Coasting for Kids 2011

^^^I love the pictures they share on *that* site (I did insert the assterisk). I sure would like to travel all around and visit far away places with a coaster group. But I don't travel well; can't be around all that booze, and making fun of mentally handicapped and obese people stopped being fun around 10th grade.

Other than that, it was very nice they donated :) See, everyone isn't all nasty or all good, some of us are nice mix of both, depending on who you assk.

Raven-Phile said:
Psst, Bryan - Josh doesn't have a season pass :)

You know the tickets are only valid for Cedar Point, not Great Adventure, right? ;)

See you Sunday bright 'n' early... with sunblock *and* a raincoat!

I can't believe I forgot to pack a jacket for rain...oh well, bring it on! :)

Today was a lot of fun! Thanks to Jeff, GKTW, and the park for putting on a great event. Thanks to everyone else for raising so much money and making it a success! My overall lap count was somewhere between 90-105 combined (lost count very quickly once we started Gemini).

Agreed -- thank you to all who made this event happen! I'm stoked that we brought in over $62,000. Amazing!

I spent the day with Raven-Phile and totaled 9 laps on Magnum and 43 on Gemini. Because of the different schedule, I knew I wouldn't top my record from last year anyway, so I didn't bother with tally marks on the shirt and was fine with taking it easy. We broke up the day with some photography, moseying around, and many turns on WindSeeker (i.e. Josh's new favorite ride). I will also note that my usual seat on Magnum (middle of last car) was much more friendly to me than it has been so far this year, which was a pleasant surprise. The one trimless lap was *not* so pleasant a surprise, however. Ouch.

It wasn't quite as hot as predicted, but still pretty sticky with a heat index in the upper 90s. I'm just glad the rain held off -- although I got wet anyway by having my first ride on Shoot the Rapids, which was neat.

Also, I wish the park actually sold the lunch we were given! I would gladly pay CP prices for a fresh cold cut sandwich, chips, cookies, and a fruit cup. While carnival food is fun sometimes, if I'm in a park all day (especially if spanning two mealtimes), it's nice to have some "real" food that keeps you going. With the fast food stuff, I have to pick something that "sounds good," but I can eat a basic fresh sandwich any old time.

So, I'm all refreshed and back from Germany! Europa Park is phenomenal. There were many American enthusiasts in Germany and Scandinavia this summer. It wouldn't surprise me if the percentages see a decent swing in the Golden Ticket ballots this year.

It's the day after Coasting for kids and even though I was unable to participate this year, I still have bruises from riding coasters. Go figure. :-)

The chain wide participation was a lot better this year. With that said, there is still room to grow. A few parks only had a hand full of participants. Although I don't have last years numbers, I'm still confident the number of participants at each park improved. Except maybe Dorney and Cedar Point. I decided to go through the numbers one more time so that we'll have something to look back on next year for comparison.

California's Great America - 8 @ $1,863
Canada's Wonderland - 19 @ $3,816
Carowinds - 4 @ $858
Cedar Point - 47 @ $17,757
Dorney Park - 35 @ $10,934
Kings Dominion - 16 @ $3,089
Kings Island - 35 @ $5,985
Knotts Berry Farm - 16 @ $2,585
Michigan's Adventure - 5 @ $825
Valleyfair! - 11 @ $656
Worlds of Fun - 21 @ $4,497

That totals to 217 people @ $52,865 Even if all the people were active participants and paid the $40 registration it would only add $8,680 for a total of $61,545. We know there were at least some accounts that were only created for fund raising and not participation. So, if we are in deed over $62,000, was the rest in on-site General Public donations and/or are offline manually entered donations counted in the totals shown on the website?

With all that being said, I'm very proud to be a part of this community. With increased awareness of the event year after year, I don't see why we couldn't hit $80K-$100K next year.

