Six Flags with the Girls...and Dad

The kids had the Monday off for a school holiday, and so I wanted to get another use our of our Six Flags passes.  Then we called up Noel to see if she wanted to join us, and since it came with a free season pass for end of this year, and all of next, she agreed.   She told us that Sam told her that she would not get a lot of opportunities like this, and then he said "It will be a fun trip with the girls...and my Dad".   And it was a wonderful day, even tho a tragic ending will probably always dampen the fun our family had on this day.    

Noel drove up from Prattville early that morning, and when she arrived, we jumped into the van and headed towards Georgia.   We stopped at our normal CFA breakfast spot at the Bremen exit.   If you order the breakfast burrito here, it is muy pequeno, so I feel like I should have gotten my money back.   Ruby was now a roller coaster fan after riding everything at Carowinds.   So she was ready for everything.

We rode the Twisted Cyclone, then the Mindbender, back up the monster hill to Dare Devil, then back down the hill into Gotham for the Batman ride.   Cyclone is always best for me.   I think all of us were hurting on the Mindbender, then the Batman helped all of our heads to hurt.   "I don't like that one" Ruby told me.   Finally, we took a rest with Magan and some water.   

Next, we rode Goliath, which was the first time for Ruby, and was not a problem for her at all.   When we tried to ride a second time, it was having some problems, so at the top of the ride area, we waited for about 5 minutes before deciding to try something else.   And when we got down towards Gold Rush, all were disappointed it was not open, so we decided to take another break with the best soft pretzels in all of the park.   I grabbed a salted pretzel and a cinnamon pretzel, and got my sweet older girls a large Dr. Pepper.   

Our resting spot was perfect, as we got to watch the Halloween edition of Bad Bob.   We have watched this same show for probably over 10 years, always a little different, many times during the Christmas themed show.   It is super cheesy and certainly meant for little kids, but I still catch myself laughing, and I saw some girls smiling as well.   When they said they would be staying around for pictures, I think Noel thought I was crazy when I said, we are all going up there...so we got in line behind all the kids for our picture with Bad Bob, the Sherriff and the Deputy.   

Afterwards, we got in line for the Blue Hawk, even sat down on the coaster and were buckled up, when they told us we had to leave the ride.   Oh well, these seemed typical for Six Flags...and we found out as we were leaving it was just a simple case of someone barfing on the seat near the front.   We skipped right over the Scream Machine and made our way to the Superman ride.   This had one of the longest lines I have ever been in at this ride, BUT, they had two coasters running, so while this is a slow transition, they were always loading folks.   And our wait was only 30 minutes.   

We then all went over to ride the carousel before deciding to head back towards the front of the park.  It was at this point, that I look back in hindsight at the tragic events that happened that day, and remember telling everyone that we would ride the Twisted Cyclone then finish on Goliath.   Ruby looked at me and smartly said "We should do Goliath, then finish at the Cyclone as it would save us steps.   And it made sense, so that is what we did.   We rode Goliath one last time, then made our way to the Cyclone to finish the day.   

As we exited the park and were walking to the parking lot, we started hearing then seeing a mass of ambulances arriving and heading towards the front gate.   And none of us thought anything about it (usually just a heat related issue with someone) until we were back at the Bremen exit, where I surprised the girls with a trip to Cracker Barrell instead of the normal Arbys.   It was here that Magan received a couple of texts from friends asking if we were OK.   

A 42 year old technology teacher, robotics coach, and charter school IT manager (Hassan Kariem) from Atlanta was thrown from his seat and fell to his death on the Goliath coaster at about the same time we decided to leave the park.   In hindsight, it is sad to see that Six Flags had never installed seat belts on this ride.   It would have been such a simple and relatively cheap feature, that is installed on the similar Fury 325 ride at Carowinds, and on many rides as defense against a failed bar mechanism.   I have always trusted this ride, but never liked that there was no extra harness...so I would always ride with my feet crossed over the bar for added security.   

We really did have a fun day, but this tragic event really overshadowed anything else.   And it really hit me hard later that evening at the house, when I thought about riding that ride with three of the most special girls in the world to me.   How would I feel if that happened to any of them?   My heart hurt for that man and his family.   I was mad at Six Flags for not putting in steps that would have prevented this from happening.   A Six Flags trip is still planned for December...maybe just for the Christmas Lights.