🎢1972-1997 Opryland Theme Park

Opryland Theme Parked opened June 30,1972 and the park closed December 31,1997 

Our family would visit Opryland Theme Park at least once or even twice a year, until the park closed in 1997.

When we first started going to Opryland the boys were too small to ride the big roller coasters.

We would ride the Flume Zoom a log ride that would seat up to six people in Hill Country. No one wanted to sit up front because they would get wet.

In Big Hill Country we would hop aboard the Thunder Switch train and ride to El Paso Station to the American west. 

Sometimes we would take the New Orleans Sky ride which travel from one side of the park to the other.

We spent the majority of the time at Opryland Theme park watching Country Music Shows

As the kids got older they would ride the timber topper coaster. In 1979 the coaster was renamed the Rock n’ Roller coaster. This coaster shot out of the station into a single loop, climbing into a double loop and back to the station with a quick stop. There was always long lines for this ride.

The boys always enjoyed driving the antique cars called the tin Lizzies. The car would hold up to four people and the boys always wanted to be the driver so sometime we would ride in separate cars or ride over and over so each could get a chance to be the driver. The tin Lizzie was on a track so no matter what kind of driver you were you were always coming back to the station safely. 

The kids also enjoyed the little deuce cope it was an enclosed float ride. The lakeside area was home to the kiddy rides and the old millstream where we would get into a boat that took us around the lake it was on a track. 

The barnstormer was a Bio Airplane sky ride and it was next to the old millstream. 

In the state fair was the petting zoo where the kids could pet and feed the animals. 

We also enjoyed The Tennessee Waltz swing, which was my favorite. 

The kids love the bumper cars where they could run into each other. 

There were endless carnival games for the kids to play and I always tried to steer them away from this area because it cost more money. 

The Wall-Bash cannon ball was one of the kid’s favorite coasters. 

It flipped over twice. 

We would always get soaking wet on the Grizzly River Country.

This ride was a large raft that seated up to twenty people. It went down the raging river passing several waterfalls twisting and turning.

Water was coming at you from all sides as you were carried down the raging river. 

In 1984 the Scream n’ Delta Demon Coaster was added in the New Orleans area. It was an intamin wheeled bobsled coaster. 

In 1989, the Chaos was added in the Grizzly River area and it was a Vekoma Steel coaster. 

In 1995, the hangman was added in the American west. 

We rode every roller coaster repeatedly, screaming, holding up our hands, in delight with every ride.

There was a building called the Angle Inn that was builds on a slant and as we walked through it, we felt like we were going to tip over.

Throughout the park there were people performing country music shows.

Along the lake we would visit Country Music USA where various country singers would sing and dance for one hour. 

Rocking around the clock was the 50’s area where songs were performed from the 50’s era.  

We would visit the Roy Acuff’s museum that housed many of his musical instruments. There was a museum for Minnie Pearl, Roy Acuff’s theater, Nashville Network Studio, WSM Radio Broadcasting booth, and the Grand Old Opry house.

There was a large boat ride called General Jackson. There was a kennel for your pets, restrooms, and telephones throughout the park.

There were gift shops: Jewels and Gems, The music Box, Ragin Cajun Shirt Shop. 

There was Professors Bloodgood’s photography, Emporiums, Hill Country Arts and Crafts Shop. 

There were many food places throughout the park: Chubby’s drive-in, Julio Pizza, Zack’s frozen yogurt, Mrs. Winery Chicken and biscuits, Grizzly kitchen, Chos Concessions, Seafood Wharf, Café Mardi Gras, La Fudgeries, Country Kettles, Ruby’s Country Kitchen, Funnel Cakes and old fashion ice cream. 

Opryland USA 

2802 Opryland Drive

Nashville, Tennessee 37214

615-889-6611

1989 the cost to get into Opryland theme park was $18.95, for children younger than three was no cost.

One trip to Opryland was with two of my sisters, and my sisters friend, in my sisters Mustang.

It was a wild and crazy ride; I was slung from one side of the car to the other side.

It felt like we were in a Race Car or riding up and down a roller coaster. 

We went to Opryland Theme Park with our church group many times.

We took my dad’s blue van several times because it would hold several people. 

One year we went with Nina, Billy Michelle, Shana, OL, Ann, Chris, and Craig Wallace.

We were all going to Opryland Theme Park and the Nashville Speedway. 

We all stayed in a Nashville Motel that had an outdoor swimming  pool.

Before the Nashville Speedway race we all enjoyed riding the large roller coaster that was in the park near the speedway

Before Opryland closed it had a Christmas theme with ice-skating, and it was beautifully decorated for the Christmas Holidays.

2009, Tuesday, June 2, Caught in an electrical storm on the Singing River Bridge

I had a dentist appointment at 9:00 A.M.

After the dentist, we rode so I went to Kohl’s where I bought a pair of shorts and a top.  

