SFGAm 8-25-01 Walk on bliss

Saturday 8-25-01 a friend and I decided to go to SFGAm at about 5:30pm. It had been raining of and on all morning. It was overcast but looked like it was starting to clear up a bit. The parking lot looked fairly packed considering the weather. But as we were about to find out that the number of cars parked in the lot had little or no indication as to the lines we were about to encounter. We decided to buy Fastlane passes just to give it a whirl. Little did we know that we would not need them at all.

Our first victim of the day was Viper. HMMM.....where are all the people? No line for Viper? It was like a Ghost town. It was practically a walk on. The line was actually just out of the station by maybe 5 people. We took second row seats. We saw that the parking lot was alot emptier than what we thought it was when we were going up the lift hill. The track was still wet from a short cloud burst that occurred while we were walking to Viper. We have only one way to describe it, 'Dude, where's my seat?' The airtime just rocked. Although unlike many other woodies that seam to run faster when wet, Viper did not. Still it was a great ride and the first time I rode it with the tracks wet.

Next up was Raging Bull. We decided to use our Fastlane passes on Raging Bull. We took the last row of seats. Bucking like a raging bull should.

Off to the American Eagle. Wow has this ride actually improved since early in the season. It seemed like it was new. This would prove to be our longest wait since they only ran the red side. I did notice a lot of lumber next to the American Eagle so maybe they have been going through and retracking it a bit. Either way it was running in top form again. It even had pretty good airtime on it again. We waited about 15 minutes.

I decided to give Iron Wolf another go. I had not tried to ride it since the beginning of the summer since I was unable to fit in it. I have since lost 20 lbs and have thinned quite a bit. I actually got on with a little help. KICKIN! I have loved this ride and missed being able to ride it. I tried Jeff's method of riding a standup coaster and wow what an improvement over what I remember it being last year. Thanks Jeff! This was about a 5 minute wait.

We then head to V2 (Vertical Velocity). The line would have been about an hour but we used our Fastlane on it. I decided to sit in the front seat. OH MY GOD! What a rush that was. I totally was freaking out. I never freak out on a coaster. Not even Millennium Force. I absolutely love the front seat.

Then we went to Batman. I can not EVER remember Batman being a walk on but it was today. We took the back row. Wow it is quite intense in the g's back there. It is a lot different than the front seat. When we got off no one was in line and they said if anyone wanted to reride that they could so we did but this time in the 3rd row. Still nice and smooth but nowhere near the intensity of the back row.

It was about 7:35pm and we still had 4 fastlane uses to kill before 8pm. We went back to V2 for a back row seat. Fun but it sure is not the front seat.

We got off V2 and power walked back to Raging Bull to close out the day. Of course it had to start raining while we were walking back to Raging Bull. Ah but the rain actually felt good. It stopped raining just as we got to Southwest Territory. We got through the Fastlane entrance just in time. we went to the second row. Ejector time. Fun as always. We decided after Bull to call it a night. Good thing to because we got no more than a mile from the park and it started raining again and did not stop until about midnight.

All in all a great night. And tons of rides in 2.5 to 3 hours. I certainly can't complain as mother nature kept the crowds at bay but held back long enough to have a great time. I have also NEVER seen crowds as thin as they were today.

-------------
Welcome to Deja Vu...home of the world wide wait.

*** This post was edited by beast7369 on 8/27/2001. ***