08-30 RaptorMania!!
As usual arrived at CP shortly before opening. With Talon :) shirt proudly worn, decided to head for MF 1st since I hadn't ridden it since Coastemania. Got 2nd train of the morning. Did the usual leaning out stuff, got me ready and excited to take on the rest of CP. Funniest thing I heard was when I was walking down the exit the guy behind me was talking to his kid and said "did you see that blonde? She had her hands stretched out so far I swore she was going to hit those poles! We were going so fast I know it had to be an illusion, those poles had to be like 3-4' away from her!" ;) That was lifetime ride 101.
Toyed with the idea of riding again, running of the bulls long over by then, some what of a line, opted for Banshee. Walk on, did 1 ride, no block brake! I was disappointed didnt get to see one of my fav former Raptor ops there, only rode 1x and decided it was time to go fly my big green bird.
Queue line looked long, nope. 15 minutes. Saw a couple ops I knew (yes got hugs :)) only rode 5x then decided to walk around park w/my 35mm & telephoto lens and take some "real" pics.
Let me also mention at this Po!nt that this was obviousely "Oral hygiene optional", and "Yes I am 200 lbs but I CAN wear size 9/10 and look good" day at CP, so I spent ALOT of time getting the shudders or thinking to myself "that is NASTY"!
Walked to Frontier Town, snuck into MS's old queue to get some nice shots of MS. What a WASTE of a queue-that queue is BEAUTIFUL! The last time it was necessary to utilize that queue for me was back in '98, cant they use those shade tents for another ride? (Like Raptor?) Looked for Dave on MS-nope, opted NOT to ride, off to Gemini. Wasn't going to ride but decided to anyway. Didnt reconize any of the ops from the Gemini 100, and who is this op Oscar? No one can understand ONE word he was saying and everyone was busy making fun of him. Only 1 train running, only rode 1x (saw "our" seagull Hooper! ;))off to Maggie. No Dan! Got some shots, then decided to ride. Tried as hard as I could to hold on to my camera case it still went FLYING straight up during the airtime ;)
Back to Raptor again where my "goal" at that point was simply to "beat" my previous 1 day ride record of 32 (done during '99 Halloweekends) Not quite a walk on but close enough, I rode 5 more times and ended up seeing fellow GTTP'er Joe E during one of my sprints. I couldn't figure out why it seemed like Raptor's G's were getting to me really bad....why? Because I hadn't eaten anything since 6am. Yikes! I am one of those people who definitely eat to survive, so decided HAD to eat before I passed out. Quickly downed maybe 6 french fries (thankful seagulls got all the rest-what a feeding frenzy THAT caused!) downed a medium Pepsi in like 3 minutes (PIC-I would have made you proud shortly there after ;))
Back to riding. During 1 ride some woman grabbed me asked me if I was "that Raptor Jo person" I said yea and she said "because of YOU I started riding coasters here and I cant thank you enough"
Wow.....
OK so my big head and I kept riding. All I have to say is I MUST be in some seriousely good shape to manage to get off ride 1st every time. FLY down the stairs (jumping the last 3) run around and get back on line again as many times as I did. All the barrel racing and jumping I've been doing all summer apparently does me good! :)
I did stop a couple times to call my work and "check in" with them on a Raptor count. The last 2 laps were my fav cause one of my fav ride ops, Adrian rode with me. I saw one of my fav silver tags too who said "so you're coming back again this season huh?" I was kind of impressed he knew that! Last Raptor ride of my day?
Adrian and I waited for row 1...
ok-common sense would tell you eventually being a Raptor ride op (me) and being with a Raptor ride op would get you into trouble---he and I got a dose of "tickle me Raptor" for my last ride!!
That was my 1st time (and hopefully last) :)
OK-did Raptor Jo succeed in hitting her 67 laps so she could have her 500 lifetime? No way.
I did however manage to break my 32/1 day record.
I successfully rode Raptor a total of 40X!!!
