Anti Fair Forever - VA Fair 10/1

Well, today my club, FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) went to the Virginia State Fair in Richmond. I realize it isn't an amusement park, but I feel like showing my feelings on a terrible time.

I decided to go because some of my friends said they were going to go. It turns out, neither of them could go. One's parents said he couldn't go, and another paid too late, because he was sick on the deadline. So, I had no one to hang out with.

At 8:30 am, we met in the front of the school, and waited 30-45 minutes for our bus to arrive. I just stood there waiting for it to come.

Finally, once the bus arrived, we boarded, but it was overcrowded. I had to sit in the middle of 3 people, in a 2 person seat.

The ride from Spotsylvania to Richmond was an hour drive. It seemed like forever because we were on a school bus, and we all know how slow they move. The girl next to me wouldn't talk, but I tried to get her to, but she just wouldn't start in an conversation. I made a few jokes, and asked if she goes to PKD when we passed it, but she didn't say much. The dude next to me just hunched over and didn't say a thing. Try sitting in the same position for an hour. Towards the end of the ride, all the black kids in the back started to sing, and I started to get a headache.

We finally arrived, and we waited outside for awhile. This other group, FFA, (Future Farmers of America) all looked like hicks. They had the farmer look going on, and everyone laughed to themselves.

Once we finally got inside, we were forced to goto a Technology exibit. It lasted for 5 minutes, and then the teachers let us do whatever until 1 pm. It was 11 when we all left.

I went off with the kid sitting next to me, and he wanted to go inside some haunted house walk through thing. I was skepitcal, but I still went inside. The only scary parts were thinking you were going to run into the person infront of you, since you couldn't see, and some drop off that landed you some padding. Lame.

The other kid decided to go through it, so I left him, and was by myself. I didn't really mind being by myself, since I'm used to it at amusement parks.

I wanted to do some Looping, Vertical Whip, as I like to call it. I'm sure you all know what I mean. The little carriages go around, and so does the giant thingy. It made old noises, but I was looking forward to riding. Well, as it was near my turn, I saw the sign that read, no Single Riders. I was upset, and left the line. So, I headed to Inverter.

I love Inverter, and rode one around 8 times at Cleminton Park in New Jersey. It was my turn, and I got in a seat, and some kids sat next to me. We moved forward once, and back once, then the ride broke down, so we had to leave. Well, this seemed to be turning into a great day! =/

I noticed the Fireball running, soI thought I'd head over there. Its the ride with a train, with seats facing each other, and went around one big loop. I got into one seat, but the hick operator asked me to move to fit 2 more. I ended sitting next to some fat kid, and I couldn't get my strap to connect to the buckle on the OTSR. JUST as the ride started to move, my buckle went in. I scared to death. The stupid operator didn't walk around to check if we were okay. The OTSR doesn't lock either, so its only connected to the buckle. After thinking that I was going to fall out, I enjoyed it, kinda. Everytime you were facing the ground, the restraint moved forward. I didn't feel safe. I enjoyed the ride, but feared for my life as it began, so I didn't really enjoy it too great.

Fireball: 4/10 Stupid Operator Not Checking Restraints

I was thristy, so I grabbed a Mountain Dew, and just walked around. After being rejected from one ride, broke down on another, and almost falling out of another, I couldn't wait to leave. Well, I had about 40 minutes left, so I walked over to one of those Gravitron things.

I've never done a Gravitron (The Space Ship Things), so it was really odd for me. I've done Riddle Me This at SFA, but that was different. As we started to stick to the walls, so fat kid turned himself upside down. Inside, I was hoping he would fall, but that wasn't nice of me. I also noticed that the blue things we were laying against moved up and down. I didn't know that was going to happen, and it kinda freaked me out. All of the sudden, you slam back onto the floor, so it shakes you up. I think this ride lasted too long, as did all of the ones. My head, throut, and stomach started to hurt near the end of the ride. I was standing next to 2 larger people, so I couldn't put my hands to my side, so they were glued to my stomach, which also hurt. Overall, it was enjoyable, but then it just started to last too long.

Gravitron: 6/10 Way Too Long of a Ride

Finally, I headed to Wipeout. Its one of the top things, that spins pretty quick. The only problem with this one was that you just went up and down in the same area, but some go up and down at different times. It was an okay ride. My neck started to hurt because it was forced to my right. I didn't like that one bit, and was looking forward to the end of this ride to. Good part was, the operator came around and checked out lapbars...GO OPERATOR!

