Wednesday, October 9, the Galena High School Sophomores got the opportunity to visit The Track Family Fun Park in Branson. As expected they had a great time. The staff was so kind. When we arrived the staff kindly greeted us and led us to the auditorium. We quickly reviewed the rules and then made our way to the Go Karts. The staff sat us down in the Go Karts and then told us how the course would work.        

 The course consisted of putting drunk simulation goggles on and going as fast as you can in the safest way possible. A little bit into the track there was a “baby” in the road named Mr. Pickles. The staff insisted that you don't hit Mr. Pickles if you did, you would immediately fail. After Mr. Pickles there were “Pedestrians walking and  kids crossing.” You had to stay very focused or you would hit them. The last step on the course was a stop sign. You had to stop right on the line not before or after. After the course was finished you’d get a score card that would contain the score you received to see if you failed or not. The twist was that everyone failed because you were drunk driving. 

After we finished the drunk driving course we crossed over to the Texting while driving track. To start you were handed a phone and told to type “Galena Life On Track 2024.” then send it as you were doing the course. You would have stop signs, kids crossing and animals running in front of you. Your “goal” was to send the text message while following all the regular road rules. After you finished you were handed your same score card with another score on the back. The higher the score was, the more you broke the rules and failed. They tricked us though. The staff told us to send the text message even though we would automatically fail since we aren't supposed to be able to text and drive.     

Once everyone was done we crossed the road and headed back to the auditorium when everyone was seated they presented a slideshow to us about the safeties of driving. On our way out we had the option to get on the crash simulation. In the crash simulation you would buckle up and slide down into a pad to see what a 7-8 MPH crash would feel like to prove that wearing your seat belt would benefit you severely even in a small crash. The staff did a great job making sure we had fun in a safe way. All the sophomores had a great time.