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My mom, my best friend Nick, and I got on our plane in Manchester NH and landed in Detriot to then board a puddle jumper to Akron. All of us were dreading the flight on the turbo prop, but we never thought it would be as awful as it turned out to be. Right as we entered the plane we noticed that the plane was very hot and humid. Apparently the AC was broken, "just great" we all thought to ourselves. It felt as though we were sitting in a sauna trying to sweat off 10 lbs during the whole flight. The seats were made out of concrete and this annoying lady behind us kept on asking if we were going to land on time. She was like a 6 year old on her way to Disneyland asking her parents, "Are we there yet?" To top it all off there was condesation on the ceiling that was menacingly dripping on everyone. It was the flight from hell!
After my worst experience on a plane I've had to this date, we got the rental car and headed toward our hotel in Bellevue. On our way to the hotel we must have spotted about 4 deer, 12 gophers, and a countless amount of squirrels that had been slaughtered by oncoming traffic. As a group we deemed Ohio's new nickname to be the "Roadkill State". We also noticed that along the highway there are pockets of stench that do not allow the normal human being to breathe through their nose. We couldn't figure out why the highway reeked so badly. The DOT should really look into buying some Febreeze so people can actually breathe through their nostrils.
We finally pulled into the hotel parking lot, but to our surprise it didn't look anthing like the pictures we saw on the internet. It was sketchty to say the least. My decided that before we check-in we should head toward CP and find a better hotel. Unfortanately we were unsuccessful in our venture for a better hotel. We were on the CP causeway at about 3:00 and right before my eyes was the single greatest sight in the world. The mass of tangled track soaring above the trees and water is truly an inspiring sight. Some how my mom took a wrong turn after the tolls and we ended up on the other side of the park nest to Soak City.
Nick and I headed toward the entrance near Magnum while my mom went back to the hotel to rest. We asked the employee at the ticket booth for season passes, but she said we had to go to the main gat to buy season passes. So we asked her how to get to the main entrance and she said you had to use a car. Nick and I had no way of getting to the front of the park because my mom had already left and didn't have her cell! I wandered how we would ever get itno the park. I decided that we should see if we could walk down the beach to the front entrance. Too bad there was a security guard and fence in our way. We then thought we'd give the entrance at WT a shot. Luckily a friendly employee told us to buy a funday ticket and they would refund it at the season pass office.
Thank god, we were finally getting into CP after 2 hours of fearing we would be stuck outside of its gate sunitl 11:00pm. Nick and I rushed to the season pass office got the passes and entered Raptors queue. After a 15 mintue wait we boarded the train in the last row and pulled down our restraints. We were finally getting on our first coaster of the trip. But as soon as our restraints locked the dispatcher yelled something and the restraints unlocked and the ride-ops hastily unbubkled everyone and sequestered us back behind the gates. I had taken off my sandals and didn't have enough time to put them back on so they were left on the other side of the station. I was now barefoot while the ride-ops pulled out a cart and evacuated the rest of the trains that were on the brake run. They had to close down the ride because of a forthcoming storm. Luckily some nice people in front of us got a ride-op's attention and he retrieved my sandals for me. Nick and I decided to wait out the storm in Raptor's station. 5 minutes after they evacuated the trains it began to rain, actually it was more like a monsoon! The wind was blowing the rain into the station and getting everyone wet. After about an hour it finally stopped, but they still weren't operating the ride sdue to the lightning.
So Nick and I left Raptor and decided to head to MF and wait for it to reopen. When we got to MF there were only 20 people in front of us and after about 15 minutes the coaster started to test. But with our luck lightning started to flash across the sky and continued to every 10 minutes for the next hour and a half. This prevented any of the coasters from opening. Finally after about 2 hours of waitng they opened MF and we boarded the red train in the back row. The drop is spectacular, but I felt like the rest of the ride was just a binck of lackluster overbanked turns and a couple hills that provided no airtime. After that first ride MF didn't even take a spot in my top 10. Nick on the other hand loved the ride and declared it better than S:RoS at SFNE. He said this after he had just grabbed a hold of my hand on the forst drop and wouldn't let go. He wanted to go again and I thought that I should give this coaster another shot. Our second ride was on the blue train in the last row, but my rating of MF only improved marginally.
By this time we were starving so Nick and I went to Coasters to grab somehting to eat. The meal was all well and dandy until I got up to to through away our garbage. I happened to forget that there was a step-down from the booth so when I tried to get out with the tray in my hands I tripped and spilled ketchup all over me and the floor. It was a true blond moment on my part. Everyone who was in the restaurant was laughing at me. It was very embarassing, but I has to laugh at myself.
After dindin we headed toward Maggie and sat in the last row. I was impressed, but not blown away by my first ride. So we opted to try the "ejector seat". Boy was this a totally different ride in that seat! The airtime was so huge it was painful(which is a good thing) and the pretzel turn was intense. I especially loved the final tunnel, which made me feel as thoough the coaster was launching me into the endlessness of an abyss. Maggie soared straight into my #2 spot just behind S:RoS.
We saw TTD launch and make it over the tophat and imediately ran to its entrance. We waited about 20 minutes, but decided to head back to Raptor becuase a train hadn't launched after the first successful one. Raptor was only a station wait so we took the front row. This invert is magnificently intense especially with the MCBR off. Unfortunately the straight-away before the Cobra Roll had a swarm of flies hovering around it. Through this part of track my face was used as a human fly-swatter that was quite efficient becuase I eneded up killing about 10 flies on my face. Nick was appalled when I told him that it wasn't sand that someone threw at us during the ride, but that it was our face being thrust into bugs at 50mph!
We finished our eventful day with two ride on Maggie, there's no better way to forget all the bad things that have happened to you then ridding that beast at night.
The saga will continue...some time later
*** This post was edited by lilspike333 8/2/2003 6:22:47 PM ***
As far as the road kill you must of hit a bad day the locals out that way usually have it on their plate within 20 mins of its kill. I hit a deer out that way about 5 years ago on my way to Windsor to lose all my money at the blackjack tables and no joke this local asked me if he could have it.
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Ride the Conneaut Lake Blue Streak!
Try MF in the front seat next time. You don't get the ejector air that you do on Magnum, but you do get a long, floating air. MF is more about speed than air time. Speed, Speed and more Speed. The front is worth the extra wait.
If you think the roadkill was bad in Ohio, take a trip here to western Pa. It's really bad. The state has private firms that they hire to go around and remove the deer carcasses.
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Keep your Arms Down, Head back, and Hold On!
Now that I think about it I wish we had waited for the front of MF. We never did because the line was either huge or we felt we didn't have enough time.
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