B and T vs. The new Texas Giant

Six Flags over Texas just reopened the Texas Giant. I could have counted the number of times I rode the old Texas Giant on one hand. It was horrible. After riding the Giant you felt like you were beaten like a red headed step child and since I am one the cliche is kind of lost on me. There were way too many awesome rides to even waste time standing in line for the old Giant.
Exhibit A:
This is the old Texas Giant in all of it's wooden glory. Apparently there was some kind of a wooden roller coaster phase where it was pretty friggin sweet to build roller coasters entirely of wood.

Exhibit B:
The new coaster has steel tracks on the side that make it glide along the track rather than beat the person riding into a bloody mangled mess. Also, It has a 79 degree drop that boasts the steepest of any wooden coaster...even though it isn't all wood anymore, but it doesn't matter because the whole thing is terrifying and will keep you coming back for more.

One of the best parts of the NTG is the ride restrictions. Maybe I thought they were so great was because of the shock of them. I wish I would have taken a picture to share with others who have yet to experience them. The wording was the best part, but it basically said something about not being allowed to ride if you have physical size limitations. You are not allowed to ride if either of your legs have been amputated above the ankle. You also cannot ride if you do not have use of both of your arms. Oh if I knew the wording it would make it all better or maybe it was the delirium due to the heat.

Texas Giant = win

Camping

We went camping. There really isn't much to say. It was hot.

We had a good time actually...much better than I expected in some ways. We went swimming in the lake after we put up our tents because...it was hot. The water was freezing so it was a good balance. I would like to say one thing though... my pasty white skin did NOT get burned. We came back from the lake and JJ was there to join us for the evening. She mentioned to me how alligator gar were in Lake Texoma. I did not think about this whilst swimming earlier and I must admit it completely changed my thoughts about swimming the next time we went down... I may have freaked out just a smidge. Would you freak out with thought of THIS coming for you!?!

While I did worry about the gar I still had a good time in the water and tried my hardest not to think about it.
We did all the camping stuff like making food on the grill and smelling bad. It was all hunky dory until we went to sleep. The tent was SO hot. I slept in the tent with 5 people. I mean I tried to sleep in the tent with five people. At one point, NAL went to sleep on top of the picnic table with a raft and came back after what he thought was the dog in the next campsite being mauled by something. (don't worry because we saw the dog the next day and he was fine) Next NAL decided to get a grocery bag filled with ice and bring it into our tent. This was not OK with me because I have never heard a bag being crinkled more in my life. After a few crinkles too many and some whispers exchanged with HBO I had to speak up. So obviously I said. "If you are going to have ice then you need to be QUIET." FYI: camping makes you mean.
The next day we woke up... I think baby bro woke up at 6-something...yikes. I casually said "You know what would be neat? If we stayed here all day and did fun things and then left and didn't sleep here again." I heard celebration and sighs of relief from everyone. We stayed the whole day and did fun things and drove home.

I love a happy ending.

Camping

I have many thoughts about many things, but when it comes to camping I can't say I have too many. I don't really understand the basis of it's appeal. You sleep outside where it is hot and you smell and you get sunburned and you either have to deal with bugs or bugspray. I guess bugspray is the lesser of two evils, but you smell. NAL has been talking camp for about a year now and I think the gang and I are going on a camping adventure. I looked for the best places not too far away (HBO and I need an escape route just in case) and decided Eisenhower State Park was as good as any of them... We shall go do a little hiking and kayaking and roasting of marshmallows and have a good ol' time.

8 people, 2 tents, 2 nights... This could turn into a horror story

I am not as worried this as I was about 15 Crosby's 1 boat. Last year 15 of my lovely family members traveled to Lake Powell for a week of family fun and turns out I had the time of my life so I guess I should be more optimistic about this little trip.

I wore my new unsailor flap dress today except I tera-rized it into a fantastic shirt.



I had to cut out all that business in the front and I ended up with a huge triangle shaped wound. Since I don't like to show all of my business to everyone I thought the best thing to do was to turn it around (post flap). I added a bit of lace I got from the fabric store to make the back a little less plunging and I put some new elastic around the bottom since the old elastic was probably added before I was born. I may not be the best seamstress (definitely not as good as my Grandma), but I think she would have been happy with it.