Features

Busch Gardens

Posted on: February 19, 2007

By Barabara Orr

Today we are off at 7am to tour Busch gardens. My family likes theme parks. We have spent many happy vacations touring Disneyland. This vacation has been more relaxing, and we have not had the need for matching t-shirts as we have in the past. My sister-in law Bonnie owns a screen printing business in upstate New York and has made us all matching t-shirts in the past for visiting theme parks, that way we can find each other in the crowds. Ten or more MacIntyres in matching t-shirts is quite a sight.

We are driving along route 75 so far “Tommy” hasn’t gotten us lost. This is Florida’s bush country with a tall canopy of pine trees which are about 35 feet tall with most of the foliage at the very top like a palm tree. The palmettos under them are 6 feet tall with palm tree like foliage it’s very dense. There is some Spanish moss here and there in the trees, I’ve always like the swaying look of it, but it’s a parasite and it eventually kills the tree, especially smaller trees.

When we arrived at Busch gardens, Tommy told us to take a u-turn, but we didn’t because we could see the parking lot ahead. There are huge crowds here today, after taking the second tram, we get in. There are lots of screaming adults at Busch Gardens because they come for the 5G rides. The biggest one was the SHIKRA, you have to be 54” tall to ride it turns you upside down, has two free falls, goes 65 miles an hour, you are strapped in with legs and arms dangling, it also drops you into a water feature so you get soaked, not my idea of a good time.

We observed but avoided all of the rides that involved screaming. My dad was the one who would go on all of them. At 75 and 80 he loved these types of rides, my mother (they are both gone now) would stand on the ground saying “He’s going to lose his teeth if he doesn’t stop grinning like that.” More than one hat has also been lost on theme park rides.

We spent some time seeing the Clydesdale horses and their mascot donkey. Along with the animals in the preserve, it’s like a large open zoo with lots of exotic animals and Birds. After going to the bird gardens and having a great lunch at the Zambian Smokehouse as the screamers roared overhead, we took the train though the entire park.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching the animals and the people. I always enjoy watching the Dads at theme parks. Those who have 2 or more young children, start out happy and smiling and speaking brightly to their wives. By mid afternoon having snatched their children from the jaws of death several times from getting lost falling from the tram being frightened by the costumed actors the rides and bored by the shows. Most of the dads have clenched jaws, doggedly pushing the strollers- the look on their faces is half way between shock and exhaustion.

The father of our two month old and two year old was no exception to the clenched jaw rule and he let us know that he did not see any other couple in the theme park with as much stuff as he was pushing around all day and he had carefully observed all of the others His wife Missy’s idea of packing for the day was a huge double stroller, 2 or 3 changes of clothes for each child, a jacket for each person and 2 big bags of assorted diapers, wipes food and toys. If she was stuck somewhere for a couple of days, she’d be prepared. The hardest part was waiting for a tram empty enough so we could get all of the stuff on , between the stroller, even folded up, the car seat and the bags, it took up 4 seats. David was a tad grim.

The ride home was the first time we had encountered Florida Traffic, it was a Friday Night and the holiday weekend was coming. The traffic for nearly 100 miles moved at 20 and 30 miles an hour, it finally broke up closer to our destination and we were all glad to get home.

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