USRoadTripper

All the photos from this day can be seen on my website at: http://www.fyabulous.com/onastick/pki.html July 17th I'd planned on sleeping until 10:00, but Kevin woke me up around 9:30 to make sure I'd gotten to Cincinnati ok. I'd called him briefly the night before, but he was with his sci-fi pals, so I didn't keep him long. We chatted while I packed up some of my stuff, and I was checked out of the hotel at 11:00. The only less than positive thing I can say about this hotel is that they don't have any industrial ice machines. I didn't have my fridge make any ice because I didn't realize I had an ice maker until bedtime, and it was really loud with dumping the ice once I turned it on. I found a Panera Bread, so I stopped there for lunch. I had a turkey and swiss sandwich on some sort of pesto foccacia, and it was really good. I also took a little bit of extra ice from them to keep my candy bars cool all day. It was overcast, so I was hoping just a little ice would keep them from melting. Kings Island was very easy to get to from my hotel, so I would definitely chose to bid on a Blue Ash hotel again. I parked in Adventure Express 16...really far from the main gate. Surprisingly, the park was not terribly crowded. The first thing I did was Son of Beast, since I wanted to reevaluate it. Everyone talks smack about how it's one of the worst coasters on the planet, but the last time I was at Kings Island, I liked it and didn't think it was bad at all. So I figured that I'd give it another try to see if it was really as bad as everyone said it was. There was no line, and I rode pretty close to the front. And I admit, it's not a smooth coaster, but compared to Mean Streak, Villain, Predator and Mighty Canadian Minebuster, it was very tolerable! I'd have no hesitation about riding it again, which is a LOT more than I can say for some of the woodies I rode over the course of the week! When we stopped, a girl behind me was like "That was terrible!" and I'm thinking "Let's go ride Predator, then tell me what you think!" The day before, my ears hurt so bad from all the ear bashing that it hurt to even hold my cell phone up to my ear. So I decided that since I'd already been to Kings Island and already gotten all the credits except Italian Job, that I wasn't gonna ride anything with OTSRs. I just didn't want to take the chance of hurting my poor ears even more. I couldn't seem to find the entrance to Flight of Fear, nor could I find a park map anywhere, so I rode up to the top of the Eiffel Tower to scope things out. I found the Flight of Fear Entrance, as well as the Italian Job entrance, then came back down. I walked over and looked at the line for Flight of Fear, but it was 45 minutes, and every bit of the queue was full! No way! It wasn't *that* good. On the way around, I rode the Backwards Racer, and it was much more fun than I remembered it! There is a lot of airtime on it, and it's great not knowing where you're going or when you're dropping. I think this moved up my list of woodies, though I'd have to think pretty hard to see where it falls. I definitely think it's top ten though. I bought a Coke, then headed for the Italian Job line. Again, it was about a half an hour wait, but this time it was shaded! The ride is exactly the same as at Canada's Wonderland, so there were no surprises, but it was still very good. I went back to Beast next, since I don't think I gave it a fair shake on my first trip to the park. We'd just ridden Tomb Raider, and I was very lightheaded when I went on it, so I think I was overly hard on it since I didn’t feel good when I rode it. This time I was fine though. It was about like I remembered. I love how, for most of the ride, there is just nothing around you except trees. And the helixes at the end are just awesome! This is a really great woodie...better than it's son, and better than most, but still not in my top ten of all time. I walked back to the kiddie side of the park and decided to soak up some air and ride the Scooby dark ride. It wasn't as cool as I'd have liked inside, but it was at least better than being outside. Next I hopped over to Beastie, which is another nice little woodie that does not shake you too badly. Scooby Doo was also posing for pictures, so I had one made of the two of us. I was pretty much done with everything I wanted to do in the park but was only about 3:00 and I didn't need to leave until 7:00. So I decided to check out the waterpark and see if I thought it was something I'd be interested in. I'm not a big waterpark fan, but once I got there, they had a nice lazy river, and a nice wave pool, and two complexes of slides that I would do! So I made the trek back out to my car, purchasing a Spongebob towel along the way. I'm not exaggerating...the walk from the waterpark, through the park, out to my car, then over to the waterpark entrance took me 45 minutes!!! I was definitely in need of cooling off once I got there! I changed and dropped off my stuff in a chair, then found the entrance to the lazy river. I floated peacefully around once, then decided to try to get on one of the slides. The lines were really long at the two complexes I liked, so I didn't go on anything. I could also hear some thunder off in the distance, so I wanted to make sure to get in a little time in the wave pool just in case they closed it. So I went over to the wave pool and enjoyed some bobbing waves for quite a while. Once my arms got tired, I went back and floated around the lazy river one more time before drying off and getting dressed. I decided to wait for the train this time since the walk back out to the park was insanely long! I figured that I had just enough time for dinner before I headed for home, so I stopped at the Busytown Grill. The last time we were her, Kevin and I had joked about how the sign made it look like "Bustytown Grill" and we got a good laugh out of it. I had chicken strips and fries for the first time of the trip remarkably, and sat in the shade to eat them. I soaked up my last few minutes of my vacation before the drive home and reflected on the week. I'd had a truly fantastic week...eventhough some of the coasters beat the crap out of me, at least I have the stories and pictures to tell about it! I said goodbye to Kings Island by stopping in a gift shop, and wouldn't you know, they had the same "if it's all wood, it's all good" shirt as Canada's Wonderland, only it said King's Island on it. So I got one, figuring that I like Kings Island a million times more than I liked Canada's Wonderland anyway! I started the drive back home, and aside from one gas stop, I drove it straight through. I can't say I was happy to be back home...I never am after a great vacation...but I had my pictures, my souvenirs and a big pile of laundry to remind me of the good times! Boomerang Bay waterpark entrance Me and Scooby...awww... A geat sign from the Italian Job queue. This could be a promo photo! Everyone is in the safe rider position! Kings Island likes to remind you of the date, I guess?

All the photos from this day can be seen no my website at: http://www.fyabulous.com/onastick/travel.html July 16th This was my travel day, when I needed to get from Toronto to Cincinnati. I left the hotel at check out time, which was 11:00am. I filled out a comment card, and mentioned the privacy issue to the desk clerk. She seemed apologetic, but not sincerely so. This hotel was very nice, but I'd never stay there again just because of the intrusive nature of the staff. I headed out west on the 401, and was gonna cross back over the border in Detroit. As soon as I got on the highway, I found another Swiss Chalet and ordered another garlic cheese loaf and fries. I savored every bite of that magnificent bread, and felt a sense of loss when it was all gone. Ok, I'm being dramatic, but damn, there is just nothing like this bread in the world. I drove on, and it rained most of the way. I stopped at a Petro-Canada for a few bucks worth of gas to tide the car over until I got back to the US, and stocked up on Mr. Big bars and Aero bars while I was there. The border crossing was like a police interrogation. They wanted to know where I had been, how long I'd been there, who I met, how I met him, how long I'd known him, what I did for a living and how long I'd done it, who the car belonged to and why I had it, and other stuff that I don't even remember now. And at the end, it seemed like my answers weren't good enough, but he was being nice and let me back in anyway! The guy actually said "I guess that's good enough" as though I were lying! I stopped at another Big Boy for dinner in Michigan. This was also the first time I'd ever been in Michigan. I got a ceasar salad and blackened chicken alfredo. The salad was fine, but the alfredo sauce was horrible!!! It was this clear yellow color and was almost the consistency of a gel. I told the guy I didn't like it and asked if I could just have some plain pasta with parmesan cheese. When he returned, the new pasta was fine, but sort of blah. I just didn't want to risk getting the marinara and it being nasty too. Nothing else interesting happened during the drive. It rained a lot until I got into southern Ohio. I was staying at the Homestead Studio Suites Blue Ash in northern Cincinnati, a hotel I'd booked through Priceline. I got there around 8:00 or so, and the room I got was wonderful! It had a full sized fridge, two burner stove, dish washer, dishes...and a recliner!!! I was so stoked to have the recliner since I was in early for the night, and had just planned on watching TV anyway. I wish it had had cookware because I thought that I should take advantage of that kitchen and cook something. But I'd have had to buy cookware, and I wasn't about to do that! I wasn't very hungry anyway, so I ate one of my Aero bars and I watched TLC most of the night. My recliner and bed in my Cincinnati hotel! My full kitchen in my Cincinnati hotel!

