Well, the title is sort of misleading, but it's all in fun.
I wore my Millennium Force t-shirt at Michigan's Adventure last Thursday, and I tell you, I had more people looking at, commenting about, and talking to me about my shirt than I would have ever dreamed. I was waiting in Shivering Timbers' line, when all of a sudden the operator on the mic said, "Hey, you, right in front, can you let me see what's on the back of your shirt?"
(At this point, let me interject that I have the light blue MF shirt with the 4 stats of the drop, degree, overbanked turn, and MPH on the front.)
So, I turned around and let him read. Even more surpising, however, was that *every time* I was in line for the front seat, he stared directly at my shirt, like he couldn't get enough! Later he told me that he's been wanting to get down to CP for a ride, and I said it's well worth his trip.
Throughout the day, I talked to a lot of people about the ride and saw a lot of people talking about my shirt. My favorite people were the ones who looked directly at me/my shirt (sometimes even pointing) saying, "Look at that! Millennium Force", but not saying anything to me at all. I now know how it feels to be a billboard.
Another interesting situation involved a kid and his friend, both of which looked to be about 8 or 10 years old. One kid pointed at me and said, "Hey! There's Millennium Force!", and the other kid looked right past me, looked out around the park, and said loudly, "WHERE!?!"
From riding Shivering Timbers again and again, the ride ops noticed I was alone. For one ride, an op asked if I would mind being paired with a nice, middle-aged man from New Jersey who was in Michigan on a business trip. (He explained about how he goes on a new coaster each time he goes on one... this week, ST, last week, Boulder Dash. Lucky guy.) I asked him if he minded, to which he responded, "No, not at all--how was Millennium Force!?"
All of the above was just in ST's station or on the ride itself. I wont even go into what people did/said in the rest of the park (and even through the entire town!). An operator on Mad Mouse made a point to ask me about it, as well as our waitress at Red Lobster who hasn't been to CP in two years, but is really jonesin' to get over for MF.
Everbody who actually talked to me about it, I made sure to tell them no matter where they come from, it's worth the ride/flight/whatever.
Well, to end this little rant, I think I'll tell you about how surprised I was how few people from "West Michigan" (as it's called on radio, tv, papers, everything. They don't dare say "Muskegon" or "Kalamazoo") had been to CP. I'm from Uniontown, PA (45 mins south of Pittsburgh), and I'd say the majority of the Class of '03 have been to CP, but this ain't the case up in MI. Weird.
Thanks for reading this long ol' post! (In all fairness, no matter where you're from, the ride up to Muskegon, MI is worth it just for Shivering Timbers as well ;) )
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How dare you vanquish the Steel Phantom without his consent? Fear the Phantom's Revenge.