Texas Equine Veterinary Association

www.texasequineva.com | 27 Disney world and blodgett Bo Brock, DVM, DABVP Brock Veterinary Hospital, Lamesa, Texas Editors Note: is is a reprint of a story that we have used int he past, but in honor of Dr. Blodgett's passing we wanted to share it again. e big red sign at the top had a list of conditions that, if a person had, they should not ride this ride. Dr. Glenn Blodgett stood reading and real- ized that he had nearly every one of them. An hour and a half of waiting in line with all his kids and grandkids only to get to the top and find this. Why in the world would they not put the big red sign at the bottom? His wife had been wise. She considered a giant roller coaster inside of a mountain in the dark to be a place that the grandparents probably wouldn't enjoy. Now Dr. Blodgett stood there considering what his next move might be. If he decided to go back, he was going to have to go against the grain of thousands of people that were headed up stream and then face his wife who would most certainly have a few "I told us so's" to give him. What would the grandkids think if papaw was too afraid to ride? is was the deciding factory. He would stay. He would brave the giant roller coaster for them. How bad could it be? My gosh, there were about a mil- lion people waiting in line, and if they could all make it, so could he. As bad luck would have it, he wound up in the very front seat. I mean, the front seat. e one that leads the way into the dark and would be the first to smash into the ground if this hideous roller coaster derailed. is ratchety chain pulled the car up and up into the pitch blackness that surrounded all the Blodgett clan, with their patriarch leading the way. Probably not a good place for a cowboy hat. But this didn't cross the good doctor's mind aer reading the big red sign. Oh, but soon it would. How long could this thing go up? He had no idea when the upward jour- ney would be interrupted with the inevitable sudden plunge back down. e anticipation was agonizing. is might be a good time to snug that cowboy had down! e ride most likely lasted about four minutes. at is about all the rail you can stuff inside of a dark mountain. But to Glenn Blodgett, it lasted about 2 days. Every sudden twist that occurred could not be prepared for because he couldn't see a thing. And to make matters worse, his favorite winter 200x beaver cowboy hat had vanished into the darkness less than half way down the first massive drop. When a person cannot know when the jolts of a sudden turn while going 40 miles an hour is going to occur, it forces them to stay tense and white knuckled the entire time. is is what was occurring in the brain of the good doctor. at, coupled with mourning the loss of his favorite hat, was making the red sign from the first sentence of the story, look all the more plausible. He wiped the slobber off of his cheeks as he exited the right side of the front row. He was thinking he might understand what a prolapsed cow felt like. Every vertebrae in his back had moved at least two inches in multiple directions and his buns had acquired calluses as the slick seat heated up from them sliding all around. His hands were cramped up from grasping that bar in an eclampsic manor for the last four minutes. His chest muscles were already aching and his lungs were filled with no air as the trip had caused a constant exhale since the first drop. His head was bear. It took all the way to the slow coast back to the place that it all started for him to realize that his West Texas hat had been eaten by the dark. All the kids were jumping up and down and wanting to go again. Dr. Blodgett was wanting to put another sentence at the bottom of the big red sign that said, "if you are wondering what is worse, going all the way back down or riding this roller coaster, let me tell you, go back down." It was aer midnight when the clan finally made it back to the log cabin they were calling home while at the park. Glenn Blodgett has not stayed in bed past 5 o' clock since he was in the sixth grade. Oh, but not today. It was around 9:00AM before he crept out of the sack on this day. Every joint and tendon in his body had moved to positions they had not been in for the last 40 years. ree days and three more theme parks were scheduled and yet to be seen. One thing was for sure, there would be no more roller coasters ridden on this trip for Dr. Blodgett. If there was a massage therapist any where in this giant place, he was going to find them. And now, yes for the rest of the trip, he was gonna have to go bear headed. Sheeeesh.

• Cover