One thing I will miss. Event #3

Growing up we lived on a farm 8 miles outside of Princeton Minnesota.  To get to the farm you had to traverse a few miles of dirt roads, and depending on which way you went, a number of small quick dropping hills.   I can remember leaving the farm and just hoping that my parents would head out the back way with all the hills.  No matter what speed they went you would hit the top of one of those hills and you would be able to feel your stomach drop.  Laughter and giggles would follow every time.

Now I looked up why we get this feeling and it literally is what it is called, a stomach drop.  Even though all of your organs are connected, they are free to move a bit. When every part of your body accelerates at an equal rate you get a brief second of weightlessness.  Then you experience a brief second of a free fall as you drop back to earth.  Your stomach does the same thing.  No harm done, it just needs to adjust back to its normal seated location in your body.

I love that feeling.  I have since I was a young kid and due to that I love rollercoasters.  The feeling as your butt leaves the seat and comes down faster than your stomach does.  Today, for event #3,  I got to feel that feeling all over again, Valley fair amusement park.  They say that once you have your stomach removed that this feeling becomes a memory.  So with that in mind we hit rollercoaster after rollercoaster, ride after ride.  It was hot (94 degrees) and we spent time at the waterpark getting wet.  It was a great day!  

One of the rides at the park is called the Ripcord.  It cost extra, and as many times as I have been to Valley Fair, I had never ridden it.  I guess it was something about being raised 18 stories in the air and then dropped that kept me from doing it.  However, today, as a fitting way to send my stomach out in style, my youngest daughter Maddie paid for her and I to take the plunge.  18 stories up and I had to reach back and pull the ripcord that would cause Maddie and I to plummet towards the ground at 65 MPH! What an incredible rush.

I read somewhere that other organs can cause a similar feeling to that of the stomach drop.  I hope so.  I hope I can still experience and enjoy rollercoasters and rides like the Ripcord like I do now.  I hope that this situation and upcoming surgery does not remove laughter and giggles from these little experiences that I have enjoyed my entire life.  That would suck.

Yet, tonight on the way home, there was this spot.  It is at a stoplight heading out of Maple Grove on County Road 30.  Everyone knows that if you catch the light green you can get the same feeling.  You just have to be going fast enough....  Tonight the light was green!

Sun is up time's at hand
There's a stir across the land
And so begins another day
On life's highway

(Life’s Highway  Steve Wariner)