Wild Water Kingdom Water Park and Drive Inn

This weekend "The Plan" actually came together and all of the usual suspects managed to clear a few hours in our Saturday calendars for some summer fun. I threw a dozen bottles of water and some snacks into the cooler and met up with the first half of the usual suspects for brunch at Boom. My pancakes were yummy, sausage perfect but the best was the potato fritz that I stole of my neighbors plate.

While I was not looking the usuals threw a few beers into the cooler, and then we carried on to pick up the 4th of our party. We arrived at Wild Water Kingdom after 3pm as planned.  Paid the "late day" rate of $25.00 and moved onto the inner sanctum where the promise of water thrills awaited.  I know that most people skip the "shower before going into the water" but I'm a bit of a prude and usually follow this rule...at this establishment the line up for the working shower was too long so I went all rebel.  We had planned on sharing a locker but the lockers were so small that only one persons purse/backpack would fit into it so each of us had to rent a separate locker.  Once that task was completed we moved onto partake of wet fun. 

We walked around to see what the park had to offer.  There were 5 series of slides.  The kiddie slides...Short slides with a 2 ft drop to the pool.  We skipped that one. Three slides names corkscrew, sidewinder and something else.  There was only 1 lifeguard at the top and one at the bottom so the corkscrew (or was it the sidewinder?) was not being used.  I went down 1 and brother went down the other.  Unlike the guy who went down before me I didn't get stuck and have to push myself down the slide....but I did not go fast.  The other slide impressed as little as mine did.  So we moved over to the "Cyclone" slides.  Which were a slight improvement but not cause for any hoots, hollers, or squeals.  Being as we were not impressed so far, and neither of us were going to do the "straight fall" slides we sucked it up and rented some tubes" Admission, plus locker, plus tubes, each of which has failed to impress...but the tube rides the Night Rider (well actually it was labeled Ni ht Rider and Abyss) were both slided that we went on again.  While waiting our turn we seen the other half of the usual suspects going down another slide that made me squeal just watching them almost flip over the sides. Then I got pushed down an enclosed tube deprived of all light I wondered if I were going forward or backward and at times I felt like I was defying gravity.  I felt the joy that only comes from a good waterside. 

So all told, of the 12 watersides at Wild Water Kingdom only 3 of them are worth the price of admission in my opinion.  After a few trips we decided to check out the lazy river...midpoint we found the licenced section and stopped for a picture of beer... we seen our second case of "pants falling down" the first one was to reveal grey dingy Calvin Klein's this time was at least to something less offensive. After our picture we carried on my tube kept on objecting to me using it as a floater and spat me out. One of the others used the tube as a yoga mat and practiced his Buddha pose which just asked to be pushed off his tube.

Before we knew it we were being asked to leave the park and to take all of our person belongings.  I may have a few scruples about showering before entering public pools I have major scruples about showing with soap and water AFTER  using public pools....I waited for the shower to wash away the chlorine and whatever else may have been in that water. 

As usual; when the girls emerged the boys were waiting.  We went back to the car, grabbed some water.  When the sun set the parking lot was going to turn into a Drive in Movie with a double feature film.  We pondered where to move the car to and realized we were hungrier than the few bags of chips and nature bars were going to be able to take care of.  The "Snack Bar" was not open so we called some friends and suggested that they meet us for the movie and to show up with some Pizza. 

Friends thought things thorough and showed up with some lawn chair AND Pizza.   While waiting for the movie to start their kids chucked a baseball (parents think of these things) we ate Pizza and offered beer as a token of our gratitude.  When the movie started the boys didn't have to sit In the backseat....they sat outside, we rolled down the windows (fortunately I had some Off in my car to chase away the mosquitoes) turned up the volume on the radio frequency and enjoyed Captain America...after the movie we realized that "enjoyment" means different things to different people.  Marvel enthusiast thought it was a great movie...everyone else was amused at the hokeyness.  My example was that zip lining onto the roof of a moving train should involve some slight imbalance in posture.  Because the Marvel enthusiast gets to pick movies sometimes, I have seen X-Men (in spite of never having read comics) and Iron Man 1 and 2 (again never read comics) and enjoyed all the movies. But Captain America I was laughing "at" not laughter "with".  I am sure to see the Avenger movie when it comes out. I'm sure I will enjoy it one way or another.



Not sure if it was the filming or the full Moon or the back lights, but most of the film was indiscernible....the battle scenes were reminiscent of the time I had spent in the light deprived water tunnel a few hours ago....from the dialog the story could be followed but the action was black on black....

At the end of the day, the Water park failed to impress any of us and the Drive Inn Movie left u impresses as well.  As we parted company from the family at the end of the second movie we agreed that it had been a great night.  During the drive home we wondered how a water park that had mostly crappy slides and a Drive Inn that showed hokey or badly viewed movies could have ended up in such an awesome day....my recommendation...go with good friends.