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Day 2: Michigan's Adventure and some other Michigan adventures Arrived at the park around 1 and there was no doubt where I was heading first. Shivering Timbers has been on my bucket list for 25+ years and it was finally time. Was glad to see it running 2 trains and was seated in the front row in about 10 minutes. Front row ride was a bit benign but also seemed pretty smooth. Went around for a ride in the back and this is where it's at...airtime out the wazoo but also quite brutal in spots. I would later return for one more backseat ride and after a little warming up this thing just yeets you out of your seat time after time. The first couple hills were titan tracked (or something like that) and were nice and smooth, airtime like a hyper. But after that it was so bouncy that you would get several jolts of ejector over each hill and then you'd slam down in the valley. A great ride but very tough to reride. Moved on to the Mad Mouse, my first Arrow Mouse. These seem to have better pacing and airtime than other manufacturers mice, but the ops were atrocious here. I started timing dispatches because I was bored and the average was about 1:15 or so, for a 4 person car. And they run 7 cars so you get to sit on the brake run for another 5 minutes when you're done. There couldn't have been more than 40 people in line and it took me 28 minutes from getting in line to getting off the ride. Next door I found the Ferris Wheel to be a walk on so I got a quick ride on that. Nice views of a very pretty park. Next on the credit tour was Corkscrew which had more awful ops. Dispatches were 5+ minutes and there were multiple cases where the whole train disembarked and everyone was all the way down the stairs and halfway to Shivering Timbers before they bothered to open the gates. Ended up being a 35 minute wait for a line that was halfway down the ramp. The ride was typical boring Arrow Corkscrew, but one of the less brutal ones I've ever ridden. Hit up Zach's Zoomer which was fun enough. Not as smooth as Comet yesterday, but still a good family woodie. Walk on which was a nice change. Made my way around the lake to find the SLC closed and the train also closed for some reason, rendering this part of the day a 10 minute walk into a dead end. Very nice looking walk around the lake though. Walked all the way back around to Wolverine Wildcat which I can agree with the general assessment that this does a shitty Phoenix impression. A couple small floater areas but otherwise just kind of meanders. Smooth enough to enjoy though. Credit #300 acquired. That's all I did, was only in the park for about 3 hours. This place kind of sucks on paper and in reality it's even smaller than you expect. Shivering Timbers is worth the drive but at the same time you'd love to ride it 20 times since there's not much else to do in this park, but for me anyway it was tough to ride it more than twice in a row. The park feels like it just kind of exists otherwise. After leaving the park we drive to Silver Lake to check out Mac Wood's Dune Rides. This was a ton of fun and I would highly recommend the 30 minute drive to check this place out. The views are stunning and the ride is a lot of fun. They fly through the hills and you even get a couple airtime pops! The whole area is really nice. I would love to get back to northern Michigan to really explore the area for a whole week. Staying in New Buffalo MI tonight and I didn't expect to suddenly get transported to the Jersey Shore but that's what it felt like. Stopped at the beach to watch the gorgeous sunset at 9:15 and then had dinner at a rooftop bar and no matter how many times I tried to tell myself, I couldn't believe I was in Michigan, much less mere miles from the Indiana suburbs of Chicago. It was a great day exploring Michigan! Tomorrow is Indiana Beach, which might be my most anticipated park on the trip.

Timber Wolf trains are being loaded onto the track. Not sure what this means. The park still hasn't released any information pertaining to the coaster.

I got to ride Wrath a few days ago and it's easily my favorite dive coaster. Starts like a standard dive with large elements, then quickly turns into a twisted mess of flips and sudden changes of direction. Everything from the third inversion until the brakes is bonkers and it had me laughing like a hyena. Also, the beyond-vertical drop is ass-out-of-the-seat the entire time. I rode in the back on the left edge, hardly any rattle but the pansies are making noise about the ride being rough. They're idiots and can't take a stiff breeze without bruising. This ride is nuckin futs, best ride at Great America. Fight me.

We had a fantastic time. Thanks for asking. I took a ton of photos for a TR. I just haven't gotten around to it, yet.

Here's an interesting video on the current construction progress of the new Giga-Dive. https://youtu.be/W4TlrVZw_zg?si=GMCvfHM63YykLhVn