All the photos from this day can be seen on my website at: http://www.fyabulous.com/onastick/pcw.html July 15th Canada's Wonderland was on the agenda for today, but not before another Canadian favorite...Swiss Chalet! I took my time in getting up and heading out. I showered, dried my hair, looked through my pictures again...then the phone rang. It was housekeeping. The person said that she'd seen my Do Not Disturb sign, but called me anyway to see if I wanted service. Um...WTF?!?! I said "So you saw that I didn't want to be disturbed and you disturbed me anyway?" and she said yes, that it was policy to either talk to the guest or go into their room at least once a day...wait for it...to make sure they are alive!!! She did not want to take no for an answer when she was asking me if I wanted service. I'm only there two nights, so I don't need clean sheets after just sleeping on them one night! But she was being adamant about needing to clean the room, so I flat out told her no, not to come in my room. I immediately called the housekeeping manager and said that it was extremely unacceptable to me that the housekeeper saw that I didn't want to be disturbed, but disturbed me anyway. At my hotel, those signs are sacred, and you can get in serious trouble if you knock on someone's door with a DND sign on it. She said that had I not answered the phone, they'd have come into the room. I asked what if I was in the shower, or had my phone off the hook, and she said they'd just have to walk in on me. The whole conversation was just the most unacceptable thing I've ever heard regarding someone's privacy in a hotel. She said that one time a man had passed out in his room, and had they not gone in, he may have died. I then told her that my hotel is in the middle of four hospitals, and we routinely house patients, and we have had people die in their rooms before. But it is just not our place to be making sure people are alive in their rooms. The only time we have ever checked was when a family member was concerned that no one was answering the phone or coming to the door. I wasn't even doing anything private in the room...it's just that I felt like my privacy was violated, and would have been violated much more had I not picked up the phone. I was pretty pissed by the time I left. It shouldn't have bothered me so badly, but it did just because this was my own company, and I know that the company has rules against that sort of thing. The night before, I'd asked where a Swiss Chalet was, and was told two blocks down from the hotel. Great! I stopped at an ATM, then tried to find it but couldn't. Drove up and down twice, but didn't see it. So I got back on the highway, and got off at another exit with a Swiss Chalet sign. Again, didn't see it, and had driven extra slowly just to make sure I didn't pass it! I'd given up on Swiss Chalet for the moment until I got to the Canada's Wonderland exit, and it had a Swiss Chalet sign also! Finally I found one! Two years ago, Kim and I had gone to visit Kevin, and we'd had garlic cheese loaf at a Swiss Chalet, and I remember thinking that it was the best garlic bread I'd ever eaten in my life, so I had to get it again. I ordered the garlic cheese loaf and a small order of fries (they were pretty great too) and soon I was in the car noshing. I just don't know what it is...it's got to be in the butter sauce...but this bread is just so abnormally good that it's insane! It's made on sun dried tomato bread, with yellow and white cheeses, tomatoes, green onions and this creamy drawn garlic butter sauce...*faints* OMG it's just the most wonderful bread I've ever eaten in my life.! It's greasy and fattening...bad *for* you, but good *to* you. One I'd licked my plate clean, I headed for the park. Kevin had warned me not to get my hopes up...that the park wasn't all that great, and that most of the coasters sucked. So I heeded his warning as I headed for Top Gun first. Top gun is another SLC, so again I decided to get it out of the way first, hoping it was the worst in the park. I probably waited close to a half hour for it...which irked me so bad since I knew it would suck. They also closed down the ride for a few minutes for a lost article search, which left me standing in the sun even longer. Once on the ride, I was just praying it was over quickly. I'm glad it's not possible to break cartilage, because if it was, my ears would have been broken many times over the course of the week. I must say though, of all three SLCs of the trip, this was the best of the worst. That's still not saying much though...like saying that rancid tuna is just slightly better than arsenic or cyanide. Tomb Raider was nearby, so I decided to give it a try. The cage like restraints were a bit unsettling, but it has a cool spiral lift hill that was interesting to watch. I used the single rider line, which almost backfired on me since everyone was there in groups of four! Finally a group of three came up and I rode with them. There was no comfy place to put my camera on short notice once I realized that it was gonna be smushed between me and the front of the restraint, so I hoped for the best. As we climbed, the camera dug into the front of my thigh from my body weight, and as we traversed the track, any little bit of G-force was excruciating on that one spot on my leg. I was audibly groaning in pain but there was nothing I could do about it because of the way my arms were restrained. The ride itself was jerky but not as bad as I imagined. At least it was better than that POS X-Flight. When I left, I was sure I'd broken my camera, as I'm not a thin woman and most of my body weight was concentrated on it...but the camera was fine! This camera is indestructible, I swear. Best digital camera ever. I did already have the beginnings of a big, dark bruise on my thigh, as well as on both of my shins from the horrible lower leg restraints. I headed to Italian Job next, hoping it would be better than the last two. The queue, with the exception of a small tunnel, was in full sun. It was very uncomfortable since it was really hot, and also because the sun was only shining on my right side! I could feel my right side burning while my left side was fine. The line was over a half hour long, which really sucked being in the sun like that. A few canopies would do wonders for the line. The train for the ride was adorable, and it was very smooth. There was one maneuver that was almost like an exaggerated trick track that made it feel like the car was swerving side to side. I thought that was an extremely effective element to make it feel more like a car than a roller coaster. The ride was really fun and smooth, with theming that could be enjoyed even without having seen the movie. Mighty Canadian Minebuster was next door, and what I was hoping would be a nice woodie, turned out to be just another woodie to beat the s**t out of me. All I seem to remember was that it was so rough, and I was holding on so tightly that the lap bar kept getting tighter and tighter and tighter. When it was time to unload and push down then pull up on the bar, I could barely get it to go down any more! It was a tad embarrassing fighting with my lap bar like that. Skyrider was in the same plaza, so I figured why not go there next. This was the one I was dreading most actually. I'd never ridden a Togo coaster, and all I seem to have heard from people is that they are the roughest coasters out there. This was a standup, so not only would it have normal stand up roughness, it would have advanced Togo roughness too. The restraints were weird and unsettling. You put your arms through these loops, and the loops are held together with a seatbelt...so if the seatbelt lock failed, all you'd have is your arms to hold you in! The bicycle type seat between my legs was very small also...so small that I was convinced that had I tried, I could have gotten out of that restraint. I held on for dear life as the ride started, but it actually wasn't that bad! It was quite enjoyable, and there was minimal headbanging and roughness! It wasn't smooth, but it wasn't anywhere near as bad as I was thinking. I'd definitely ride it again. I wandered around a bit at this point, and got a Powerade. I went to the back of the park and decided to ride Fly next. The loading was very inefficient...they were only using three cars, and they would all end up stacked up on the brake run. The ride was good...quite a nice, rerideable mouse. I also left my hat in the seat, but turned around quickly to get it when I realized I didn't have it. I walked around the side of Wonder Mountain trying to find the entrance to Vortex, the suspended coaster, but ran across Thunder Run instead. The wait wasn't long, and I wasn't expecting much from the ride since you go through it twice, but it was really fun...probably my favorite in the park besides Italian Job! It takes you inside the mountain and you pass a big dragon...twice! I still couldn't find the entrance to Vortex, so I went into the medieval themed area to pick up those credits. I saw Dragon Fire first and got in line for it. I thought to myself "I hope this is better than the rest of the rides here...y'know, Phantoms Revenge looked normal and was fantastic! Maybe this one will be like that." Then I realized that this was the coaster that Kevin said was the roughest coaster he'd ever been on. Dammit. I tried putting my hands up by my ears to protect them from the banging, but it was no use. My ears were toast when the ride was over. As I left, and felt just how badly my ears hurt from all the headbanging between Canada's Wonderland, Darien Lake and Geauga Lake, I realized that I'd made a key mistake when planning my trip. I had gone for quantity more than quality, and that had been a big mistake. I looked at these parks and thought "Wow, tons of coasters" not thinking that it would be more of a chore to ride them than fun. The culmination of having so many coasters knock the wind out of me over the last two days was beginning to hit me, and I thought about just forgoing the rest of the credits and leaving. But Kevin had said that Wild Beast was his favorite ride in the park, and Scooby was an ACE classic, and I like suspended coasters...so I decided to stay. I went to Wild Beast next since it was next door. It wasn't terrible, but already being at the end of my rope and not wanting to deal with rough coasters any more, it was just too rough for me. Hopefully I hit it on a bad day, as Kevin assures me that it's usually not too rough. I just wasn't in the mood for the Boomerang, so I passed it and went to Scooby's Gasping Ghoster Coaster. As I got to the station, they had to do another lost article search, which caused half the people to turn around and walk away...eventhough the ride op said it would take less than 5 minutes. I like to think that I am not so impatient that I won't wait 5 minutes. This ride was definitely the best of the woodies. It seemed better cared for, which could be the case since it's themed as a kids coaster and you don't want to beat the life out of the next generation. Hesitantly, I decided to try silver streak, the kiddie inverted, next. The OTSRs looked pretty far away from your ears, so I was hoping I wouldn’t get headbanged into them. Seriously, my ears were just pounding at this point, and it hurt really badly to touch them. The ride was very smooth, and it did jostle my head a bit, but not anywhere near the restraints. So, why can't all OTSRs be made like that? Better question might be why can't all OTSRs be made like Superman: Ultimate Flight, where they are a soft, rubbery material that lay fitted flat against your chest? They would make most of these rides infinitely more comfortable. The last two rides I had to ride were Vortex and Bat, the Boomerang. Still not in the mood for the boomerang, I went off to find the Vortex entrance, hoping that after that ride, my ears would feel good enough to take just one more beating from one more Boomerang. Once I found Vortex, I started pondering why suspended coasters have OTSRs in the first place. I mean, if I can ride Top Thrill Dragster, and be catapulted 420 feet up, then be dropped straight down on my face with no OTSRs...why in God's name do you need them on these usually tame, non-inverting coasters?!?! Lap bars like Top Thrill Dragster or Superman: Ride of Steel even seem like overkill. So anyway, I rode, and the ride wasn't bad at first...just some mild ear boxing...but then we hit the brake run, and it was a violet "BAM! BAM!" of both ears into their respective side of the harness. I had to muffle a scream since my ears were already in so much pain, and those were probably the two hardest, quickest blows they'd had all day. I walked back by the Boomerang on the way out of the park, but it had two lengths of queue full of people waiting for it...and I just refuse to wait for half an hour just to get my head mercilessly bashed around. I have to draw the line somewhere. That was the first time of the trip that I'd walked away from a credit. I was hungry, but decided not to eat since Kevin and I were supposed to be meeting up for dinner that night. I passed a Pizza Pizza place, and it smelled heavenly, yet I wanted to save room for later that night. I stopped in a gift shop on the way out and found a shirt I liked that said something about Paramount lumber company, "when it's all wood, it's all good." I looked for my size, but didn't see it. I asked one of the guys working there to see if they had any in the back, and he just refused to go look. They were not that busy, but he kept saying "If the rack is half empty, it means we don't have any more." That's BS because this was one of, like, six primary shirts on the display, and if they didn't have any more, they'd have filled the display with something they did have. Bad customer service! I was so frustrated at his absolute refusal to help me that I left without it. I also figured that I didn't even like the park, so why would I want a shirt with the park's name on it? I'd accidentally left my cell phone at my hotel, so when I returned to retrieve it, the power at the hotel was out. It was burning hot in my room because there was no air, and it was becoming dusk, so it was getting dark too. Good thing I wasn't in for the evening or I would have been roasting. The TV didn't work well, and the phone was out also. Strange. Kevin was in Toronto all weekend for a sci-fi convention, so he had a room in the hotel where they were having the convention. I called him to see if he wanted to go ahead and meet up, and he said yes, so I headed over to his hotel. I picked him up at the door, and we decided to go to a restaurant across the street named Milestones. I parked there so I wouldn't have to pay the $8 to park at his hotel! Dinner was excellent. We both started with a glass of wine, and for the entree, I had chipotle chicken quesadillas, and he had seafood skewers, joking that he was still eating food on a stick! He had butterscotch pudding for dessert, and I had chocolate cake with ice cream and caramelized goats milk sauce! hehe It wasn't on a stick, but it came with a stick, is that good enough? During dinner we looked through all the photos I'd had printed from Cedar Point, Geauga Lake, Idlewild and Kennywood. After dinner, he asked if I wanted to go back to his hotel for a bit, just to see a little of what goes on at a sci-fi convention. Grudgingly I said ok, eventhough I cannot think of a single thing that is farther from being an interest of mine than sci-fi is. We walked around a bit, and aside from the random freaks in costumes, a lot of the people looked more normal than I expected. Kevin also said at one point that going to that convention was a great boost to his self esteem, being able to see people and think "Wow, at least I'm not as crazy as them!" Finally we came to a stop where some of his friends were and we got to chat for a bit. They all seemed nice and normal...which was good. However, we were right next to a lounge where people were singing karaoke. When we walked up, someone was singing "I Like Big Butts"...IN KLINGON!!! It was quite the exclamation point near the end of my trip. I have never felt more normal in my life. The next couple of hours involved playing with Kevin's digital camera, chatting with his friends and making a midnight run to a gas station for Mr. Big bars and Mountain Dew Energy! hahahaha Mr. Big is hands down my favorite candy bar, and you can't get them in the States! And who knew that in Canada, Mountain Dew has dosage instructions! At around 1:00am, I said goodbye to Kevin and headed back to my hotel for the night. When I got back, the desk clerk had to walk me to my room with a flashlight since the power was still off. It was still burning hot in my room, and I was using the display on my cell phone as a flashlight so I could find my jammies and brush my teeth. Right as I was trying to decide what I was going to do about my hotel situation, the power came back on. I had pondered calling Kevin and begging to sleep on his air conditioned floor, or maybe just packing up and driving for a bit and trying to find a cheap hotel on the road. Glad I didn't have to do either of those things! It took a while to cool off, but I watched some Canadian TV, then went to bed. My dessert isn't on a stick, but it came with a stick, is that good enough? Kevin is still eating food on a stick five days later. Bye Canada's Wonderland! I'll come back to visit when you won't injure me so badly! Wild Beast...wish I could come up with a better caption, but I can't! A very nice sign for a very crappy ride. Peaceful earth...with the forces of evil behind it! Top Gun...the rancid tuna of SLCs. Hellooooo Canada's Wonderland!

