the best rollercoasters

Hi its Emma

Last night we drove to Busch Gardens theme park because we heard it had the biggest and baddest rollercoasters. We got to the first big roller coaster and they had to check that I was taller than the height limit which was 54”. I was too short so the others went on the ride & Dad gave me money to buy an ice block. After that me, Deanna, Amy and Dad went back to the R.V to make me taller. The way we did that was... we leant me against the R.V and put a mark on the R.V to how tall I was and then we put Amy's boots over my shoes. We went outside and made another mark on the R.V on top of the other mark. I had grown a lot!!!!! we went back in the R.V and put my hair in a bun to make sure that I was taller than the height limit and went out side and put another mark on the R.V and I was extra tall!!!!!! so with a beany on my head, we went back to the theme park and went hard out riding roller coasters. It was sooooooooo much fun !!!!! we went on a roller coaster that the seats were held from the top not the bottom and went up side down 7 times!!! we went on it 4 times Amy felt sick after that but still went hard out riding roller coasters!!!

Hi now it's Amy

Before we found out Emma was too short we went on a wooden roller-coaster called the Gwazi. It was really old and really bumpy – it gets in your back. We wondered around the park we even found a ride in the same design as the rainbows-end roller coaster – there are about 7 altogether at Busch Gardens including as couple that are quite new.

In the same area we found the phoenix but you would know it as a pirate ship like at Rainbows end. The difference though is that it goes right around in a circle, completely upside down. The ride Emma couldn't go on was short but freaky. From the top it pauses before dropping you straight down @ 70mph. It only has one car but that car holds 24 people at once.

Mum wasn't feeling too well (not because if the mammoth coaster, just a bit off colour) so she went back to the RV while the rest of us kept going. One of the last rides we went on went up side down 7 times more and we got to go on it around and around again and again (as Emma reported above). It is supposed to be one of the best coasters in the USA and you can see why - it is really long and heaps of fun.

They say Busch Gardens is a bit of a combination theme park and zoo. In many respects it was similar to Animal kingdom but much more spread out (335 acres according to their brochure). They had a really cool African Safari section as well as loads of other animal displays. A few of the more exotic animals were white rhino, anteater, komodo dragon & white tiger. We also got to see the elephants being fed – one keeper got an elephant to lift his trunk up and threw food into his mouth from about 10' away.

Today was pretty similar but we only went on the good rides. We found one particularly conscientious gate keeper on the 1^st big coaster of the day so Emma missed that one today but at least she went on it yesterday... and the big red one today. So overall she has been on all the rides one day or the other. We also each got a bit of our hair wrapped which is when a person takes about as much hair as for a braid and wraps coloured string and beads around it. That took a while but they look really cool. We finished the day by donning ponchos and going on the water rides and freezing our fingers stiff.

Tonight after a quick feed of KFC we got underway for the long drive back to Atlanta & the start of our trip back home. Luckily we get to sleep while the olds drive – tomorrow 2 flights then back home to... summer. Yay!

From Amy