Next, we went to Sam Club where we bought two lawn chairs to use at music in Wilson Park on Wednesdays. 

We stopped at Ruby Tuesday where each of us ordered a rib plate we had a buy one get one free coupon.

We went to Lowe’s where we bought a thermal for our swimming pool and two screwdrivers.

I had loaded my bicycle into our Vue and was planning to ride it across Patton Island Bridge later that day.

Hubby's iPhone had issued a weather alert, it said a storm was brewing in Mississippi.

I felt like the storm would not reach Florence until after I had finished riding my bicycle across the bridge and back.

Hubby unloaded my bike while I went to the park's restroom to change into the shorts and top that I had bought. 

It was very hot and clear when I started across the bridge, but before I reached the end it had started to sprinkle.

Don’t know what I was thinking because I did not have my cell phone with me, or I would have called hubby to come pick me up, but  I had forgotten it.

So I turned my bicycle around and started back across the bridge.

I was almost all the way back when the rain started to pour down and lightning was dancing all around me.
I remember looking towards the locks of the dam and thinking to myself, I sure could use some windshield wipers to clear my sunglasses that were covered with rainwater.

All I could remember was trying to get safely across the bridge away from the storm but it was too late, I was caught inside the cage on the bridge in an electrical storm, and had lost my short-term memory. 

I was lucky that was the only thing that happened to me with lighting dancing all around me. 

It took me about 20 minutes to ride my bike about four miles that are two miles across and two miles back. 
The storm hit at 12:53, I must have started about 12:33 P.M.  and I was at the hospital by 2:30 P.M. 

It was reported later that day,  that it had been a terrible storm over the Tennessee River.

I was dripping wet when I arrived back at the park. 

The storm had frightened hubby, he drove the VUE across the bridge to look for me, and he saw me coming off the bridge.

I did not remember riding across the bridge or changing out of my wet clothes at the restroom at the park. 

Hubby said I kept repeating myself all the way home, where did all those wet clothes come from?

When we got home I ate a snack bar and drank a can of soda, I remembered nothing.

Hubby thought I had a stroke, and he said that I needed to go to the hospital, but I kept saying nothing was wrong with me.

Hubby called my daughter, he handed me the telephone, my daughter asked me some questions, and all I could say was give me a minute to think.
My daughter asked me if I remember riding my bicycle on the bridge and I said what bridge? I could not remember anything. 

I had been inside an electric field caused by the lighting.
The lighting had hit the cage that was attached to the bridge, where I was riding my bicycle.

Somehow, my daughter and hubby persuaded me to go to the hospital, and I was seen by doctor Robert Coble. 

They drew blood, took a brain scan, and checked my urine, the doctor was puzzled by the results. 

He said that the enzymes in my heart were going crazy and I would have to stay until they stabilized. 

My family stayed while I recovered.
It took several hours but my short-term memory started to come back and I was released at 7:30 P.M. 

All I wanted to do was go home and go to sleep. 

The next day I felt a little better but the right side of my head still felt a little numb.

Information on Lighting:

Lightning injuries are usually the result of five different mechanisms: 

Direct strike, — direct strike injuries occur when lightning strikes a person directly

Contact injury, Contact injuries occur when a person touches an object that is part of the lightning current pathway

Side flash (splash), Side flash or splash injuries occur when lightning arcs from the object struck to a nearby object.

Ground current (step voltage), Ground current or step voltage injuries occur when the lightning current spreads peripherally through the ground from the site of the strike

Blunt trauma, blunt injuries occur in two fashions. 

In the first, the victim's musculature contracts diffusely, causing the victim to be thrown a distance from the lightning strike. 

The second mechanism is the consequence of large fluctuations in temperature associated with a lightning strike. 

Lightning causes instantaneous superheating and expansion of the air, which is followed immediately by an implosion as the air is rapidly cooled. 

The duration of heat is so brief that thermal injuries seldom occur. However, the explosion and implosion of air can lead to blunt trauma of major organ systems such as the brain, liver, and spleen.

Because the duration of a lightning strike is extremely short, little of the massive energy is transferred internally to the victim. Rather, the majority of the energy flows externally over the victim's body (a "flashover"). 

However, enough energy passes through the body to disrupt and short-circuit electrical systems within the body, especially the heart, vasculature, respiratory center of the brain, reticular activating system, and autonomic nervous system. 

The major cause of death in lightning injuries is cardiopulmonary arrest due to asystole. 

However, asystole can be readily converted to a coordinated cardiac rhythm with timely and aggressive cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Why were the enzymes in my heart elevated after being caught in ground current lighting?

Weather observations for June 2, 2009, Muscle Shoals, North West Alabama Regional Airport 

SCT055 means scatter clouds at 5,500 AGL scattered means 3 to 4 eights cloud coverage.

BKN090 were broken clouds at 9000’ covering 5 to 7 octas of the sky.