Exactly seven days from this moment, Chris and I will be in the car on our way west for two weeks of visiting family and (hopefully) having a lot of fun. It takes two days to get there – assuming the weather cooperates – but we’ve always liked road trips and on the way to our destination is a stretch that I’ve never traveled.

My dad and his wife live in a small town just outside of Branson, Missouri. I grew up in Aurora, Missouri which is only an hour and a half away from Branson so I spent a lot of time in that area of Missouri when I was a kid. It’s changed drastically since the late 70’s, early 80’s, but there’s still a lot there that has been there since before I was born.

One of those things is Silver Dollar City located on top of Marvel Caverns and the only theme park (to my knowledge) whose theme is an historical one – the late 1800’s. You may have heard the town mentioned on old episodes of The Beverly Hillbillies. Here’s a little history of the real town and the theme park.

I have no idea how many times I went there as a kid but I’m pretty sure we went at least one time every summer and usually more often than that. It’s gotten larger since then, but doing some searching on the ‘net and checking out the official website, I see that it has not strayed from it’s theme and most of my favorite attractions and shops are still there.

One of those attractions is The Flooded Mine.

It’s a floating ride that takes you through – you guessed it – a flooded mine. It’s flooded because it also happens to be a prison and some of those crafty criminals did some extracurricular blasting, causing it to flood. When I was a kid, this was purely a float-through ride with no interaction. Much like Pirates of the Caribbean, all you did was enjoy the relaxing ride and watch all the goofy animatronic scenes around you. In recent years, they’ve added shotguns so you can help the Warden keep the criminals under control.

Being a purist, I don’t really like that but I’m just glad the ride is still there. One of my clearest and fondest memories of the ride is the music that’s played while you’re going through the ride. I can only hope that has not been changed. The last time I was there – over 10 years ago – it had not, meaning it had been the same for at least 20 years. That makes me hopeful that it’s still the same.

In the past decade or so, SDC has added some new, modern roller coasters such as Wildfire and Power Keg. However, the only roller coaster I’m going to make a point of riding is Fire in the Hole.

This is an indoor, dark ride in which you ride a train through a burning town. The post-civil war vigilante group, the Bald Knobbers (a real group that later turned into violent extremists), set fire to the town causing all sorts of mayhem.

Most coaster enthusiasts would probably label this ride very tame or even a kiddie ride, but even though my grandmother could ride it with no problems (despite the three dips and sprinkle of water at the end) it’s a lot of fun. Being a dark ride adds a thrill to it and for me, pure nostalgia will be enough.

SDC has two walk-through features, Grandfather’s Mansion, which is basically a fun house, and Huck Finn’s Hideaway.

At the end of one of these, and I can’t remember which, is one of my fondest memories of SDC – what I used to call the star room. All it is is a room with mirrored floors and lights on the ceiling and walls, but it always made me feel like I was floating in space.

In general, SDC is my favorite theme park because of childhood memories and the general atmosphere. Even when the park is busy, it has a laid back feel to it. Immersing yourself in the past – even if not wholly accurate – is a great way to forget the troubles of modern living. And since we’ll probably be going the day after the Election, it’ll be a great getaway.

I’m looking forward to a new section, added since my last visit – The Grand Expedition.

The Grand Exposition is supposed to be a replica of the World’s Fairs of days past. I’ve always found World’s Fairs fascinating so it’ll be pretty nifty walking through this place.

Of course, the whole place will look different to me because the park will be throwing it’s Christmas celebration. Personally, I think that’s a few weeks too early, but I don’t run the park. Even though the place will be covered in Christmas lights, I’m sure I’ll still feel all those familiar feelings, smell those distinct odors (and most of those were good, lol) and wholly enjoy myself at my favorite amusement park.

I especially look forward to stepping into the old Candle Shop and smelling my favorite smell in the world – one wholly unique to that one shop. If it’s gone, well, I guess I’ll cry.

Working from home today.

