Jenn and Morgan's New Texas Giant Bash Adventure

[Sidra]

This will mostly be a text (boring I know) account. I unfortunately didn't pull my camera out half as much as I would have liked to. Had Cody been there, we'd have hundreds of pictures from the trip.

 

First off I didn't tell my 8 year old Morgan we were going. I was pretty good at keeping it completely under wraps. I told her she had a doctors appointment, she might need to get some shots on Friday afternoon and I would be pulling her out of school. So I pretend like its a normal day on Friday, get ready for work as if I was going, get her off to school, make sure she packs her lunch and all, then I head home and start packing and getting ready for the trip. Pick up the kiddo from school and she's still clueless, pack up in the car and start driving south. The airport is about 45 miles away and halfway through the trip I can tell she's looking around a lot and wondering where we are headed, but she never asked until we exit at the airport and park in one of the overnight lots. Then I pull her suitcase out of the trunk and she's all excited, but still clueless. Of course our first stop was in Albuquerque and she had no idea where that was, or why we would go. She finally figured it out about half way to Dallas on that leg and asked excitedly and out of the blue, "Are we going to a six flag park?" That was fun.

 

Had some hiccups in the trip, our plan leaving San Diego was delayed an hour and we were there early, thats ok because Morgan finally got to watch all of Batman from 1989.

 

Morgan watching Batman

 

We finally got on the plane and they shut the door and we all think we're leaving as they already did some of the safety briefing and told us to turn off all our electronics. So not leaving, the seal on the cargo door needs to be replaced. I figure thats a fairly important piece, but now I'm sweating bullets as our layover in ALB was only going to be 30 mins and I know it was the last flight leaving for Dallas that night. Luckily Southwest had us covered and there were 15 of us on that plane making the connection, they held the plane in ALB. We eventually leave 1 hour 20 mins late, make up massive amounts of time in flying and run two gates away in ALB to board to a plane full of people that have been waiting. Love those stares!

 

Unfortunately I'm cheap and fly Southwest and they only fly into Love field, across town. LaQuinta Inn didn't shuttle to and from Love, but I got a nice deal from Southwest to rent an Alamo compact for less than $10 a day and it was cheaper than hiring a shuttle service. Picked up my crappy little Chevy Aveo and headed towards Arlington... and go there right when the Ranger's game let out. Took 30 minutes from exiting the freeway to get to the hotel that I could see the entire time, probably 1/8 of a mile away. Oh well, got in later than I wanted, but still got in a drink at Humperdinks and met up with some cool TPR people.

 

Up bright and early the next morning and chow down at the free breakfast off the lobby, met up with more TPR people and we headed out on foot to the park that was an easy walk. Looking like such a great day, its a little chilly in the air, but its early and the sky is all blue, no clouds in sight.

 

Judge Roy Scream and the LaQuinta Inn we stayed at.

 

Head over to the checkin table, get our bracelets and tickets and just a couple minutes later we're heading in through a side entrance.... only my Magic Mountain Xtreme pass doesn't scan... ummm what? I've used that pass a few times already this year. Luckily Robb and Elissa came to the rescue and produced a couple extra tickets because the SFOT staff really wasn't sure what to do. They told me to go to Will Call (wasn't open) meanwhile everyone else is walking back to New Texas Giant ERT. Seriously... Thank you Robb!

 

Plan of attack for the day, get in a couple of morning rides and then head over to the front of the park to get a gold Qbot. First time seeing Texas Giant... wow, so nice, I love the red track, then getting up to the station, the cars are amazing, the station theming is amazing and the chicken coop is just brilliant! Morgan's very nervous, she likes to freak her self out before riding new rides, so I make many promises of holding her hand through the whole ride and she's visibly nervous as we load up in the very comfortable seats somewhere in the middle for the first run. She's squeezing the life out of my hand as we head out and start climbing that lift hill, her teeth are chattering from the cool breeze and she's looking up towards the top. We crest that lift hill and I can't even see the bottom, she's still holding on like crazy, but by the bottom of the lift hill, it wasn't me who let go of the hand, that little monkey thrust her arms up in the air and was screaming with glee as we started popping and turning through that amazing track. I have to say the misty tunnels were completely unexpected and a little dang cold that early in the morning, but it made me laugh when I heard someone scream, "Take the tunnel!"

