Associated parks:
None
I hate not getting enough sleep. I'm a college student at the Ohio State University, and you would think that I would be used to not getting enough sleep. I love sleeping. It's a great thing and I wish I could get more of it. So, what happens when I go on vacation? I get no sleep! Neil Rupp and I spent a part of the previous evening hanging out at the Drabek's house after ERT. The bonfire was a lot of fun and it was just so neat to see the stars for a change. There were nothing but trees and stars to be seen and it really was such a sight! Fred was there and he just looked so out of it. You could tell he had a long day and he was ready to sleep anywhere. It was
cool just to relax by the fire and chat after a tough day of work! Thanks for your hospitality, we really did have a fun time. We probably stayed there until 1:20 AM, which isn't too bad, but when you want to make an early morning ERT, it's tough to get up. The plan was that we would get up at 8:15 and get ready to head out. Paula Werne made it clear that if we missed the 9 AM meeting time, we would not make ERT at all.
Well, I got up just on time, but no one else did. That's ok with me, and I decided to head out and tag along with someone when I got to the park. When I arrived at the gate, I couldn't believe how many people also decided to do the morning ERT. I figured that with a late ERT session, many would opt to skip the morning ERT on Zoombabwe. Boy, was I wrong!
I headed into the park with Chris Trotter, Phillip Reuss and Bill Berkey. If you didn't know, Bill's wife Michelle is pregnant. So, if you haven't done so yet, congratulate him! Bill is a very cool person if you ever haven't gotten to know him. Trotter is trotter and Phillip is cool as well. We both share some similar interests in hockey, so if you want to talk hockey, chat with him, cause he loves it! We headed into the water park and eventually made our way into the line for the world's largest water slide!
Zoombabwe is a very neat ride. It is very fast and very long. There are a couple of insane spots on the ride that really catch you by surprise! I did notice that the more people you have on your raft, the faster and wilder of a ride we got (as it should be from a physics standpoint)! The first rides were spent with Trotter, Bill and I. During our first ride, I was elbowed in the face by a person I didn't know. If you get four people in the raft, there is one insane spot on that ride that seems to almost flip the raft over. There were later reports that a few rafts got flipped over! I even think Dave Althoff's (Rideman) was one of them.
We saw Robb Alvey bringing in his homemade water bag for his camera so he could get pics of their rides.pretty neat idea if you ask me! I then ran into Mike Graham, Corey and his wife Adrianne (AKA the CCI engineers). We spent most of the morning together riding Holiday World's neat selection of water rides. The black speed slides were a favorite amongst us and we even got some good airtime on a few of them! I think I vaguely remember meeting
Corey when I stopped by CCI in the off-season, but I never got to really know him. Him and his wife turned out to be very cool and fun to be around with. It was also cool to know that the four of us share the same religious views on Christianity and we are somehow involved in some evangelical organizations in our respective cities! Very cool people and if you haven't gotten to know them, they are some of the nicest enthusiasts I have ever gotten to know! I also got to chat for a bit with Rus Ozana, who I was glad to see that he made it to his first ever SRM! This was his first trip of the season and he was glad to be on vacation. I've been trying for a very long time to get him to attend an SRM and he finally made it! I think he was having a great time! I guess I'll have to go to OcBoulderfest this year now :-)
When noon came around, I had a prearranged meeting time with the rest of my group at the flyers. As I was heading out, I noticed that the park was just flowing with people. Of all the times I have been to Holiday World, I have never seen it this crowded. It's nothing to complain about too! I love seeing Holiday World having success. There were just loads and loads of people everywhere. I almost thought I wasn't in Holiday World for a
moment..let's hope that business keeps booming for the Koch's!
When I arrived at the flyers, I found our usual group. A few decided to leave the park and get a little nap. Neil and I decided to stay a little bit and get a few coaster rides in before we headed back to the hotel.
We caught a Legend ride, and it was running insane as usual.this was morning too! We then decided to hit the log flume, which is a lot of fun. You get a nice view of Legend's ending from the flume and even the first drop. The tunnel is a pretty neat and dark one too.
Surprisingly again, we exited the flume and ran into the Mike, Corey and Adrianne once again. We decided to head to Raven and check out the line, but it was rather long, so we opted not to go figuring we'd get plenty of rides later in the day. We split our ways and Neil and I headed out of the park and made our way back to Satan's lodge.
We meet up with Sean, Phyllis, Phillip, Barry, Trotter, Mike Graham. We all decided to get something to eat at the new pizza place across the hotel. During our lunch, a question was posed on how forceful the Blue Flash was. Mike calculated the positive g's for the Blue Flash to be anywhere from 6-9 g's. Please keep in mind, he didn't have a calculator, so nothing too exact. Wow, that's a lot! After some usual funny "trotter conversations" I headed back to the hotel to catch a shower to then head back to the park.
Barry and I headed into the park for the photo tour. This would be the second photo tour that I have done. It really is a neat experience to see how both the Legend and Raven breathe structurally in certain parts of the ride. It's also cool just to run around and play in the woods next to the two large coasters! After the tour, Mike, Neil and I decided to hit the bumper boats! I really like the bumper boats at Holiday World! I don't know for sure why I like them so much, but it's such a cool ride. Even the line que is neat with places to sit when the line doesn't move. While waiting in line, we ran into James Gray 111. For those of you who don't know, he works as a project manager for Coasterworks. If I like bumper boats, then Neil LOVES bumper boats. Neil is Mr. Bumper Boat man. If there is a flat ride that he talks about at HW, it's the bumper boats. We spun around, got soaked and ran into everything and anything in our way.