All the photos from this day can be seen on my website at: http://www.fyabulous.com/onastick/conneaut.html July 14th The 14th was the day I was planning to drive from Pittsburgh to Toronto, making stops at Conneaut Lake Park, Waldameer Park and Darien Lake. I woke up around 8:30, and was treated to breakfast courtesy of Kim's dad. I chatted with her parents for a bit while she was still asleep, and they are some of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet! They loaded me up with bottled water, ice for my cooler and some fruit for the road! Before I left, I woke Kim up to tell her goodbye, and I headed off on my way. So I wouldn't get lost, her dad even drove his car to the interstate I'd be taking and let me follow him. The drive to Conneaut Lake, PA took about 2 hours, which put me there at just a little after 11:00. The park didn't open until 12:00, but luckily there was a Walmart there at that exit. I went ahead and left another big batch of my digital photos to be printed, and would come back and get them after I was done at the park. I also took down some trip report notes and tried to straighten up the car as best I could (it was really a disaster area by this point, having virtually lived out of it for 5 days). At noon, I drove over to the park, which was easier to find than I anticipated. I parked at the back entrance (if you can call it that) near the Toboggan. I only saw one other car in the lot, so I knew it wouldn't be too crowded! When I walked in...it really looked like a dump, to be totally honest. There was nothing happy or magical about this place at all. The rides just seemed to be plopped down on street corners...like maybe someone acquired a few blocks worth of property, and decided to build an amusement park. But instead of making it look like a park, they just left it looking like streets. I wandered up the main road through the park, and stopped in a gift shop to peruse. They had some ok merchandise, but some of it seemed pretty redneck...not something I'd experienced this far north before! I asked the clerk where I could buy an armband, and she said she didn't know. I later found out that there is only one place anywhere near her to get an armband...you'd think they could inform their employees of that. I got in line to get an armband, and waited about 20 minutes for it. There was only one person in the booth, and she was playing ticket taker and information giver-outer all at once. Once I got the armband, I headed for Blue Streak, which was the only thing so far I'd spotted that I wanted to ride. Blue Streak looked pretty interesting...very old, but decently maintained. It has hand brakes, and also this mural type drawing with bulbs that light up as the train passes certain parts of the track. Pretty cool. The whole place had a strange smell...just like it had been stored in my grandma's attic for years, and had just been taken out to run again. The ride itself was good...a classic little woodie that's worth the effort to save in my opinion! The rest of the park...that's another story. Half the rides seemed to either be dismantled or at least they didn't open with the park that day. Not all the apparently working rides seemed to have ride ops either. I had to go to the bathroom, so as I passed the entrance to the water park area, I ducked into a bathroom. AAACCCKKK!!! The toilet was brown and rusty and looked absolutely nauseating! No way did I want to even humor the thought of using a toilet that dirty! I proceeded on, hoping to find a better one later. I went to the real main entrance area of the park (why was I directed to the back entrance?) where they had a nice looking set of flyers. There was only me and two kids riding, so we seemed to get an extra long cycle. I could get them to do a little bit of a snapping motion, but couldn't get any noise. I'm still learning though The flyers were great...wish I could say that about other stuff in the park. I headed back towards the main area of the park since nothing else up near the entrance appealed to me (and the Ferris wheel didn't seem to have a ride op). I walked towards the kiddie area of the park, where I passed the Devil's Den. It was sitting on a curb, and right around the corner from it, there appeared to be some regular houses...so strange to have a park in the middle of a neighborhood like that. I wanted to ride so I could see the gum wall and decide for myself if it's a coaster or not, but opted out since haunted houses scare the bejeebuz out of me. I went into the kiddie area (passing two freaky clown masks with no eyes along the way...scary!!!) in hopes of riding the Little Dipper. Well, it was closed that day, and even if it had been open, I probably couldn't have ridden it because of not having a kid with me. The kiddie rides looked pretty standard, if dirty and run down. I decided that I'd had just about enough of this dirty, nasty park, so I headed back towards my car. I passed an arcade along the way, so I ducked in for a little skee ball. Over half the games were out of order, but I found a skee ball lane that was working ok. I think I played $3 or so worth of quarters, and got enough tickets to get two hair ties and a tiger print makeup bag hehe. I really had to pee at this point, so I found one more bathroom...which was equally as disgusting as the first! How the patrons of this park find the bathrooms acceptable is beyond me! I was hungry too, and thought about grabbing a slice of pizza...but based on the cleanliness of the bathrooms, I just didn't feel sure enough that the kitchen was sanitary! I decided to just get my Toboggan credit and get the heck out of dodge before I caught something communicable. The ride op was flirting with me, which would have been great had I been in a better mood! The vehicle seemed to be smaller than I remembered them, and it was so tight that it was cutting off the circulation in my legs. During the vertical lift hill, I was going to take a picture, but something fell in my right eye! No doubt it was a bit of crud from the chain that hadn't been cleaned off in years. After that, I couldn't get out of the park fast enough. On the way out of the lot, I called Kevin to just try and put in words what a crappy dump Conneaut was, but I barely could! We talked until I got back to Walmart, where I promptly went in and used the bathroom! Ahh, a relatively clean bathroom! I was never so happy to see a Walmart toilet in my life. I was hungry, but I'd done so well about eating at new places thus far, that I didn't want to just buy something at Walmart for lunch. The only thing I saw at that exit that was new was a Red Lobster, but that seemed a little too expensive and time consuming. My pictures turned out really well, and pretty soon I was on my way to Waldameer. The drive to Waldameer was quick and pleasant, and the park was very easy to find. Even as I drove up, I knew this park was going to be head and shoulders better than Conneaut. Wow...it's really surprising how two parks can be so night and day different and be less than an hour apart. As soon as I walked in, Waldameer seemed cute and fun and family friendly. And it didn't smell like an attic! It was landscaped well and generally looked a million times nicer than Conneaut. I was still hungry at this point since I hadn't eaten, but Comet was right there beckoning me, and there was no line! So I went ahead and rode it. This was another great, fun little woodie. It was buried all within the trees so it was difficult to get a good picture of it. After my ride, I found the Potato Patch, so I got a burger and fries with cheese sauce. When the guy gave me my change, I noticed that he gave me three different kinds of nickels...a Canadian one, the regular looking one, and a new one I'd never seen before. As I mentioned it, I dropped it straight into my cheese sauce! So the guy working there got a good laugh about it with me. My burger was fantastic...it was charcoal grilled, and tasted just like something my dad would make during the summer. Never had a real charcoal grilled burger before in a park, but it was great! The fries were a bit on the greasy side, which is why I don't tend to buy natural fries a lot, but I ate them anyway. I walked around a bit taking in the scenery, when I came upon the Whacky Shack. Seems like everyone who talks about Waldameer says that you *have* to do the Whacky Shack...so I gave it a try. I was so nervous through the whole thing (why do I act like a baby in fun houses?!?! haha) but true to it's name, it really was more just "whacky" than scary. Wonder if anyone has every pointed out that they have "wacky" spelled wrong? Pirates Cove was right next door, but it's a walk through I believe, and fearing another Noah's Ark type attraction, I passed. I wanted some aerial photos, so I got on the ski lift ride next. It had the longest wait of anything at that park...around 10 minutes. The poor ride op looked so hot and so tired, and he was loading and unloading the whole thing by himself! It was a very nice ride, which afforded me a few great pictures! The ski lift reminded me of Lake Winnie, which is probably my favorite of the small, independently owned parks I've visited. When I left the ski lift, I decided to make a stab at riding Ravine Flyer 3 without a kid. There was no one in line...and there had been no one in line when I was on the ski lift either. So I went up to the girl working there and used my sad face and said "Do I really have to have a kid to ride this?" Really apologetically sounding, she said "Yeah, I'm sorry." So I said "Ok, can I just wait here until a kid comes up that I can ride with?" That made her laugh, so she said I could ride by myself, but just once, and I said that once was all I wanted to ride it! So I took a front seat ride, and it's actually quite a bit more interesting than most kiddie coasters since it's above water most of the time. When I left, I thanked her for humoring me. With one more fine kiddie coaster credit under this credit whore's belt, I went over to ride Steel Dragon. I'd never ridden a coaster quite like this before. Other spinning mice are like regular mice, but spin when you hit certain turns. This one loads people on the front and the back, and spins and gyrates most of the time, in sync with the way the track is banking. It was really a cool coaster since you didn't know which way you were gonna spin next! The cars are beautiful too, with dragons painted on the sides. I would have loved to have spent more time at Waldameer, but I still had Darien Lake to visit, and it was already mid-afternoon. The rest of the rides were kind of ordinary anyway, but looked fun. It's definitely a park I'd like to visit again when I can spend more time there. I really had high hopes for this park from the way everyone talks about it, and I found it just as cute and charming as I was hoping. Back in the car, I was off to Darien Lake. I was warned extensively by Kim and Kevin that this park would suck, and to not get my hopes up, so I didn't. It was a lot farther outside of Buffalo than I thought it would be. I figured it was in a suburb, but it's really more like halfway to Rochester. I found it easily though, eventhough it felt like it took me forever to get there. I parked and went in, and was immediately greeted with a lovely SLC, Mind Eraser. Figuring it would be the worst coaster in the park, I ran for it first to get it out of the way. The wait wasn't terrible, which was good, but the ride ended up being the worst, roughest coaster of the trip. My ears hurt excruciatingly when I left. There is just no way to be a defensive rider on these things...you get the s**t beat out of you no matter what you do. And no, it did not erase my mind of the pain it caused me. I saw Viper next, and after watching it for just a second, figured it would be pretty bad too. You could watch people in certain elements just have their heads jerked everywhere, so I wasn't looking forward to it. I boarded, and while it was really rough, it wasn't as bad as some I've been on. Still not something I care to reride though. I rode the kiddie coaster, Brain Teaser, next since it was in the area. It was a kiddie coaster, what can I say? I decided on Predator next, hoping against hope that it would be a decent coaster. Well, again, I was completely wrong. On the bottoms of the hills, I could actually see the train shaking a good 3 or 4 inches to right and left, which made it feel like you were riding a moving jackhammer. I don't remember a single redeeming quality to this woodie except the brake run. Needing a bit of a break from such bad coasters, I got in line for Superman: Ride of Steel. At least this was one that I could say, with 95% certainty, would not shake the s**t out of me. I waited about half an hour, and couldn't help but eaves drop on the group behind me. It was one guy's first day ever of riding coasters! Man, did he choose to start at the wrong park! Funny thing was the guy was saying "Yeah, that dangly one was pretty good, and that one that pulls you up then drops you (the boomerang) was awesome!" OMG! Someone get this guy on a good coaster, quick! At least he was in line for what had to be the best one in the park. I sat in the middle of the train since I didn't want to wait for the back seat. The climb and the first drop were just like the one at Six Flags New England, but that was where a lot of the similarities ended. The Darien Lake version puts a lot of emphasis on the helixes since they are right over the water, and there are two of them. I don't remember a helix really standing out in the SFNE one because of all the huge airtime hills. Darien Lake had a few airtime hills, and the airtime you got was great, just not as many as SFNE. The last couple of bunny hills were a great way to end though. Overall it was just what I needed in the middle of all the other wretched coasters at this park. I was a great coaster on it's own, but only about half as great as SFNE's version. I decided to go ahead and be the whore and get the Boomerang Coast to Coaster credit while I was there. There was no line luckily, and I was in and out faster than I could say "Screw you, Vekoma Boomerang!" but not without massive outer ear bludgeoning first. I was hot and tired and ready to make a run for the border at this point, so I started heading out. On the way, I passed a guesser who had yard tall Six Flags glasses as one of his prizes. Since I collect them, and people are constantly guessing me younger than I am, I decided to let him guess my age for $3. Well, he guessed 27 (I'm 26), which floored me, since no one ever even guesses me as old as I am, much less older! I started to walk away when he put his microphone down and said that if I played again for $2 more, he'd let me have whatever prize I wanted, even if he guessed correctly. So I said ok, figuring that I'd have spent $5 on it in a gift shop had it been there. I had him guess my birth month that time, and he guessed August, which is within two months of July! He didn't tell people he'd gotten it right though, so I went up and got my prize like he'd been wrong On my way out, I rinsed out the yard tall glass and got it filled with Coke for $.99, and headed off to Canada. I'm used to crossing at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls, but Kevin had suggested an alternate bridge that would be faster based on coming from Darien Lake. So I found my way across, and the border guard barely asked me anything about where I was going and how long I was staying. There was also nothing on the other side of the border...unlike Niagara Falls which is a tourist trap if I've ever seen one! A little ways down the highway, I found a Tim Hortons! Yummy!! Love me some Tim Hortons! My guess is it was about 10:00pm by this time, so the bagel selection was limited. I got a toasted whole grain bagel with turkey and swiss. When I bit into it, it tasted sweet! Bleh! I opened it up, and there was a clear yellow condiment on it that I didn't recognize, so I went up and asked what it was. It was honey mustard, which has got to be my least favorite condiment ever! Might as well put horseradish on it, it would taste better! So the girl remade the sandwich, and the boss seemed pretty irked that she'd put the honey mustard on it instead of regular mustard. Once it was fixed, the sandwich was great. Kevin had tried to get me to agree to stay with him once I got to Canada, but he's about an hour past where my hotel was, which would have put me at his house at close to 1:00am! So I said no, that I'd keep my hotel, also so I wouldn't have to backtrack the 45 minutes or so to Canada's Wonderland the next day. He was busy all weekend and couldn't go to the park with me, but we'd agreed to meet up for dinner on Friday night anyway. I reached my hotel in Mississauga around midnight, and it was very nice! It was another employee discounted Holiday Inn Express. It was the cheapest one I could find, so it was a little ways off from the park but I didn't care. I'd rather save $20 per night and drive 20 extra minutes to the park! The room was very nice...it had beautiful linens and headboards, and nice smelling soaps hehe. It also had Canadian TV...go figure! I love Canada I got some ice and fixed a big glass of ice water in my Cedar Point birthday mug, then went to bed. Finally, a decent coaster, after riding all the other crap at Darien Lake. What a lovely sight...death machine in front of stagnate lake. Steel Dragon Every park needs one of these signs!!! Julie dangles from the ski lift at Waldameer. Everyone loves log, including Waldameer. The Conneaut Toboggan...it was all fun and games until it tried to put my eye out. Ahhhh!!! Happy thoughts! Happy thoughts! Find a happy place!!! Blue Streak...just about the only thing worth saving at Conneaut. ..which begs the question...what weather *can* Conneaut control?

