TR: Closing Night at ValleyScare

[the_rock401]

I apologize for no pics, but my camera battery died at the Gopher football game earlier in the day, and I wasn't around an electric outlet long enough to charge the battery pack the rest of the day.

 

I parked at the Lowe's by 169 and Canterbury Road, and rode into the park with Cameron, whose season pass saved me $10 on parking.

 

VF had a promotion going where if you buy a 2009 season pass, you would get into Haunt for free. Seeing that I'm getting a 09 CF pass, I planned to take advantage of this. I was going to do this last Saturday, but my meeting in Shakopee ran long and by the time I got to the park, the main lot was jammed full. I didn't even bother to turn off Hwy. 101.

 

Last night, the crowd was much more manageable (cars just past the center aisleway), but the jamup was at the ticket booths. 2009 season passes were being sold at the group sales windows off to the right of the main complex. The line wasn't that long, but it was SLOW. Only one person was selling the passes, and there were a couple of people milling around in the ticket booth. Meanwhile the line kept getting longer until it was out to the parking lot.

 

I finally got up to the window and got my season pass certificate bought. In order to get into the park, I needed to take it to Guest Services and have them wave me through. The door to the GS office was locked, and issues were being dealt with at the window. If you needed something, the person at the window opened the door and brought you into the office. The line was to the end of the ramp, and several times we had people bulling their way to the door only to find it locked, then shuffle back to the end of the line at the bottom of the ramp. This is a very inefficient operation, and while I'm sure there was a reason why the door to GS was locked and people admitted on a need basis, this whole way of selling season passes is very user-unfriendly.

 

Enough with my rant. Park wasn't nearly as crowded as when I was last there (Saturday, October 18). Renegade was running great, the trim coming out of the turnaround on High Roller was grabbing really hard, and Wild Thing was, well, Wild Thing. Most of the lines were 3 to 4 train waits, with High Roller being the only exception during the early going (line to the bottom of the ramp).

 

I'd been through all the mazes in my previous visit, and all of them except for CarnEvil were great. Hellside Farms was my favorite of the bunch, and with the crowds being down significantly, I actually got spooked a few times.

 

This continued until around 10:30, when two of Cameron's friends from the MoA got out to VF to truthfully claim that they had visited Valleyfair in November. They'd all been through the mazes, so there was no time wasted on mazes. We went straight back to Renegade, only to find the line was out of the tunnel. Since we knew that there was only one train on, we headed back up to the front to get final runs on High Roller and Wild Thing.

 

I saw and said hello to timberskara on the way back to the front, then we got final runs on High Roller and Wild Thing. It was about 11:45 by the time we got out of Wild Thing, so we headed back to Renegade. By this time, there were two trains on, and the station had cleared out. While I was in line for the front row, the announcement went out in the station that this will be the last train of the night, and you better spread yourselves out on the train. So we all ended up on the final Renegade train of the 2008 operating season. As soon as we were out of the station, Cam and friends were all on their phones, bugging someone that they had just been on the last ride of the season.

 

Cam brings me back to my car, where disaster is narrowly averted. I had left my dome lights on in the car when he dropped me off to go into the park, and when we got back my battery was so dead the interior lights were off. Fortunately, he jumped the car and it ran without further incident home. It was almost 1:30 AM when I got home and went to bed. This may not sound late, but considering I was on the freeway at 6 AM to go to the Gopher football game, I was ready to hit the sack. I'm still tired today.

 

This brings to a close a very unusual 2008 campaign, a visit or two the the MoA notwithstanding. Between getting laid off, West Coast Bash, bouncing between Seattle and the Twin Cities, almost getting tossed out of the Coaster car in Vancouver, moving back to Minnesota, and going to several college football games, I'm not really sure what to expect for 2009. Thank you, and good night everyone!

 

Paul "Thank you for coming, have a safe trip home, and we'll see you back in Shakopee on May 9, 2009!" Miller

[Vffreak07]

Cool TR! Glad to see you had fun! Why didn't you like CarnEvil? (I think it's fun, just not scary. It's almost like a funhouse)