Fair rides

Topics/tags: Autobiographical, short

Last night, Michelle, Middle Son, Jon Strymish [1], and I went to the Iowa State Fair. We’d seen it during the day, but we also wanted to see it at night. And folks thought that it would be fun to ride on rides at night. I wasn’t planning on doing many rides; these days, I often find that I’m too large to fit [2]. But there are other things to do. And there are certainly rides I can ride.

Here are two images of us on rides. Michelle and Middle Son are on one ride. Middle Son, me, and Jon Strymish are on another. Can you tell which is which?

Here’s the story.

While we knew about the rides near the main entrance and about a few stand-alone rides, it appears there are others we had previously seen. After strolling for a while, we found ourselves at a different set of rides. One of them was a giant slingshot. You strap yourself into a spherical cage. Two bungee cords (or other stretchy things) shoot you skyward; it looked like it was a few hundred feet. Middle Son and Michelle tried it.

When we were done with that, we talked about what else we might do. I had recalled that Jon wanted to try the giant slide. So we walked over to that [3]. Michelle volunteered to be the one who skipped the slide. I certainly had fun on it. I even got airborne for a moment. And it was much cheaper.

We also all went on the sky ride together. I don’t have a picture of that.

I’m pretty sure that our choice of rides says something about us. I’m just not sure exactly what, other than that Michelle is braver than I and I’m sometimes more of a penny pincher than she is. I’m just glad that we all had fun.

[1] Jon Strymish is one of my best friends from high school. We worked together at the Book Fair. We still see each other every few years. He also took some of the best pictures I have of Middle and Youngest.

[2] )-:

[3] I didn’t even need the map. There are times when I have good spatial memory.