All the photos from this day can be found on my website at: http://www.fyabulous.com/onastick/idlewild1.html July 13th Kennywood and Idlewild were on the plan for the 13th, and I was very excited about both of them. I woke up around 6:30 so I could get an early start on my drive to Pittsburgh. I had the free continental breakfast again, showered, and was checked out of the hotel by about 7:30. I was going to meet my friend Kim at her house in Pittsburgh, then we were gonna drive to Idlewild together. I'd gotten door-to-door directions to her house from Mapquest, and do you believe that they were absolutely perfect, right down to the last 1/10th of a mile! I've never had this perfect of directions before from Mapquest! She was ready to go when I got there around 9:30, and we started the drive to Idlewild. It was actually farther out from the city than I'd assumed, but it wasn't terribly far. We pulled up at about 11:00 or a little after, and saw that the person in the parking booth is a combo parking attendant and front gate ticket taker. I'd never seen a drive up ticket counter before! Our first stop was Rollo Coaster, which was the first coaster I'd ever ridden with a fixed position lap bar. I was wondering if I'd feel safe with the restraint so far away from me, but the coaster wasn't very wild, so it was fine. It was a really fun coaster...not the biggest or the longest, but it was great fun, and seemed very well cared for. Credit #114. The Wild Mouse was our next stop, and it was so much fun! It weaves in and out of the trees, and had a couple of great headchoppers where you just know a branch is gonna take off your head! The cars are cute too...the only ones I've ever seen that actually look like little gray mice. Credit #115. Next was the one attraction that I'd honestly been looking forward to more than anything else on the entire trip...the Mr. Rogers Neighborhood of Make Believe trolley ride! I absolutely loved Mr. Rogers as a kid, then started watching him again in college, and got a whole new respect for his show. I don't think I have ever been so sad to hear about a celebrity's death as when Mr. Rogers died. So needless to say, this was an E-Ticket attraction to me! We boarded our Neighborhood Trolley (SO ADORABLE!!!!) and the ride takes you up to the castle first where you meet King Friday! He tells you that he is having a Hug-N-Song party and that he needs you to invite all his friends in the Neighborhood of Make Believe! The characters actually use Mr. Rogers' real voice, which made me feel like I was 5 years old again and watching the show! First you see Cornflake S. Pecially in his Rock-it factory, so you invite him to the Hug-N-Song. The guide has everyone say "Come along, come along, to the castle Hug-N-Song." How cute is that?!?! Next you pass X and Henrietta in the treehouse and invite both of them also. You see Lady Elaine Fairchild in the Museum-Go-Round next, and she demonstrates some how she can play instruments hands-free with her Boomerang Toomerang Zoomerang. Once you invite her, you meet the Platypuses and invite them as well. Next is Daniel Tiger who lives in the clock. He was always my favorite character, and his animatronic was absolutely adorable!! After you invite him, you find Prince Tuesday and Anna Platypus playing together, so you invite them also. The Hug-N-Song is the final scene, where King Friday and Queen Sara lead all the other characters in singing the "It's such a good feeling to know you're alive" song. All the characters turn to each other and appear to hug, then all the people in the trolley are asked to hug each other. Seriously...I was such a fan when I was a kid that as soon as the ride was over, I knew that nothing else on the trip would top it! It was truly the highlight of my trip! Forget Top Thrill Dragster! Give me the Hug-N-Song! Being pretty much on top of the world after the ride, I went into the Mr. Rodgers gift shop and promptly spent $30 on a bunch of Daniel and X merchandise. We both had some apples with caramel dip for $1 to tide us over until lunch. Since we were there, and I'd been so over the top about loving the trolley ride, Kim asked if I wanted to do it again while we were in the area, so I said yes. I got a great picture of me sitting in the trolley acting 5 years old too. Right at the end of the second ride, they must have spotted some lightning because our guide had to suddenly shut down the ride and go back to the station. We got through every scene except for the Hug-N-Song, so I was glad I'd at least seen it one time completely through. The flat rides near the front of the park weren't closed yet, so we jumped on the Caterpillar. There aren't too many of these left, and I always like taking in the unique attractions. We rode the carousel next, and once we got off, it was thundering and everything else had been shut down. We hadn't planned on spending too much more time there anyway, so we just took a couple of more pictures then headed out for lunch. We stopped for lunch at an Eat'N Park in Latrobe on the way back to Kennywood. I've been to one before but we don't have them in Nashville, and knew that I had to get a smiley cookie for dessert! I had crab stuffed cod with home fries and applesauce and man, it was fantastic. And I had a yellow smiley fish cookie for dessert. I really pondered getting a dozen cookies to go, but they would either have to sit in the hot car for a couple of days while I ate them, or I'd have to eat them all in one day! As nice as that sounded, I opted against them. When we arrived at Kennywood, we decided to take advantage of the free parking instead of the closer paid parking, since we both agreed that we're cheaper than we are lazy! The entrance to the park was very nice, and once we emerged from the tunnel, the park just looked so cute! It was old and historic, yet extremely well taken care of and respected. It was a very pretty park, and looks very different than the big name parks. Garfield's Nightmare was our first ride, and it was pretty cute. Obviously I never rode the Old Mill version, but the new version is pretty cute. I thought it was funny that they didn't even try to be discrete about the onride photo! Neither of us thought that the 3D glasses were necessary, but they did lend a great depth effect to the splatter paint on the walls. After Garfield, Kim took me back to her favorite coaster, the Jackrabbit. I'd mentioned ahead of time that I prefer my woodies to not shake the life out of me, and she guessed that I probably wouldn't like any of Kennywood's woodies since they were rough. Well, once we were on Jackrabbit, I didn't really find it rough at all. It felt like an old, classic woodie, and it was great! There is this one pop of airtime...omg, it's insane. As we went up the lift hill, she pointed to it and nonchalantly said "That's the best part of the ride." It looked like an ordinary little hill, but holy cow, I probably came 6 inches off my seat! It was a great ride, and credit #116! Next we hopped next door and rode the Racer. We rode the ride that loads on the left first, saying we'd come back and ride the right loading side later, just to say I'd ridden both "sides." It was another really fun, unique woodie. Not rough at all, and it had that added interest of seeing if you can touch the people in the next train, and seeing which train will get back to the station first. Another great, fun ride to become my credit #117. After Racer, we were on our way to walk through the kiddie area when I spotted fried Oreos! I'd almost bought some at Lake Compounce last year, but they were closed by the time I got there. So I got some here. My first thought was "I only get three of them?" but once I started eating them, they are super rich, and I couldn't have eaten more than three anyway. Just as I finished up, we passed Lil' Phantom. We'd both assumed that we needed a kid to ride it, but we were surprised to find "No maximum height limit" or somesuch on the entrance sign! Kim had never even ridden it, so it was a new credit for her too! We went around twice, and were both a little shocked at how forceful it was to be a kiddie coaster! We then got a stranger to take our picture with the Lil' Phantom sign...I think she thought we were crazy! Credit #118. Thunderbolt was next, and Kennywood is three for three with fantastic woodies. I particularly love how both Thunderbolt and Jackrabbit begin with drops out of the station...never ridden a coaster like that before! And on both of them, the lift hill is a considerable way into the coaster. One thing I loved about Thunderbolt is that there is a headchopper with the Phantom's Revenge track, and again, you'd swear you are not gonna clear that track without injury! If you timed it just perfectly, you could actually have a headchopper with Thunderbolt going under a Phantom's Revenge train! That would be one scary headchopper! Credit #119. We jumped over to The Exterminator next so we could knock out the coasters before hitting any of the flat rides. It's not a bad mouse, though I've ridden at least one clone of it before. It *is* definitely the most themed mouse I've been on, and one of the more themed coasters period. We had maybe a 10 minute wait for Exterminator...just about the longest wait we had all day. Credit #120. Since the Whip was right there, we rode it, and it was a lot of run. I'd never ridden one since I'd never been to a park that had one. Kim said that some people count Whips as coasters...huh? Really? Nothing at all about that ride says "coaster" to me. It was starting to rain lightly at this point, so we headed for Noah's Ark since it was indoors. We had about a 10 minute wait for Noah's Ark, but at least we were under a tree to keep us dry. I had no clue what to expect out of this attraction. I looked at the outside and assumed it was gonna be cutesy and Biblical...but that is not at all what I got! I am absolutely NOT a fan of fun houses, haunted houses and the like. If it pops out at me, or scares me, I don't want to have anything to do with it. Needless to say, I hated Noah's Ark. Kim tried to get me to walk through before her, but I refused. Half of it is in the dark....then there are some extremely creepy dioramas of Noah and some ugly, dirty animals...then some gorillas in a box with a strobe light that just about scared the poop out of me! It was not cute, it was not fun, and it was not something I ever care to do again. I'm all about saving the historic stuff in parks, y'know, but they could tear that thing down and I'd never shed a tear. It had stopped raining when we came out, so we decided to get snag the last credit in the park...Phantoms Revenge. I didn't give this coaster much thought before hand since it was an Arrow that had been reprofiled significantly. I figured it would be average. But this coaster absolutely blew my socks off! It's got a great first drop, but what's even better is that when you hit the second, bigger drop, you are already going pretty fast, so you hit this huge drop and it just snatches you down into the ravine. It had some tremendous airtime...I could have absolutely ridden this coaster all day long! It is truly a "top ten" coaster! It's at least in my top 7. It felt like this coaster just came out of nowhere since I was completely not expecting it to be anywhere near as good as it was. Funny thing is that Kim is so used to the woodies that this is her next-to-least favorite coaster in the park (Exterminator being last place). The Turtle was right there near the exit of Old Kennywood, so we both jumped on for a spin. I'd never ridden one of these either, and it was fun. We wandered back towards the center of the park, and rode Gold Rusher along the way. This wasn't as bad as Noah's Ark, but still had a few gags I didn't care for. I'm just such a wimp when it comes to stuff scaring me. As we walked, we passed a large indoor restaurant and decided to get a snack. I got a big glass of pink lemonade, and Kim got a square ice cream cone a few shops down. We both sat down to enjoy our snacks, and did some people watching. We both marveled at the footwear that some people think is appropriate to wear to a theme park. Someone once said a good judge of what shoes to wear is to ask yourself "Would I get on a treadmill with these on?" Obviously some people don't ask themselves that question! Once we were up and moving again, we went on The Auto Race, which is the last of it's kind in the world. It looked sort of like regular little raceway cars, but they are electric powered in a wooden track, and they go pretty fast! It was an interesting little ride. I just knew I was gonna make a fool of myself trying to squish my butt into a child sized drivers seat, but I managed with minimal embarrassment! Next we rode the Olde Kennywood Railroad, where I got my first glimpse of a Laffin' Sal. She was creepy...yet captivating. Like a car wreck, I wanted to look away, but I couldn't. Out of all my pictures, hers is the one that people react to the most..."Ack! She's creepy!!!" hahaha The railroad was pretty interesting, and you can really get a feel for just how high up over the city you actually are. Since we were in the area, we rode the Racer again, this time loading on the right hand side. The ride is the same no matter which side you load on, and it was just as enjoyable the second time around. As we started walking back towards the front of the park, we jumped on the Jackrabbit again. I sat on the right side of the car this time, and the airtime on "that hill" was even more insane because of having extra room because of the way the lap bar is made. Totally, insanely fun ride. As we neared the front, Kim suggested that I ride the Kangaroo, another historic "only one like it in the world" ride. I watched it, and it looked like fun, so I jumped on. Well, the restraint was *very* tight on my stomach, and every time it jumped off the little hill on the ride, I caught airtime that slammed my stomach into the restraint. Ow ow ow! The ride might have been fun had I not been fearing for the safety of my pancreas the whole time. We also spotted another young girl in an interesting outfit...she couldn't have been more than about 15, and she had huge boobs absolutely bursting out of a pink halter top. I'm not the world's most conservative person by any means, but why would you let your 15 year old daughter out looking like an absolute whore? She was bouncing around, making a spectacle of herself, with her boobs just flying in the faces of everyone there! I feel so old sometimes, but 15 year olds shouldn't be wearing something like that. So her outfit prompted Kim and I to start pointing out trashy looking outfits and saying "I wouldn't let *my* 15 year old whore wear that!" hahaha I was a bit hungry at that point, so I stopped and grabbed a burger and fries and Kim got some sort of pastry thingie that was only 75 cents! The burger and fries were ordinary, and the employees did not seem attentive at all. I stood at the window for probably 30 seconds while the cashier finished her personal conversation before she took my order. Next we walked over and rode Garfield's Nightmare again, this time forgoing the glasses. Kim wanted to ride the carousel next, so we headed back over that way. As we watched it, she told me about coming there as a kid and always racing to get the patriotic horse, and how she named it Susan, after Susan B. Anthony. So once we started loading, I casually walked my way around and jumped up on the horse next to the patriotic one. She seemed very happy that I'd let her ride her favorite horse! It was a very pretty carousel, with a very cool music box whateveryoucallit in it. It was nearing time for the park to close, so I wanted to make sure to get in one more ride on both the Thunderbolt and Phantom's Revenge since I hadn't reridden those. We passed Thunderbolt first, so we hopped on for another fantastic ride. We went over to Phantom's Revenge next, and again, it was a knock your socks off ride. After the ride, we had about 10 minutes until the park closed, and Kim asked if there was anything else I wanted to ride again. Knowing she didn't care for Phantom's Revenge that much, I said no, that we could leave. But she says "You wanna ride Phantom's Revenge again?" So I say "Ok, you twisted my arm!" and we ran off to get one last ride on it. I'm gonna miss this ride so much! I wish every park had a ride this fantastic! When we left, I figured I'd stop in a gift shop and see about picking up a Kennywood t-shirt since I'd really enjoyed the park. But right at the stroke of 10:00, all the lights went off, the music went off, the metal doors to the shops were closed and all the employees left! It was absolutely deserted by the time we were halfway out of the park. Kennywood doesn't mess around about their closing time! It was like "Hope you had a nice day! Now get out!" We headed back to Kim's house, where we perused the photos from Cedar Point and Geauga Lake, and pretty soon it was bedtime since we were both pooped. Me with..uh...I forget his name. He's been in the park since it opened in 1898. Laffin' Sal. Captivating like a car wreck. We couldn't decide which was worse...the skirt or the sombrero. Julie and Kim are stoked about their Lil' Phantom credit! Julie eats fried Oreos with Leo, the sucky bear. Kim gives the Racer two thumbs up! Julie is proud to present...Kennywood! Julie loves Idlewild! Julie is way more stoked about this ride than anyone should ever be! Me with all the Mr. Rogers plush I couldn't afford to buy. The Hug-N-Song finale of the Neighborhood of Make Believe trolley ride. Absolutely, the highlight of my trip! The Idle-Wild Mouse weaving through the tees. Shh...don't tell Idlewild I stood on a park bench to get this photo!

