Road Trip 2019 - Day 5

Day 5 was D-day, or actually, b-day!!! The moment we all were waiting for. The reason we were taking this awesome road trip...MY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!! And of course we had something awesome planned: ROLLER COASTERS!!!!!!!!!!! Natalie and I always talked about taking a roller coaster trip since we love to ride them, but we never actually did it. However, when we were planning this trip, we needed some more things to do. And WHAM BAM, we found roller coasters at Busch Gardens. YIPPEE!!! 

Of course, before going to Busch Gardens a necessary stop at Dunkin was in order. Every day should start with Dunkin donuts if possible. Especially the brownie batter and cookie dough filled donuts that are made in February. YUM! So delicious! Once we had our donuts (and coffee for Natalie) it was off to Busch Gardens...dun, dun dun...where there was already a line to get in the park lot right as they opened on a random Thursday in February. Weird! I'm pretty sure that the line was caused by the entire state of Iowa which just happened to be visiting Busch Gardens that day. Seriously, I saw more Iowa plates there than I actually do when driving in Iowa! 

Once in the park, we grabbed the park map to make a game plan. The plan was real simple: find the nearest roller coaster and get riding! It was a lot different than everyone else's plan, which was to get something to eat. Why would eating be the first thing you do when you enter an amusement park? Yo no se. Yo no se. *shrug* As we were walking to nearest coaster, we also found out that the park is partially a zoo as well. Who knew?!?!? (Well Natalie did, but not me. Typical!)

We spent the morning riding most of the coasters. Sadly, one of the coasters was down for maintenance. And another coaster was having mechanical issues when we went to ride it, so we ended up riding a couple of the roller coasters multiple times. I talked Natalie into doing a couple of the water rides. The first ride was the log flume and I sat in front, so Natalie didn't get wet. The next water ride we both got soaked though, which was AWESOME!!! Okay, I loved it, but Natalie wasn't that thrilled. :) 

We tried riding another roller coaster which unfortunately developed mechanical issues right before we were going to get on. Their sky lift also had mechanical issues at some point during the day. Yeah, not a great sign when that many of the rides have mechanical issues. Make me feels real safe when riding. NOT! I wanted to make a shirt that said: "Welcome to Busch Gardens" on the front. And on the back "Closed due to mechanical issues". :)

Since there are not that many rides to begin with and four of them were having mechanical issues, we ended doing any ride we could. So there was Natalie and I in a line with little kids to ride the carousel. Not quite as thrilling as a roller coaster, but close. It had me hanging on the edge of my seat.  Not really, but I could pretend. We needed some adrenaline rush after that so it was on to...Falcon's Fury! A 335-foot freestanding drop tower! With a special twist. Once you are all the way up in the air, the chairs tilt and you face the ground before falling!!!!!!!!!! SO. MUCH. FUN. We also did the much tamer, kids version of the drop tower which is only 35ft. The fun part of that drop tower is you are raised up, dropped some, raised back up, dropped some more, raised up, dropped some, raised back up, and then actually dropped to the bottom. 

Next to this drop tower was this really awesome wooden jungle gym thing that Natalie and I started walking through and then climbing through all the fun areas. A little ways in, I look at and actually read the sign which said "No adults except when accompanied by a child". Umm, oops! I think we count as adults and we didn't have a child. So we did the only thing we could...found a child so we could keep playing on the jungle gym. Just kidding! Once we read the sign, we climb back down. On the way down we saw like 5 more signs that said the same NO ADULTS! Apparently, we didn't read any of them going the other way. lol. 

After our trespassing adventure, we wandered the park looking at the different animals for a little bit. Then it was time to ride some coasters again! The original coaster that was having mechanical issues was back up and running, so we rode it. And rode it again. And then re-rode another one of the coasters because why not?!?!? 

I didn't take my camera to Busch Gardens (for obvious reasons), so I don't have that many pictures. Here are a couple that I took on my phone. 

This looks just like me and Natalie!

Told ya so!

Just hanging out! :)

The alligators are GIANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Like they ate the gators that are on Jekyll!

On the way back to the hotel, we did a quick pit-stop at Cheesecake Factory for dinner and CHEESCAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE CHEESCAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"That's All Folks!"