Yesterday we took Spencer to the Nashville Adventure Science Center to see the new Sudekum Planetarium.
After standing in line for some time, we were at the ticket counter with these options - admission - $9 each; planetarium show - $6 each and then the Blue Max.
“What is the Blue Max?” Janice asked innocently enough.
“It’s like a flight simulator - like flying. He’s big enough,” said the ticket seller, pointing to Spencer.
We bought admission and planetarium tickets and we bought one ticket for Spencer to ride the Blue Max. The ticket taker said we could do the Blue Max right away.
We found it with no trouble. As Spencer got ready to go, the attendant asked that one of us could and probably should go with him. We didn’t have another ticket - no problem.
“Do you have anything in your pockets that might fall out?” She asked me, again very innocently. This should have been a big red flag.
Then we were strapped into this large machine - with safety harnesses - maybe another clue as to what was to come. (Just to make a seem real, I thought to myself.)
Seems like this should be a fun thing. The door closes. A screen will show that we are flying.
The machine starts to move and rock and turn.
5 seconds later we are flying straight up toward the ceiling and 10 seconds later, we are flying upside down and we are hanging from the top of this infernal machine!!! Spencer has the controls. He is ready to quit. The attendant had shown him a red panic button and he asked me to hit it!!
We didn’t but we continued to fly upside down, probably three to four minutes (a long time to hang upside down.)
Finally, some how we righted ourselves and flew right side up for maybe 30 seconds and the ride was over.
The door opened.
(click on pictures to enlarge - click on blue type for more info)
Janice was laughing so hard she could barely focus the camera. She was laughing so hard she couldn’t even talk. She was laughing so hard she could barely stand up and she certainly couldn’t find my money or my car keys that I had given her. She was in hysterics!!!
I, on the other hand, was perhaps a tad nauseous - flying upside down for 3 minutes and not having a firm handle on the horizon can do that. I stayed that way for the remainder of the day.
Spencer was just glad he survived. It was quite a start to the Adventure Center.
If you call Janice this week and mention the “Blue Max,” I am sure she will start laughing hysterically all over again. She absolutely could not believe it when that machine turned upside down. She said she was never so happy to be left out of an activity in her life.
But don’t mention it to me - I am starting to be nauseous already!!
Tags: science, planetarium
