First Time Riding A Log

Summer Saturdays are somewhat scarce in Calgary, so you have to make the most of them. For us, Saturday morning means a trip to Calaway Park, the amusement park just outside of the city. For Scott, this place is heaven on earth.



We have season passes to the park and we follow a very simple strategy: arrive early, leave early. We show up at 10:00 am when the place opens and we hit the rides hard for about 90 minutes before we take off. That way, we hardly wait in any lines and we don't have to shell out any cash for high-priced cotton candy sandwiches or whatever else they might have on the menu.

On one particular day this summer, we came through the gates and walked by Calaway's signature ride -- the "Shoot the Chutes" log ride and saw that there was absolutely no one in line yet. Typically, people wait HOURS for their turn to sit in boat shaped like a log and skim their way down a long sluice into a water-filled channel, sending huge sprays of water all over everything and everyone... twice. I asked Scott if he wanted to go on the ride with me and he said yes without really thinking. Before he could reconsider, we were running down the steps and onto the damp seats.



With me seated in the back and Scott nestled in front of me, we immediately began the first upward climb. Sensing his discomfort with the dramatic angle of our ascent, I explained to him that the log was just going up high and that it's not supposed to be scary. I had assumed that at the top of the climb we would slide into a short channel before starting the big drop down.

I was wrong.



At the top of that first climb you IMMEDIATELY and ABRUPTLY pitch forward and drop down a steep slope into a cloud of your own spray. I had been talking Scott through the climb, but I was taken completely off-guard by the drop... and so was he. Once we slowed down and the boat started to turn around towards the next climb, Scott said in a panicked voice, "I want out right now!". Just then I was reading a yellow sign that said, "DO NOT CLIMB OUT OF THE BOATS." R snapped this picture of us coming around th bend when Scott was still pretty freaked out, and I was breaking the news to him that he's have to go through one more drop before the fun could be over. Rather than wave for the camera, he kept his hands firmly clamped on the handrails.


[Click on Picture to View Video]

Once Scott had resigned himself to his fate, he was pretty good. I told him to do lots of screaming and that seemed to help him out. You can hear him screaming in the video. But no matter how much he screamed, he still got a wave of water in the face, which he didn't like very much. However, he still managed a bit of a wave to the camera, perhaps because he knew the experience was almost over.



It's much easier to smile when you know you are back on terra firma.



When asked, he would not agree to go back on the ride anytime soon. He said something about waiting until he was a daddy. Anyways, the rest of the day was easy compared to that first big ride.