Sometimes the really great stories aren’t really great because something extraordinary happened. Stories can be really great if you’re with exactly the right person at exactly the right place, doing exactly the right thing. This is one of those stories, and it happens to be a favorite of mine (and was a favorite of Liz’s, of course).
In December 2016 we were on the BlogHer conference team, and we all traveled to Orlando, Florida to do a site visit for the conference we would present six months later. Site visits were always fun because we all worked remotely, all around the country, and they were excellent opportunities to get everyone together to familiarize ourselves with the conference venue way ahead of time and to get logistics plans going. There was always at least one team dinner and we had a blast just working together in the same place the rest of the time.
Since Liz had never been to Disney World before, I told her to pick one of the four parks (Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and Hollywood Studios). I planned to take us to the one she chose for the five hours we had available on the final day of our trip, before rushing back to the hotel to grab our bags and then rush to the airport to head home.
EPCOT has always been my favorite, so of course I was hoping she would pick that one. Actually, I was certain she would pick EPCOT, but I kept my thoughts to myself because I didn’t want to influence her choice. This was truly for her.
When I asked her, “Did you decide which park you want to see?” I was so ready for her to exclaim “Yes, EPCOT!!” that it actually took a moment to register in my brain that she said, “Yes, Hollywood Studios!!”
I forgot that she was a huge movie fan.
I purchased our park tickets at the hotel resort gift shop, and on the last day of our trip we hopped on a Disney shuttle to the park.
I don’t remember a lot of what we saw and did in the first couple of hours, but eventually we wound up in front of the Rock n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith.
I used to be a roller coaster person when I was younger, but I had only ridden a few in the recent past, at Six Flags Great America near home in Chicagoland. Roller coasters weren’t a regular part of her life either, and so it surprised me when she said, “Let’s go on the Rock n’ Roller Coaster!” I stared at her blankly for a moment as I recalled everything I had heard about this ride, and told her that I thought it might be a lot.
As was typical behavior for her, bless, she matter-of-factly disregarded my concerns (she did that with everyone, not just me) and redirected. “Let’s go on it though!” she exclaimed.
And so we did.
That coaster. Wow. If you aren’t familiar with it, here’s part of the description, in bold, courtesy of Wikipedia, with my commentary inserted in italics:
The limo (the coaster car) stops in front of a highway tunnel where a highway sign flashes humorous messages like: “Traffic bug you? Then STEP on it!”. (This is where we looked at each other, both wondering how much of a mistake we had just made. We also grabbed each other’s hand, Thelma and Louise-style.) Building up anticipation, seconds before the limo is launched, Steven Tyler counts down from five, launching the limo from 0 to 57 mph (92 km/h) in less than 2.8 seconds at “one!”. As the limo enters the tunnel, the on-ride photo is taken and a selection of Aerosmith songs play. (This is where she started cursing, non-stop, all the “Holy S—!” and “Fuuuu–!” and “Holy Fuuuu–!” while I resorted to my typical roller coaster response, which is screaming and laughing at the same time, non-stop, all the way to the end.)
After a long straightway, the limo rises up into the Rollover element, which is a two inversion element, and then some less intense over-banked turns. (“Holy Fuuuu—!!” “Ha ha ha ha!!!”) During the ride, there are neon signs on the side of the track, designed to mimic road signs. The limo continues along the track, until it reaches the third and final inversion, a corkscrew (“Ha ha ha ha!!!” “Holy Sh–!!”), and ending the ride with more banked turns as well as a camelback hill. The limo proceeds to the VIP backstage area, where guests exit through the red carpet towards the on-ride photo screens at the gift shop. (We sat there in silence for as long as humanly possible before they shuffled us out of there so the next people could board.)
We wandered sort of aimlessly through the gift shop, slightly disoriented, not saying a word, and went outside. We walked until we were out of the area surrounding the Rock n’ Roller Coaster building and finally stopped to look at each other.
“Your FACE!!” She said, laughing.
“YOUR face!!” I said, laughing just as hard.
“We should grab a selfie before our faces go back to normal,” I said, and she agreed.
We took one shot, and that was all we needed. It became an instant classic that has continued to make us laugh ever since.
One of the best things about Liz was that she could literally make anything fun. The odds were in our favor for fun, being at Disney World and all, but we always “took it to eleven”, every single time we were together. I have never laughed so hard or for so long about the most ordinary things, and I will always always always be so grateful for that.
I read that the Rock n’ Roller Coaster (which you can experience on video here but let’s face it, it’s not even close) is being renovated later this year to feature The Muppets rather than Aerosmith. That makes me sad, but it also makes me extra happy that Liz and I experienced the OG together on that fun December morning. It’s the memory that keeps on giving.
