Wasn't a walk in the park, but I'm here at the sight of our next tournament, and ready to go.
Sitting here in my newest hotel room, a Quality Inn on the outskirts of Evansville, Indiana, some reflections about the travels of the last few days...
- After wrapping up my work at the Wichita Open, I said farewell to everyone in the media room at hit the road. Stopped at a hot dog/ice cream stand called Freddy's on the outskirts of Wichita, and ordered way too many chili cheese fries. Took me about an hour to finish most of them, there were so many. Because of course, I wasn't about to waste any moderately expensive food.
And in that hour, I couldn't even finish them all. So I got the rest to-go, knowing they wouldn't even be worth eating later, and moved on.
- Hit the road toward Kansas City, as we had decided to go to Worlds of Fun (an amusement park) on Monday. I was happy, too, because I had always read about Worlds of Fun in amusement park books growing up, and was happy to finally see it.
I had to convince brother Alex and friend not to go to Schlitterbahn ( a water park in Kansas City) since we were planning on going to Holiday World on Tuesday. Yes, a plan, somehow.
Once we reached the Worlds of Fun area just past Kansas City, I realized that it was probably time to start looking for a hotel. But with my money-conscious attitude on these trips, the prospects of paying anything over 50 bucks a night scared the crap out of me. Wasn't going to happen.
Then we see a sign for "Worlds of Fun Village." Sold.
We drove in, right past the booth that asked for 17 dollars for parking, since there was nobody monitoring the booth at 1 a.m. Beautiful. Gotta beat the system whenever you can.
Found a parking spot next to a few cabins and RV sites, and turned off the car - with hopes of going right to sleep. Except the sweltering heat made it impossible to sleep without constantly sweating, so it took a few hours to make it asleep.
In the meantime, my brother and his friend slept on top of the car for a while, trying to feel better. Around 3 a.m. they knocked on the door, asking to get back in. When they knocked, I freaked out - thinking it was a burglar. Good thing it wasn't.
When it got to be around 8 a.m., we got out of the car and started to explore the campsite area. There were a few people up, walking their dogs and such, and we acknowledged the folks walking past.
Then we started to get our money's worth (especially considering our lodging was free.)
We found a shower, and we all took nice hot showers. I even used my soap and shampoo, too. If we hadn't been able to shower, it would have been a while until we had another chance.
Also found a washer and dryer, so we threw in a load.
And with our $10 off coupons to the park, we definitely got good use out of our Worlds of Fun experience.
Around 10 a.m., knowing that the park was opening, we decided to head in. As we had just put our laundry in the dryer, we decided it would be safe if we left it in while we were in the park. After all, if we made it through a night without danger, how risky could it be?
Oh yeah, I also ate those chili cheese fries while sitting on my tailgate and reading a book. Maybe it's just because I was reading, but the fries were great.
Spent about six hours in the park, and enjoyed it. Feels a lot like Darien Lake near Buffalo, with a similar layout and similar types of rides. A highlight was the Prowler, a wooden roller coaster with high speeds and a lot of quick turns. Road it twice in a row, as the wait was surprisingly nonexistent.
As we were riding an indoor dark ride (Cyclone Sam's), I started talking to a guy from Nebraska. I told him what I was doing, and that we were heading to Indiana for the next event. He told me that if I did one thing in Indiana, to make sure that I went to Holiday World.
Good omen.
After leaving the park, I had to write my Bisons story - as the game was a 12:05 start, of course. I didn't have a WiFi connection, so I wrote the story from my front seat and then proceeded to a McDonalds, where I used the restaurant's WiFi to post the story.
Now heading to a golf course in Evansville for my 9:22 tee time with Alex. He thinks he can beat me, so we'll see. Thoughts on the rest of my trip, up to this point, will be added later.
I better beat him.
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