Our first amusement park of the trip was Paramount's Carowinds, in Charlotte, North Carolina. I had never been there before, and it offered 10 coasters, 9 of which I could ride (the last being a kiddie-only one). We arrived just as the park opened, and we split up with plans to meet back in 90 minutes at the kiddie section of the park. I figured this would give me time to get a ride on Top Gun, their newest coaster. Fortunately we overestimated the crowds in the park - almost every ride was a walk-on. I only had to wait 2 trains for a front seat ride on Top Gun, so I was also able to ride Thunder Road (frontwards and backwards) several times before having to seek out the family.
Spent the rest of the time in the park together, with me quickly hopping on a coaster here and there. While the park does have 10 coasters, none of them are really standouts. Their 3 wooden coasters are copies of coasters found in other parks, so nothing too special.
This is where Mike got to try out his first water park - it was a major hit! He loved being in the water, loved spashing water in his face, and generally goofing around.
The best ride of the day was on the Flying Super Saturator, a combination suspended coaster and water ride. You get soaked just waiting in line, as passing riders dump water on the queue line. Since it was such a hot day, this was a relief. This also had the longest line in the park by far, about 40 minutes.
 Top Gun doing it's thing |
 POV in the tunnel |
 Carowinds' best feature, unfortunately only available on 1 coaster |
 Vortex, the park's stand-up |
 1st drop on Scooby Doo |
 Scooby Doo |
 The best ride in the park, with the best line |
 Mike took a good long nap in his rent-a-stroller |
We left the park about dinner time and started to make our way to Cookeville, TN. Ran into a lot of rain on I-40 through Tennessee, and got to Cookeville around 11.