Yesterday a group of us five stars from work went to Clementon Park and Splashworld in Clementon, NJ. This should have only been a half hour ride that turned into and hour and 10 minutes because of Philly traffic on I-95 North. We sat and waited a really long time, inching our way toward the Walt Whitman Bridge to take us into the crappy state of NJ, which looks a lot like the crappy state of Pa. The entire time we sat, all 8 of us in a 7 seater minivan, I questioned why I did not go I-95 south and go over the Commodore Barry Bridge. If I had gone with my first instincts, we would have arrived sooner.
The weekend crew and all our children landed in this wet nugget of fun. The rides were crappy and few and far between. I wasn't much impressed with their selection of rides. The log flume was closed. The roller coaster was giant and made all of wood, which made for a fast and bumpy ride. There are bigger and badder coasters out there in the world and my 7 year old loves them, but the height requirement for this left her waiting by the exit with our carry bags. She was pissed. The rest of the rides were 'for babies, mom!' as I was informed. We did the traditional swings, pirate ship, and the dropper. Not sure of its official name but it dragged us a ways in the air then let us drop really fast. We liked that ride a lot. The main attraction for our kids was the wave pool that some stupid ass children kept shitting in. They'd close it, get it back up and running, then some assholian child would take anoother shit. Now, my daughter, when she was up to age 5 I'd say, took a crap in every pool she swam in. I sneaked her away with a towel around her and changed her and brought her back to swim in the same pool. No one was the wiser, but we certainly didn't leave any turds floating around. There were water slides of several sizes and all ages. Both girls were too small for the dropper, I don't recall its name either, but you stand in a tube and the floor drops and you go hurdling toward the earth in a water slide. That was not my cup of tea and it wasn't really a huge drop either. The lazy river, the racing water slide and the raft water slide on a 90 degree day were refreshing and fun.
The park itself needs a theme. It's more like a traveling carnival in nature. It could be a little cleaner. I don't know if it's an ongoing problem, but their sewer system needs an over haul if it's backing up through the drains onto the walking paths of oncoming adults and children. The odor alone was a gut churner if you're not used to the odors of the human body on a large scale. After a few hours in the park, the trash built up here and there and the staff was overwhelmingly nonexistant on a housekeeping, janitorial level. Employees are apathetic, except for the life guards and there is an overabundance in staffing where they are concerned. For that I was thankful because we had multiple children of all ages and half of them took off and roamed in packs.
The kids came away exhausted and whining until mine fell asleep in the car on the way back to Pa. I was similarly tired to the point I left the dog out at 1130pm, then forgot I left him out, then went to bed. He spent the night outside.
This morning I felt horrible that he'd spent the night out, guilty that I had left him all alone like that, and on a slightly lesser scale, wondered if he barked too much all night. He still loves me though. Big silly dog was thrilled to death when I opened that door.
This morning I was also woken up the phone ringing. I didn't answer til the third time the same unknown number annoyed me enough to say hello. It was the Rican who states he is being released from the County on Saturday at 5pm. He better be right about this release date, because he has been wrong in the past. Not only will I drive an hour to get him, I gotta drive an hour back and possibly be late for work. Really late for work. May as well call out the first four hours. I'll have to see what the schedule looks like.
Saturday is also my girl's birthday. I still have to shop and get her cake. She'll be 8.
Jill
8/9/12
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