 

We ride both blue and black train a couple of times each and head over to Titan to try it out. One of Morgan's favorite rides at Magic Mountain is Goliath so she's pretty eager to try it out. On the way over to Titan she asks me for my phone. Somebody needs to call Uncle Cody to brag... It was too perfect, she woke up in California to tell him she just got a credit he didn't have and how awesome it was.

Morgan on the phone with Calicoasters

 

One ride on Titan and we both thought it was just, 'okay'. We both love Goliath more, dont know why, but Goliath feels more exciting. I was prepped for the helix and and still got a nice gray out going on. That was the only time we rode Titan and neither of us wanted to go back.

 

ERT wasn't over quite yet, but we wanted to hurry up and get in the flash pass line so we could jet over to the Q&A at 10:15. Unfortunately the qbot line was on the other side of this unrully mob...

Opening park crowd.

 

The gold qbot was so very worth it! If you're only going to be at a six flags park for a day I highly recommend one of these little things. We had a blast and I think we went on more rides in that 12 hour day than any other park I've been to.

 

Our Ride List (In order by first ride):

 

1. New Texas Giant (Morgan's 27th credit) <<<<<< My favorite ride of all time!

2. Titan (Morgan's 28th credit)

3. La Vibora (Morgan's 29th credit)

4. Big Spin (Morgan's 30th credit)

5. Batman (Little monkey is too short)

6. Batwing

7. Mr Freeze (Little monkey is too short) <<<<<<<< loved it!

8. Flashback (Morgan's 31st credit)

9. Judge Roy Scream (Morgan's 32nd credit)

10. Roaring Rapids

11. Yosemite Sam's Gold River Adventure <<<<<<< I actually really like this one too

12. Antique Cars

13. Runaway Mountain (Morgan's 33rd credit)

14. El Aserradero

15. Aquaman <<<<<<<<<<< I've been dryer after jumping in the ocean

16. Mini Mine Train (Morgan's 34th credit)

17. Runaway Mine Train (Morgan's 35th credit) <<<<< people like this?

18. El Sombrero

19. Acme Rocker

20. Grand Canyon Blaster (Morgan's 36th credit) <<<<<< yes I went on it too!

21. Frog Hopper

22. Texas Chute Out

23. Crazy Legs

24. Shockwave (Morgan's 37th credit) <<<<<<<< can we PLEASE bring this to Magic Mountain??

 

Then we rode New Texas Giant again at least ten more times, but I didn't even count, was having way too much fun.

 

I was so pleasantly surprised by Shockwave, we only got one ride on it because it decided it wasn't going to do any overtime that night, but it was a very nice ride and I wish we'd have gotten more turns.

 

Some random pictures:

No I didn't know the girls in the other bat wing...

Morgan just about killed me with whiplash on these Antique cars!

TPR Quiz!

Yes I'm a credit whore! But I liked this one better than SFMM

The kid next to Morgan looked thrilled!

We broke Shockwave

Never gotten more wet on a ride before.

Judge Roy reflecting off the pond

True story, I chicken out and didn't ride the drop tower... I would have done it if Cody was there, he always makes me ride the drop tower.

Morgan on the plane the next day

Recovery. Watching a TPR dvd that Morgan got in a bag of crap at the bash.

 

Had a great time, took a shower after getting back to the hotel and Morgan and I both decided we were hungry and found the wafflehouse even though it was 1am. I felt like a bad mom out very early Sunday morning with my eight year old... then we were up at 6am because my Aunt lives in town. Met with my family at Cracker Barrell and had a great time there before we left for the airport. Got home with no trouble and Morgan was completely passed out on the plane most of the time. We did nothing the rest of the day but watch movies, the first being Coaster Expedition Volume 6.

 

Thank you so much Robb, Elissa, all the TPR staff and SFOT. Never been to that park and had an amazing time!

[samisthabomb]

Looks like you had a great time! I actually remember when Morgan won the bag-o-crap. I was so jealous