06-26 Oakwood Amusement Park All to Ourselves

It seems we were very fortunate to have great weather for our unique aqueduct adventure yesterday because this morning we have RAIN once again.

Oakwood Amusement Park is out in the middle of nowhere in southwest Wales. How many times do I get to say "out in the middle of nowhere" during our trip? Another lightly attended park is expected because of the chance of rain in the forecast. Well it's raining so I don't expect many people to be here today.

We are arriving a few minutes after opening and we are the SECOND car in the parking lot. We should be able to get all our rides done in half a day with this kind of "crowd".

Here comes our ride to the back of the park where the rides are.

We are cold and wet and it is windy but we're ready to ride! Right? Right.

We head back to the newest coaster in the park - Speed No Limits - and we ride it 4 times in a row with barely enough riders to fill the 8 passenger train. There is the first drop in the background.

Great first drop and plenty of negative G's ("airtime out of your seat") on the hills. Easy coaster to re-ride and it was very smooth.

We met The Bounce ride operator and he asked us where we were from. He said, "We don't get many Americans here." He was from Oklahoma and his father was worked at the Tesoro Refinery so he got a job here 3 years ago.

MEGAPHOBIA - great name for a coaster! This was a wild and crazy wooden coaster that we rode a few times.

They even had an alpine slide made with stainless steel. We had previously ridden one of these in Vernon, British Columbia about 20 years ago. Back then it started to rain and they closed the ride because the ride gets extremely unstable and wobbly when the trough gets wet. It was raining today and even though they didn't close the ride it WAS still unstable and wobbly. So, we slowed down because tipping over on an alpine slide is no fun - personal experience!

The Spooky 3D Haunted House: It's a ride with four people to a car with 3-D glasses on. All the items in this haunted house type ride worked. Things popped up, popped down, they light up, and yes there was a truck coming at you with loud lights and a loud horn. I don't get why a train or big truck is always in these haunted houses.

We had lunch then rode a Brer Rabbit dark ride on our way out of the park at 1:30pm. There were now 50 cars in the parking lot. THAT'S a slow day in an amusement park.

Our drive to London was going to take 3 1/2 hours. We drove due east toward London, past Heathrow and smack into the middle of London. We went past Harrods, double decker red buses, black taxi cabs, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and the London Eye. Our week in London had begun wonderfully.

Here is our London Flat for the week.

Another place with a view of the water!