The Evil Tower of Death...aka...The Supreme Scream

There is nothing in the world that scares me more than being way up high. And nothing in the world scares me more than that than being way up high in the open with nothing below my feet but air ...that feeling that you are going to plunge to certain death at any moment. It is a feeling that makes me start to breathe faster and makes my heart start pounding in my chest until I feel like I will surely pass out from fright. And that is what I feel like BEFORE I even go up. That is how I felt when I was standing on the ground looking 250-some-odd-feet up into the air up at the ride I was standing in line to ride...the Supreme Scream at Knott's Berry Farm..or as I have fondly come to call it, "The Evil Tower of Death." I was ready to supremely scream before I even got on the ride. I was standing in line, nearly hyperventilating at the very idea of getting strapped into what I considered to be certain death. And if the ride itself didn't kill me, I was surely going to have a heart attack just waiting in line to ride! My hands got clammy, my heart felt like it was in my throat and I could barely breathe. And when it came time to get on the ride, I wanted to cry. I wanted to turn around and run like a little baby away from the tower of death. I really felt like I was surely going to die at any moment. I could not make sure enough that the ride constraints were tightened tight enough. I pushed and pulled at them making sure that they were not going to budge. With my hands clasped as tight around the bars as I could, my friend Veronica (who I had probably by this time scared into a stupor with all of my hyperventilating and all), and I ascended the 250+ foot tower of death. It felt like it took an eternity. My eyes closed tight and my hands wrapped around the bars, I could feel the wind blowing around me. It seemed to make the tower move, but I imagine that was only in my mind. I was even a bit concerned that my shoes would fall off from the sheer force of the drop. And just when I thought we were at the top of the ride, I opened my eyes, only to find, much to my horror, that we were only about halfway up. At this point I was nearly in a panic, and I was thinking to myself that I should have kept my feet on the ground and never have done this. I shut my eyes back tight and clasped my hands tighter...so tight that I felt like they became part of the bars themselves. Then the dreaded moment came....the moment where we stopped, and then I knew that at any second, the ride would drop and I would die. Only me though. I was sure I, and only I, was going to die. We sat there, 250 feet off of the safety of the earth, gravity seeming to want to pull us back to the ground. I almost felt like I was in a sort of tug-of-war between the gravity and the evil tower of death, and no side was winning. After what seemed like an eternity, gravity finally won, and we plummeted back to earth at what felt like 1000 miles an hour...my stomach in my throat, my heart pounding, wind blowing against my body, and me wanting to scream, but having no breath to do so. And just when it felt like we were at the bottom at last, we were hurled about halfway back up that tower of death and were flung back down to earth....then up again once more and back down. And finally, at last, I was able to breathe again, and know that I was going to live to see another day. With as much dignity as I could muster after having had blubbered all the way up the tower, I climbed off the ride, legs trembling and body shaking, heart racing and wondered when I was going to be able to do that again!