65skylark Posted June 9, 2007 Share Posted June 9, 2007 Last week my dad and I were in the Cleveland area for a drag race. We had three days planned at Thompson Raceway Park and then set aside another day for Cedar Point. The weather started out good but then ended up kind of crapy, so the race was called off on Sunday. This actually gave us a littel extra time to sqeeze in GL so all was good. Anyway on to the pictures. AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! So Waldameer was a really fun little park. Next up, Geauga Lake. Stay Tuned. Snapped a nice shot of the sun setting over Lake Erie just before.................. ACEr friendly crowd today. OK, so.....yeah, you get a little wet. So far, so good, after the first drop. Just a little drop on the shoulder. That drop looks pretty harmless. Possibly soaked? Ah, come on, it's only a log flume. Spinny helix. "90 degrees!" Sorry, couldn't resist. No spinning for my dad. He opted for sitting on the bench. Spinning coaster. I had never been on one of these either and was pleasantly surprised. AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! My dad enjoying the view just before.................. Wow, that thing really flies. Hey they have a jr. woodie here. Never been on one of these before. It was actually a pretty fun little coaster. I don't know what nviro men are, and I'd just as soon keep it that way. Saturday was back to the track for more racing. It was ridiculously hot though so we bailed a little early. By evening it had cooled down some and we were only about 45mins from Erie, PA, so we decided to go check out Waldameer. Yeah, it's really old and stuff. We passed this covered bridge on the way back from the track so I had to stop and get a picture. My personal favorite car of the trip. Now that's a beautiful sight. man I wish I had my Skylark here. Corvette gasser style. Yeah, its got a Hemi. A classic example of what a gasser car looked like in the 60's. Friday was the first day at Thompson Raceway Park for the 7th Annual Gasser Reunion drag race. This is one of the largest nostalgia "gasser" races in the nation. Mt. Hood just east of Portland. Still plenty of snow. We're off. No Starbucks for my dad. Kind of sad, I know. Waiting at the airport, I get my trip started off right. Yay Starbucks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
65skylark Posted June 9, 2007 Author Share Posted June 9, 2007 We woke up Sunday morning to rain. By 11:00 am the rain hadn't let up so they called off the race. We were supposed to be meeting up with some friends at the track but decided to change our plans and meet at Geauga Lake instead. Time for dinner. Chauffeur Ted picks is up at the door in his very manly looking Element. Next stop, Cedar Point. The view out our window after checking into the Breaker's Express. Man I hope this rain lets up for tomorrow. On the way up to our hotel at CP, we passed this car that was a huge ball of flames just minutes before I took this picture. Someones not having a good day. We headed over to Boomerang but It started raining again, and didn't show any signs of letting up anytime soon, so we decided to call it a day. Got all but the Dipper and Boomerang credit. I actually liked GL and would go back if in the area again. The cool people table is over here! Look at those losers over across the midway. Another lift hill shot, only this one has no TPR cliche attached to it. This is also the only smooth part of the ride. Catrina and my dad decide to sit out "Jackhammer; The Ride". Villain's lift "THROUGH THE......" sorry, don't know what got into me there. I'll try not to let it happen again. Everyone seems to be obsessed with the Cedar Fair garbage cans one way or the other. I really don't get it. Raging Wolf Bobs. Ted said it was the best ride he has had since the PTC's were removed. It seem like a decent ride to me too. My dad wasn't too sure about his ride. I thought it was a very good coaster. My favorite floorless so far. Inter-locking corkscrewiness. I think we can handle the one train wait for the front. Dominator. The main reason I wanted to come. Vekoma SLC, first ride of the day. ElDorado with Dipper's first hill in the background. They weren't running Dipper because the microphone in the station wasn't working. LAME. Yeah, doesn't look too bad. Geauga Lake. It was about 1:00 pm in the afternoon on a Sunday so hopefully it wouldn't be too crowded. Hey, look who's here. Ted (CoasterFanatic) and Catrina (ImAPrincess) were ready and waiting when we got there. This McDonald's across the street from GL should due for some lunch before heading into the park. Most of the cars were already loaded up and ready to go. Time to hit the road for GL. This weather gets two thumbs down from my dad. Back at the track. Just a little wet. Kind of hard to keep a 150 mph car going straight down the 1/4 mile when it's this wet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Masked_Maverick Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Great Photo TR so far. Villain is far more rideable this season than it has been for the past 4 seasons or so. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
