Water, water everywhere

Tuesday, October 29, 2025

It was an over-35,000 step day and we are racing to get to sleep as soon as possible. We did not get time to take a nap today, so we are pretty worn out. We ate a bunch of things today – a hot dog stuffed into a pickle rolled in batter and panko, a garlic cheese pretzel bread, a pineapple upside down sundae, a chili cone and a mac and cheese cone, cream cheese and jalapeno bread, and I don’t remember what else. Everything was a win.

We rode lots and lots of rides because no one was in the park until evening and we just zoomed from one thing to the next. Between Toy Story Mania and Webslingers my arms stopped working.

It was hot today, so I planned to ride the Grizzy River rapids. I politely asked Keith if he was going to join me, because I knew he wasn’t, but I wanted to be nice. He said yes. My mouth fell open and he said, “Retired Man is more fun!!” We went together with 6 other large people. We were reaaallly squeezed in. Keith stayed dry. Dry. The guy on the other side of him and I soaked up all the water so he could stay dry. I went again, because I was soaked anyway. There is a certain camaraderie amongst water raft riders. You find out right away who doesn’t want to be there and who is sure they are going to get soaked. You commiserate with the dry-seekers and celebrate when the other side get splashed. We laughed and screamed the whole ride. There is truly a sad little good-bye when the ride is done – you have done something together and now you are parting. Sad.

Later we went on the new Tiana’s Bayou ride. It is the old Splash Mountain, so the water is the same, just the theming is new. Or so I thought. I have been on Splash a lot of times. I recognized the water. Until it jumped up and got me. I was in the front of the car. I thought I would kinda hide under the front lip of the log and stay sort of dry. Nope. We went down the first little hill – it’s a little hill and it used to be called Slip’n’Falls. I liked it. Down, little drops of water, done. Not anymore. The front of our log went down the hill, went under water, splashed up enough of a wave to hit me in the chest – soaking everything from armpits down. I screamed like I was being attacked (I was), then explained that it was because the water was so cold. By explain, I mean I just yelled that out for anyone who could have heard me scream now understood what had been happening. A few minutes later, we went down a level and a wave crashed over the side of the log so high that I actually thought something was wrong – we were going to sink. That wave hit me in the side of the head and filled my ear with water. That right ear likes to collect water when I swim, too. I didn’t know to wear ear plugs on this ride. I was now completely soaked. There was no dry left on me. We went down the big hill at the end and I didn’t care at all, because all wet is all wet and there is nothing more you can add. Whooosh. The ride was so pretty and musical and I want to go again and again to see it all. I told Keith next time we will wear all of waterproof gear from our Alaska cruise.

It was 6pm when we got off and it was cold being that wet. The overall chill of me kept my hot flashes at bay for the rest of the day and I was delighted about that. I am still wet in some of the places now, nearly 6 hours later.

I’m just going to add all the pictures at the end. Keith is almost done practicing and we are going to SLEEP.