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I love the rain. Watching a really intense storm is fun and the raindrops on the pond out back are just relaxing to watch. Another reason I love a good summer mid-afternoon rain in particular is because I know it clears out Holiday World. So when the storm was mostly passed I headed on over for some ride time.
As I pulled in the once full parking lots were now only a third of capacity and people were still heading home by the time I got to the gate. There was still a little rain and lightning in the area so I headed down to Raging Rapids. For a rapids ride this is a fun ride with plenty of surprises, namely that they finally have the saloon waterfall running but unfortunately the sensor to turn it off at the last second wasn’t so I got soaked.
After heading back up the hill Liberty Launch could be heard filling up its tanks so the storm closings were obviously over so I headed on down to the Legend where they were walking the tracks. After about a five minute wait they opened up the gates and it was time to ride. I have been keeping track of my ride count and wanting to get 100 laps on each wooden coaster at the park all I needed was 20 more on the Legend to finish my goals. With an empty park and two train operations this was easily attainable. I ended up taking a lap, getting off, walking around to catch the same train it’s next time around.
The Legend was running balls to the wall especially after a torrential downpour. The redone first drop is still giving ample amounts of power and it’s been running this year the best it has ever been. The helix is now a lot more powerful due to Jeff’s tweaking but the new track leading to the helix is a little rough.
I ended up meeting a fellow coaster enthusiast from Eastern Ohio and grabbed a few rides with him. One interesting thing that he said was that the Legend reminds him an awful lot of the intensity of the Idora Park Wildcat with some serious laterals and insane positive and negative g forces.
After attaining my goal it was time to head home for supper, of course with the Raven in the way I had to grab a ride. The Raven was running as fast and furious as usual. It’s still weird not having the pot hole at the bottom of the first drop because I was so used to it but the little added force not wasted by it is welcome.
With Holiday World now open until nine during the week after putting Bond to bed at eight I headed on over to grab a few pictures as well as to score my first dark ride of the year on the Raven. While doing a lap of the park I quickly hopped on to Liberty Launch due to the single rider line being open and then headed down into Halloween for a spin on Hallowswings. I love to ride it during the day but at night it’s magical with all of the lights turned on.
With just fifteen minutes before closing I headed to the Raven. There was a three train wait for last ride of the night in the back seat and after waiting and chatting with the ride ops it was time for the show. The Raven rocks during the ay but the intensity and violence of traversing that course in pitch black conditions is fantastic. To rate it on the Spinal Tap scale the daytime Raven is a 10 while night time Raven is definitely an 11.
Holiday World is doing extremely well this year and judging by my impression of the crowds it’s going to be another record breaker year.
If you’re interested I put up a few of my photos from last night on my blog here: http://www.negative-g.com/downhill/pivot/entry.php?id=622
Have Fun!
Paul Drabek *** Edited 7/2/2004 8:55:33 PM UTC by Paul Drabek***
Negative-G Amusement Parks and Rollercoasters: www.Negative-G.com
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