Busch Gardens - 6/24/2001  
   
  Earlier that month we decided that we would finally go on the trip to Busch Gardens that we had been planning for a long time.  So Sonia took Saturday off, I took Monday off and we packed up Friday night and hit the road early Saturday morning.  Well actually it was 11:00am.  We arrived in Tampa about 4:00pm, got a hotel room and went to Clearwater beach.
   
  Then we went to Roadhouse for dinner.  Early the next morning, well 9:00am, we hit the road for Busch Gardens.  Luckily this was only a 10 minute trip so we managed to get in the gates by 9:45 or so.  We immediately headed for Montu, the largest, fastest inverted roller coaster in the southeast.  This baby really screams and is heartily recommended by Alex.  Sonia gave in to nausea after two rides, Alex rode one more time before Sonia grew impatient and we were off to the next attraction.

      

Sonia and Alex on the Montu.  Could Sonia have a bigger smile on her face?
   
The next attraction was Gwazi, the largest wooden rollercoaster in the southeast.  Alex was going to ride this a second time but the ride was closed due to lightning.  So we went to see if Kumba was open.  On the way it started raining heavily so we holed up till the storm blew over, managing to stay mostly dry.  The first ride to open back up was Congo River Rapids.  We boarded one of the rafts and came out completely soaked, making our earlier efforts at staying dry look pretty foolish.