Yay! I had a blast with Bryan yesterday. I have to say, as much as I thought I'd be afraid of and/or not like Windseekaaaah, I wound up loving it. It doesn't feel so much like a ride to me, as it does an open-air observation tower with one hell of a view, and a cooling sensation.

Yesterday, the cooling breeze came in very handy.

I wish we'd have been able to make it to closing, but I'm old as hell now, and my feet were hurting.

I have to say, Bryan (Edwards) riding Magnum was a particularly fun lap, as he was right behind me. Those kids in the front row were some serious power-riders as well, and funny to boot. I was regretting the decision to claim the "ejector seat" after the first three laps, though. That third to last hill is a killer on your legs.

You can grab under the lap bar to help pull yourself down. But, after 2 hours, your arm's would likely be hurting as well. it sort of defeats the purpose of sitting there as well. Front of a car in the middle of the train or close to the back seems to have less effect on the legs. I still try and get at least one ejector ride though.

Yeah, tried that trick and my wrists were not happy, so I just took the beating until the last 3 rides, when I moved to a middle seat in the next to last car. I stayed in a middle seat for Gemini, didn't bother sitting over wheels for that.

I was wondering who took my ejector seat! :^) Since they were asking us to fill in train, we jumped back a car. We did 24 laps on Magnum. Even my Autistic stepson rode every lap on it.

Great event! Ride-ops on Gemini were awesome! Many thanks go to them: Ryan, Nate, Bill, and Kristen.

I will say this: Gemini kicked my butt. It is a harder ride to marathon than Magnum. I have done 80+ rides on Maggie in one day before with no issues. But, after about 40 laps on Gemini, I realized it wasn't as smooth as I remembered! I ended up with 92 laps on it.

It was a blast! It was great to see so much raised! looking forward to doing it again. Will be interesting to see what Bryan will ride next year! ;^)

Millennium would be great. TTD if they want to try and stay closer to Gemini. :-)

I'm all for that second idea!! ;)

I wish I could have joined but the universe likes to flaunt it's abilities to not make things happen according to someones schedule. I also feel bad now because I zoned out over the past scorching week and completely forgot to donate to some of you. :(
I'll try to be more involved and, more importantly, attentive next year.

You can still donate until sometime in October, it just won't count towards someone winning a prize. ;)

Oh yea, I'm fully aware of that. I just sorta feel bad after making a promise I didnt keep.

Jason Hammond said:
Millennium would be great. TTD if they want to try and stay closer to Gemini. :-)

The one and only time a power-rode TTD (I think it was a Boobuzz event) I became unusually dizzy after the sixth of seventh consecutive ride. There was hardly anyone there for ERT so we didn't have to wait more than a few minutes for another ride. I blame that on age, though. Still, if TTD was included in the future I would definitely participate (or at least try.)

Anyway, congrats to all of you who participated!

-Tina

I said to Bryan last night, as we were leaving the park 2 hours before close - "I now know what my parents went through when they took us to the park growing up. I never wanted to leave, but now that I'm old, I realize what happens at the end of the day."

I believe we did hit $62k before the end of the day, but I'll have to check. I've got more to deposit as well. Midway donations at CP ended up being around $120 (give or take a few bucks... I forget). With one side of Gemini going down part of the day, it definitely hurt our word of mouth efforts a little.

Overall though, I'm absolutely thrilled with the results. I'm super impressed the way so many of you stepped up! I know some of you ruthlessly promoted your giving pages and that certainly helped. The spike in donations the last few days was nothing short of amazing!

Remember, the prizes have been handed out, but we don't have to stop!

As I've mentioned here before, I have a Facebook account, but rarely use it and know very little about how to use the site.

At CFK Dorney, there were lots of photos and video taken, by Chuck, Amanda, and Kara, among others. I've gone on Facebook several times this week searching for photos and video from the event, but have found nothing. Am I missing something? Can anyone provide a link if you've run across anything? Thanks for any help.

I have a bunch of photos. Most of them are of my kid, which is why I haven't broadly shared them.