After the boats, we decided to ride the Rapids ride. Holiday World's rapids ride is very cool! It's so unlike any rapids ride that I have ridden. As to why, I don't know why. Maybe it's because it starts in a tunnel. Maybe it's because it has that funky flooded town towards the end. I don't get why Ilike it so much, but I just liked it. We got a second ride with Fleming Cook, who was just raving about his Wings. I made it a point to tell him that Ron Francis and the Hurricanes were going to crush the wings. It
probably won't happen, but it's wishful thinking.
Next up before the picnic was the Flyers. I am a flyer fanatic. I adore PKI's and Knoebel's flyers. I'll be honest, I'm a pretty decent flyer. In fact, I was somehow able to get my tub backwards for a period of 10 seconds on PKI's. Even with all that talent and experience, I can't do nothing on Holiday World's. The tubs are very heavy and they are hitched in a way that snapping is very difficult to achieve. It also doesn't help that the motor doesn't drive the tubs at a very fast speed either. If Holiday World had the money, I would love to see them invest in a set of flyers that snap. It would add so much, but I realize things like that just don't happen and are not financially reasonable. In fact, they probably should add a carousel before they revamp any of their flat rides. Who knows.
Don't' EVER let Neil drive a car ride in an amusement park! NEVER! Our car consisted of Neil, Phyllis, Mike and I and I think we have bruises from it.not fun, but crazy as usual. Somehow it seemed that no matter what we rode, we were all having a blast! This is the only way it should be at a place such as Holiday World. All the rides are fun and the place just spells out fun. After the car ride, we opted for one more rapids ride and then we headed out to the picnic.
The picnic was rather large due to the number of enthusiasts present at the event. The food was great too! The people, the food and the atmosphere was just awesome! They even had a live band for us. I spent some time talking to Cory about some engineering stuff and even Mike about some of the classes
I was taking, which was cool. There was a presentation for Mrs. Koch at the picnic. She just recently graduated from pastoral ministry at some school that I can't quite remember, so a number of enthusiasts got her cards to congratulate her. It's just so fitting that we as enthusiasts do something like this. For all that the park has done for us, there are times when we must give some back. During her speech, she got to tell us that she believes that she's been called to use here job to touch people's lives and serve them. She feels that this is her duty and mission in life as a Christian. I totally see this and admire it. She's not just doing her job to be a good worker, but to serve the guests and enthusiasts and show them love. We could all learn a lot from her.
After her words, Paula arranged a prom for her where she got to dance with a number of enthusiasts. It was really neat to see and I could tell it was very special to her. Nick Foley was also a celebrity for SRM this year and is a full fleged ACE member. It was cool to see that as well. Sean even got some POV of Nick Riding the Raven in the back seat later in the evening.
After the picnic and auction, it was time for some more ERT!
I love SRM ERT! There is nothing quite like it in the world. There is only one night ride that I have had that closely equals the night rides you get on Legend and Raven. That ride is the Phoenix rides that I got on the convention add on day at Knoebels. Other than that, SRM rides are far above anything you can get. I also like to wear sunglasses when I ride coasters. It's just my thing and I don't know why I like it so much. But sunglasses + night rides + Legend and Raven = total insanity. There is nothing like it at all! With the sunglasses, it is literally impossible to see anything in front of me..well, that's not entirely true if there are glow sticks in front of me! Regardless, I have this feeling that this must be what taking
drugs and getting drunk must feel like since I have never experienced any of that. For a good reason too.
Throughout the night, I got rides with Barry Short, Russ Ozana, Neil, Mike Graham and many others. The rides were just getting insane and ridiculously scary. At one point, I thought I was going to fly off the Raven! There were more heeeeeeeeeeeeys throughout the evening with team yellow, who thought I was going to be disappointed by their outfits, but I enjoyed them! It gave a great laugh and even some more heeeeeeeeeys inspired some ideas
for PPP..hmmmmmmmmm.? By the middle of ERT, I was full of probably 30 soft drinks and I was just going nuts! I even jumped over a trash can! I haven't done that since I was at Kennywood last year.
The award for Hyper person of the year goes to the Raven's ride op. My word..what do they feed their employees? She was so funny and scary at the same time. She was just dancing and screaming along like she was in an MTV music video or something! She didn't stop either. Then Team Yellow decided
to mock her and that only made things worse! You guys are soooo bad!
Soon enough the ERT ended. That's when things got sad. SRM was over. ERT was over and the most amazing part of the year had to come to an end. Like the saying goes, all good things come to an end.
This year's SRM was as good as all the last. The rides, the people, the food, the employees just made it such a blast! I am in love with this place even more. It's just unreal that such a place as this exits. Places like Holiday World indicates to me on why I love this hobby so much. It does such a great job in making you forget where you are and puts you in a whole different world. You forget everything around you when you are at SRM. Just like any other great park, all the tests, finals, school, work just seem to disappear. I would like to extend my thanks to Holiday World once again for overdoing yourselves! There really is no place like Holiday World and it sets the standard for every park in the world on how to operate a
successful amusement park.
-----------------
-Jon Smith
"See ya in the back!"
-----------------
Bill Yost
"I never rode a B&M I didn't like.":)
http://www.small-business-webs.com/pkizone
You must be logged in to post