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July 22, 2006

I have complete control of the vehicle.

The Dodge Caliber is a weird little car. I rent a lot of cars, but never has the driver seat been so much higher than the passenger seat, and never have I needed to adjust the steering wheel. It's a strange little box - roomy enough - but its small size and sturdy build actually make it hard to see outside of the car. I have a hard enough time changing lanes and checking my blindspot - thank God I had Mike in the backseat saying things like "Watch out for that car in front of you."

We drove down to Six Flags Great Adventure yet again yesterday, this time to see Club Kidz Bop - I'll withold my reviews. The weather was terrible, but Six Flags apparently never closes because of rain, and we had to go there for work anyway, so off we went despite the bleak forecast (which our resident meteorology expert Mike confirmed).

Lucky enough this time we actually got to do the Daredevil Dive, which was probably the highlight of the day. Mike missed it because he wandered off for an Italian ice, but had he stayed he would've seen me and Edith being strapped together, tethered and launched 157 ft. up into the air, clutching onto each other, arms interlocked. We were then released, bungee-style, to swing back and forth over the crowd. A good precursor to skydiving for anyone who's never done it. And it wasn't scary at all for me, except for that moment before the freefall (but thankfully you're suspended by a strong tether instead of hurdling towards the ground). You can do the ride with up to three people bundled together, so we're looking for a third participant for the next time....
We also rode Nitro based on Mike's recommendation, and I too had a visual fade-out - not a full-on blackout, but everything turned sort of purple as the ride banked over that last turn. Very satisfying, especially since the threatening sky and severe thunderstorm warnings closed down the rest of the rides for most of the day.

A decent dinner at Champps bar & grill in Edison's Menlo Park Mall gave us a good break from the rain, and when we were done we had a relatively short drive home. Finding a lucky meter-free parking spot on 25th Street helped me get into bed at a decent hour, and when I checked the car this morning I discovered that there was no damage to the car, despite hitting the curb on a flooded highway exit when a deluge of water hit our windshield the night before. Relieved, I gave that weird red Caliber back to Dollar car rental by 10 a.m. and came home to go back to bed.