The year before, everyone urged me to try the zip-cord James Bond thing. You launched off the top of a hill and once you were over the deep water, you'd let go. Here's the description from the Wikipedia page:
On the "Zip–Cord" ride, riders hung from a hand–held device attached to a guide wire for approximately 200 feet (61 m) at a 30–degree downward angle. At the end of this wire the hand–grip would slam into a blocking mechanism and come to a stop about 20 feet (6.1 m) above the water, with the momentum thrusting the hanging rider 20 feet (6.1 m) forward into the lagoon.
Sounds fun, eh? Well, I don't usually succumb to peer pressure but everyone seemed to be loving it so I got up there, looked down and changed my mind, but before I could turn around I lost my footing and away I went.
I had stupidly chosen the lowest, ie, closest to the ground zip line, not remembering my geometry lessons; it was closer to the ground of the hill but therefore went at a much sharper angle, as the end points of all three zip lines were at the same height. It was not fun at all; I did not have a good grip and was hanging on for dear life. I was going so fast that my body was almost perpendicular to the water and as I let go, I landed in the water on my chest and was knocked out. A lifeguard rescued me and I've had a fear of heights ever since!
We would camp at a place down the road near another smaller man-made lake, Lake Kerr. Tyrone is Jeff McDonald and Roman is Steve McDonald; their names from the Ella and the Blacks days. Steve Housden, Janet Housden and Al Hansford completed our party.
July 1, 1982
The water was positively freezing - it hurt my legs! So for quite a while I sat on the shore listening to tapes. I was even reading in the RV for a while.
I didn't do anything new - the big slide or the trapeze or the high dive or the zip line again - no one was so keen on the zip line any more - weird. At first I kept munching it on the slides but later on it was OK.
However there was some new stuff. Bumper boats that went really fast around. Those cage swings. Tyrone went in and it took him ages to get round and the same for Steve and the guy [operating the cages] starts calling Steve a wimp! Roman and I went in one but couldn't get it around. Too much weight. Seemed like you were gonna land on the roof! My arms ached so much later.
But oh, the motorboats! They were $1 (as were the other things) and fantastic! They went so fast and you hovered above the water. I still took it slow for the first lap then floored it for the second, racing Roman, then we saw Tyrone had stopped; turns out you only got one lap! We had to turn round but got a free extra half lap - ha!
We were starving and thirsty and the snack bar was shut for ages, then out of nearly everything! Went in the diving pool before we left; we stayed till it closed, thought we were gonna get locked in!
Ate dinner at the truck stop. [I drove by it a couple months ago!] This old lady was telling someone she'd worked there all her life and lived there - in Yermo, California - imagine!! [See http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6020/5943261087_676bac2e8b_z.jpg ]
Then onto our favorite campground - Lake Kerr. Still as tacky as ever and now there's a body in a covered wagon as well! Got our pick of the spots - with a hut (not that we used it at all!) [The "huts" were covering the picnic tables; most camp sites didn't have shade.]
We had brought all this food and were too lazy to make anything.
We took the stuff [use your imagination here] - and went to hire boats and inner tubes. But everything was busted apart from a huge rowboat, which was great as everyone could fit in it. Took the ghetto blaster and blue tape. [This was my favorite compilation tape of the time; on a blue cassette.]
It was WONDERFUL. It was dusk and the bats were flying about, eating all the mosquitos. At first it was just me, Tyrone and Steve; finally the others got in.
The stuff wasn't working at first and I wanted to go get the rest of it but I couldn't cos we'd lose the boat. We were trying to stay away from the docks cos it'd been an hour.
The bats were flying really close.
And then it arrived. Pure heaven!!! We just drifted about while it got dark and the same tape played over and over.
We eventually docked on the island. [There was a tiny island in the man-made lake.] I kept playing that one bit of Sinbad over and over and over and kept dancing around the island with the blaster.
It was really dark and from the other side of the island, it looked as if a hut was on fire! Everyone else thought it was too, so we asked Steve [he had not partaken] and he would not tell us. He was talking in different voices and at one point I thought he was the sheriff! At another I thought he had taken the boat away and stranded us.
However, the Fat Lady of Limbourg [the woman who ran the campground and from whom we had hired the boat for an hour] did yell at us to come back. We all got in the boat and Steve, the only capable one, just sat on the bow and refused to row. Tyrone and Roman were making a mess of things and I was yelling my head off at them, trying to be authoritative as I believed there were loads of cops on shore waiting for us. Finally I took hold of the oars and managed to ram into the dock several times. I was the last one out of the boat - looked around - and there was no one there!!! Felt a right idiot...
I had to go to the toilet really bad and whille I was in there the floor was rocking like crazy. Then I realized that some of it was cos I'd been in the boat so long. Next I heard these horrible scratching noises... It was Tyrone of course... When I came out I ran into the Fat Lady of Limbourg and she started saying how it wasn't safe to be out in the boat after dark ... Oh, it was trying!!!!
Went back in the RV... Wrote some letters... tried to write a sane normal one to [my pen pal in New Jersey] Joon and it seemed so pointless. I tried to play my Birthday Party tape but no one would let me - it was too scary. They kept playing Ace Frehley's solo album and we started to worship it. So then I wrote a letter to Ace: "Dear Ace, I'm sorry you got kicked out of Kiss. If you need somewhere to stay I'm sure my mom won't mind if you sleep on our couch. By the way, don't you think Anne Murray is a suitable spokeswoman for our generation?" Janet kept saying that: "Yes, I think Anne Murray is the spokeswoman of our generation."
We played the Partridge Family too. We were shining the torch on the island - it looked fantastic! - and the campers next to us yelled at us - why? Didn't they think it looked fantastic?
Roman's feet were really sunburned and peeling. I lent him some Sea Breeze and it felt both terrible and wonderful on his feet.
Steve kept trying to freak us out, going outside and making noises. But later he went to sleep, and I was climbing about on the roof [as you do] and I looked at him through the vent. He was inches away and I was freaked out. I was also terrified of going into the bathroom and when I did, it seemed like a journey - it felt as if it was moving.
But all in all, a lot of it was boring and I kept looking at the clock. Time was going by so slow. Ate a lot of Oreo cookies.
Then ... went outside and sat on the little dock of the lake. I was terrified of falling in the water, but it was wonderful. Al and I discovered The Secret of Lake Delores! [even though we were at Lake Kerr... I must have promptly forgotten it, as no explanation was forthcoming.] The moonlight on the water made all these swirling colors and shadows looked like people drowning...
Somehow I eventually got to sleep for an hour or two. But I was still frying.
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