Pursue Joy Now

First, let me say “Happy Belated Mother’s Day” to all you Moms out there! After running almost nonstop for several weeks, I’m a few days behind on the blog. We left NYC the Saturday before Mother’s Day, so this is my Mother’s Day post on Blog Standard Time (BST).

I recently saw a bumper sticker: “Don’t Postpone Joy.”

While I prefer to phrase it in the affirmative, I think this is great advice, especially for today’s families that are so often pulled in multiple directions. At the risk of sounding preachy, what joyous activity have you been putting off for a “better time” that may never come?

You never know how the joy you pursue and share today might influence the future. Last Father’s Day, I wrote about how fun RV trips as a kid influenced me and planted the seed for our current adventure (Thanks Dad (and Mom)!). I now know more than ever the effort involved in making those trips happen. Once again, thank you Mom and Dad for your love, dedication, and continued support. And many kudos to M for making this trip a possibility. The kids and I are so lucky to have such a loving Wife/Mom. We are all blessed.

Most recently, we pursued joy at Lake Compounce Amusement Park in Bristol, CT.

Looking for a place to stay between NYC and Boston, I stumbled across Lake Compounce. They have a relatively new campground and were offering four free tickets to the amusement park for opening weekend, which just happened to be when we would be passing through. Even better, it turns out that Lake Compounce is the oldest continuously operating amusement park in the country. Historic fun!

Not enough to get you jazzed about Lake Compounce? How about this? Lake Compounce is the place where the duo Milli Vanilli was exposed as lip-synching pretenders during a live MTV performance. Girl, you know it’s, Girl you know it’s, Girl you know it’s true…

Eventually, they gave back their Grammy Awards. That’s some history you might rather forget, but it is history nonetheless!

Though the rain followed us from NYC, it finally petered out late on Mother’s Day morning. We enjoyed a complimentary pancake breakfast at the camp store before heading to the amusement park.

The sunshine alone made for a memorable outing, but, even better, we had the place nearly to ourselves. Free soda added to the enjoyment, especially when combined with our purchased popcorn (cheap refills). I will say that unlimited soda, virtually unlimited popcorn, and unlimited line-free riding following an unlimited pancake breakfast is not necessarily a great combination. That’s especially true when taking on coasters like Phobia and Zoomerang, both coasters that subject riders to backward loops. Indeed, Phobia left you dangling upside down with only a loose lap bar saving you from making news.

Revolution aided digestion (only M could stomach a second ride).

It quickly dawned on us that more spinning and looping might be better later in the day. So we headed to Boulder Dash, a wooden roller coaster that, since debuting in 2000, has been named the #1 wooden coaster by several organizations that care about stuff like that. We were hoping it would be like Thunderhead at Dollywood. No such luck. It was back-snapping fast, but not in an enjoyable way, at least for us adults.

While M and I recovered, the kids hopped on Wildcat, a centerpiece coaster at Lake Compounce since the 1920’s. M3 came out looking like a torture victim. Good thing we used the kids as test dummies.

After that, we settled in for an enjoyable afternoon of Ghost Hunt (M3 clear champion), trolley rides, cheese steaks, and bumper cars, lots of bumper cars.

M3 and I tackled the pendulum swinger Thunder & Lightning. Despite chilly temps, L braved Thunder Rapids and had fun doing it while the rest of us watched!

We all enjoyed the Sky Ride to the top of a mountain. The views of Bristol and ESPN’s Headquarters were quite nice.

We eventually called it a day at the park and went out for Mother’s Day dinner, some savory Thai from Sweet Basil scarfed down before anyone could take a picture.