I went on the superman ride!!!

Oh yeah.

This post is a little late in coming, since all of this happened more than a week ago, but it is still very fresh in my mind, and I hadn't really thought to blog about it until now.
We went to six flags with my Israeli cousins last week. I don't know if they'd ever been to an amusement park before, but I was sure they had never seen anything like this in Israel. Of course, as we drove up, we saw all the rides that go tall enough to be seen several miles out. And I had the usual thoughts of "there is not enough money in the world to get me on one of those, and especially not if I'm paying them."

Ha Ha.

Well, I've been thinking that ever since I saw the batman ride they have at six flags merely because it went upside down. I've sworn since never to go on the batman ride, and so far I've kept to that pretty faithfully.
I of course had no plans to go on the Superman ride when I came, and we even passed it several times before I ended up going in. We passed it the first time, and my mom, who loves the superman movies, declared "yeah you're not getting me on that thing." I agreed. My past roller coaster experiences were limited to the Wizzer, which was one of the few rides in the park that describe themselves as "family rides". The superman ride had a seat out front that said "Test Seat". I guessed it was a precaution that said something like "this is to make sure you won't fall out of the seat in the middle of our ride, because if you do, it will not be pretty." It also seemed to say "If you fit in this seat, you will be perfectly safe!! Really!!!"
I wondered if there was any paperwork to do while you waited in the 800 capacity line.
After a couple hours at the park, we split into smaller groups, and I wound up with one of my adult second cousins from Israel (who is in the military). He told me he was going on the Superman ride and I should go with him "because it would be fun". I had two thoughts about this: Never ever ever; and "what if it is fun, and I never know it?" I looked up at the screaming people. They looked like they were having fun. I guess. And of course, if I didn't go I would look like a chicken. So I reasoned that I would wait in line, but not actually go on the ride when the time came. Besides, it would probably be too long a wait anyways, right?
It turned out, since it had just been raining, the line was only about %20 full, and the ride seated like 24 people at a time. So I had about a half an hour to get my wits together and go on the ride.
I might have gone crazy watching those people go overhead every 25 seconds had it not been for all the clever distractions they had for you to look at while you were in line. Like giant posters of all the superman villians in world history and their eye colors and life stories.
When we were about five minutes away, my cousin split into another line. This line was only for people going in the front row. It could have said, "crazy people only" and the waiting estimation was four times the other lines. I tactfully decided not to go into this line, but I wasn't about to go on the ride before my cousin did. So I waited. Not exactly on purpose, but whenever the ride came back I would say "Uhh....do you want to go next?" and the people behind me would say "Umm...no you can go." And then I would just walk away, and they would go on.
Right before I got on the ride, I realized that this ride was not any ride. When you sat down, the seat
flipped over so that you were looking at the ground. I was going to go several stories high looking at the ground the whole time. This did not sound fun. I resolved to keep my eyes closed until the ride started going downhill.
Finally I got in, and lucky for me the only seat left was the one on the end. So I sat down next to some guy probably my age with long blonde hair, who was laughing nervously with his friends. I wondered whether or not if my cousin was sitting right next to me I would be saying something along the lines of "I am going to kill you."
So the right flipped over like I knew it would, and it was about then that I closed Omy eyes. I felt wind, and I felt us going up. The guy next to me was saying "Oh this is crazy" I kept my eyes shut. And we kept going higher and higher. I listened for signs of the ride tilting downward so I wouldn't be too surprised when it happened. I got it when the guy next to me said "I don't know who talked me into this OOOOOOONNNNEEEEE!!!!!!!!"
I opened my eyes for a second, then decided it might be a better idea to keep them closed.
I would occasionally open them for a couple seconds. Now, ironically, I wish I had kept them open the whole time, because those moments when my eyes were open were the best parts of my day at six flags. My cousin later said that it was even more amazing in the front row, since there was nothing in front of him and it actually felt like he was flying.
It was an amazing ride, the most amazing ride I've ever been on. When it finished (the ride was only about 45 seconds long) I had two thoughts "thank god that's over", and "I have to go on that again". You see, after a little while in the "stomach position" you get used to it and I think you can enjoy the ride a little more after that. I told my cousin when we got down that I wanted another go, but when he actually agreed to that and started going back in line, I realized maybe I didn't want to go through that again. So I told him I didn't want to wait another half hour for the same ride, and we left.
But when I left, I felt different. I had the feeling like "the first thing I'm doing when I come back is going on that ride". I think when you go on one of those big rides, it becomes less daunting and easier to go the next time.
So, keep an eye out for me up there!