My Town Monday: The Giant Dipper, San Diego

Hang onto your hats and your loose change! Today's My Town Monday post is about San Diego's 2600-foot-long WOODEN roller coaster called the Giant Dipper.

The Giant Dipper is a registered national historic landmark which opened for rides July 4, 1925. It's been updated since then, so that it's, like, safe.

Riding the Giant Dipper is one of those things you just have to do if you visit San Diego. It took me a couple of decades, but I finally climbed on last summer because the protagonist in I So Don't Do Mysteries rides it.

I will never ride the Big Dipper again. Why? Well, I'm not particularly brave. I suffer bigtime from motion sickness. It's the jerkiest roller coaster I've ever been on. I definitely got bruised up from the ride due to the brutal turns.

You know what I don't get? People who buy wristbands and ride the Big Dipper over and over all day long. And eat hot dogs.

You know what I really don't get? People who entered the "Whirl Till You Hurl" contests put on by a local radio station. In 1997, three contestants stayed on the Big Dipper for 11 days. They each won a car. In 1998, five contestants stayed on for SEVENTY days and split a $50,000 jackpot. Each day consisted of 22.5 hours on the coaster! Yikes!

Hello! $10,000 wouldn't pay for the lifelong chiropractic visits required after such a stunt. And think of the host of unsightly bruises. Also, a marriage could break up during a seventy-day absence from each other. Not to mention, I felt there were important unanswered questions concerning bathroom breaks and sleeping arrangements. Nope. You would never catch me doing a marathon roller coaster ride.

I say ride the Big Dipper once. Then meander around the rest of Belmont Park, an amusement center by the beach. Drink some cold lemonade, munch on a halfway decent churro and win some tacky trinkets playing carney games.

That finishes up another My Town Monday post. Thank you to Travis Erwin for setting this up. He has an interesting post today about an eccentric in his town of Amarillo, TX. He also has links to others who have written some great off-the-beaten posts!