I enjoy swimming .... it might even be one of my favourite things to do ..... however throw rides or excitement with it and I'm overwhelmed with pleasure.....

as I previously posted... I went on a small road trip over the turkey weekend.... I was invited for thanksgiving dinner with my cousins in Edmonton... the dinner was delicious of course so I may even go again someday ..... but lets get on with the story.....

after dinner I was expecting to just sit back and relax but it turns out plans for the West Edmonton Mall were in effect.... me and my cousin took off leaving everyone behind because they were either too young... tired... or hung over (I'm not really part of that story so I'll just leave it out) well at first I thought it was gonna be for the amusement park but we changed plans at the end and decided on the waterpark.... so I was expecting slides and wave pool ... but not the monstrosity that stood before me.... when I walked out of the change rooms I could see the pool.... then some slides.... then looking up .... I mean way up... there was another set of slides that go from the ceiling to the floor.... this is no small feat...... they are well over 50 feet in the air.... but the one that stands out is the red one.... it's a straight down drop.... luckily we didn't go to that one first....

We start off with one that is described as being flushed down the toilet.... of course I cannot wait to try it.... it's a slide that dumps you into a huge plastic hollowed out top with the bottom cut out so you can be dumped into a pool below.... quite neat.... so you slide then spin around the top thing simulating the spinning of the toilet... then fall through the hole in the center .... flushing you into the pool below...... but after I get flushed.... I get the crap scared out of me with the red slide you see in the picture.... I'm not really scared of heights but there are some things that just plain old bother me..... this was one of them... but I wasn't gonna let my fear get the best of me... especially since we passed a few people as we were climbing up (the millions of stairs) that were climbing down because it was just too scary..... I can't really blame them but there was no way I was doing the walk of shame... my cousin would have beat me up or something haha... anyway I sit on the edge of the slide... there is only about a foot or so of slide to sit on before the edge or abyss as I like to say.... basicly it would be equivalent of walking over the edge of the 50+ drop to nothingness... (ok my description is meant to describe how terrified I was of being that close to the edge.... but not as terrified as other people I know) so I am sitting on the edge with water gushing behind me for the slide... I'm inching forward and I have my hands on the sides of the slide when all of a sudden I start going... sadly my hands are still on the outside edge of the slide when my mind instantly tells me to wake the hell up and grope my shoulders in a huge self bear hug... I'm being flung with g forces plumeting to my death.. water splashing all over me.... I cannot breath because I fear I will fill my mouth with blood curdling screams like the girl that went before me (yes I laughed at her screams even though I knew my skin was crawling at the prospect of going over myself) after about a second of feeling like the coyote falling forever from the cliff to the ground the g forces start to change.... instead of falling downwards I am sliding sideways and I can feel the water splashing everywhere and I am not dead.... I start to breathe again but sadly I get a mouthful of water then the plunge into the pool at the end.... but the feeling of relief is not there....... only adrenaline..... gotta do it again..... yes people conquering fears is the ultimate excitement... and I did it at least 6 times that day....

the slide beside it is a purple one.... it's similar to the red one but instead of straight down it has humps.... kinda like the super slide at the fair/amusements/circus.... only with water..... I get on the slide and push ahead this time I do not grab the side I just tuck and go.... the first hump comes and I actually catch air.... I freeze even though I was warned about it.... I didn't expect it... my hands shot out as to help brace my fall... I do nothing but slap my elbows into the side of the slide.... so now I have sore elbows and I continue down the slide... there are two more humps.. but I make it through without further incident and suprisingly without a sore butt from the landings

the other slides were fairly straight forward for slides.. twisty turny kind that proceed to the ground... very calm and relaxing .... no plummeting.... then there is the wave pool... for anyone that has never heard of a wave pool... it's basicly a pool that simulates a beach on the ocean... minus the sand.... this one has most of the people in tubes just floating around wile the 4 foot waves splash them around ... if your fortunate enough to be in the center of the big wave you get to go for a ride.... when I got to the wave pool I set myself up so I was the furthest one out and first in line for the big wave..... I was on my belly on the tube facing away from the wave but towards the crowd... I leaned into the wave to get the most force possible and as it caught my tube I began to spring forward into the crowd... a few overly suprised people ducked out of the way or into their tubes so they wouldn't get hit.... it was amusing..... on the next wave I managed to seemingly play ring toss...... a man was clutching onto three tubes with kids in them.... I couldn't stop in time but managed to hop off the tube thus launching it into the air.... the tube landed around the man and we all had a good laugh over it....

but alas my trip was over and it was time to head home.... I managed to drive from (near) Edmonton to Lethbridge in 4 hours passing two speed traps along the way.... spose my luck continues... hopefully it will continue for the next year to accommodate a few more trips.. one of them being to the cape in the not so distant future..... yes yew have been warned