The Disaster Trip
My first topic that I thought would be fun to write about from the jumbo list is "this trip was a disaster." Last summer with my dad's side of the family, I went to Kansas City, Missouri for a few days vacation. We had plans to go to the zoo and aquarium, Worlds of Fun, and great bbq restaurants. I absolutely love vacations with my dad's family. Especially now that V and I are in college and we don't get to spend as much time with my dad's family. For it being the beginning of July, the temperature was reasonable and not unbearably hot. Upon our arrival to Kansas City we were attempting to plan out exactly how we wanted our days to go and the weather channel announced that there was potentially going to be extreme thunderstorms and really bad weather all day on the day that we were supposed to go to Worlds of Fun. We were kind of bummed out and so we decided to just see what the weather would be like when we got up. The morning that we got up to go to Worlds of Fun, my dad checked the weather app on his phone and saw that there was only a 30% chance of rain and it wasn't until the mid to late afternoon. We were really excited because almost all of us except A are roller coaster junkies. The weather was awesome! There was a slight breeze and we got to the theme park right when it opened so we would have time to do everything that we wanted before the small chance of rain in the afternoon. We were having a blast riding all of the awesome roller coasters and other rides. We rode a 300 foot tall swing and it played the Harry Potter theme song as we rode (I was basically in Heaven!) As our day went on the skies started to get dark and we figured that it would probably good to start wrapping up our day at the park. Earlier in our day my dad, A, T, and I rode this ride that simulated a tornado and it was really fun so we had my stepmom and V come over to try it out with us before we headed out of the park. We waited in a fairly short line and got on the ride when people came running into the building saying that we were going to have to shut the rides down because the actual tornado sirens were going off and they needed to take us to safety. Everyone was escorted off the ride and we followed the workers to where we thought the safe place was. Once we got inside we sat and were ready to wait out the siren. We weren't worried because we get tornadoes every now and then in Arkansas so we knew how to stay safe. However, after a few minutes, a manager came in and told us that it was not the right safe place location and that we had to move. By this point, it was pouring rain and when I saw pouring, I do not exaggerate. It was a torrential downpour. As we ran through the rain we got to a bathroom that was a safe place but it was already full so we had to move once again. The next place we went to was a closed stand with a metal awning. Metal. People were yelling at the workers of the park and the workers kept saying that they had never dealt with a Stage 4 and so that made my parents and A really anxious. (She's really afraid of tornadoes too.) We were told to follow these workers after they got directions and so we were literally running through this amusement park with the paths and streets flooding and we get stopped midway only to find that the location we were headed to was already full as well. At this point my stepmom was really frustrated and nervous for us and so she joined in at yelling sarcastic remarks at the workers. A was on the verge of an asthma attack because she was running so much and she was scared. Finally, we get to an underground theater where we got to stay. We were completely drenched and all they could offer to give us were paper towels and some trash bags. We weren't allowed to leave because there were tornadoes touching down within 5 or 6 miles of us. SO we sat and waited, soaked to the bone and freezing cold. After what seemed like hours of waiting the sirens stopped going off and we got cleared to leave. It was still pouring rain so we ran out to the exit and got in the car as quickly as we possibly could. By the time we got back to our hotel we just wanted food and hot showers. We were exhausted and just glad the day was over and that we were safe.
The next day we got up and went to the zoo, but most of the animals were not out because of the storms the day before. They were all scared and so the zookeepers had to put them up and take care of them I suppose. If you haven't ever been to the Kansas City Zoo let me just tell you, it is HUGE! We walked around for hours and hours. They even have a ski lift that takes you from the "Asia" section to the "Africa" section. After we went to the zoo we went to the aquarium and it was huge as well! Then of course we had to hit up some awesome bbq places. My dad and stepmom had been raving about Jack Stack bbq the whole time we were there and it was pretty amazing. So in all honesty the trip wasn't actually a complete disaster but the tornado and torrential downpour was kind of dramatic and unexpected!
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