Sabine's brother,

Rob, an art major at UMASS Dartmouth, gave up his spring break to help

screen in our back porch and build us a deck. We felt we should pay him

back by inviting him down here in the summer and doing something fun and

not involving manual labor. We thought about taking in a baseball game

and bar hopping in Athens but then a stroke of genius hit.

"Hey,

I'll bet that Six Flags won't be too crowded on the Fourth of July,"

I said. "Everybody will have parties to go to and parades to watch.

It will be like we'll have the park to ourselves." Sabine and Rob

agreed with my logic and we left for the amusement park early Friday morning.

As we got to the end of the exit ramp, I saw a number of cars, but thought,

"Hey, it's a big park." As we turned the corner to the front

entrance I saw what would be the first of many lines of the day.

Actually, the

first three hours at Six Flags were smooth. We had a good plan - run to

Superman first (the furthest point) and then do everything in order on

our way