Way back in 1990, I started to build a list of Must Ride roller coasters. This list has waxed and waned since then, but I’ve always kept it short enough that it could be maintained in my noggin; never has it been written down. I stopped adding to it some time ago, and the list has been shrinking as more and more go from ‘Must Ride’ to ‘Been Rode’. At the beginning of Day Seven of this Florida trip, my Must Ride list had only two roller coasters remaining. One of them was Kumba, at Busch Gardens Tampa.

For the uninitiated, Busch Gardens is different from most other amusement parks in that it’s also a zoo. It’s also huge, so I did a LOT of walking. It’s a beautiful park, really living up to the “Gardens” in its name. Animal enclosures are scattered all around the park, and provide a nice break while walking from coaster to coaster.

Being a Tuesday in February, the park was uncrowded, and there were almost no lines at any of the rides. I rode five coasters, and all were good. Kumba was absolutely excellent! It’s long, has non-stop action from beginning to end, makes excellent use of the terrain, plus it just sounds cool. (The wheels run on hollow circular rails, which produce a “roar” as the train speeds along; most parks fill the rails with sand to dampen this noise.)

Now, with all of that said, (and I know I’ve said it before)…my roller coaster riding days may be drawing to a close. Between Parkinson’s, an arthritic hip, and just plain gettin’ old, my body just doesn’t take coasters as well as it used to. Today I experienced an episode of orthostatic hypotension – that wooziness you sometimes feel when you stand up too fast. Not so unusual, except that I was already standing, and had been standing for quite some time. I also had my standard multiple-times-a-daily “off periods” where I was unreasonably fatigued. But it goes beyond the physical. Amusement parks have gotten too damned expensive. An adult admission at many parks now costs over $100, but that’s not enough for them. On top of that, many of these places now charge $30 for parking! And somethin’ just ain’t right about a world where it costs more to park a car for a day than it costs to rent the car for a day. It seems like the existence of the Must Ride list may be the only thing that still keeps me going to amusement parks…and now there’s only one coaster left on it…and it’s looking like I’ll be visiting its locale a little over a month from now…