IB (5/20/04) – In Love Again!

Well, we decided on Wednesday night that we would drive up to IB on Thursday and spend the day. We had be iching to hit up a park, besides our home park and IB was close and cheap. Can’t beat 9 dollar POP wrist bands (Special buy on get one). Parking is free of course so the trip was very cheap and worthwhile. On the way there, we were speeding which should be of no surprise to folks who know us, in fact, we routinely drive in excess of 30 mph above the posted limit. We had the radar detector with us and it never went off, but we were still surprised and worried when we noticed red and blue flashing lights in the rear view mirror. The cop was a ways behind and my initial thought was that he shot laser at us from an on-ramp. I was worried that yet again, we were going to receive a ticket on the way to a park, like we had a few years back. We abruptly changed over into the slow lane and slowed down considerably, now we had a trucker right on our ass. We were relieved that the cop went right past us, not even slowing down at all, we were in the clear to speed again. Not too far down the road I noticed another sheriff coming across the overpass with lights on and he proceeded to get on the highway. I was immediately concerned that we would get stuck in traffic and be held up for some wreck on the highway, luckily we didn’t have to deal with that.

A little background: I had been to IB a few times before this visit. Twice before I think. The first time I absolutely fell in love with the park, we went for a night ride session and man was it amazing. That night, it was middle/late summer, it had been hot all day, and cornball was screaming along. Not to mention my love for night time atmosphere at parks and IB has one of the best. The second go round was right in the middle of a LONG coaster trip, a lot of parks were hit on that trip. This was the beginning of summer during the day and for some reason, cornball was just not how I had remembered it…. I was sort of disappointed.

The Love Returns: We arrived at IB and noticed that the only vehicles in the free lot were a few school buses, not a single car otherwise. We walked down onto the bridge and made it bounce a few times like we usually do and then promptly paid our 2 dollar admission fee. We walked down the ramp to buy our wrist bands and inquired about the flyers. To our dismay, they were not operating yet. We headed over to cornball to get a quick go round. While waiting in the station, we could see the flyers, the tubs were sitting on the platform, not suspended yet. As the day went on, they had gotten all of the tubs suspended and they looked great. The train left the station and I wasn’t sure what to expect, but was hoping for the best. Oh boy, was cornball back to what I remember. Wow, it had some amazing airtime and it’s certainly a front seat coaster. We rode it a few times throughout the day and it was amazing each and every time.

Other things: HH was running nicely as well, no airtime, but that is expected. We only rode LoCoSuMo once and I simply do not remember it being as rough as it was that day. Maybe I just don’t remember correctly, but man did it beat us up. We rode chaos once, Den of Lost Thieves several times (what a GREAT dark ride), and double shot. We also spent considerable time on the music express. I’m not going into why though ;). We decided to hit up the swings also, and as I walked up to the platform and stopped behind the operator, I had a question for him. I asked if anyone and ever fallen into the lake, and he politely informed me that no one had ever fallen into the lake. I conveyed to him my disappointment but informed him I would ride anyway. When he asked me how it was afterwards, I replied “Good, but disappointing,” he just chuckled and apologized. We also hit up Tig’rr, man did Schwarzkopf know what he was doing when he built that SOB.

It’s over: Well, we spent the better part of the day there and decided we were finished and we headed out. Good times, great rides. We went looking for Purdue and had the hardest time finding it. School was out up there but it was kind of cool to see the campus, stopped at a local establishment to eat and headed out. I can’t wait to go back this summer, for a night session and hit up the flyers, and ride cornball at night, I will definitely be making another trip up. We made very good time on our way home, as we had bravely resumed our disorderly speed without any interruption from the law.

*** Edited 5/25/2004 7:23:11 PM UTC by eric.walton***

Nice TR, sounds like you had a great time. I'm looking to head up there soon as well. Where did you come across the $9 POP deal?

Thanks,

It was just some special they were running, the lady told me about it when I called up there. Not sure how long they will be doing that for......

Cool Eric! Thanks for spreading the love.....;-)

I am going back out there in August and I can't wait!

-Tina

It sure was a great time. Me speed, no way, you must be lying man.

You're full of ummmmm............uh ummmm......... nasty lake shafer carp!

Hey IB lovers...you can request to be mailed a 2004 brochure through IB's website. Got mine ages ago, but just opened it up today to find that it opens to a poster about 2' x 3'. Cool! :)

I got one as well! Pretty awesome!

-Tina

Glad you didn't get flagged for speeding!

I'm thinking that the reason Cornball wasn't great for us (well maybe me) was because it was the day after SRM and I dunno, maybe something about the death kinda put me in a sour mood for coasters. Not to mention we had just ridden Raven and Legend full throttle, I don't know if Cornball got a fair shake.

I know why you spent a lot of time on Musik Express, and yes it's funny.. even to a guy like me.. even now :)

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I know why you spent a lot of time on Musik Express, and yes it's funny.. even to a guy like me.. even now

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I *think* I know what you are thinking brian, and that's not the reason.

I know why I rode it over and over, shawing!!! A hot girl in Monticello, had to take advantage.

Ah, ok. Well, do you agree on why maybe we thought Corny wasn't "up to snuff" last time?

Yeah, I can see that, but when I rode it the first time I also hit up ST earlier that day. I wonder how many people have done that, ST and Corny in one day. Man, that kicked ass!