It's been a while since I've done something spontaneous. I wouldn't describe my June road trip as spontaneous because I put quite a few hours into research and planning the trip and locations to visit. Ros and I were folding laundry when his mother calls us and she invites us to meet her at Kalahari Resorts in the Poconos. She had spent two days there with friends and family and wanted us to come too. I stopped folding and looked at Ros with some hesitation. The road trip was less than two weeks ago, and our income was depleted, especially since I was officially unemployed at this point.
I was worried about spending money we didn't have, but he assured me that it was affordable and be about 50 dollars each. I then thought, why not? We were both free and didn't have anything better to do other than laundry. It was 4 pm and if we left right away, we should make it by 6-ish. We grabbed our swimsuits and hit the road. The way there was still familiar to us, and I would be lying if I wasn't tempted to keep going and see more new things.
Our country is so large and there is so much I haven't seen or experienced. But I will have to settle for what I can afford to do for now. I admire those that live on the road, spending their days in a new place with every dawn. Perhaps I can experience that one day with my partner. It's always better to have someone to share the adventure with.
Speaking of adventure, when we arrived at Kalahari, I got a new wave of excitement. It's been a couple of years since I was last at a water park. The last time I was at Kalahari I didn't even have the chance to enjoy the water park since I was primarily there for a business conference. We met with his family and got our wrist bands, allowing us access to their room and amenities. We didn't even unpack our things from the car, instead, we went straight to the water.
I enjoyed the hot tub first and, oh! It was delicious! I sank into it with so much unknown need. Of course, eventually, we had to change things up and we explored the rest of the water park. Ros and his brothers didn't waste time riding the water tubes and rides. Personally I enjoyed the Lazy River, just floating in relaxed circles until I got tired of it. Next, we had dinner, and then when the food went down, we ordered a drink. They had what's called a "Monster" drink. It was a 45oz drink that you could keep the cup.
There was no way I could finish that alone so we shared the drink over the course of the next few hours. I'm too much of a scary cat to ride the bigger, faster, (crazier) rides, so I hung out in the kid area riding the smaller and way slower slides. Believe it or not, they were really fun for me. At least I wasn't having a panic attack. I did promise Ros I would ride ONE tube with him, so he promised we would get on a medium level one. Sometimes I wish I wasn't such a baby when it came to heights but even I can admit the one we got on was fun, despite my screaming on the way down.
Since we arrived so late in the day, we only had about 3.5 hours to enjoy the park before they closed it for the night. We still had all day the next day to keep enjoying what the water park had to offer.
The next day, we decided to take a different approach. Kalahari had an arcade area that we wanted to explore. We grabbed his younger brothers and brought them with us. First, we played glow in the dark mini-golf. The game went by fast since it was a relatively small course, and sadly I didn't win. I got stuck at one hole and racked up some unwanted points, giving Ros the rest of the game on a silver platter. Next, we checked out their escape room. We have done others before, but we were excited to have more people with us this time. It was space-themed and together as a team, we solved the puzzles before the timer ended, winning the challenge. After that, we decided to spend the rest of our tokens before joining the rest of the family at the water park. We played games and earned a lot of tickets which we ended up saving for a future trip to the prize shop.
Once his younger brothers collected their prizes, we headed towards the water slide. I repeated the rides that passed my safety test the day before, but my mother in law said enough was enough. I somehow agreed to ride one of the bigger rides. As I took each step up towards the mouth of the tube, close to the ceiling of the park, I felt my body trembling. My fear of heights threatened to make me give up, but feeling Ros's hand in mine the entire time gave me the strength I needed. When we got into the raft I nearly lost my spirit, watching as we inched closer to the edge.
Then it happened. We slid off the edge and gravity took over. I thought I was going to die. I screamed so hard that my throat hurt by the end of it. There was a drop and I felt my stomach flip. We slid into a cylindrical open space, forcing us to swish back and forth as we headed to the end of the ride. When we finally fell into the pool for us to climb off the raft, I barely remember crawling out of the water.
Tears ran down my face but I couldn't stop laughing, happy that I'm alive and that it was over with. Part of me was proud that I saw it through to the end, but I knew deep down I was not going to do that again. That was more than enough adrenaline for me. For the rest of the day, we hung out in the wave pool, and then in the hot tub until it was time to go home. I'm glad we came, it was a blast. Looking forward to our next spontaneous adventure!
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