On Saturday I decided to go with a few of my friends to one of those traveling carnivals (this one was set up in the parking lot of the Tony Burger Center in south Austin). In the true fashion of this particular set of friends, things moved MUCH slower than planned. I left Emily at the house with the little one because Emily’s cousin was over for a visit. I got to my friends’ house around 4, but instead of leaving as planned, we hung around for 2 hours. My friend’s son Neo is 7, so I hung out with him and we rode bikes and skateboarded in front of their house.
We finally made it to the carnival, and I was really surprised at how expensive it was. Tickets cost a dollar each, and most of the rides were between 4 and 5 tickets. They did have this deal where you could buy a wristband for something like $19.95 that would allow you to ride as many rides as you want, but for some reason no one took advantage of this. I think I was the only one who spent less than $20. I bought 14 tickets and rode 3 rides, but I also spent $7 for one of those “rides” where they attach a harness to your waist that is connected on both sides to these giant rubber band things that allows you to jump 20 feet into the air and do flips. Jacob and Neo rode this ride the same time I did, and in true ghetto style of a traveling carnival, one of Jacob’s rubber bands broke while he was jumping. The girl running the thing didn’t seem to think it was a problem though and just pulled Jacob down by the ankle so that he would fly up into the air again (they do that if you stop bouncing because you’re hoisted up and your feet can’t touch the inflated mat that’s underneath you).
Here are a few pics from the trip:
I also rode Pharo’s Fury with Jacob, Matt and Rob. It’s one of those giant boat rides that swings back and forth. We sat as close to the end as possible, because of course that’s the best spot since you go the highest. It was actually more fun than we had expected. Here’s a video from my phone:
All-in-all it was a fun day, although I do wish the timing of things had been different so that Emily and the little one could have been there too. Maybe next time.
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