Cedar Point
I sat across from my friend, Mandy. We were on the tire swing outside our first-grade classroom. Mandy started spinning the tire. At first, I was laughing and having a great time.
That didn’t last long.
My head was spinning, maybe even more than the tire swing. I told Mandy to stop. I felt horrible. She kept laughing and spinning.
Waves of nausea crashed over me. I begged her again to stop. PLEASE. With all of her six-year-old innocence, she giggled at me and spun the tire even faster. The vomit came out so fast—I had no time to even turn my head away. Mandy was covered in my throw-up, and she finally stopped spinning the tire.
Whoops.
This was the first time I remember getting motion sickness, but it wasn’t the last.
I started figuring out which rides I could handle, and which ones I needed to avoid. I knew the precise location of water fountains and trash cans (for post-ride vomiting) in every amusement park I visited. The older I got, the worse it became. After having kids, I could hardly make it through a twisty mountain road without getting ill.
So when we planned a trip this summer that included a day at Cedar Point in Ohio—I was pretty worried. What was I even going to do? All those amazing, world-class roller coasters, and I got sick on Disneyland rides. My expectations were low.
The appointed day came and we pulled into the Cedar Point parking lot. I took a deep breath, took some Dramamine (as did Brian and Annie), and hoped for the best.
Millenium Force was our first stop. I had already located the trash cans near the exit, just in case. I did get a little worried when they made you get a locker for your phone and personal items. How fast was this roller coaster going to be? We made our way to the front of the line and were buckled in. The cars started moving up and up and up. Lake Erie was to my left, its vastness even more impressive as we ascended. I was in full freak-out mode. My thrill-seeking daughter, Samantha, sat next to me, laughing. We climbed 310 feet before plunging down…possibly to my death! The drop was so steep I couldn’t follow the track ahead, and I closed my eyes. We spent the next two minutes twisting, turning, climbing, and falling, sometimes at 93 miles per hour. As the cars slowed to a stop I had a chance to catch my breath. Was I going to throw up? Surprisingly, I felt perfectly fine. It was the BEST roller coaster I had ever been on.
EVER.
I felt my pocket for the bottle of Dramamine and was so grateful for this miracle pill.
I went on several more roller coasters that day, slowly getting more and more nauseous. After lunch, I popped another Dramamine and went on one final coaster. It was a mistake. I closed my eyes the entire time and prayed my lunch would stay in my stomach. As soon as the ride ended, I found some shade, and some water, and took a time out with Brian. It was a welcome break and calmed my nausea.
We found the bumper cars.
While my kids continued to ride the big rides, Brian and I went on the bumper cars. I won’t tell you how many times, but it was more than once. 😂 Competitive to the core, we may have been a little too serious in our bumper car crashing—but in the end, I think the parents of the little kids we were bumping understood that it was all for fun.
We met up with our kids again and did a few more rides. One of them was a racing carousel. Instead of a gentle up-and-down ride, this carousel was fast and the horses moved front and back, mimicking a horse race. It was hilarious. I couldn’t stop laughing.
Cedar Point was a hit!
When we were walking out of the park, I was grateful for the day I had experienced. Because of my new friend, Dramamine, I rode so many roller coasters until I couldn’t anymore. And then we still found rides that we decided to have fun on. My day wasn’t ruined when I couldn’t handle another roller coaster—it just changed. Believe me, there were plenty of people who didn’t love the bumper cars or the racing carousel like we did. We chose to love those, too.
Choosing to have fun is awesome.
Don’t forget—it’s always a choice.
