The Carousel of DOOM!!!

A few days ago. We took Honeybee to a carnival. It was one of those traveling ones that spends a few days in this town or that and you always see signs plastered on telephone poles and in shop windows for. Normally, this is not something that we would have gone to but having just come back from Disney World, last month, I think we may have been suffering from amusement park withdrawal. We thought that Honeybee would like the lights and the carousel if nothing else.

When we got there we beelined for the Carousel. This had been Honeybee's favorite ride in Disney so we thought she would love it. The ride was 2 tickets so we bought 4 thinking that she would want to go on it a couple of times- once with Mommy and once with Daddy.

 We couldn't get on the carousel fast enough. We were the only ones on for this ride (I think I know why now!) We picked a "horsey" and got ready to ride.   It all went downhill from there!

(not really the ride operator)

The carousel started and very rapidly picked up speed -  A LOT of speed!  I was standing and holding Honeybee on the horse since there were no belts or even reigns to hold onto.  I had to brace myself from falling over, while trying to keep a wiggly 2 year old from jumping off.  And that's what she was trying to do. Honeybee was terrified.  The carousel was going so fast my hair was blowing back like I had my head stuck in a wind tunnel.  There was no calliope music playing making it all the more scary since it was silent short of the twisting metal sounds.  And to make matters worse, the sketchy looking ride operator, who was probably very nice despite his looks, must have decided to give us an extra few rounds because the ride JUST WOULDN'T STOP!!

Poor Honeybee, was trying to get off her horse with an urgency I've never seen in her. Of course, I wasn't going to let her get down and let the centrifugal force eject her from the ride.  I tried distracting her by  pointing and waving to Daddy, although by the time she'd look up we'd have whizzed by again. I tried improvising my own carousel-like music. This seemed to distract her a bit for the several rounds, but she was still clutching my arm in utter fear.

The ride FINALLY slows down to a stop and Honeybee looks at me and says " Mommy, ALL DONE. Get off now, NOW!"  Yes, Mommy was quite done with the ride too.

We walked around for a bit before I asked her if she wanted to ride the horsies again. "NO! ALL DONE!"  So we gave our last 2 tickets to some nice looking family.  There were other rides there, but if Honeybee and I couldn't handle their carousel, somehow, I think that the Twister would be a bad idea!

We're going to try to local (permanantly housed) carousel when it opens this summer. I hope the Carousel of Doom hasn't ruined all carousels for Honeybee or worse: set her up for a lifetime of therapy!

Photos courtesy of www.stockvault.net