July 12th I'd planned on sleeping late this day because Geauga Lake was the only thing on the plan, and by all accounts, including Kevin's, this was not a park I was going to need to hit at opening just to get all the coasters done before closing. I rolled over at about 8:30 and decided that since breakfast was included with my room, I'd go get breakfast then go back to sleep for a bit. I had a bowl of frosted flakes, a "hot and delicious, hot and delicious cinnamon roll, cinnamon roll" and a small omelet as well as a glass of apple juice. To have been included with the room, and to have gotten the room at an employee discount, I was very pleased with breakfast! When I was done, I laid back down for a bit, but I knew coasters were calling my name, so I got back up after about 45 minutes. I quickly showered and headed out for the park. Due to a train blocking one road and a detour around another road, it took me about 45 minutes to make the 10 minute drive to the park! I ended up parking at the waterpark entrance somehow, which had a very small entranceway, so there was no huge "welcome to the park!" feeling. The waterpark looked pretty nice, but I'm not a huge waterslide fan, so I passed on it. My first ride was Raging Wolf Bobs, which was a pretty nice coaster. Felt like a woodie should...not overly rough, but just a little. They had a "Raging Wolf Bobs" train on the storage track, yet were running some futuristic looking train for the guests. I thought the themed one looked better because it had a little more attitude to it. Credit #105. The next ride I came to was Dominator, the floorless coaster. It was a great ride! I'd definitely like to have a floorless in one of my home parks. The coaster had that loud B&M roar to it...seemed a little louder than most B&Ms, but it added to the atmosphere I thought. Credit #106. As I passed a snack stand (which was so obviously themed as Batman!) I noticed that they sold "Pickle on a stick"! Yeah! Had to get one. As we've already ascertained, I love pickles, so I greatly enjoyed it. Wish it had been cold though. I decided to conquer Thunderhawk next since it was probably not gonna be that pleasant. I ended up waiting maybe 15 minutes for it, which was the longest wait I had all day. And of course it beat the s**t out of me, which was no surprise. Credit #107. While I was in the area, I took in the Beaver Land Mine Ride, which was a decent little coaster. Credit #108. Villain was next, and my friend Kim from Pittsburgh says this is one of her favorite woodies. It looked pretty good...but of course, it also successfully beat the s**t out of me. The first half was horrible...absolutely shaking me to death, but the second half seemed to be retracked. It was quite a bit more tolerable and some of the wood looked new. If they do to the first half what they did to the second half, this would be a good woodie. But until then, nope. Credit #109. I went to ride Americana, their Ferris wheel, next so I could get some aerial pictures. I got a great shot of Thunderhawk...it's such a pretty coaster...too bad it sucks so badly. While I was in the area, I went to ride Double Loop. There was almost no one in the station, and there were maybe 4 or 5 ride ops standing at the console joking and laughing loudly. Then out of nowhere, one ride op laughs into the microphone that they are closing the ride and to come back later. Of course I don't know what was really going on, but it certainly looked like the ride ops were having too much fun with each other to operate the ride! Everyone in the station was like "Are they serious? Are they just shutting down so they can go on break?" So we all turned around and left. I headed over to the far side of the park next to grab those credits. On my way, I passed another place that sold cheese on a stick, so I decided to finally try some. The first one I got was hot on the outside but still cold and not melted in the middle. So I had them make me another one, but it was exactly the same, so I just got my money back. I got some fries, but they were really greasy and not that great. Next I decided to tackle Headspin and get that out of the way. Of course it was just as terrible and rough as any boomerang out there. Credit #110. Steel Venom was running, but I don't count it as a coaster and didn't care to ride it, so I skipped it. I rode the little monorail next, which was a nice little ride. It went at a normal speed for a while, then slowed down to a crawl right near the wave pool. I thought that was strange. Was it an opportunity to check out the sunbathers? Then I skipped over to Big Dipper. Kevin said this was the second best coaster in the park in his opinion. It wasn't bad, but it was pretty darn rough too, though not half as bad as Villain or Mean Streak! Credit #111. I'd saved X-Flight to last, thinking it would be my favorite in the park. Superman: Ultimate Flight at SFOG is in a three way tie for my favorite coaster, so I was assuming that I'd really love X-Flight. Boy was I completely wrong! This ride is a total pile of crap with almost nothing fun or entertaining about it! First, the restraints made me feel extremely claustrophobic. They were very heavy on my chest, and pinned my legs in a very uncomfortable way. The hand holds were also in a very uncomfortable position. Second, the lift takes you up on your back...so your facing up towards the sun, with your hands restrained almost to the point that you can't shade your face. Not to mention that I don't like not knowing where the top of the lift hill is. Third, during the ride, it seems to point your head too far towards the ground, so you can't see in front of you, only straight down. Even despite the excessive restraints, I still felt like I was going to fall out, so I ended up hanging on WAY more than I normally would on a coaster. What a disaster of a coaster. Still, it was credit #112. I felt like I was beginning to overheat at that point, so I bought another big snow cone and sat down in the shade. There seemed to be almost no place to go inside and get out of the heat...all the food places seemed to be walk ups, and the arcades and shops were all open air. I'm sure there were some indoor places, but I never found them. The snow cone was good though, and cooled me down pretty well. I was just about ready to go back to the hotel for the evening, so I dragged myself back to Double Loop, and prayed that my ears would survive the ride. It was also horribly rough, just like most of the coasters had been. Credit #113. I went back to the main entrance and walked out of it so I could get a few pictures of the main entrance, then came right back in. I found a long sleeve t-shirt that I liked in a gift shop, so I got it, then began the walk back to the waterpark side. Kevin had said to make sure to catch the Robots from Mars show since it was indoors and a good way to cool off, so I did that on the way out. The storyline was lacking a bit, but the graphics were great...crystal clear, with no ghosts. And there were plenty of water sprays and fans during the show to get you cooled off. I wish this had been on the other side of the park because I could have really used a break like that earlier. When I left, I found more cheese on a stick, so I tried it again. This time it was much better, but I really don't like corndog batter, which is what it was covered in, so I probably wouldn't get another one. It was around 5:00 or so by this point, and I headed out for the day. On the way back, I managed to take the direct route to the hotel, so it only took a few minutes. I got a call from my friend Jason once I was back at the hotel so I chatted with him for a few minutes. I went to get directions to the nearest Walmart so I could go ahead and get my Cedar Point and Geauga Lake digital photos printed, and also found an Outback Steakhouse there. Having never been to an Outback, I thought that sounded like a great choice for dinner. I found the Walmart easily, and got my prints started while I went to dinner. At Outback, I ordered a chicken ceasar salad, and it was great. The dressing was very spicy and peppery. The chicken was just a tad under done though, so I asked the waitress to have them cook it some more. Well, her reaction seemed like she wanted to preemptively prevent me from complaining to a manager, so she was overly apologetic. I wasn't gonna say a thing because underdone chicken happens, and it's no big deal. A few minutes later the chicken came back and it was just fine, but the girl said the manager was gonna come check on me in a bit too! The manager came by a bit later and I assured her that I wasn't upset about the chicken and that it was great. Geez, so much attention just over some slightly underdone chicken! I went back to get my pictures and they turned out fantastic! I absolutely love my new digital camera. I bought it specifically for this trip, and I've yet to find a negative thing to say about it. It's a Kodak Easyshare LS753, and it’s a fantastic camera. I went back to the hotel to turn in for the night, and called Kevin once I got there. We chatted for quite a while, marveling at how Geauga Lake can have such rough and crappy coasters. I ate some of my salad leftovers right before going to bed, and I was asleep by around midnight. This road brought to you by Vekoma! Arrow Loopers! They'll knock your socks off! First aid right next to the Vekoma Boomerang...ironic, yet appropriate! Julie finally eats Cheese on a Stick! Julie dominates Pickle on a Stick I love pickles. No more comments neccessary. Raging Wolf Bobs. Why is one guy holding his nose and another holding his head??? A panoramic photo of Geauga Lake - full size version available on my website.