(At least until the B-I-L shows up with the snowplow)

Another year is starting and I can only hope that things start getting better.

Not that things have been terrible, but they have been far from great or even good. They have been ‘okay.’

We started 2007 with both my husband, Chris, and my cat, Audrey, being diagnosed with cancer. Both of them had surgery to remove the tumor. Chris’s surgery was successful. Audrey’s was not.

After Chris had his surgery he had a very painful and long recovery period. In fact, his incision still hurts to this day.

During all of this, the Audrey’s tumors began to reappear, even worse than before. We had decided not to put her through surgery again and on June 28th we had to put her to sleep. She had been my pet for 15 years – almost half of my life – and I still cry if I think about her too much (like right now, for instance.)

Then we found out that Chris has severe sleep apnea – so severe that his bi-pap machine has been designated a ‘life support system.’ The diagnosis was actually a good thing as getting the machine has helped take care of a few problems such as his high blood pressure and constant sleepiness. However, it’s just one more thing we have to deal with and will have to deal with for the rest of our lives.

Money has been even tighter because of all of the new bills and we didn’t have enough before. Chris is in even worse shape now due to the surgery, the sciatica he developed while recovering from the surgery and his ever-mystifying ‘IBS’ problems – which is not IBS but the doctors can not identify what it actually is. Therefore, a regular day job is just not feasible for him.

On the plus side, I am still in the IT department at my workplace after a year. I still feel rather ignorant but no one has suggested kicking me out of the department (to my knowledge, anyways.) Our medical insurance is pretty good and I did just get a raise.

As for 2008, I’ll still be at my job and Chris has several things being published. A few comic book series, a couple of graphic novels and probably more prose anthologies.

I’m hoping to finish one of the two of my novels that are almost done and submit them for publication. If they’re not ‘bought’ I’ll publish them myself and see if I can sell them on my own.

Chris and I are both determined to get in better shape this year meaning that we have to both excercise and eat better. We’re turning our game room into a mini-gym with an excercise bike and a Nordic Track. I would say I hope we stick with it, but I’m not going to. I’m going to say that we are going to stick with it, period. I may never look like Renee O’Connor over there to your left, but I’d like to get as close as possible.

We have already made some changes in the pet’s diets. We adopted a new kitty in August – Zoe. Both she and China (the dog) have been put on higher quality foods and the difference in China has been very evident. She’s trimmed down to her perfect weight, she has more energy and she seems to be in better spirits overall. All of you out there who think ‘pet food is pet food’ take it from me – pet food is just like human food – some of it is great but most of it is crap. For more information on pet food, go HERE.

I decided to make resolutions this year. I usually do but I never really take it seriously. After the past few years I’ve decided to change that and try to make some major changes in our lives. I don’t expect it to be an overnight success but something has to change. I’m tired of being tired and the depression is starting to really sink in. So, here they are:

• Get in Shape
• Help Chris get in shape
• Take better care of our car
• Eat better
• Be less wasteful – compost everything possible, recycle, etc.
• Work on getting out of debt
• Stick to a budget
• Help Chris stick to the budget
• Finish at least one novel and submit it for publication
• Update my websites on a more regular basis, including my fan site, personal site, and pet blog
• Help Chris keep his websites up to date
• Re-join the community band and stick with it
• Practice my clarinet at least twice a week
• Watch less television
• Make a cleaning schedule and stick to it so that I’m not spending all weekend cleaning the house
• Go to bed at 10:00 every work night
• Be a better gardener – weeds, bugs, pruning, etc.
• Finish household projects such as painting the garage trim, adding more smoke detectors, etc.

So, you think that’s enough? I might have time to take a breath on Saturdays at 8:30 a.m. Hee hee hee.

And hey, even if 2008 isn’t as great as I would like it to be, at least Bush will be (should be) leaving office and taking Cheney with him. Rock on!

Ozy and Millie is a great daily strip. I highly recommend it.