Today's Busch Gardens trip with Simon was... a mixed bag. I wasn't sure what exactly we would accomplish during Diana's tattoo appointment, expecting about five hours to play, but I wanted to make it a special day for him while Mom had her special day.
There are two challenges here. The first is that I have really struggled to be patient with him, not just for ASD, but typical parenting scenarios. He's a good kid, but he requires a lot of attention sometimes, and even at age 11, his expectations can make or break his day. The other thing is that I keep hoping for this breakthrough moment, where he finally decides to ride all the things, and we have a father-son coaster geek moment. My resolve today was just to roll with whatever happened.
I was both proud of the patience I exercised, but also somewhat disappointed with the outcomes. His favorite ride there is Cobra's Curse, a family roller coaster. It checks a lot of boxes for him, because it's not very intense, and the ride system itself, with a vertical elevator lift, is the neatest thing he's ever seen. When we got there, it was quite broken, and it didn't open all day. Going in, I hoped he would try one of the big B&M rides, Montu, Kumba or SheiKra. I asked him if he would ride one earlier in the week, but told him I didn't expect it.
I did Montu first by myself. I've honestly not been on that ride maybe in 20 years, and haven't been on a proper grown-up inverted coaster probably since Banshee opened at Kings Island. Montu, with seven inversions, is pretty aggressive and intense, and I did not recall this. Wow, what a ride. Simon went up the exit and was talking the ear off of a ride op, who was very kind in answering his questions. I told him this would probably not be a great choice.
From there we went to Cheetah Hunt, which is hard to define. It's kind of a family coaster, but has some strong airtime moments and three launches. Simon wasn't going to ride it, then decided that he would try. He went on it before with Diana on a day trip some years ago, but he didn't remember it. In the station, where the first launch is, the first problem is that the sound really bothers him. He's definitely sensitive to sounds, but I'm never sure which sounds. Fireworks are fine, which maybe is not surprising given they're outside his bedroom window every night, but coaster launches? Not OK. Covering his ears and enduring it, we boarded the ride. When it was over, he still wasn't sure, but thought he liked it.
From there we did their wild mouse (name escapes me), and after lunch he did it again while I sensibly let my food digest. I tried to get him to do Scorpion, a classic single-loop Schwarzkopf, but he wasn't having it. That was deflating, because he did it with me a few years ago. We worked around to Kumba, and Simon again went up the exit to see what was going on in the station. He passed on this one, too.
Next we watched Tigris cycle a few times. I had no expectation he would want to do that one, but I kind of wanted to. Next we watched SheiKra cycle a bunch, and he was very interested again in the floor movement and gates around the floorless trains. I explained to him that, despite the massive size of the ride, it's actually fairly gentle because of the huge elements, which is absolutely true. He wasn't having it though. It took every ounce of my being to hide the disappointment, but I did.
From there, we checked out the kangaroos, and they were really cool. Seeing the little ones being tended to by the big ones was a somewhat serendipitous moment given my commitment to trying to make it a good day for Simon. At that point, Diana texted me to let me know she was done. Surprising because she was in the chair for at most 45 minutes, but welcome because I wasn't sure what else we were going to do. She encouraged us to take whatever time we needed.
I agreed to Simon that we would check Cobra's Curse one more time, and it was down for the day. His disappointment was pretty huge, and I wasn't sure what to do for him. He surprised me when he suggested that we do Cheetah Hunt again. He was a little more confident this time, and he wanted me to hold on to his hand only until we got to the top of the "tree," at which point he said he was good. I watched him, and he seemed to really enjoy it, except for the inversion. I haven't quite been able to explain to him that some Intamin rides have inversions you hang in the seat on, compared to B&M's where you're generally pinned into the seat. The reaction this time, in the brake run, was that he really liked it. It was a win.
We were closing in on five hours in the park, which in July is not ideal, but he wanted to do a lap on the train, and there wasn't really a universe where I could say no and not feel like a total dick. As we boarded, he noted, "Oh look, a Thompson's gazelle." Of course, he knows this from playing Planet Zoo. The kid is a sponge when he wants to be.
A quick bathroom break, a few bottles of water, and we met Diana in the pickup area, and had the usual horrible experience with I-4 I knew from my days driving to AgileThought in Tampa. The car routed us through some lovely backroads.
I was not expecting everything to go to a certain plan, but despite the disappointment of not being able to ride his favorite thing, he agreed that it was a good day. For me, I was simultaneously proud of myself for the patience I practiced, and self-loathing for that patience not coming naturally to me. I'm worried that I'm running out of time with Simon to get it right. He has only seven years of school left, plus hopefully college. I want my little human to be happy and content, and also self-sufficient when he's an adult. It's scary how that isn't a given.
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