Most interesting moments of 2001
Mine are:
1. Getting the chance to ride two brand new roller coasters: Cornball Express and X-Flight.
2. X. That's all I can say really...to others, it seemed like a soap opera, but now it's opening, so no more to fear!
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Check out the new http://indianabeach.8k.com/
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02 parks: SFFT, SWSA, VL, and SFOG!
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www.tripowered.com
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"Villain-Once You Drop, The Fun Don't Stop!"~SFWoA Rules In 2002~With SFWoA ANYTHING Is Possible!
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3.2.1 launch
-Ride first coaster by free will
-Got to ride first steel looping
-Finally rode my first launch, stand up, and hyper.
-Wen't to 3 new parks.
-Bumped up track record from 4 to 24
-Rode Supreme Scream
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Divorced From Dependence since 1987!
First trip to CP (first bobsled, standup, hyper, giga, B&M invert, PTC, Power Tower).
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CP! Still the coaster capital of the world in 2002!
My fellow Americans; Let's Roll!
WoodenCoaster.com
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People think I'm insane because I am frowning all the time.-Paranoid
I got to go to PKI, got to ride the legendary Beast, got to ride my first LIM coaster, got to ride the world's tallest, fastest, and only looping wooden coaster.
Then I got to go to CP. I got to ride the world's first Giga, got to ride the famous Maggie, got to ride Gemini, my first bobsled, etc.
I was so glad I went to CP and PKI, as we don't have many tall coasters in the Southeast.
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Well, if I had to single out the highlights of the year for me, there are 7 that come to mind...
1. Phantoms' Revenge - Absolutely blown away by the entire coaster. I would have never expected such speed in the overbanked turn, and the airtime on the last bunny hops was simply unbeatable.
2. X-Flight - Completely shocked by the intensity of the ride. I got off the ride, adjusted my brain, and got back in line again.
3. Nitro - As with X-Flight, I was shocked by the intensity of the ride. I was expecting a ride full of gentle floater air, yet experienced an insane out of control ride full ejector air... I think I even started to black out on the helix!
4. Running Around Cedar Point At Closing Time - Maybe the most fun I've had all year... It was half hour to closing at the Point, and the park was emptying out. Since I was staying at the Breakers, I was going to squeeze all I could out of the evening. In the last 30 minutes, I literally sprinted around the park, and managed to ride Mantis, Iron Dragon, Power Tower, and Magnum XL-200. Good times, good times.
5. Power Tower: Blasting With The Fireworks. Just as the finally of the Summer Spectacular at Cedar Point was beggining, I was being launched into the air on Power tower, and I was facing the show. Never have I had such an incredible visual experience. I was actually being launched up with the fireworks, and instead of looking up at them, i was looking almost down at them. I could not stop smiling for the rest of the evening.
6. Last ride on Magnum - See #4... Actually my first night ride on Magnum, and I rode the front seat. It was the single greatest ride on Magnum I had ever had. It was Smooth as butter, and combined with the cool Lake Erie air in my face, it made for an all around memorable experience.
7. Night Re-Rides On Dueling Dragons - Just this past week, it was Chrismas Eve, the park was emptying out, the air was cool, and it was dark. In one evening, all after the sun had set, I managed to ride the Dragons 16 times. I gained a new appreciation of my old favorite.
It's certainly been an outstanding coaster year for me, and I hope everyone else had as great a year. Luckily we can all look forward to many many more to come!
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-FCR
I'd Rather Be Riding Roller Coasters
-Hitting 100 on Millennium Force
-Hearing and feeling MF's tension pully fall
-Riding VertiGo on opening day
-Climbing all 220 steps on the Raptor lift too many times
-Finally hearing the Wicked Twister announcement
-VertiGo Mania (for the first two days anyway)
-Working on the Raptor (esp. spiels!)
-Scrubbing all 36 Giant Wheel cabins
-Parking the Space Spiral cabin on the last day of the season
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"Hey, cool my voice is on the lift!"
~I became a coaster enthusiast
~riding the first coaster to reach 100 mph (Superman: the Escape)
~riding my first 2 hypercoasters
~Being sure for the first time in a long time about my #1 coaster (Riddler's Revenge)
~the 29 times in one day I rode Canyon Blaster at Las Vegas
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The Kings of Coasters:
#1: Riddler's Revenge
#2: Goliath
#3: Kraken
One of my favorites....getting a (majority) trainload of nice Japanese folks to put their hands up on Steel Dragon 2000. (We all had fun :) )
Another: Rollback at Hypersonic XLC
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- Peabody
SRM 2001: Heavy rain, fast world-class woodies and a block of fudge...clearly the makings of a great event :-) I was introduced to my current favourite coaster the Legend at this year's event and simply couldn't get enough of the park, I can't wait for next year!
Cornball Express Media Day: I went to IB frankly not expecting a lot and was blown away, the Cornball is for real folks! Nice air, nice laterals, a beautiful compact layout and the rest of the park is great too, particularly the walk-through Haunted attraction, a sure stop on SRM 2002 weekend as well!
Phantom's Revenge: I seem to be one of the few people who actually loved the Steel Phantom so the redesign was somewhat bittersweet for me. But rather than dwell on what was I have to enjoy what currently exists and the PR is a fine design as well with the tiny little double dip delivering spectacular air!
SFNE: My first trip out east started at Six Flags New England where Superman delivered the goods and the Riverside Cyclone left my bruised but smiling. Highly recommended!
Lake Compounce: another stop on the east coast trip. As a woodie snob I couldn't skip Boulder Dash and I'm very glad I didn't! Beautiful scenery, airtime, wow, this coaster has it all!
RRC 10th Anniversary @ Knoebel's Grove: My first trip to Knoebel's was in ERT fashion with extremely healthy doses of all the flats as well as Twister (wild!) and Phoenix (insane, easily my #2 woodie!) After the park closed we got a couple of hours of straight up ERT on Twister (I took about 8 1 click rides) and then headed to Phoenix for over an hour of continuous riding, talk about bliss! I need to stop by again, and soon!
Canada's Wonderland: I hadn't been to PCW in about 7 or 8 years so it was high time to get back! The Mondial Top Scan (Shockwave) was absolutely stellar and the near ERT conditions at the end of the day (due to the near 0 degree wind chill!) on Wild(e) Beast & Vortex were incredible!
Guess I'd better stop with that but,, as you can see, it was a good year :-)
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* The Legend @ HW
* Superman: Ride of Steel @ SFNE
* Mondial Top Scan
1. Six Flags America - The first time I have ever drive more than an hour from home by myself. Got to experience a great park and buy my first season pass.
2. Kennywood Preview Day - Nothing too special about this one, except that it was opening day.
3. Phantom's Revenge Opening - I was lucky enough to ride it the day after it opened. After following the construction so closely, I can't put into words how excited I felt about it turning out so freakin' nice.
4. Lightning Racer, Phoenix, Talon - I got to ride these three in one trip and all of them were absolutely fantastic.
5. KennyKon - ERT on PR, need I say more?
6. Night ride on the Beast - PKI altogether was incredible, but the night ride I had on the Beast where they slowed the lift down so we could watch the fireworks was astounding!
7. Holiday World - Raven and Legend quickly became two of my favorite wooden coasters and I look forward to returning for SRM 2002.
8. Millennium Mania - It was great up until they stopped giving rerides, but even then it wasn't bad. ;)
9. Phoenix Phall Phunfest - This was my first PPP and my first time camping in a long time. I nearly froze to death, but for Phoenix, it's worth it.
10. Discovery Channel Shoot @ KW - Thirty-six rides on Phantom's Revenge, without having to get up! What a way to close the season.
I look forward to making the 2002 season twice as good! Happy New Years everyone!
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Joe Cernelli
Webmaster, Kennywood Boulevard
*** This post was edited by cernelli on 12/30/2001. ***
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