Experiences #2

That Time I Swung Over Emerald Pointe

There is a water park in Greensboro called Emerald Pointe and that was the first place I went skyflying.  And the only place, actually.  Not because it wasn't fun (it was) but it was kind of expensive and it feels weird to do it alone.  This time I had my friend Caitlin with me.  We had gone, the two of us and my friend Monica, to the water park for the day, and Caitlin and I had wanted to go skyflying for a long time.  For those of you who don't know, skyflying is a GIANT SWING.  That's pretty much it.  You get hoisted up a tower in a harness attached to a long cord, which might be a bungee cord, and then they drop you and you swing and swing until your momentum ends the ride.  It costs like $20 a person, I think, if you get it on the cheap.  And it's kind of like bungee jumping lite.  Less chance of whiplash, I guess.  Anyway, Caitlin and I went but Monica wasn't cool with it so she waited on the ground, and the two of us--as noted earlier--got hoisted up and dropped into this long, glorious swing where we could see the whole park and the Greensboro skyline and everything for miles.  There is a moment, right after they release you but before you drop, where you feel like everything inside your body is lifting up but you're staying in place, and then all of a sudden everything catches up with itself and you fall, and as you approach the ground you have another moment where you're absolutely sure that something's going to go wrong and you're going to smack into the concrete like a bug on a windshield, but then you just...coast, upward and onward, and then back again, and again, and again.  It's a strange sensation and oddly calming.  But then I've always liked swings.