All the photos from this day can be seen on my website at: http://www.fyabulous.com/onastick/cedarpoint3.html July 11th Once we were up for the day, I went back to Joan and told her that there was no way that I was putting up with the trains another night and that I wanted a refund for the second night of my stay. She gave me the refund, but did not seem apologetic at all, and made a comment to the effect of that no one had ever complained about the trains! I don't see how every person in that motel did not run to the office to complain! It was absolutely deafening! And went on for hours...not just one or two times...I'm talking at least a dozen trains over the course of the night! Once that was taken care of, we headed off to another hotel a little closer to the park for breakfast. They had a sign advertising a cheap buffet breakfast, which was what we both wanted. It was basic but good, so we both got a good start to the day. We decided to only take one car to the park, so I parked my car in an undisclosed location, and he drove to the park. We wandered slowly back to Top Thrill Dragster, taking pictures along the way. I'd had to charge my camera battery in the car the night before since we had no power at the hotel, so I had to make up for not having the camera most of the first day! Once at Top Thrill Dragster, we got in line, figuring that we would never be more ready than we were right then. I was scared...I mean truly scared to ride it. I just kept watching it over and over, and there were times when I was just sure it was going to roll back...and I just got more and more nervous. Trying to laugh off the nerves, we joked that consciousness was all I was aiming for after the ride. So long as I didn't pass out or die, it would be ok hahaha. We waited about an hour and 15 minutes, which wasn't terrible considering what the lines have been in the past. Once we were actually in our dragster, I seemed to have a mini panic attack...I could barely breathe and was almost crying I was so nervous. It didn't last long though since we didn't sit there very long. As soon as it launched, I remember thinking for a split second that I couldn't believe that it wasn't taking my breath away. I don't remember the climb at all, but do recall my ears popping as we crested the top hat. But I most distinctly remember the visual of being 420 feet up and seeing the track spiraling down straight below me and thinking a stream of expletives. But as soon as I was about halfway down, it was pretty clear that this was one of the best rides I'd ever ridden! Before we were even horizontal again, we were both screaming because we'd loved it so much. I can't even really say what was so great about it...it was just big and fast and intense, yet comfortable and not scary (once it was launched!). Truly a fantastic ride except that it could stand to be five times as long! Y'know, I really wanted to walk away from it saying it was overrated...but I can't! I absolutely loved it and could have ridden it all day had it not been for the long line. Credit #102. As we came down from our adrenaline rushes, we both stopped for cold treats...me a snow cone in an upside down sombrero, and him some Dippin' Dots. We needed to clean up the last two credits I hadn't gotten, Cedar Creek Mine Ride and Raptor (Wicked Twister was closed both days, and neither of us planned on riding it anyway), so we headed to the back of the park. We ate as we walked, then stopped as we approached Cedar Creek Mine ride to finish up my snow cone. The ride had a very low wait, and this was what I would consider a starter coaster. It was fun, but nothing to write home about. Credit #103. We walked back through Frontiertown, and made a stop in the Cedar Point museum for a few minutes. It was really interesting, though we both wished that the old arcade games and movie machines actually worked! Those things are so cool when they are working. We did a little browsing through the shops in that area but didn't end up buying anything. Once we got back to the main midway, we stopped in a big gift shop with Snoopy on the front of it and did a little more souvenir buying. We ended up being goofy and taking pictures with lots of the Peanuts props, including my discovery of the Great Pumpkin. We still had a receipt for the game tickets we'd won playing skee ball yesterday, so we stopped in the main arcade to see what we could get for our 17 tickets. While there we found one of the drum games that Robb and Elissa on TPR talk about so much, so Kevin decided to try it out. I didn't play, but it looked really fun, and not that difficult if you have rhythm. I also decided to play some sort of whack the chicken game, which I assume was malfunctioning since I hit every chicken that lit up, and it still told me I missed over 20 of them! When we were done with our games, we had enough tickets for two mini decks of Cedar Point cards and two Cedar Point heart boxes on strings. Lunch was next since both of us were quite hungry by then. We'd been joking about going to the "all you can eat hamburger buffet" so we finally decided to try it. We were seated at Midway Market immediately, and there was a huge selection of food on the buffet! We arrived at around 3:30 or so, so we got to pick from the lunch selections as well as dinner! We had pizza, pasta, fried rice, chicken tacos, egg rolls, fried chicken, chicken noodle soup and all the burgers we could eat (which ended up being just one burger each, go figure). There was cheesecake, cookies, ice cream and tons of other choices for dessert also. Man, what a fantastic meal. I wish my tummy had had more room so I could have eaten more. The last thing left on the agenda was Raptor. We'd kept putting it off because of long lines, but now waiting was unavoidable. We decided to do the sky tower ride so we could get a few more good aerial pictures and to let lunch settle again. It was so hot...dear god, they really need to air condition that thing. We both felt so sorry for the girl who had to ride it up and down with the guests...what a hot and sweaty job. Yuck. It did afford us some nice pictures though. Finally we headed for Raptor, which had about a 45 minute line. Kevin needed to leave by about 5:00 so he could get home for work the next day, which was just about what time it was when we got in line. The wait was almost completely in full sun, which seemed very unnecessary since you could easily put up some canopies. The ride itself was great though...would turn out to be the smoothest inverted coaster of the trip, by far! Credit #104. At that point, Kevin had to head for home, so we headed up to the front gate to take a few final photos of us in front of the entrance. As Kevin was taking the picture of me, some guy walked up who seemed really really excited to see us taking pictures! He offered to take a picture of both of us at the entrance, and we are both just laughing at this guy in the picture. It was so random and weird. From there we retrieved Kevin's car, then he drove me back to my car. We said a tearful (or not) goodbye, and he was off on his way back home. Having cancelled my second night of lodging at Maples Motel, I was suddenly aware that I had no place to sleep that night, so I got on the phone trying to find something. I couldn’t find anything even remotely in my budget anywhere in Sandusky. So finally I called the Holiday Inn in Cleveland where I was staying the next night, and begged them to let me stay that night also for the employee rate I'd gotten for the 12th. They agreed, and I was so extremely grateful that they were willing to do that for me! With the hotel issue settled, I headed back into the park to finish up taking a few pictures I'd missed the day before. I walked from the entrance, around by the Ferris Wheel, back to Magnum, through Frontiertown, past Millennium Force, then back up the main midway past Top Thrill Dragster, and finally back past the Ferris Wheel again. The only ride I rode by myself was Troika since I'd never ridden one of those rides before. I ended up leaving around 9:00pm, and started out towards my hotel in Cleveland. On the way I found a Dunkin Donuts, which we don't have in Nashville anymore, so I stopped and got a sesame bagel breakfast sandwich. I ate it while I drove, and talked to Kevin for a bit more as he drove back home. Once I got directions, I found my hotel pretty easily, and it was very nice! I was so tired, that I just collapsed into bed. I forgot to mention that this was my birthday. I talked to my mom at one point, and she forgot to wish me a happy birthday, so I had to really rag her about it. Also, Kevin got me a huge insulated mug that has a lot of the coaster names on it for my birthday. I mentioned that I could really use that at work since I'm not supposed to leave the hotel desk when I work overnights, so I could fill it with water, and it would last me my entire shift. Such a sweetie. We also ended up with two onride photos...Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster. Julie and Kevin laugh as a crazy man takes their picture at Cedar Point. Julie at Cedar Point (another one of my favorite photos from the trip) Kevin at Cedar Point Julie and Kevin find a drum game and think of Robb and Elissa! Charlie Brown is very happy to be getting a kiss from Julie though! Lucy doesn't seem to be very happy to be geting that kiss from Kevin. Maybe it's because he's touching her boob? It's FAN-tasmic! Kevin pulls the fireman's finger in the Cedar Point museum. Kevin loves Top Thrill Dragster also! (Why does that girl behind him look so upset about that?) Julie loves Top Thrill Dragster! Julie hopes she does not become the first TTD casualty. Kevin tries to birth Top Thrill Dragster from the top of his head. Juile says "I'm not scared of Top Thrill Dragster! Look how much taller Power Tower is!"

