Day 61 of 1000

The wildest ride Lorena ever let the kids take at the Linn County Fair in Albany, Oregon was the Ferris Wheel and that required a lot of whining and complaining.  So when we walked by the Fireball at the North Carolina State Fair, Lorena was aghast when I told Christian we ought to take that one.  Back from my carnival riding days, I remembered that I could handle the rides that made me go end over end much better than I could handle the spinning rides.  Every spinning ride always made me sick.  I remember getting sick on the Teacup ride at Disneyland back in about 1973 with my cousins Ann and Neil.  It almost wrecked the day.

Still, I had a good level of confidence that I could handle the Fireball.  I was wrong. The Fireball is a vertical circle with cars that swing back and forth until they eventually do a complete loop or three around the inside of the circle.  Then the go the other direction and do a couple of completes in the other direction.  We convinced Lorena that we should go on this ride, bought our tickets, then boarded the Fireball.  I was good for the first half of the ride.  Christian said he wondered why he agreed to do this with me for the first half of the ride, then got calibrated and really enjoyed the second half of the ride–he plans to do it again next year.

It was the great for the first half of the ride.  I screamed, waved my arms in the air and thoroughly enjoyed myself.  About half way through the ride I got that sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach and knew I had only about a 50/50 chance of not vomiting on everyone before the ride finished.  I hung on for dear life through the loop the loops after the swinging was over than breathed hard to get as much oxygen as possible through the loop the loop the opposite direction.  I threw off the seat-belt and restraining apparatus as soon as it was freed to run out to one of those pristine, clean port-a-potties you only find at state and county fairs to relieve myself of my breakfast.

Still, Lorena was able to record my LAST carnival ride for posterity.  Here it is: