Michigans Adventure - 6-11-06

I'm not new to Coasterbuzz, but for some reason I couldn't pull up my old account and so I decided to... never mind... on with the TR...

I arrived to MIA around 10:30 AM after the 2 hour drive from South Bend. I went to the park today to hang out with Matt and Kara, but obviously the ride I was looking forward to most was Shivering Timbers.

Any visit to MIA is off to a bad start when you find out that Timbers is down mechanical. Sure there are other rides at MIA but nothing I would normally drive 2 hours for. Having a season pass, I decided to wait for ST to open, as I really had no desire to ride anything else. It took an hour for the ride to get going, but by the time it had, Matt had shown up and we got the first train of the day, front row. After that ride, I remembered why I love ST so much. However...

Several consecutive rides later, I realized that the ride is running much more rough than I remember from past years, especially in the second row of each car. There was a lot of shuffling, jackhammering, and one section of track right after the turnaround was just plain brutal. If anyone else has been to the park this year, I'm curious if I just had a bad day, or if it really is rattling around a lot more.

Despite the roughness, the ride was flying today. I was suprised with the cooler weather, but it was running much faster than I remember. The airtime was great, and the laterals on the turnaround and helix were fantastic.

After turning most of my insides to mush, we decided to hit a few other rides. I had never rode the Flying Star at MIA so we hit that next. I love the Flying Star at Indiana Beach, and this one was very fun as well, except for the coating on the seats, its like sandpaper, and on a ride designed for lateral G's, it can be pretty uncomfortable.

By this time I was hungry, and Kara was getting off work, so we took a break, had some lunch and met up with her. We took another spin on Timbers (front row luckily) then rode the newly renovated Timbertown Railway back to Grand Rapids.

Being that it was only 65 today, I didn't feel like getting soaked, but I must say that I was quite impressed with the look of the ride. The theming is nice, and the ride looks pretty fun. We did take advantage of the 25c water cannons, and drenched a passing raft... I think later in the season, those will be a big hit.

After that, we circled the park and hit all the other rides worth riding, and then called it a day. We headed to Fricanos for some pizza, and then I hit the road back.

Overall it was a pretty good day. The weather was cooler, but not too hot, and plenty of sun, and the crowds were very light (despite the Scouting Outing)... We rode for just over 4 hours and here were the ride counts for the day:

Shivering Timbers - 8
Falling Star - 2
Wolverine Wildcat (Very Rough!)
Mad Mouse
Little Drummer Boy
Corkscrew
Sea Dragon
Timbertown Railway

I finally rode Timbers two weeks ago. they were running 2 trains but one trains front seats were closed off. I was expecting a little more from Timbers. It was a good ride but needs a little work here and there. When did they add the sprinkler system on the turnaround? In all it was the best coaster at MIA but not as good as what I was expecting.

The rear seats on PTC cars are always a little more bone jarring then the front mainly because you are directly over the real wheels and for some reason get more of an impact.

I was there with Bethtoons on Saturday. Rode Timbers three times--6.2, 2.1, 6.1. Timbers was definitely on the slow side and rougher than I'd like. The ramp at the bottom of the drop off of the turnaround was very bouncy for us too. Nothing I would consider brutal, but definitely not a good thing.

Out of the five or six times I have been to MIA, this was the worst condition I've seen Timbers in, so I now have a better understanding of all you who've said you didn't "get" Timbers. There wasn't really any air on the last four hills, and most of my visits have seen every hill loaded with air, but that 4th hill on the out run was still delivering like it always has--man, I love that slam at the bottom!

Still a great ride, even post Voyage After Dark, but definitely not my number 1 or 2 anymore, at least in its current condition. Looking forward to hearing how it runs during ERT next weekend. *** Edited 6/12/2006 4:10:02 AM UTC by Acoustic Viscosity***

AV, you guys should have given me a call, I'd have met you up there.

LOL! There is no avoiding Little Drummer Boy when Kara is around!!

Sorry, Nicole. We were only there for 3 hours anyway. I wasn't even sure if I was going to be there until Friday night when I talked to Kyle and decided not to go to a very wet Indiana Beach on Saturday.

Matt - I definitely noticed that slam on the bottom of the 4th hill, thats probably one of my favorite moments of the ride. As far as the speed and airtime goes... I didn't notice it being drastically reduced. There were some moments when instead of floating all the way over the hill, I would get more of the bouncing airtime, but it seemed to keep up its speed pretty well. The only time it seemed to slow down was the second half of the helix.

Like I said, the biggest complaint I had was the roughness. Especially on the ramp out of the turnaround... it felt like the track was warped or something.

And yes CPLady, Kara would not let us leave without a spin on the Drummer Boy... And, oh what a spin it was...

Kara gives that ride new meaning to the words "spin and puke"

Oh yeah, another point of interest--Rode the tilt-a-whirl and got a zero-spin ride. Wow, never had one that bad.

I didn't get on the tilt-a-whirl there... The sea dragon was less than exciting... Who manufactured their ship? It didn't look like a Huss model like CPs...

I'm so glad you came to visit! Good times, indeed. It was great to be reminded of how awesome and fun the park really is for guests- I had such a wonderful time playing in the park with you and Matt :)!

I had a great time as well... Huuuuuuuss! (pronounced - HOOOOOSE!)