More photos! Millennium Force A nice shot of Corkscrew Me in front of Millennium Force...one of my favorite pictures from the trip. Rumor has it that these guys do it in the sand... Kevin tries to touch Corkscrew's track

All the photos for this day can be seen on my website at: http://www.fyabulous.com/onastick/cedarpoint1.html Sunday, July 10th, 2005 On the 9th, I'd worked overnight at my hotel. When I left, I made myself stay awake until about 5:00pm that night (had been awake for about 30 hours at that point) so I'd be extremely tired and could get a full night of sleep before waking up early for my trip. After finishing up some last minute packing, I hit the bed at 5:00pm and woke up at 1:30am, having had 8 1/2 hours of sleep. Believe me, it's so rare to get that much sleep before a trip, but I was so glad that I had. I threw my stuff into the car, said bye to my kitties, and left Nashville at 2:47am. I was in Cincinnati by sunrise, and stopped at a Frisch's Big Boy in Sharonville for breakfast. I had a egg and cheese biscuit and potatoes...and it was very good. My first time to a Big Boy was great! The rest of the drive was quite uneventful...I took a small highway to get to Sandusky, which wasn't too bad except that at one point, I made probably a dozen turns just to get into and out of this one small town! About a week prior to the trip, my friend Kevin from Orillia, ON decided to join me for my days at Cedar Point. He's one of my favorite coaster buddies, so it was awesome to have some good company for the Cedar Point part of the trip. He'd arrived the previous morning and spent the day at Geauga Lake, and was planning on getting to Cedar Point by park opening on the 10th. I spent some time on the phone with him on and off deciding where to meet and all, and I also ultimately decided to check into my hotel before meeting him. Once I got to Sandusky, I got turned around a bit trying to find Maples Motel, but I eventually found it. This hotel had come highly recommended on rec.roller-coaster, and it seemed ok...older, but quaint I guess. And Joan, the owner, was really friendly while I checked in. With my key in hand, I headed out to the park. It was very easy to find, and I thought it was really cool that one second you are just driving on this road...then you pass some trees, and there's Cedar Point off in the distance! It seems to come out of nowhere! I quickly parked and headed into the park for the first time around 1:00pm. I was meeting Kevin at Johnny Rockets, and found him easily once I was in that area. I was so excited to be there that I said we needed to immediately run for a coaster and get my trip started! Disaster Transport was the first coaster of my trip (he'd gotten there at park opening so he'd already done a couple of rides, but had purposely left Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster to ride with me). We had about a 15 minute wait or so, which was good because it gave us a chance to catch up with each other and soak in a little bit more air conditioning. The ride was great...the only other one I'd ridden was Screamin' Delta Demon at Opryland and had loved it, so Disaster Transport did not disappoint. Credit #90. Next we went to Blue Streak, which had a one train wait. Is this a Sunday at Cedar Point, seriously? The ride was great, and kept both of us screaming and laughing. Credit #91. As we passed Cedar Downs, we decided to ride it since it was loading, and since it was a unique ride. It was very cute...sort of like a carousel, but with race horses that actually move forward and back, one taking the lead and then another. It was a very fun ride, and we had a great time trying to see who was going to end up ahead (I won!). We meandered our way around to Iron Dragon next, which also had almost no wait. This ride was kind of a let down for both of us. The first half was really slow, with minimal swinging and thrilling elements. The second half was better though, as it picked up some speed and some forces. Still overall, it wasn't that great. It was ok, but we'd already ridden better. Credit #92. After that we hopped over to Wildcat, which had maybe a 5 minute wait. This was a great mouse...no painful laterals, and lots of fun curves and hills. Credit #93. We tried to get on Mantis but it was down temporarily, so we wandered toward the back of the park. We found a great store where everything was 35% off, so I decided to get a hat, at Kevin's urging, to keep he sun off my face. Kevin also found a "Seahorse on a stick" and "S&M Lioness on a Stick" which we both got a good laugh out of. We'd joked at length earlier about cheese on a stick, then seahorse on a stick...so when I found a stick laying on the counter by a register, I took the opportunity to make "Hula Girl on a Stick." We also joked that the only "on a stick" item we hadn't found yet was "Stick on a stick." The employees must have thought we were truly nuts. With hat on head, we rode Mean Streak next. Wow...what a rough pile of wood. This was one pelvis-breaking, ovary-quaking ride. The ride wouldn't have been half bad if it didn't try to shake itself to splinters on every drop. I got a hefty blow to the stomach from the restraint as we entered the break run...definitely not a coaster I ever care to repeat. But still, it was credit #94. Next was Gemini, which Kevin had already ridden earlier in the day. He described it as a "starter coaster" but I had to disagree! This was a fantastic ride, but quite a bit more intense than a coaster newbie might like. There were great drops, wonderful floater air, and it was really smooth for a coaster of it's age. We rode the red side, then blue...and I don't want any lip about counting this as two coasters! Red tried to eat my newly purchased hat when I went down one of the hills, but I caught it and held onto it tightly for the rest of the rides. I was surprised at how much I liked Gemini, and figured it would be one of the sleeper hits of the trip (which it was!). Credits #95 and #96. Since Woodstock Express was right next door, we hopped onto it for a front seat ride in the engine of the train! Woo! haha I left my hat on since it was a kiddie coaster, and wouldn't you know that close to the end, the wind caught it just right and snatched my hat off! Could not believe that of all coasters, it was Woodstock that ate my hat! We were told that they wouldn't be able to retrieve it until after the park closed, so I was out of luck until then. I hadn't even had the hat for an hour...we both got such a good laugh out of it. Credit #97. At this point the battery in my digital camera went dead, so I don't have any pictures from that night, but we did go back and retake some pictures the next day. We went on the river cruise next, which Kevin had also been on earlier. He said that he'd heard gunfire and gone to investigate haha. It was really funny, and not something I expected to find there. Plus it was a nice way to get off my feet and enjoy the breeze for a while. Magnum XL-200 was next up, and we both really enjoyed it. It was fast and crazy, though it could stand to be just a tad smoother. In any other park, this coaster would be the star attraction, but here it was at least third from the top, maybe lower! We never got around to riding it again, which is a shame since it was a great coaster. Credit #98. We were starting to think about dinner at this point since I hadn't eaten since my Big Boy breakfast at probably 7:30 that morning, and it was at least 6:00 by this point. After perusing the map, we decided on Macaronis since it was a sit down place where we could get in from the heat for a bit. It was definitely hot, but it was a pretty dry heat, and there seemed to be lots of breezes from the lake, so it was very tolerable. On the way to the restaurant, we passed Corkscrew and decided to go ahead and get that credit so we could run straight for Millennium Force after dinner. Honestly, I braced for the worst since this really looked like a headbanger to me...but it wasn't! At all!!! I was truly shocked at how pleasant and smooth this ride was! Can't judge a coaster by it's track I guess Credit #99. We hopped on the sky buckets so they could deposit us closer to the restaurant, and they were very nostalgic for both of us. Once at Macaronis, we both seemingly drank gallons of water since it was so hot. I got the chicken parmesan and Kev got the spaghetti and meatballs, and both of us really enjoyed our meals. It included a trip to the antipasto bar (read: salad bar) so I loaded up on pasta salad and watermelon. We sat for a quite a while just chatting since we don't get to see each other all that much, and enjoyed soaking up the air conditioning. When we were done, we decided to go on the Ferris wheel to let dinner settle a bit before heading to Millennium Force. From the Ferris wheel we got a good look at this really RCT looking kiddie raft ride that looked exactly like the RCT rapids ride if you don't add rapids to it! Too cute! As soon as we left the Ferris wheel, we tried to go ride it, but were denied because we didn't have a kid with us :-/ From there, it was off to get my #100 credit! Millennium Force had an hour wait, which we expected, but was ok since dinner wasn't quite settled yet anyway. The wait seemed to go by pretty quickly at least, which was good. Neither of us were very nervous until we were watching how fast the trains climb the lift hill. They really book it! A little more nervousness also hit when we were noticing just how steep the lift hill is. Once the ride actually got going, I was very disappointed by it. It was so fast and the wind was hitting me so hard that it was difficult for me to breathe and keep my eyes open. I had to struggle to breathe through the whole ride, and my eyes were watering from the wind. The ride also had very little airtime. I was expecting it to be similar to Superman: Ride of Steel at SFNE, but it wasn't at all. When the ride was over, I caught my breath and was ok quickly...until I looked at Kevin and saw that his face was covered in dead bugs!!! I just started laughing hysterically because I had completely not expected him to be assaulted by bugs during the ride! Then he was hysterical because I was hysterical, and we were halfway down the exit ramp before I could even stop laughing enough to catch my breath again. What made it even funnier was that eventhough he was trying to rub them off, he couldn't get them all...which just made me laugh even more! He's such a good sport about my laughing...and he said I didn't have a single bug on me! Go figure! Once we regained our composure, we headed to Mantis. This wasn't a bad ride, especially as far as stand ups go. It did bang my head really good a couple of times, which was the first time all day that had happened, and the g-forces made my lower legs itch. I still think I prefer Chang by just a hair, but I do put Mantis above Georgia Scorcher. Credit #101. It was time for the evening laser show thingy, and eventhough I wouldn't have stopped had I been by myself, Kevin wanted to see it, so I obliged. The show was ok...it was random and funny...though much more random than funny! Kevin seemed quite irked by the fact that the last 10 minutes of the show were overbearingly patriotic with no warning (he's Canadian, remember?). And I agree...a small bit of patriotism would have been ok, but there was just too much of it, and it seemed very out of place, and bordering on out of good taste. I mean, I'd just had a fantastic day in the park...and then I'm reminded of the 9/11 tragedy in an almost tear-jerking montage??? Seemed very out of place for a theme park laser show. At the end of the show, it was just about time to head back to Woodstock the Hat Eating Coaster to retrieve my hat, so we headed off that way. On the way, we passed a sign saying "Butterfinger Milkshakes" so of course, we both had to get on...and it was really really yummy! We ate as we walked, then stopped to play some skee ball and other ticket yielding games. Once at Woodstock, we joked with the two ride ops about the hat surviving Gemini but not Woodstock. They also convinced us to take one last ride on it, so I jumped in the back and Kevin in the front and we took another lap (this turned out to be the only ride at Cedar Point I rode twice! Too funny!). Once the ride was closed, it took both the ride ops looking, but they finally found the hat! Yay! We thanked them for their help, then headed back to the hotel since everything was closed. Kev drove me to my car since he was parked considerably closer than I was, then he followed me back to Maples Motel. I'd originally thought it was just gonna be me staying there, so I booked a cabin, which are smaller than the standard hotel rooms. It only had one double bed, but if I was scared to share a bed with Kevin, I wouldn't have invited him to stay with me! So we both had to squish into the double bed. The shower was weird...seemed like a really strong fine mist...but it got us clean, so who cares. When I tried to dry my hair at 1:00am, I blew a fuse, which cut off all the power. We had another good laugh about that...but it was more the fact that that wasn't the first time I'd blown a fuse drying my hair! I also blew one out in the Wigwam Village in Cave City, Kentucky last year hehehe. The night was very comfortable, so we didn't need the fan in the room, so we didn't disturb the owners to reset the breaker. All seemed ok for a bit...until the trains started. Unbeknownst to us, there were train tracks probably 80-100 feet in front of our room, which yielded ungodly loud trains about every 20 minutes or so all night long. We both woke up for petty much every train since they were basically rattling the walls of the room they were so loud. Neither of us slept very well for being constantly awoken by the deafening train noises. So if you ran a motel, don't you think you should mention this to someone? "By the way, those train tracks there will have trains every 20 minutes while you're tying to sleep." It had to be the single worst night I have ever spent in a hotel. No power, cramped sleeping arrangements and trains!!! Ohhh...captivating, huh Kev? Julie makes "Hula Girl on a Stick" and wishes she could find "Stick on a Stick" Kevin sees if Seahorse on a Stick is as tasty as hotdog, pickle or cheese on a stick. "I LOVE Cedar Downs!!!" Julie and Kevin, having fun on Cedar Downs Here, Kevin models the lovely Blue Streak Kevin is really excited to be at Cedar Point! Cedar Point from across the lake Me with Big Boy...don't we look cute together?

Thanks for stopping to read my TR! It has been a labor of love over the last week! I write my trip reports for myself, so I tend to be very long winded so I can remember everything. If you'd like to read the entire thing, you are more than welcome. But if you just want to look at the pictures, I understand For me, this trip had been about 4 years in the making. Some friends and I had planned out almost this exact trip in 2001, but it fell through for various reasons. I'd also planned a coastering trip to Texas for this summer, which also fell through. So stuck with loads of vacation time and a few spare bucks, I decided to go for it and take the trip I'd been wanting to take, even if I was gonna be alone for most of it. My original plan began with just Cedar Point and Kennywood. Next I added in Geauga Lake because it was between those two, and Canada's Wonderland because my friend Kevin lives near Toronto. Figuring that I needed to break up the Pittsburgh to Toronto drive, I added in Darien Lake, Waldameer and Conneaut Lake. To finish out the trip and break up the Toronto to Nashville drive, I added Kings Island, the only park I'd been to before. Finally, my friend Kim's mom got free tickets to Idlewild, so I added that park in also! So what was going to be just a quick few days of coastering turned into an 8 day, 9 park trip! Another interesting thing I decided to try during this trip was to only eat at places that either I've never been before, or that they don't have in Nashville. To spoil the surprise, I completely succeeded! I ate really well, and it was all either new to me, or an old favorite I can't get at home. I'm sure some of you will be surprised at where all I'd never been! I was also hitting my #100 coaster on this trip, and I really wanted it to be Millennium Force. That's the only coaster that, back in the day, I looked at and said "No way! I'll *never* ride that thing!" Since Kevin was gonna be at Cedar Point with me, he agreed to hold off on Millennium Force so it could be my #100. I've put the entire TR and my favorite photos onto my website, which can be visited through the links in each section of the TR. Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy!

