Rollercoasters. I used to love rollercoasters. I loved Magic Mountain with Viper, Colossus, Revolution, Superman and all of the crazy coasters that they had there. The higher the drops, the more twists, the more time upside down, the better. And then somehow I got old and I don’t really like rollercoasters anymore. Or, I guess more accurately, my body doesn’t really like rollercoasters anymore.

Sometime about when Zac was born, rollercoasters started making me feel not quite right. I’d get a headache, my stomach would feel queasy, and/or I’d feel tired. Nothing horrible, but it was enough to put me off of rollercoasters. So, when we would go to Knotts Berry Farm, when everyone else would go on a rollercoaster, I’d sit and wait. It’s always a bummer, but it was uncomfortable, so I wouldn’t ride them. So, today we went to Knotts and I was going to ride all of the rollercoaster that everyone else went on – no complaining. I wanted to have a fun time and I wanted the boys (and Andrew my nephew who tagged along) to have a fun time.

We started with Silver Bullet. Was feeling fine after that one. Then it was off to Sidewinder. Could feel the pizza that we had for dinner churning in my stomach (no idea why I thought it was a good idea to have Little Ceasar’s pizza and crazy bread before doing this…). Then it was time for funnel cake – because it is ALWAYS a good idea to add fried dough, powdered sugar, and boysenberry sauce stuff to the Little Ceasar’s pizza and crazy bread in an already upset stomach.

Then we all went on the Dragon Swing. That was a mistake. There was one point that I thought I was going to lose my funnel cake. It stayed down, and I think the people that were sitting across from us are very happy that it did. I can’t imagine that the boysenberry sauce stuff would have been very pretty the second time around. I sat down for a few minutes while everyone went on the swings (I don’t usually do spinning rides, and my only goal for tonight was to make it through all of the rollercoasters, so I didn’t feel bad about skipping it). I didn’t complain about anything, I just said, “you guys go ahead.”

I’ll have to admit that I was kind of hoping that it was time to go after that. It was getting a bit late and we had been on quite a few rides – but then I heard the dreaded news that everyone was going on another rollercoaster. Oh boy…

Thankfully, it was just Coast Rider. A totally small, easy rollercoaster. No problem. When the family goes on this one I still ride it, so I wasn’t too worried. I rode with Zac and he was having a blast. He was screaming from the first drop all the way through to the end. I… was not. As soon as we started down the first drop, I thought I was going to throw up (and I haven’t thrown up since I was 10, so it would have been a pretty big deal). Again, thankfully I held it in (barely) and made it through the ride. And I did realize that even though I was fighting to hold down my dinner, I was actually having fun laughing at Zac screaming his head off.

Luckily at this point, it was time to get the boys home. I’m not sure that I could have taken another one, but I did learn some things through the experience. My biggest takeaway is that the effect that rollercoasters have on me totally builds on itself. I was totally fine after the first one, OK after the second, but after that – it was not good. But, now I know that I can ride a rollercoaster or two with Luke (but not three) and that I can still have fun doing it. I also learned that just deciding to ride a rollercoaster doesn’t make it suddenly stop affecting me. But, if I have the right kind of attitude, I can still have fun while I’m riding them even if I’m not feeling so hot because of it.