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A young journalist from northern Illinois climbs into the bowl of a teacup ride, gets herself organized in her corner of the cup and announces, "OK, we've got to critique this objectively."
Two seconds later, her head is tossed back and her critique goes like this: "Waaaaah!"
The dizzying ride at Great America's new Southwest Territory taking test spins for media preview day in late May is an old favorite that can be found at Disneyland, but like everything in this 11-acre, multimillion-dollar expansion, it gets a Spanish mission spin.
Disney's giant teacups look more like great big salsa bowls here, and they swirl around a tall terra cotta pitcher. This little teacup ride is called Chubasco, Spanish for "whirlwind."
You'll also hear a mariachi band playing daily in the Southwest Territory's breezy Mission Plaza, a brick-paved courtyard with clay pots, an old wooden cart and a tower that holds five bells that are each 100 years old.
So, is this a place to surround yourself with artifacts and learn a lot about the old Southwest?
Probably not, but it's certainly fun to go to a saloon that has a jail with rubber bars so that perennial inmate Slim Jim can make one of his frequent escapes. It's also entertaining to consider that this eatery, the Crazy Buffalo Saloon, accepts all major credit cards.
No, you don't come here to learn American history. You come here to throw your head back and yell "Waaaaah!"
If you like the sound of "Howdy," harmonicas and the unlikely sight of an Old West show with tap dancing on wood chips, well then, pardner, this just might be the summer you start humming "Oh, Susannah."
In its 20th anniversary year, Great America has expanded because of growing attendance up 18% over the past four or five years, according to park president Jim Wintrode. Plans for a Western area were drawn up 20 years ago when Hollywood designer and architect Randall Duehl designed the park.
"We looked at a lot of different concepts, and we kept on coming back to that basic Western concept," Wintrode said. "All we really did was say we want to broaden it, include the Hispanic community. It gives us a much broader kind of appeal."