Just what your tired feet need after a long day of walking around Disneyland! -Julie

My favorite fast food place is Taco Bell. I went for four months without it once (involuntarily) and ever since then, it's like a special treat when I have Taco Bell. Don't know what it is...I know the food is pretty low quality but omg...I just love it more than anything. Other places I like: Scholtzskys Deli Chik-fil-a Sonic Checkers Places that are ok: Burger King KFC Captain Ds Subway McDonalds (on the low end of ok) Places I don't like: Hardees (found a pubic hair in a burger once) Jack in the Box Mrs. Winners

I agree that Legend was better than Raven. I still thought Raven was great, but Legend is taller, faster, bigger drops, more airtime, longer...just seemed overall to be the better coaster. I said that on RRC and it was like I had killed someone's firstborn! There was nothing in Raven to make it stand out as anything special to me. It's a great coaster, but not one of the top woodies in the world by any means in my opinion. I'm sure I can easily name 7 or 8 woodies I like better, including Legend! -Julie

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Kodak-EasyShare-LS753-Digital-Camera/sem/rpsm/oid/93405/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do I bought this camera about a month ago, and it just went with my on my coaster trip this past week...I rode about 60 coasters and this camera was in my pocket for every one of them. It was slammed into restraints, crushed by seat dividers, sat on numerous times and held most of my body weight plus G-forces a couple of times and it never flinched. It's small enough to fit into a pocket, didn't break my budget and took about 400 fantastic pictures! I would wholeheartedly recommend this camera to anyone! I can't find one negative thing to say about it. -Julie (and yes, a large photo TR is coming!)

My idea for the next avatar contest was to make them of your favorite TPR personality...like Robb or Elissa, the Jew, The Catholic, The Quaker, Dan...whoever! -Julie

My car is an '88 Corsica. I got it from my grandparents in 2000 and it only had 46,101 when I got it, and it was 12 years old! It was the car that was only driven to church and the grocery store! Remarkably, I've had very few problems out of it. People think I'm nuts, but I've always believed that if you love something, it will love you back. My car knows that I'm not always looking at other cars and saying I need to buy a new car...it knows I love it, so it loves me back by not breaking down very often and not costing me much money I'll drive my car to the day I die if I don't wreck it first -Julie

So this morning my car hit 100,000 miles, and being somewhat of a milestone for the car, I decided to post a "JCH100KM-R"...similar to a TR, only longer, and more confusing When I left work this morning, it had 18 miles to go, so I drove to Walmart to stock up on a few last minute trip necessities. I ran my car through a car wash so it would be nice and pretty, and from there, I drove back to Centennial Park, so I would be in a scenic setting when my car hit it's milestone. I ended up driving around the park 3 times, with a cop almost stopping me when I stopped dead in the middle of the road to take the 99,999.9 picture! Not so coincidentally, the car hit 100K right at the entrance to the Parthenon, one of the more photogenic places in Nashville. Onto the photos! Me and my car. It's actually a really good picture of me, except that I hate that shirt. My car in front of the Parthenon in the exact spot where it hit 100K. Yay! 100,000 miles! It's like the equivalent of a human turning 21 Straight nines And here we are about to go in the car wash. Here we are at Walmart, picking up a new atlas, new sneakers and bottled water for my cats (I know! My cats are getting bottled water during my trip!)

Haunted Mansion! Yeah! -Julie

Ok, everyone tell me what songs you would put on a CD for a coaster road trip! I'm leaving on Sunday for my 8 day, 9 park coaster tour and am gonna need some good tunes for the ride. -Julie

I'm not sure if it was closed or not. The website is still up, but that doesn't mean much. Last I drove by it I thought I saw that the buckets had been put back on the ferris wheel, but I could have been wrong. Yeah, it's an even moe ghetto park than Beech Bend, but it has a credit that I don't have! Trying to get as many credits as I can before my major coaster trip in less than 2 weeks! -Julie

Your boomerang picture looks pretty phallic from that angle! -Julie

Sucks about missing my credit, but it was looking kinda beaten up anyway. It looked as though they were clearing land behind the Looping Star, so they might be getting rid of it to make way for the woodie. It's kinda in this odd little corner of the park anyway, and it doesn't face the pathway like it should. What would help this park tremendously is to, first, tear up a lot of the asphalt and put down sod. A little more landscaping would make a big difference for this park. And second, to make a real restaurant where people can go in and sit in the air conditioning, instead of using carnival food stands and snack bars. Also enforcing a "must be in regular clothes when leaving the waterpark" rule like most other parks do would be geat for lowering the ghetto factor. Oh, and as for my next park, you can expect a Nashville Valley Amusement Park report later in the week -Julie

My worst coaster by far was Gwazi Tiger at Busch Gardens Tampa. It bashed me around so badly that when I got off, I had sharp pains shooting across my shoulders, up my neck and up to the top of my head. Once the pains stopped, my neck and head was numb for a good part of the day. Stupid me didn't go to first aid...they'd have probably wanted to send me to the hospital if I had. I was screaming in pain in the onride photo too...and the friend I was with thought I was joking! You couldn't pay me enough to ride that coaster again. -Julie

Great TR Rob! You are so mean to Erik, tricking him like that with the launch. Has he never ridden Hulk? That's one of those launches when you don't expect it rides...Dr. Doom too. Can't wait to see what photos you decide to share So did you write a TR for your Disney trip in December? I think TPR needs to see those pics too, towel issues and all! (By the way, if you couldn't tell, Rob and I have been friends for years hehe) -Julie

Beech Bend is only a little more than an hour north of my house, yet I hadn't been there since it was revitalized as an amusement park. My mom and I (once again) packed up the car on a Saturday afternoon and made the quick jaunt to Bowling Green, Kentucky so we could both see this park. We got the half day pass which was good for unlimited rides from 4:00pm to close (8:00pm today). When we arrived I saw a sign saying the Looping Star was closed, which meant a credit missed!! Being so close to home, I figured I'd be back at some point to pick that credit up later. The first thing I did was the Rockin' Tug, which I'd never ridden before. It was such a fun little ride, and I can definitely see why so many parks have bought them up. They are fun, but not dizzying or nauseating. After that, I had to try my hand at the ultra ghetto Hillbilly Shootin' Gallery, and managed to get three gags out of 12 shots. Crazy stuff. The ferris wheel was loading, so I jumped on, but it was the ricketiest, scariest ferris wheel ever! It seemed to be straining under my weight, and I was the only person on it! I went around maybe twice before I flagged down the op and asked to get off. I picked up my Dragon Coaster credit next, then we both rode the Starship 3000, where the ride op was eating a hamburger while loading people into the ride! Next for me was the Octopus, which had a really great horror paint job. What was even scarier was that it had a view of goats! Not petting zoo type display goats...but just goats that live on the land next to the park! Ghetto!! From there I rode the White Water express, which is like a log flume with two lifts and two drops. It was fun, and just my kind of log flume since I wasn't soaked when it was over! We decided that it was time to grab a bite for dinner and check out the park food. The line for dinner was the longest we waited in all day (there hadn't even been a five minute wait to this point) and we waited probably 15-20 minutes for it. For $6.00, I got a cheeseburger about the size of one from McDonalds (and made with the same burgers they served in one of the meal plan cafeterias at MTSU...horrid!!!), a bottle of water and half an order of fries. When I was done, I told mom that we'd have to stop for a snack on the way home since that wasn't nearly a "dinner sized" meal. We walked over to the other side of the park to check out the new Wild Mouse, and we found it surrounded with police line tape! How much more ghetto can you get, really? I must say, despite the ghetto surroundings, this is probably the best Wild Mouse I've ridden. I'm generally not a fan of that genre of coasters since they tend to be painful. But this one was smooth as glass, spun just enough in all the right places, and was heavily braked so I didn't end up with a bruised ribcage. It was really really fun! A great redeeming point for this park! And I must give kudos to Pat the Santa Clause looking ride op, because he saw a girl step over the police tape, and he woudln't let her ride until she walked back out and came in the right way down the path. We then stopped to play some skee ball and a "toss the ball in the goblet" game, and I won a medium sized Patrick Star. I gave my skeeball tickets to a girl who appeared to be there by herself with her dad since I didn't give two flips about the low end prizes. Minigolf, which is included in the price, was next, and by the time we were done with the course, mom and I were both swearing and cursing the course, proclaiming our hatrid for mini golf hahaha. Ok, the course really wasn't that bad, but minigolf is really frustrating when you suck at it!!! Minigolf has to be the most frustrating pastime in the world. After that mom wanted to do the chairswings, so we headed that way, where we found a ride op apparently taking a nap in one of the chairs! When I was done there, I went next door and did the happy fun slide of death a la Robb and Elissa hehe. Then I went one more time to ride the Wild Mouse while mom rode the Tilt-a-Whirl. I convinced mom to ride the Rockin' Tug with me, which she did, but she claimed it tipped her stomach, and she didn't like it. Whatever. Next up was the Power Surge. I'd never ridden one and figured it looked like fun. It was ok...a little too high up for my comfort, and too disorienting. As we were walking out, the Flying Bobs was loading, so we got one last ride on that then headed for home. On the way home, we stopped at a Sonic for mozzarella sticks and a strawberry slush...nummy. Overall the park isn't bad. The park has a great collection of flat rides, but oh...my...God...it is the most ghetto park I have ever seen in my life. Inattentive, preoccupied ride ops, rides plopped down on asphalt, and nasty, white trash, redneck looking people everywhere. At closing time, people had begun emptying the trash cans...but just left the bags to line the walkways! And the shirt and shoes required rule was absolutely not enforced outside the water park. I'm not positive what impact a full sized woodie would have on this park...it'd be great to have, but I suspect people would leave thinking like I did..."They have a great woodie and a great wild mouse, but everything else is *so* ghetto!" I'm sure I'll be back since it's close to home, and the lines were completely non-existant, even on a Saturday in June. And for $10.50 I feel like I got more than my money's worth. -Julie This attire is obviously deemed completely acceptable at Beech Bend (and no, I wasn't in the water park when I took this). Here is the ride op taking a nap in the chair swings. Here is the ride op eating the hamburger while loading the Starship 3000. I kick butt at skee ball I'm not sure what's more ghetto...the fact that the nice, shiny new Wild Mouse sign is laying in a field, or that it's laying in a field *in front of a trailer park*??? Probably my favorite coaster picture to date. I was pretty much speechless when I first saw it, and still am. Julie on the Happy Fun Slide of Death Here's the Rockin' Raceway Diner. Ironic name aside, they were so slow in this place that that is probably a 30 minute line in that picture. When I went to wash my hands, the dryer was so powerful, this is what it did to my hand! The horror octopus with goats in the background. Me getting my Dragon Coaster credit. OMG! A man on a toilet in an outhouse! And that was my prize for shooting the target?!?! hahaha The Hillbilly Shootin' Gallery. Looks disturbing enough on the surface, but lets take a closer look...