New Thing #3 - The Dragon's Wing

This week's new thing was at Six Flags St. Louis. Meredith and I braved the Dragon's Wing, which is basically a giant swing. We tried to go when we first got there, but wind speeds weren't "optimal" for a two-person flight, so we had to wait awhile. In the meantime, we tried the new Tony Hawk Big Spin ride. It's pretty fun. Each individual car can seat up to 4 people, and it spins around as you go over the roller coaster. It's not a constant spin, it just spins depending on how the rollercoaster moves. I recommend it if you're ever at Six Flags, unless you have a weak stomach or hate being dizzy. (So, since this was new to me, I got a two-fer this week!)

Here we are on our way to Six Flags!!!

Here's a car on the Tony Hawk Big Spin...fun stuff.

But, I digress, back to the Dragon's Wing. After the Big Spin, we headed back over, and we were able to take our flight. First we got strapped into our "flight suits" which looked like a cross between an oversized apron and those things Xray techs wear to protect them from radiation. The front completely covered from our chests down to our knees. The back was open and where the harnesses all were. Have I mentioned it was blazing hot today? Needless to say, it wasn't too enjoyable to be standing in 90 degree weather wearing these heavy suits. Fortunately, we didn't have to wait very long. Once it was our turn, we were strapped into the pulley system. This "ride" can hoist up to 3 people at a time 153 feet in the air. We started on the ground in prone position (that's on our stomachs for those of you unfamiliar with shooting sports positions) ;-) facing the ground and about 5-6 feet in the air. Our backs were where we were strapped in. Unfortunately, yours truly wasn't paying attention to the instructor and didn't hear him say the platform we were on was going to drop and we were going to go from standing to prone position in a split second. That was a bit of a wake up call when all of a sudden we did a near face plant into the platform. Next, they raised us that 153 feet into the air (that's nothing compared to 13,000 for sky diving though!). Once we reached the height, I pulled the rip cord and away we went. Imagine a giant pendulum and Meredith and I were the tiny silver balls getting knocked around. And no, we weren't being thrown AT each other, but we did link arms at the beginning. We were told to do that until we reached the end of the first swing. After that we were free! We went sailing forward pretty fast, then started feet first as we went backwards. We eventually turned back around, but we ended up bass ackwards a few more times before it was over. At the end they threw a stretchy pole at us with a loop on the end. Well, maybe throw isn't the right word. They didn't beat us with it or anything. We had to grab onto the loop to help us slow down. (The stretchy part was the elastic in the pole/rope.) It went pretty quickly, but was tons of fun. I have to say that getting to the top was probably the freakiest part. Especially since you're staring directly at the ground the whole ride up. I think Mere might have used a few choice words to tell me she was less than thrilled I convinced her to go up there! ;-) I was thinking the same thing about myself until I pulled the rip cord. Those first 2 or 3 seconds when we started to fall took our breaths away, but after that it was so much fun.

So, like I said, it was over too quickly for my taste, but still worth that painfully slow ascent. I'd definitely do it again!! Thanks to Meredith for going with me!!! :D

The Dragon's Wing...(insert scary music here!)

Yep, it pretty much looks like a giant arch.

Here's a closer shot of the top.

We were pulled up between those two poles, but no, that's not us. We didn't have anyone to take our picture, so I photographed these poor souls.

Again, not us, but you can kind of tell how people are supported in this pic.

Here we are in all our flight suit glory. Hot mamas!