65skylark Posted June 10, 2007 Author Share Posted June 10, 2007 Monday morning we woke up to no rain! The local weather report said the rain should hold off until about 3pm so we were hoping to get in most of the coasters by then as we did have the one hour early entry. And I leave you with this random picture of a duck. At least he was enjoying the weather. Thanks for reading. The turn arond over the water after the launch had some really cool water cannon effects that you really didn't notice when riding but were very cool to watch as the train went by. The corkscrews were very well disigned, giving a good zero gravity feeling. Back at Maverick I got in two more rides thanks to them pulling single riders from the queue to the front of the line. With the sky looking much better now I decided to bail on the other missed credits in favor of riding MF, Maverick and TTD more bufore the park closed. At 8:30 in the evening, and about 14 people in the station, they chose to add a 2nd train. They loaded us into the soaking wet second train just to realize they needed to send it on some test runs first. So we all got back out. 20 mins later we were ready Might as well grab a ride on Corkscrew while I'm here. Excellent helix finale. My new favorite invert. It's open! And it did not disappoint. Is that sun I see? Time to make a dash to the front of the park. Catrina and Ted say farewell. My dad had had enough also, so he headed to the car to crash, leaving me alone the rest of the evening. The rain had stopped so hopefully I'll get my Raptor credit before I have to leave. Took about two second for the station floor to look like this. By now it was around 5 O'clock and Ted and Catrina were needing to get back on there way home to WV, so we bailed out of the station and met back up with my dad to say our goodbyes RIAN? WHAT RAIN?!?!?! Even "Optimistic Ted" thinks those clouds are going to bring a LOT of rain. Mean Streak. I have heard nothing good about this coaster. Time to see for myself, that is, if the rain holds up long enough for us to get on the thing. The rain finally let up long enough to allow them to get there coaster up and running again. This is Magnum XL200, the third best steel coaster in the world? Um.....OK. Don't get me wrong, it was a fun coaster in a top 100 sort of way. So, apparently, if even the slightest amount of moisture falls from the sky, Cedar Point must close down every coaster in the park (including the INDOOR bobsled) except for Wicked Twister. That makes tons of sense. Anyway, at least we got to ride WT while Squirrel. You know, for all you squirrel enthusiasts. Kids these days. Hi Catrina! The rain stopped temporarily, but Raptor was still not operating so Ted and I went for a few rides on Blue Streak while the track was still wet. Game time while we wait out the first of what would be many rain showers. Now I'm seriously regretting not getting on Raptor while I had the chance. That's Raptor, "THROUGH THE RAIN" 5 mins later. Hmm, those clouds aren't looking too good. Catrina waited through the Mantis queue with us but didn't ride. She's not a big fan of that one. I one the other hand thought it was pretty good. Not as good as Riddler or Georgia Scorcher, but still pretty good. Why would you post a picture of water you ask? Well, because about a half a second before I snapped this shot, a water snake about three feet long dove down into the water. I just missed it due to the fact that I was too creeped out to get my camera ready Mantis has some low to the water bits too. I see you MF. Mantis. Lets see how she stacks up to Riddler. It's pretty tall too. It was also by far my favorite coaster in the park and my second favorite steel coaster just behind Goliath @ SFoG. Yay! Millennium Force is open! This is Iron Dragon. It's NOT tall, OR fast, but it does go close to the water, which I thought was kind of cool. Yep, even from back here, still tall. Oh, and pretty damn fast too with an amazing view from the top. However, of the three Intamin Rockets I have been on, Xcelerator is still my favorite. Next was TTD. It's tall. Lots of low to the ground bits too. maverick was actually more intense than I was expecting with lots of auick directional changes and a few good pops of airtime. Over-banked awesomeness. Yeah, Maverick goes upside down and stuff. Lets ride! They were running 5 trains and although they stacked em up pretty good I was very impressed at how fast the queue moved. Yay, it's open! Only 45 mins late. In your face SF. Ah, there all here, waiting for Maverick to open. Well at least they had ONE of there three coasters running for the early entry. This is the same CP I keep reading about, right? Park is still pretty empty. I wonder where all the people are? Coaster geek alert! Quick shot of the not yet open MF. It was supposed to be open but apparently all of the millions of reports I have read about CP being the most reliable park in the whole wide world when it comes to having rides up and running on time wasn't holding true My dad takes the time to rent a locker so he can store his one Krispy Kream donut to eat later in the day. Yeah.......that's not weird. Pretty light crowd so far. Hey, there's those garbage cans again. Vertical loop shot for my beer loving friend. Raptor was up and running first thing but we decided to head to MF first. This turned out not to be the best idea. What's that I see in the distance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric_Smith Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Very nice TR. Loved those Maverick pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axman Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Fun! Great Pictures! I really need to go again. I went in 2003, and TTD wasn't quite ready yet, but everything else was running at full capacity. It didn't rain on our trip, but on the 4th day, the fog was ultra thick and moist, so we headed out early and hit King's Island on the way home, for Delirium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IwantRevenge Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 um thats a goose not a duck! i'm a duck and squrrel fanatic ^.^ Great TRs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SharkTums Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Great Photos Justin! Thanks for the rodent picture! