May 18, 2006

A trip to Holiday World

When I first heard the term "Holiday World," my impression was that of one of those stores in the mall that only lasts for about a year that specializes in only Christmas items...year round.

Holiday World is actually a theme park in Santa Clause, Indiana. It's been around for 60 years, and I didn't know about this little holiday goodness until Tuesday when a teacher friend of mine asked if I wanted to go along on a trip to Holiday World with the 4th grade class of a local elementary school.

Not wanting to be a hard charger, I took my friend up on his offer and got up at 4:30 am yesterday to go meet them. Off we went on a three hour bus ride up to Indiana.

Now, normally, I would do my research before embarking on such a journey, but I made the decision to go at the last minute and didn't take the time to do such an investigation. In my mind, Holiday World was going to be the equivalent of Ghost Town in the Sky located in Maggie Valley, NC. Apparently it closed down in 2002, but at least I made it there before that happened. Ghost Town in the Sky was kind of cool in a sort of depressed, native American casino sort of way...except they had this one awesome roller coaster that a chain smoking Indian ran. He was pretty cool as he let us keep riding it, but I'm fairly certain that he hated his job. I wonder if, one day, while operating the chair lift he just decided to give up and quit.

Much to my surprise (after the three hour journey and a viewing of the movie Snow Dogs), Holiday World is nothing like Ghost Town in the Sky. It's actually closer to what the mythical Opryland themepark used to be...except with less music...and more holiday goodness. Something else that is exceptionally exceptional about Holiday World is that it is home to several cool wooden roller coasters. I'm not talking about some standard wooden roller coasters....I'm talking about world-class and ranked wooden roller coasters. That includes a brand new one that will, no doubt, be ranked as the top one in the world this year...the Voyage (the name sucks, but the ride rocks).  Air-time of 24.2 seconds; Track length: 6,442 feet (1.2 miles); Maximum speed: 67.4 mph; Five underground tunnels; 173 feet tall, with drops of 154, 107 and 100 feet; 2 min., 45 sec. ride time; Eight underground traverses; Three 90-degree extreme banked turns; First drop's angle of descent a U.S. record: 66 degrees...and that's just what I copied and pasted from the web site.

Well, after a fun-filled, sunny day, we finally headed back home to Nashville. Three hours back (along with another viewing of Snow Dogs and See Spot Run...which had Bobby "Bacala" in it, by the way), and we found that my friends's car had been towed by the teacher of the year because he parked in her parking place. I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet she's a union member.
And that's all I have to say about that.

All in all a good day. Now if I can only get all that Christmas music out of my head.

More:  I forgot to mention that Holiday World offeres Free Drinks ALL DAY long. Just go into their little "Pepsi Oases" scattered around the park, and get as much free fountain drinks you want. What can beat that? Well...maybe "a 4-year-old child to whom you can give some walnuts and chocolates and get gold from him"...but we're not Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Speaking of which, I'd like to meet that 4-year-old child who will trade some walnuts and chocolate for gold. Seriously.

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