Dudleys Diary

to Colorado. It was in the hot summertime and it was good to get out of the heat of North Central Texas. It was Dudley's first of many trips to Colorado. Dudley remembers seeing the Rocky Mountains for the first time and it was pretty spectacular for a kid. We stayed in Denver and made a car trip up and over one of the tall mountain peaks. Dudley remembers getting out and playing in the snow up on one of the mountains. Pretty exciting stuff for a flat lander like Dudley. I remember we spent some time in Denver and went for a paddle boat ride on a lake in a city park with my dad. One evening we all went to a big amusement park, Elitch Gardens. Dudley remembers seeing a big white wooden roller coaster that was as impressive as the mountains. Dudley begged his dad to take him for a ride on the coaster named "Twister". Dad was ready to take me on the coaster ride when Dudley's mother gave him one of those looks and he changed his mind and said we could not ride it. Damn, Dudley was deprived of his chance to ride one of the most historic coasters in the country. My dad made up for it later on that vacation when we slipped off to a hardware store and he bought Dudley his first pocket knife. Now that was a consolation prize worth bragging about. Dudley has ridden a lot of roller coasters since then. Dudley has enjoyed them all with his most memorable ride being on the "Rattler" in San Antonio at Fiesta Texas. Dudley and his sister rode the rattler and survived the most wicked coaster in the state. That was before they had to rebuild it, tamed it down because of all of the injuries and resulting lawsuits. That was the only coaster Dudley ever rode that he did not want to get on a second time. Once was quite enough on that one.