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meteornotes Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Excellent report and pictures. dt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ginzo Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 My dad takes the time to rent a locker so he can store his one Krispy Kream donut to eat later in the day. Hahahaha. That's my favorite part of this whole TR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BeemerBoy Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Awesome report. It's nice to see someone still appreciates Raptor. Squirrel. You know, for all you squirrel enthusiasts. It's not an Albino Squirrel though. HersheyPark is obviously better in this category! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nrthwnd Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 um thats a goose not a duck! Canadian goose, I betcha....too. Great TR! Thanks for sharing it all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobafett Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Wow,looks like you had an excellent time. It is cool that your dad went on the rides with you. It looked like the two of you had a good time together. Great photos. I can't wait to get to CP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrownStreak Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 I still wonder why CP decided to name a coaster after a really cheap brand of cigarettes????? (the ones I smoke at that) Hey just because its sort of relavant- I saw my 1st CP/Maverick commercial yesterday... They called it "the world's first 'thrill' coaster" WTF is that?! All previous coasters weren't for thrills apparently? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJJman Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Great pics Justin! Glad to see you had somewhat better weather than I did last week. JJ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkMeasures Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 I remember Mean Streak being awesome. But that was 9 years ago. I can see it sucking now. Especially since companies like GCI, Gravity Group, and Intamin supposedly make awesome coasters. Though I don't think I've been on any made by them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carolinacaniac Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 You definatly have some of the best pictures of maverick, I love the one you took of it turning into the second part of the horseshoe. Raptor is my favorite coaster, and I am glad that you also enjoyed it. What were some of the credits you didn't get just out of curiousity? You also had some good pictures for GL and Waldameer as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingOfNynex2003 Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 looked like you guys had a pretty fun time. Too bad it rained a lot on your trip.. What did you think of that new coaster CP got? I haven't really heard much on it yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
65skylark Posted June 10, 2007 Author Share Posted June 10, 2007 ^^ I missed Disaster Transport, Wildcat, Cedar Creek Mine Train, Woodstock Express (I think that's what it is called) Jr Gemini (of course) and actually I missed Corkscrew too because I got so pissed off from them wasting my time that I bailed. Who loads a second train then takes over twenty minutes making test runs when there is litterally no more than a 2 train wait? Anyway, for how rainy it was my first visit was actually pretty good. I would honestly rank Maverick behind MF, Raptor, and probably even TTD. That isn't a knock on Maverick though. It was a solid coaster, you just have to realise that I, for one, have never been on ANY of the coasters at CP before, and two, I love intamin rockets and B&M inverts. Thanks for all the nice comments! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BrownStreak Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 I remember Mean Streak being awesome. But that was 9 years ago. I can see it sucking now. Especially since companies like GCI, Gravity Group, and Intamin supposedly make awesome coasters. Though I don't think I've been on any made by them. Mean Streak wasn't built by any of the those companies- it was built by Summers & Dinn- in fact I think it was their last Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tobias94 Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Nice Photo TR dude. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moinab Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Great report! I used to go to races and theme parks with my dad when I was growing up. In fact, the two times I've been to Cedar Point were both on trips with my dad. Good memories. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba83 Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 It's really too bad you didn't get to ride Mean Streak. Maybe I was just lucky when I was at Cedar Point but, it was by far my favorite wooden coaster. Everyone talks about how rough it is but when I rode it, it was quite smooth for a woodie. Please note my small woodie sample size, but still! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arrowfanman Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Thanks for the PTR Justin! Definitely helping get me excited for the Midwest trip! Although, I find that CP review to be somewhat dissapointing. We'll see how it pans out. Thanks again! -Jahan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carnage Posted June 10, 2007 Share Posted June 10, 2007 Great pics Justin. It's a shame that I wasn't able to make it down for the day. Damn work scheduling training on those days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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