A Little Water Can’t Hurt

I know you all are saying, “Is this trip ever going to end” well not to get off on to another subject but this trip is only over when we leave this old world then we are only beginning another but this is life and part of our life is this first vacation trip I keep dragging you back to.

After my Dad got back to where he was talking to us in actual sentences rather than repeating over and over the threat of harm to my new wife simply because she had surprised him, we took off to go and introduce Cindy and the kids to the rest of the family, we made the stop by Granny’s house that I posted about before but will repeat myself a bit here, Granny was one who never hid her feelings and you always knew where you stood with her and I knew she was going to Love Cindy as much as I do, Granny swept Cindy underneath her wing and you would have thought she was her Granddaughter rather than my new wife, Granny told stories just like she always did and even shared a few of when I was a small child much to Cindy and the kids amusement, she gave Cindy advice on everything from her secret recipes to raising kids in a Christian home, the kids got to play and enjoy Granny just as I did when I was young, Randy and Tim got into a little scuffle in the front yard just like brothers always do and Cindy is on her way out the door to break them up, Granny tells her just leave them be they are OK boys fight and it wasn’t long that they were back to playing again, Granny then mentions to Melissa of what a Pretty Young Lady she is and that she looks just like her Mom, rather than saying Thank You Melissa made the mistake of saying “I do not look like my Mother” after a moment of silence Granny looks at her and asks “and why would you not want to look like your Mother child, because she is a pretty woman”, Melissa is now speechless but Granny just grins and asks her again “please tell me why you wouldn’t want to look like your Mother?” Melissa never had an answer for this and true to my experiences growing up with Granny, Melissa had just learned a valuable lesson on how to speak to your elders, she thought Granny was mean and the boys thought she was great, Granny loved Cindy and the kids and I know now that Melissa is grown Granny doesn’t look as bad as she thought at the time. I feel so blessed Cindy and the kids got to know Granny because just a little over a year later she was gone.

We left Granny’s and drove to Pickens, South Carolina where my Mom and Sisters lived, and this is where I came to a realization of a fact that was too late to do anything about, Cindy and my little Sister Melinda are two peas in a pod, they act alike, they think alike, they dress alike, and when they are together they gang up on me and there is nothing I can do about it, I see now where a lot of our disagreements come in, I am the oldest of my siblings and Cindy is the baby of her family so needless to say there is another similarity she and Melinda share, now everything I did to help Melinda grow up to the fine young woman she is today is brought into question because now it’s two against one, you just can’t win when the Wife and baby Sister join forces. Laying all jokes aside they have formed a strong friendship that is only bonded stronger because they are Sisters-in-law and this bond is something I am actually proud to see.

On our way home we decided to take the Southern Route going through Atlanta, by doing this we could actually take the kids to both Six Flags over Georgia and also Six Flags over Texas, my Dad thought this was a good plan and decided he would go to Six Flags over Georgia with us, only problem with this was he decided he would just ride with us rather than driving his car which made it to where we drove all the way to Atlanta which we were going to do anyway but the return trip back to Pickens County, South Carolina before going back through Atlanta passing Six Flags again was not actually part of the plan but it was worth it for the good time we had, we are discussing the rides on the way down and the mention of Roller Coasters come up, everyone decides it would be fun for us to all ride at once, I would ride with Tim because he was pretty small at the time and I could protect him, Melissa would ride with Randy because they were both tough and could protect each other, and Cindy would ride with Dad so he too could be protected, we are now in line for “The Georgia Cyclone” we were all excited to ride this old wooden roller coaster and the ride was quite intense, it about beat me to death and this was just on the initial climb before we were released to suffer/enjoy the thrill that is “The Georgia Cyclone”, Melissa told us that we were exaggerating how rough it was while we stood in line for the pictures but as they say a picture is worth a thousand words and those pictures showed the skin on our faces stretched all the way around to the back of our heads so I feel we were not exaggerating, when asked what he wanted to ride next my Dad replied “The Taurus Station Wagon” and he headed toward the parking lot.

Being early in the day and only after our first ride Cindy brings him back with the promise that the next ride will be much milder, heck we will go on one we can all sit back and relax on, a ride down the river just to recuperate from the roller coaster, she talks him into it promising that he “shouldn’t get too wet” because he had already mentioned that this was not in his plans, she reminds him that we all brought a change of clothes just in case but that he really should not worry, now we are in line for “Thunder River” you know the ride the large tube with seats all facing inward, part of the seats are always wet and the other half are not so Dad selects the dry seat and grins as Cindy and I have to select a wet one, the ride started off calm until we hit the rapids, Yeah Momma that big splash of water went right over both Cindy and my heads hitting Dad right in the face, and here comes the line he made us familiar with when we first got to his house “I’m going to kick your ass” now it’s not like we can get off the ride at this point and Cindy through her laughter tells him it’s a fluke and he shouldn’t get any wetter than he is now, OK now we are hitting the rapids again and when he missed the next drenching he is again smiling, the river slows to a relaxing pace and he is trying his best to get the water off of his glasses, then here we come to the rock formation with the water flowing into the river, yes we are looking at a small waterfall, Dad is eyeing this and breaks into a grin as Cindy and I are traveling backwards right towards it, his whole expression changes as the tube stops and makes a 180 placing the water falling right on top of his head, sad thing is he was still wiping his glasses after the tube emerged out from water fall. Needless to say more bad words were said and he still refuses to go with us to any theme parks.