Gang's day out !!

Like other ones earlier, this trip also started with uncertainty of which all are going, where to stay, what to see/do and I myself wasn’t sure or rather willing to go. But believe me, the fascination force of such trips is so immense that lesser mortal beings like me are pulled with as much force as a pin by a powerful magnet.

So we started on to create another history. This time the primary motives were water sports and camping, things I never tried before in the US. Wisconsin Dells, the land of great roller coasters and water parks, is just 2 hrs from Milwaukee, a trip which we covered in just 1 hr 55 min with slight over speeding as Sambie, our driver, couldn’t keep track of the speedometer without specs. After roaming in and around Dells, seeking and collating information about the place and its attractions, we decided to go for Jet Skiing. It took us an hour and assistance from an information centre to track down the way to Holiday Shores, our first destination. With time ticking 12 O clock on most of our faces looking at the fearful ride, we finally prepared our minds and bought tickets for Jet Skiing. Being more adventurous, the three of us (myself, Vikram and Shilpi) formed a group for the 3 seater Jet Ski, as we wouldn’t have attained a higher speed on the other one that carried the other four (Tammy, Pratish, Sambie and Rashmi). As we shot on our Ferrari, I found the controls difficult in the beginning but pouring in more skills, I was able to master the technique. Soon we were flying in the air at a speed of 45 with the rear of boat barely touching the water, when I lost the balance trying a turn and the titanic toppled. There we were in the midst of Lake Delton immersed in water hanging on to our boat shouting for our lives. After being ignored by our other gang members, we managed to attract the attention of a Mexican (not sure) family which helped us by pulling us in their boat and helping us turning back our ski boat. I am not sure whether it was for good, but I really enjoyed driving my Ferrari alone with better control for another 15 min on full throttle while my other team members were dropped back at the shore by our rescuers. Huh, it wasn’t as easy as driving a bike I thought earlier.

Once we were through, we went to Upper Dells for another ride on Wildthing (a 1500 BHP wild motor boat) after having a satisfying lunch, but ended up taking a Dells Ducks ride which was worth what we didn’t pay forJ. Then came the turn of Wildthing which was another great boat ride providing us enough twists and turns though not exceeding our expectations but easily meeting them. I would give it a B+ in appraisal.

Now was the turn of camping and after inspecting our camp site, we easily jotted down the list of missing inventories. So, myself and Vikram went out hunting them while the remaining group decided to stay back to assemble the tent and make other arrangements. Man!! We lost our way and it took us more than 2 hrs and lot of patience to track down the way to Walmart. Vikram really had a tough day with me and I hope he wasn’t pissed off as much as he seemed to be. All is well that ends well and we felt a strange victory after we bought the inventories. On our way back to our campsite we discussed our strengths/weaknesses and human psychology in general. I am pretty sure after our discussion; life wouldn’t be better had all the controls being given to him. After returning to the campsite, I was astounded by the ability of our gang to put together such a huge tent without flaw. However, my surprise diluted a bit when learnt that a boy next door explained them the methodology. Since, we were left with little time to indulge ourselves into the elaborate camping activities; we left them for the next night. We survived on grilled Boca burgers and guys were better off as the Beer reduced the sense of hunger in them. Few minutes of chatting and we all were lying inside the tent with eyes closed but mouths open, discussing the incidents of the day and some hilarious talks that induced some high pitch laughter before we all fell asleep. This marked the end of Day one.

Then arrived the dawn, and we all were surprised by PP's capability to seal his mouth through out the night not letting a word slip out of him. As usual, the guys left the bed early and ended up waiting for girls to start another grand voyage. Today’s destination was Noah’s Ark, the largest water park in US. We reached there well in time, bought the tickets and boarded the entrance after I left my other pair of eyes in the van.

After taking a plunge in “Big Kahuna”, We broke the ice with “Black Thunder” which wasn’t as scary as I thought. We repeated the ride to strengthen our confidences for the bigger challenges. Our next rides, “Bermuda triangle” and “Congo Bongo”, proved just to be of my kind: In other words, the least adventurous for others. With greater confidence, we moved to our next ride, “Sting Ray” that scared the hell out of me when I measured the trigonometric figures of the ride. It took us 15 minutes and an ocean full of courage to reach the top. With shivering body and shaking legs, I boarded the tube and there it went from 0-60 in no time. Pheww.. my eyes closed again reluctant to view the horrifying sight. With the ride coming to stop, my heart started to beat again. Thereafter, none of us was able to further control our hunger and with rats replacing butterflies, we were all set for a heavy lunch. Followed by nachos, cheese balls and French fries, hefty slices of Cheese Pizza made their way through our Esophagus to finally settle in our stomach. With everyone imbued, there was no other ride more relaxing than Adventure River, and so we all settled on our tubes to enjoy the adventure of comfort. Half hour later, we regained our power and made a move to the most terrifying ride “Point of no return”. The name was a perfect analogy to ride and I wonder what made us reverse our decision from a NO GO to a GO. Soon, we were at the top, height being no less than a 12 storied building with sliding tube at an angle greater than 60 degrees on the floor, that can scare the bravest. Captain Vikram led the crew and set an example for all of us to follow by slowly dragging himself to reach the point of no return. Soon it was my turn and I closed my eyes again to avoid any kind of exposure to the dreadful scenes. Three seconds of free fall and 2 skips of heartbeat took me down to the point where I could indeed return. For next few minutes, I was the bravest man in the whole universe before we neared our next ride Flash Flood. After few mind-blowing showers, we settled in the ride and this time, I was courageous enough not to close my eyes. With a substantial wait time, we took our final ride of the day “Black Anaconda”, another scary one but not for me anymore. After deciding to call off the rides, we went for another round of adventure at the Adventure River and this time it was even more fun.

After taking showers and changing clothes, and a nice photo/video session, we headed back to our Camp ground with enough time remaining to carry out activities left over from the other day. I undertook the task of lighting camp fire and dispensed more efforts than required to complete the task. Continuing the trend, Shilpi, our head chef was all set to grill corn while Tammy and Rashmi were busy chopping the onions and capsicum and marinating them. Light music and beer; what else was required to decorate the beautiful evening? My idea of “Paneer Tikka” proved to be a great hit and won appreciations from the entire group. Boca burgers filled the remaining spaces of our stomach and Pratish’s dream of eating Maggie remained a dream until he slept. We didn’t do much after that except a bit of dancing, few photo sessions and reprimanding Pratish for not having a good collection of songs. All of us slept thereafter with a better sleep than night before, as everyone was still enjoying the oscillations of the Adventure River. And here we ended our Day 2.

There is not much to write about day 3. The only good thing happened to us that day was skipping the rides of Mt Olympus.

And there we were on the road again heading back to Milwaukee…