The Adventureland Caper

This was written by my partner Chum, with some input from me. I know you will like this one. Its not a trucking story, but it's a story from one of my bus driving days.

The Adventureland Caper

On an otherwise ordinary looking day, Chum and Rhonda were sent to Des Moines to bus a bunch of kids to the amusement park. It was a rather cloudy and gray day, but the prospect of getting to ride the amusement rides free all day seemed at the time to make up for it. Neither of us had ever been to Adventureland before.

We rode the Gizmo that whirls around and sticks you to the side of the barrel and then the floor falls out. Chum did not stick. To make up for not too great of a start, we decided to go on the best ride in the park--The Log Boat Flume. The line was very long, but it would be worth the wait. At last we got to the front of the line and they put us in the boat with two college guys--football player built. Actually, there was not room for all four of us, so Rhonda sat on Chum's knees. The boat sat low in the water, but floated along pretty well. The guys in front were really excited, "Oh, boy, we are in front where we can feel the spray on our faces."

Bump, grind and around the corners, float and bob along, we came to the first hill. Up to the top and then down the slide and splash! The guys up front said, "Oh boy, we got spray on us."

Mind you, up to this point, it seemed like a perfectly enjoyable amusement park ride. But then we came to the second hill.

Suicide hill

I thought on the way up, "my this seems like an awful long hill." But when we came to the top and onto the slide, I said "Oh #$%@" It was a cliff! It went straight down. And with 3 people of football player size, that poor little boat went down like a Kama Kazi! When we hit, we swamped the boat. Water was 18 inches deep around our behinds and knees. The guys up front made no comments about the spray. We were wet! The boat plowed on around the last curve to the landing platform. Everybody in line was pointing and laughing at us.

The attendants put on the brakes, but the boat was so heavy now with water that it rammed right over the brakes and we had to go again!! The boat was slower this time until we hit that second hill. Everybody on the landing platform was pointing and taking pictures when we hit the slide. Down we go and this time we swamped the boat!! Right to the bottom!! Rhonda was clear up on Chum's knees and water closed over her head. We submerged. Somehow the attendants were able to stop us this time and when the 4 of us got out, to the vast amusement of our now sizeable audience, we were soaked to the skin. We were absolutely drenched!

We were wet the rest of the day and when we finally got back to our office, we told this story to all, and they laughed and laughed till the tears came. We were still wet and our shoes squished and left water trails when we walked. It did not help when Rhonda pulled out the charter order from her pocket and it fell into pieces and the ink ran off the paper! That brought even more laughter. The dispatcher saved this paper and labeled it as our "bath ticket" and put it on the bulletin board for all to see!

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