The Dragon

I wanted to make this a separate post so that years down the line, when my son is standing atop the clock tower, gunning down innocent civilians and people ask, “What went wrong?”, I can refer them to this post and tell them:

He rode The Dragon.

We finally got our little card to get into the Jardin de Acclimatation whenever we want, so we thought we’d use it, despite the cold weather.

We head there and, as usual, I ask Ben if he wants to ride any rides. Do you want to ride on the cars? No. The carousel? No. How about the train? No.

Ok, let’s go play on the wooden playground then.

I have few regrets in life, but I now regret not sticking with that plan.

As we passed the hall of mirrors and walked past the adult rides, Ben sees one with ships and a giant Dragon in the middle and tells me he wants to ride the dragon. I was impressed.

It didn’t look scary, there were no loops, no spinning (like the tilt-a-whirl), no scrambling. It was a circle with a couple hills. Piece of cake!

Now remember, I beg you, remember, none of these rides were running. We were the only people there, so I had no idea what this ride did. Could do.

…would do.

Wanting to indulge my adventurous son, proud of his daring and surprised by his wanting to ride on a ride, I went to check if there were age or height restrictions.

Older than 5. Hmm ok. Wait, unless accompanied by an adult. That’s me!

We ran to the ticket office and asked for two tickets for The Dragon. The lady indicated, you and him? No, she says, it’s a fast ride she mimes. My son wants to ride the Dragon and the sign says… No, she says. Then another lady comes over and asks what’s up, she speaks a little English. I tell her we want to ride the dragon. She says it’s an adult ride, but, I say, your sign says it’s fine if accompanied by an adult! Why have that sign if it’s not? The first lady gets a call, she says oh? Ok, here ya go. Ride the Dragon.

I push down the very slight sinking feeling this encounter has produced and cling to the triumph. We will ride The Dragon.

We walk to it, but Ben heard the word fast, and he’s less certain now. It’s ok buddy, I tell him, daddy’s with you, and it’s not as fast as a car. I theorize.

No workers are around, because no people are around, but I spot someone and he goes to get the operator. Ben gets nervous and the sinking feeling rises. I defeat it with logic: why have a sign unless it’s ok? We’ll be fine!

The wind whispers, ride The Dragon.

We get on, Ben panics, but I say, it’s ok, daddy’s got you, I’ll keep you safe. He settles down, and we start to go. This isn’t so bad, this is…

Holy friggin crap! Ben is silent, I suspect shock. I hold him tight and the G force pushes him into me. I make a brief mental note to kill the maker of that sign and then wonder how much therapy Ben will need after this ride.

Around, up, down and faster. I start to feel ill. A combination of nausea and guilt. I’m talking the whole time though, isn’t this fun Ben? It’s like a fast train! Wow, look how fast we’re going!

Ben does great; I know he’s scared, he’s holding me as tight as his little hands can, but he’s not crying, not yet. After a minute, which seems like five, Ben starts to cry and says he wants off. I couldn’t agree more and tell him it is almost over, and it starts to slow. Ok, that could have been worse.

We come to a stop and I try to lift the bar, as we start to go backwards.

It’s worse.

Same thing, but in reverse. Again, I talk Ben through it. He has two quick panic bursts, but holds it together remarkably well. As we slow, he cries to get off and I have no problem with that.

Poor lil guy is shaking, so I hug him and say that was a pretty fast huh? Were you scared a little. He says ya, I say, that’s ok, so was I. But he’s not shaking for long, he says, we rode The Dragon! It was fast!

What a tough two year old, sheesh.

He told mama later that day and hasn’t mentioned it since. When the therapist finally uncovers it later in life, at least Ben can print out this blog post and bring it with him.

On a side note, these are my RAW pictures I converted. It’s not a good converter (I'll redo them when I get home to photoshop), but they aren’t the best pictures either. I’m still learning and the conditions weren’t ideal. It was cold and there was a lot of snow coming down (you don’t see it cause the shutter is open like 30 seconds) (Tons of.people at the train station too, but you only see me because I stood still, pretty cool) And I have no tripod. I’m getting the hang of it though and learning about fstops and all that, so hopefully I’ll improve. I really like the night stuff, so I’m gonna look for a cheap tripod and a bulb cord when I get home so I can do more when I get the time.