The boys and I took a mini-vacation at Busch Gardens this past weekend. Normally, we would camp on an adventure like that, but this time we ended up a hotel just up the street from the parks.<\/p>\n
As we checked in on Friday night, we asked the hotel clerk the easiest way to get to the park.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust walk,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a tram that runs to the edge of the parking lot. They\u2019ll pick you up.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next morning, excited to be going to an amusement park, we were up and out of the hotel room with plenty of time to do make the journey. We walked down the road, then turned into the parking lot.<\/p>\n
Not only wasn\u2019t there a tram, but there wasn\u2019t anything resembling a tram stop.<\/p>\n
As we started the walk across the huge expanse of blacktop, I spotted a friendly looking older guy setting up a gate. He didn\u2019t know anything about a tram to the edge of the parking lot, so I asked him what we should do on our way home.<\/p>\n
I really didn\u2019t like the idea of walking through such a huge parking lot in the dark, when it was filled with drivers tired from a long day of roller coasters.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo problem.\u201d He turned and pointed toward the far edge, where a eight foot concrete wall bordered the pavement. \u201cThere\u2019s a sidewalk next to that. Just follow it.\u201d He moved his pointing finger to the lot\u2019s exit. \u201cThe wall ends there, and you can get out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cCool,\u201d my oldest son said. \u201cThanks!\u201d<\/p>\n
We proceeded to the park, and had a legendary day, one that included a night time concert, and only ended when violent thunderstorms rolled in.<\/p>\n
\u201cUh-oh,\u201d I said to the kids. \u201cThat parking lot is going to be bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo problem,\u201d my youngest son said. \u201cWe\u2019ll just go to the sidewalk.\u201d<\/p>\n
We did just that, jogging across the dark wet pavement to the nearest part of the wall. All around us, cars were gunning engines and pulling out of spaces, jockeying for position to get out of the lot the fastest. The rain was just a light drizzle, but lightning flashed across the skies and thunder boomed all around us. We stayed together, kept our eyes up, and made it to the wall.<\/p>\n
There was no sidewalk.<\/p>\n
Instead, a five foot wide stretch of grass bordered the wall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s weird,\u201d my oldest son said. \u201cThat guy lied to us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s better than a sidewalk,\u201d his little brother answered.<\/p>\n
We walked along the wet grass, with me in back. The flow of the parking lot traffic formed two lanes that paralleled where we were walking, and cars zoomed past us, so close we could have reached out and touched them.<\/p>\n
Then the grass verge we were walking on disappeared. The curb continued along the edge of the wall, but it was only about ten inches across, and we\u2019d be balancing on it, sandwiched between traffic and an eight foot concrete wall.<\/p>\n
The boys stopped and looked back at me, their eyes wide.<\/p>\n
I looked up at the wall. There was no way we could climb it. To our left, the traffic was fast and irregular, with cars racing for the exit while others tried to merge with them.<\/p>\n
\u201cStay on the curb,\u201d I said, \u201cas close to the wall as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut\u2013\u201d my youngest said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo choice,\u201d I interrupted. \u201cGo when I say go, stop when I say stop. If I say run, I want an all-out sprint for the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n
We did just that, plastering ourselves against the wall when cars drove by, then balancing along the curb during gaps in the traffic. Finally, there was a big enough gap that I gave the order to run.<\/p>\n
The boys jumped off the curb and raced for the gate, with me close behind them.<\/p>\n
Once there, we stopped to gather our breath.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t believe that guy lied about there being a sidewalk.\u201d I said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know,\u201d my youngest said. \u201cHe looked like such a kindly old man!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah,\u201d his older brother said. \u201cA kindly old man that trying to kill us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sometimes, the kindly old guys are the most dangerous. Enjoy!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[118,122],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daddytales-c","category-daddytales-n"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6DpYi-C7","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2363\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pat-matthews.com\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}