4 enthusiasts, a woman and a QBot - SFOG 8/31

I’ve been to SFOG several times in the past few years, but now I’m an official Atlanta-area resident and can call it home. I had such a good time at my new home park today that I had to write up a brief trip report to share the joy!

It was the first chance I’d met up with a fellow Atlanta CBuzzer, Joe (aka Legendary), and one of the few normal Floridians, a CBuzzer named Brett (aka CsTrFrK). Also joining us were Brett’s sister Tara, and long time Atlanta local, Bill. It was nice to be at the park with a laid back crew, since the crowds were a little on the heavy side and it was HOT!

Our first rides took us on the Cyclone, which is crazy in the back of the red train, and Acrophobia, which is still the best drop ride I’ve ever been on (thank you Intamin). We meandered around to the back of the park and got in a 5-10 minute line for Superman. After a brief slow-down due to a clean-up on the train, we were off and flying. I’m still floored by the feeling in the pretzel loop. I was disappointed to hear from those in our group that the other versions in NJ and IL aren’t as intense as the original.

After Superman, we took a spin on GASM in the back car, and then on Ninja in the back as well. GASM was running nice (with just over 31,800 spots of air according to Joe), and Ninja was the same as usual – rough and horrible, yet funny to watch everyone in the train get beat up and complain about it afterwards. We noticed that Deja Vu was actually running, but we had to add a group member to our QBot before making a reservation.

After squaring the QBot away, we queued up Scorcher, and walked over to reserve Deja Vu. We headed back to Scorcher and got our ride in the back. This ride was booking today! Since we had an hour and a half to kill before our time on DV, we got some food (I hope Joe has recovered from his chili cheese fries), picked up one of the “best gifts ever”, and headed to Mindbender for a quick ride towards the front of the train.

Well, the time had finally come. I was actually going to ride Deja Vu, which has been the impossible mission for me for almost 2 seasons (5 visits total with NO rides)! We get to the station, and we got assigned to the back of the train. I had ridden in the 2nd row in the SFMM version, so I was eager to ride in the back to see if it was different. After the endless waiting for restraint checking and such, we were off up the tower staring straight down. I don’t know if it was the company I was with (YAY! We’re riding Deja Vu. YAY, YAY!) or the ride itself, but it was so much fun! I would never wait in the full line for this ride, but LoQ makes this ride a great thing. We only had an hour left in the park, so after a spin on Batman, and one last trip on Mindbender it was time to leave the park.

The only downside to the day was the ridiculously long line we had to endure to get a soda. As we were approaching the stand and saw 4 people waiting, I jokingly said “That line is about an hour long”. I was actually pretty close!

Thanks to Joe for making all the arrangements to meet up, and to Bill, Brett & Tara for just showing up!

-Matt
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Help!! I'm addicted to Friendster.com and it's taking away from my pathetic online roller coaster message board time!!!

Hahah wow you almost remembered exactly how many spots of air I said GASM had, very impressive!

It was great getting to meet you and hangout with some different people than I'm usually with. Felt like I had known you and Bill and Tara forever. And no, I'm *still* not over those chili cheese fries! I can't believe how much they put on!

I definitely think it was the company you were with for why you liked Deja Vu as much as you did. ;) But seriously, it WAS a great ride, and like I said, I am digging that ride much more than I used to. I think it's my favorite Vekoma ever actually.

And it was pretty typical operations for SFoG yesterday, which means pathetically slow food lines and longer-than-should-be dispatch times on the coasters. Seriously, why does it take the ops on Acrophobia abuot three full minutes to open the gates to load the ride after the people have cleared the queue? Unacceptable, really.

But anyway I'll stop before I go too far and say I had a kick ass time with y'all yesterday! Thanks for hookin' up, and we'll see ya next weekend at VLand (well, not you Matt, you have to find your "job" haha.)

Joe "when have I said no to MORE chili and MORE cheese before?" C.

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You suck big time.

Man...I wouldn't have clicked on a thread with THAT name if I had known it was going to be PG-rated....;)

Of course, I love SFoG despite all that Joe says about it...sure, they're slow, but at least they're friendly...;) AND, they have the best wooden duo in the chain, with the one possible exception....SFA.

Disappointed to miss the VLand/LW trip, but at least I get to book PPP this weekend...:)
*** This post was edited by rollergator 9/1/2003 7:00:55 PM ***

Joe - Please stop peer pressuring me with your roller coaster trips! You're worse than those "bad" kids in high school. I think you tried to coerce me into going to PPP, CP, IOA, and VL over the course of the day.

As much as I'd love to be on a constant roller coaster road trip, my life doesn't have room for that right now. I wish I could go, because I'm still going through Dragster withdrawl. See ya at Lake Winnie - that event is close and free!

-Matt
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Help!! I'm addicted to Friendster.com and it's taking away from my pathetic online roller coaster message board time!!!

I was shocked as well to find DV running when I went this spring. I was great, but felt similar enough to the rest of their boomerangs(it's my fav Vekoma as well). Glad you had a good time.

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"You're afraid of heights, but you love roller coasters...yep, you're weird alright."
A friend's response to my constant yelling at the top of Power Tower. And I'll ride it again and again...:)