Once upon a time my family travelled to Wisconsin Dells and stayed at Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park.
When we arrived at the hotel and got our park passes the first thing my Dad said to me was, "Will you take the kids to the park?"
Now I was really tired from the long drive and had almost zero motivation to take anyone anywhere. But I caved under the intense pressure of eager expectations plus parental prodding and down to the park I went with four siblings in tow. Just kidding. My siblings were way ahead of me :).
There was an indoor park which contained the more "childish" rides and a much larger outdoor park full of race tracks and more intimidating rides.
We (I) decided to start small and try some of the indoor stuff before moving on to the "real" rides outside.
The most exciting thing indoors was a small roller coaster with mice for cars and we soon decided that we needed something a little more challenging.
I'm going to focus in on my little brother Daniel for a moment.
Bravest kid ever.
There were three roller coasters outside. Pegasus was the smallest of the three but it was still super fast and fun. My whole family ended up riding Pegasus (even my Dad who hates roller coasters!).
It was not enough for Daniel.
He insisted on moving on to bigger and better and dragged me along to Zeus. As the second biggest roller coaster at this park, Zeus was quite a bit bigger than Pegasus. I was a little bit nervous to try it out but my parents (mostly Mom) insisted that I not let Daniel go it alone. It wasn't so bad and I became a bit addicted to the adrenaline rush I obtained from the experience and rode it at least 3 more times in a row with Daniel.
But the largest coaster remained unridden by the Eiswerth clan...for the first few days at least.
Hades 360 was the largest roller coaster at the park and is known for being the world's first upside-down wooden roller coaster. It also had a drop of 140ft and hit 70mph speed straight down into the world's longest underground tunnel. I did not want to leave this vacation without having conquered Hades at least once. I knew that Daniel would ride with me but, to our dismay, Mom would not allow it. She insisted that herself and Alexander (my oldest brother) come with me to scope it out first.
We began the long trek uphill to ride Hades and it took us about ten or so minutes to reach the entrance. The seats in the cars held only two people and so one of us ended up sitting by herself...
Me, myself, and I sat together...
Alone.
Now I really did not mind all that much because I was too excited to care. Right before the ride began I looked back at my family members and my Mom met me with a facial expression that said I would rather be anywhere but here, while her mouth shouted rather aggressively, "Turn around, you!" So I turned back around with a huge grin across my face and the ride started...
I would describe the ride in excruciating detail but I've decided that I will only mention that the drop was super steep and ferociously fast, the tunnel was literally long and dauntingly dark, and there were a lot of high-pitched screams and panicky breaths coming from the seat directly behind me ;). Then suddenly it was all over.
Mom and Alexander assured me that they were never going on that ride again and then proceeded to act a bit angry toward me for "convincing" them to give it a shot.
The saddest part of the whole trip happened next...
Daniel was waiting with eager anticipation to ride Hades but Mom said, "Sorry Daniel but I don't think it is safe for you to ride that one, I'm afraid you'll slip right out of the seat!" I have to admit that I do support my Mom's concern for her youngest child but I still think I could've taken him with me and held him in place if there was a need for that. Daniel's hopes and dreams were seemingly crushed for a moment at my Mom's words as he hung his head...only to look up seconds later with a gleam in his eyes as he said to me, "Back to Zeus then!"
We rode Zeus at least fifteen times that week.
Out of respect for Daniel, I only rode Hades that one time...
I'd take him on Hades (not to mention also any other roller coaster) anytime because his bravery led me to conquer my slight fear of heights and also to feel the incredible adrenaline rush that roller coasters incite.
When we arrived at the hotel and got our park passes the first thing my Dad said to me was, "Will you take the kids to the park?"
Now I was really tired from the long drive and had almost zero motivation to take anyone anywhere. But I caved under the intense pressure of eager expectations plus parental prodding and down to the park I went with four siblings in tow. Just kidding. My siblings were way ahead of me :).
There was an indoor park which contained the more "childish" rides and a much larger outdoor park full of race tracks and more intimidating rides.
We (I) decided to start small and try some of the indoor stuff before moving on to the "real" rides outside.
The most exciting thing indoors was a small roller coaster with mice for cars and we soon decided that we needed something a little more challenging.
I'm going to focus in on my little brother Daniel for a moment.
Bravest kid ever.
There were three roller coasters outside. Pegasus was the smallest of the three but it was still super fast and fun. My whole family ended up riding Pegasus (even my Dad who hates roller coasters!).
It was not enough for Daniel.
He insisted on moving on to bigger and better and dragged me along to Zeus. As the second biggest roller coaster at this park, Zeus was quite a bit bigger than Pegasus. I was a little bit nervous to try it out but my parents (mostly Mom) insisted that I not let Daniel go it alone. It wasn't so bad and I became a bit addicted to the adrenaline rush I obtained from the experience and rode it at least 3 more times in a row with Daniel.
But the largest coaster remained unridden by the Eiswerth clan...for the first few days at least.
Hades 360 was the largest roller coaster at the park and is known for being the world's first upside-down wooden roller coaster. It also had a drop of 140ft and hit 70mph speed straight down into the world's longest underground tunnel. I did not want to leave this vacation without having conquered Hades at least once. I knew that Daniel would ride with me but, to our dismay, Mom would not allow it. She insisted that herself and Alexander (my oldest brother) come with me to scope it out first.
We began the long trek uphill to ride Hades and it took us about ten or so minutes to reach the entrance. The seats in the cars held only two people and so one of us ended up sitting by herself...
Me, myself, and I sat together...
Alone.
Now I really did not mind all that much because I was too excited to care. Right before the ride began I looked back at my family members and my Mom met me with a facial expression that said I would rather be anywhere but here, while her mouth shouted rather aggressively, "Turn around, you!" So I turned back around with a huge grin across my face and the ride started...
I would describe the ride in excruciating detail but I've decided that I will only mention that the drop was super steep and ferociously fast, the tunnel was literally long and dauntingly dark, and there were a lot of high-pitched screams and panicky breaths coming from the seat directly behind me ;). Then suddenly it was all over.
Mom and Alexander assured me that they were never going on that ride again and then proceeded to act a bit angry toward me for "convincing" them to give it a shot.
The saddest part of the whole trip happened next...
Daniel was waiting with eager anticipation to ride Hades but Mom said, "Sorry Daniel but I don't think it is safe for you to ride that one, I'm afraid you'll slip right out of the seat!" I have to admit that I do support my Mom's concern for her youngest child but I still think I could've taken him with me and held him in place if there was a need for that. Daniel's hopes and dreams were seemingly crushed for a moment at my Mom's words as he hung his head...only to look up seconds later with a gleam in his eyes as he said to me, "Back to Zeus then!"
We rode Zeus at least fifteen times that week.
Out of respect for Daniel, I only rode Hades that one time...
I'd take him on Hades (not to mention also any other roller coaster) anytime because his bravery led me to conquer my slight fear of heights and also to feel the incredible adrenaline rush that roller coasters incite.
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