat at Quizno's there at that gas station (I know - drive 500 miles to eat in a cruddy little food place in a gas station :rolleyes: after eating the ENTIRE trip in the car - we're still vacuuming food out of our car seats....). They had one worker there, and we had close to 50 people....do the math - another hour and a half...by the time the last girl got her food, the first ones had been finished for close to 30-40 minutes and were ready to go...Fun, you betcha!
Ok, so we finally get loaded and head off to find the hotel - no address, mind you, just a Motel 6 somewhere near 6 Flags - not sure if it's close, or far, but somewhere near it. (Can you tell I was a little hacked at the girl scout leader for being totally unprepared???) We find 6 Flags and the girls are all excited - but it's about 9:00, I've been driving for close to 8 hours due to road construction and this screwed up route the leader wanted to take....and NO Motel 6 in sight anywhere! We drive for several blocks and don't see it, so we turn around and I say "Screw it. We're asking for directions." The GS leader has NO clue, BUT she has a phone number, but doesn't want to pay for roaming charges! :rolleyes: I pull into ANOTHER gas station and we ask this homeless dude where it's at - turns out it's in a totally different direction and a few miles down the road - like we would have found it.
So, at 9:15, we're pulling into Motel 6. We get our rooms and the girls want to go swimming - ok, fine. About 10:30, I'm FINALLY dropping into bed....and I was pissed because I never sleep well in hotels. I ended up sharing a room with my oldest daughter (thank goodness! The other choice was these two other guys....yech!) Well, I have a wife and two daughters and it takes them a while to get around, so 6:00 rolls around and since we all planned on going out to eat breakfast at 8:30, I had to listen to them and several of the older scouts whine about it being too early.
So, we're finally ready! I'm thinking IHOP, but everyone else says Denny's. So I settle for a big bowl thing...then it's off to 6 Flags! Whooot!
It was pretty cool! First thing we did was buy the Flash Pass thing...I had my four and another girl in my group (5 total) so it cost me 90.00. This is a really good idea for those of you going to 6 Flags...it let's you cut to the front of the line, instead of waiting 3 hours in line. Really good idea! Except, we didn't stand in line all day long. We actually ran through a lot of lines because they just weren't that busy! Didn't use the pass once - 90.00 down the drain!
Let's see - first stop was Spongebob Squarepants in 4D ride....pretty fricking fun! I thought it was going to be a kiddie ride, but it was really neat! We wore these 3D glasses and watched/followed Spongebob chasing this pickle all over the place....while the seats rocked and jerked and moved all over the place. I highly recommend it for fun!
Then in was the Wildcatter - formally known as the Cliffhanger. It takes you like 10 stories to the top in a car that holds four, then moves you out about 5 feet in the open. Then DROPS you straight down where you end up laying down at the end. After pulling my butt out of my throat, it was pretty fun, but it scared the heck out of my oldest daughter...
Then the Texas Tornado (which was really tame), the Crazy Legs, then some various kid type rides. Then we hit the Runaway Mine Train which was awesome. The kids liked it so much, we rode it like 4 times! After lunch, we hit a couple of shows, then hit this crooked house thing. All you did was really just walk through it, but it made a lot of people sick! We took a train from 1906 around the park, then rode some other younger kid-type rides. We hit the boat thing that swings back and forth and then watched as a few other kids got sick.
It was sooo hot, we ended up leaving the park around 6:00 and heading back to the hotel and the girls ended up swimming again. All and all, not a bad day. Tuesday, we separated and my family went a different route back to OKC using a much QUICKER route, where we spent the afternoon running around a mall and eating real food! Got home yesterday around 6:30, and my oldest daughter had a softball game.
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On a side note - I saw the 6/6/06 post and listen to this! Yesterday, I watched a girl get her arm broken during that game - it was totally gruesome. The catcher chased down a lose ball and dove for the plate but the runner didn't slide and stepped on her arm and snapped both bones in it...nasty break. As a parent, and I was this girl's teacher a couple years ago and she was one of my favorites - it made my stomach turn....
I also happened to look over at the other field next to us in time to see ANOTHER girl get her finger broken...and then another girl on my oldest daughter's team got her thumb smashed, but she played with it hurt....I'm not superstitious, but almost pulled my daughter from the game. We ended up losing 8-7...:(
************************************************** ******
Our local paintball field and Catalyst held a beginner's tournament Sunday morning and had about 8-9 teams show up - I was a little upset because I helped in the very beginning planning stages, but since I quit the team, I've been really left out of the loop and didn't get to participate in any way, shape or form of it, but went out there to watch it anyways. It was a decent turn-out and was kind of fun. I had to leave early because I was leaving for Six Flags at 11:30.
However, if you know anything about the female gender, we ending up leaving town Sunday afternoon about 12:45 :rolleyes: and drove about an hour and a half to another town to eat lunch at McDonald's - makes no sense to me at all....since we have one in our own town. Took about an hour with all those girls.