Wipeout: 5/10

Lets review up to now:

45 Minute Bus Wait
Cramped hour ride
Refused a Ride due to Single Rider
Broke Down Inverter
Feared for Life on Fireball
Soda (One of my better moments)
Fun and Pain on a Gravitron
Neck Pain on Wipeout

Well, sounds like a barrel of monkeys, doesn't it. My day isn't over yet, but it was time to leave the fairgrounds.

I got lost trying to leave. We were to meet at 1 pm at the buses, and leaving at 1:15 pm. All that went through my head is that, if I don't find my buses, I'm stuck here. I finally found the way out because I noticed some kid from my school.

Well, I sat next to the kid that sat next to me on the bus. Luckily we sat only 2 people. I decided to take a nice nap on the bus, or at least tried.

We drove past Massaponax High, and I noticed kids were getting on their buses, I was like, crap! I needed to get back to school to catch my bus. By the time we made it back to school, the buses were leaving. I had no ride. Luckily this girl named Faith gave me a ride home. She won a goldfish at the fair, so we talked about that.

Well, what a terrible day. I have pledged NEVER TO GOTO A FAIR EVER AGAIN! After the Fireball incident, never ever again.

So, Recap:

45 Minute Bus Wait
Cramped hour ride
Refused a Ride due to Single Rider
Broke Down Inverter
Feared for Life on Fireball
Soda
Fun and Pain on a Gravitron
Neck Pain on Wipeout
Almost Lost finding Bus
Missed Ride Home from Bus

Well, I couldn't wait to go home. I couldn't find the bathrooms at the fair, so I had to go! I took a nice nap at home, and that was probably the best part of the day! =/

I hope you enjoyed my pain. I had to write this out because it was a terrible experience that I never want to go through again. I think I'll stick to Amusement Parks, were its safe.

~RCTfan
Scared for life from Fireball and Operators not Checking Rides.

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Drop Oup at PKD in 2003!
OoOoOo...Rolley Coaster!

*** This post was edited by RCTfan on 10/1/2002. ***

Ah, the Gravitron. Reminds me of my first Gravitron experience, much the same as yours. The ride lasted way too long.
The op was for looking like a member of ZZTop kicked out of the band for being too rough looking, & he was Metallica hungry.
As he began to look like an evil wizard type heralding control of the ride, the song Blackened started up. As the song was ending, we were all begging for mercy, but the ride didn't end for many more seconds. The people throwing up after thier rides should have been warning enough, but everybody figured they were just drunk, boy were we wrong.

"Puke on the side, not on the ride!", we used to say...

:-)

I figured people puked from the smell of those things!

Gack..

Actually, people told me that many people puked after the ride because it lasted so long.

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The Gravitron is just a preshow for the Vomitron.

Funny, I've never had a problem on a Gravitron. I did have a rotor ride (@ SFGAdv during CC7) that lasted quite a bit longer than expected. But at carnivals, Jeremy, one should expect extra long cycles. I remember once back in '93 I was riding a Kamikazee (pretty much a double armed looping starship) where we completed thirty (!) full revolutions before I just stopped counting. I know the Onyx song "Slam" started playing during the ride, and was over *long* before it was time to get off. I figure the cycle time was in the 5-6 minute range (longer than most coasters!)

But isnt half the fun of carnivals watching people vomit (hurl, puke, ralph, earl, spew, regurgitate, heave, pray to the porcelin god, etc...)
lata,
jeremy

Hey watch what you are saying about the FFA, we look like a bunch of hicks because we are a bunch of hicks, get it right. ;)

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All I need is 4.5 million bucks and a half a mile long sliver of land and maybe someone could build me my very own Shivering Timbers. ;)

I must say that growing up in a very rural area that I've never really seen the FFA stereotype, I'm blind to it. I even have a little, just a little, hick in me. The only thing that's really noticable to me is a full blown case of redneck.

25-30 trips around on the Kamikazee was worst case scenario for me. A two song trip on the Ring of Fire was much worse. The thing that broke me from the carny was my first ever ride on a ferris wheel about three years ago. It scared me so badly, & speaking of redneck, that carny sent the thing around forever. Although several minutes in the Gravitron near did me in. Only ride ever to make me sick. Yeah, the Technicolor Carnival is always good for laughs.