Six Flags St. Louis - Thursday, August 7, 2014

Mother Nature made this a short visit, but this made for a virtually deserted park in the morning and got some good riding in, rerides aplenty without ever getting out. Thunderstorms were intense the night before, this morning there was steady light rain but no lightning so everything was running. Ride ops were pleasant despite the weather, and even with it still raining saw sweepers pushing water off midways. There are numerous signs touting the park as "Missouri's Coaster Capital", I don't remember these from before.

Rode Batman a couple times first. Action packed as usual and today sported elements such as the "lift hill waterfall" and "water misting zero-g roll". Next up was American Thunder. A nice GCI woodie, doesn't feel as fast as some of their other designs but there are varied airtime sensations throughout. The long banked turn next to the station is cool. Thankfully the ugly got2b glued train stayed glued to the transfer track. I then went to Mr. Freeze. Rode three times, all in the back, all with me as the only rider. Eerie. The ride op said they'd had 14 riders in 45 minutes -- including me. Yeah, the park was that dead. I like the island setting of this one (vs. the SFoT version) and going up the spike in the back is still sweet.

As the only guest within a 50 foot radius I was bombarded walking through a games area -- I smiled and said hey -- on my way to Boss. My first visit I only did this once, remembered nothing about it. I was looking forward to experiencing it again. Why? Depending on how defensively one rides, this is either a) white-knuckler or b) back-breaker. After feeling a single drop's worth of vibrations I went with Option A. And this is with wet track, I shudder to think of riding this dry. The ending helix is pretty nuts though. There were a few other more enthusiastic riders so went around for two more laps. After Boss, ended up getting a bit lost, but took this photo of some great clashing between actual amusement park elements vs. in-your-face advertising.

Checked off the Boomerang and eventually found the entrance to Screamin' Eagle. A nice classic out-and-back woodie, very rideable, fairly long too, there are a couple unexpected drops coming back. Most of the course is through the woods, would be great at night. Rode this a few times in a row. Walked onto the nearby drop tower (Superman) and hit up Batman and American Thunder a couple more times each on my way to the exit. The rain was starting to pick up -- my last ride on American Thunder was eyes closed the whole way, and my sneakers skloooshed all the way back to my car. And thus concludes my brief wet visit to Missouri's Water Coaster Capital.

Hotel mini-review: Got some deal on Hotels.com for the Holiday Inn next to the park, nice for sleeping in. Spacious clean room with a couple big chairs, no minifridge though. First floor room with both interior and exterior room access, odd. There's a huge indoor complex in the middle of the hotel with a big pool, hot tub, restaurant, pizza stand, games, and a bar. They call it the Fundome (not kidding). Besides the bar, they had a Ms. Pac-Man machine, so thumbs up from this guy.