Well, I was told I had to lead the whole pack of vehicles, which would have been ok, but they wanted to take this weird route there that added about two hours to the trip, but I drove about 80 the whole way, nearly losing them a couple of times! We pull into Arlington at about 7:20 and ALL the girls decide they MUST go to the restroom IMMEDIATELY!!! So I pull into this station to let them go and try to figure out where I was - I've been to Arlington to a Rangers game, but never driven there or in the city....I was feeling pretty lost at that time!
So, I talk to the guy behind the counter since the map is just a jumble of lines and find out we're like two minutes from the road we're supposed to be on! I was totally lost and it was like a major rush hour (Texas needs to put a few more road signs up - I was lost from about Rhome on because the only highway signs were about 10 miles apart and very small! In Arlington/Ft. Worth, forget about it! Oklahoma people, it's like driving in Tulsa - no exit signs anywhere except like 20 feet from the actual exit!)
So the girls decide they want to eat at Quizno's there at that gas station (I know - drive 500 miles to eat in a cruddy little food place in a gas station :rolleyes: after eating the ENTIRE trip in the car - we're still vacuuming food out of our car seats....). They had one worker there, and we had close to 50 people....do the math - another hour and a half...by the time the last girl got her food, the first ones had been finished for close to 30-40 minutes and were ready to go...Fun, you betcha!
Ok, so we finally get loaded and head off to find the hotel - no address, mind you, just a Motel 6 somewhere near 6 Flags - not sure if it's close, or far, but somewhere near it. (Can you tell I was a little hacked at the girl scout leader for being totally unprepared???) We find 6 Flags and the girls are all excited - but it's about 9:00, I've been driving for close to 8 hours due to road construction and this screwed up route the leader wanted to take....and NO Motel 6 in sight anywhere! We drive for several blocks and don't see it, so we turn around and I say "Screw it. We're asking for directions." The GS leader has NO clue, BUT she has a phone number, but doesn't want to pay for roaming charges! :rolleyes: I pull into ANOTHER gas station and we ask this homeless dude where it's at - turns out it's in a totally different direction and a few miles down the road - like we would have found it.
So, at 9:15, we're pulling into Motel 6. We get our rooms and the girls want to go swimming - ok, fine. About 10:30, I'm FINALLY dropping into bed....and I was pissed because I never sleep well in hotels. I ended up sharing a room with my oldest daughter (thank goodness! The other choice was these two other guys....yech!) Well, I have a wife and two daughters and it takes them a while to get around, so 6:00 rolls around and since we all planned on going out to eat breakfast at 8:30, I had to listen to them and several of the older scouts whine about it being too early.
So, we're finally ready! I'm thinking IHOP, but everyone else says Denny's. So I settle for a big bowl thing...then it's off to 6 Flags! Whooot!
It was pretty cool! First thing we did was buy the Flash Pass thing...I had my four and another girl in my group (5 total) so it cost me 90.00. This is a really good idea for those of you going to 6 Flags...it let's you cut to the front of the line, instead of waiting 3 hours in line. Really good idea! Except, we didn't stand in line all day long. We actually ran through a lot of lines because they just weren't that busy! Didn't use the pass once - 90.00 down the drain!
Let's see - first stop was Spongebob Squarepants in 4D ride....pretty fricking fun! I thought it was going to be a kiddie ride, but it was really neat! We wore these 3D glasses and watched/followed Spongebob chasing this pickle all over the place....while the seats rocked and jerked and moved all over the place. I highly recommend it for fun!
Then in was the Wildcatter - formally known as the Cliffhanger. It takes you like 10 stories to the top in a car that holds four, then moves you out about 5 feet in the open. Then DROPS you straight down where you end up laying down at the end. After pulling my butt out of my throat, it was pretty fun, but it scared the heck out of my oldest daughter...
Then the Texas Tornado (which was really tame), the Crazy Legs, then some various kid type rides. Then we hit the Runaway Mine Train which was awesome. The kids liked it so much, we rode it like 4 times! After lunch, we hit a couple of shows, then hit this crooked house thing. All you did was really just walk through it, but it made a lot of people sick! We took a train from 1906 around the park, then rode some other younger kid-type rides. We hit the boat thing that swings back and forth and then watched as a few other kids got sick.
It was sooo hot, we ended up leaving the park around 6:00 and heading back to the hotel and the girls ended up swimming again. All and all, not a bad day. Tuesday, we separated and my family went a different route back to OKC using a much QUICKER route, where we spent the afternoon running around a mall and eating real food! Got home yesterday around 6:30, and my oldest daughter had a softball game.
************************************************** ********
On a side note - I saw the 6/6/06 post and listen to this! Yesterday, I watched a girl get her arm broken during that game - it was totally gruesome. The catcher chased down a lose ball and dove for the plate but the runner didn't slide and stepped on her arm and snapped both bones in it...nasty break. As a parent, and I was this girl's teacher a couple years ago and she was one of my favorites - it made my stomach turn....
I also happened to look over at the other field next to us in time to see ANOTHER girl get her finger broken...and then another girl on my oldest daughter's team got her thumb smashed, but she played with it hurt....I'm not superstitious, but almost pulled my daughter from the game. We ended up losing 8-7...:(