:) :) :)
I figured if I hadnt done other things all day I probably could have gotten my 67 laps but it is important for me to have my b/f or one of my GTTP family members with me when I hit my 500. So I figure 27 more laps should be achieveable during MM. It was a good thing I had to do this trip solo cause I cant imagine my b/f (who stayed home to take care of some horse business-including cleaning my horses stalls for me :)) or either of my kids keeping up with me.
So my last CP trip of the "normal" CP season a blast for me, weather was FABU, crowds were very light, saw tons of friends and fellow CP employees, Raptor was running AWESOME (as always :))
Toyed with the idea of riding again, running of the bulls long over by then, some what of a line, opted for Banshee. Walk on, did 1 ride, no block brake! I was disappointed didnt get to see one of my fav former Raptor ops there, only rode 1x and decided it was time to go fly my big green bird.
Queue line looked long, nope. 15 minutes. Saw a couple ops I knew (yes got hugs :)) only rode 5x then decided to walk around park w/my 35mm & telephoto lens and take some "real" pics.
Let me also mention at this Po!nt that this was obviousely "Oral hygiene optional", and "Yes I am 200 lbs but I CAN wear size 9/10 and look good" day at CP, so I spent ALOT of time getting the shudders or thinking to myself "that is NASTY"!
Walked to Frontier Town, snuck into MS's old queue to get some nice shots of MS. What a WASTE of a queue-that queue is BEAUTIFUL! The last time it was necessary to utilize that queue for me was back in '98, cant they use those shade tents for another ride? (Like Raptor?) Looked for Dave on MS-nope, opted NOT to ride, off to Gemini. Wasn't going to ride but decided to anyway. Didnt reconize any of the ops from the Gemini 100, and who is this op Oscar? No one can understand ONE word he was saying and everyone was busy making fun of him. Only 1 train running, only rode 1x (saw "our" seagull Hooper! ;))off to Maggie. No Dan! Got some shots, then decided to ride. Tried as hard as I could to hold on to my camera case it still went FLYING straight up during the airtime ;)
Back to Raptor again where my "goal" at that point was simply to "beat" my previous 1 day ride record of 32 (done during '99 Halloweekends) Not quite a walk on but close enough, I rode 5 more times and ended up seeing fellow GTTP'er Joe E during one of my sprints. I couldn't figure out why it seemed like Raptor's G's were getting to me really bad....why? Because I hadn't eaten anything since 6am. Yikes! I am one of those people who definitely eat to survive, so decided HAD to eat before I passed out. Quickly downed maybe 6 french fries (thankful seagulls got all the rest-what a feeding frenzy THAT caused!) downed a medium Pepsi in like 3 minutes (PIC-I would have made you proud shortly there after ;))
Back to riding. During 1 ride some woman grabbed me asked me if I was "that Raptor Jo person" I said yea and she said "because of YOU I started riding coasters here and I cant thank you enough"
Wow.....
OK so my big head and I kept riding. All I have to say is I MUST be in some seriousely good shape to manage to get off ride 1st every time. FLY down the stairs (jumping the last 3) run around and get back on line again as many times as I did. All the barrel racing and jumping I've been doing all summer apparently does me good! :)
I did stop a couple times to call my work and "check in" with them on a Raptor count. The last 2 laps were my fav cause one of my fav ride ops, Adrian rode with me. I saw one of my fav silver tags too who said "so you're coming back again this season huh?" I was kind of impressed he knew that! Last Raptor ride of my day?
Adrian and I waited for row 1...
ok-common sense would tell you eventually being a Raptor ride op (me) and being with a Raptor ride op would get you into trouble---he and I got a dose of "tickle me Raptor" for my last ride!!
That was my 1st time (and hopefully last) :)
OK-did Raptor Jo succeed in hitting her 67 laps so she could have her 500 lifetime? No way.
I did however manage to break my 32/1 day record.
I successfully rode Raptor a total of 40X!!!
:) :) :)
I figured if I hadnt done other things all day I probably could have gotten my 67 laps but it is important for me to have my b/f or one of my GTTP family members with me when I hit my 500. So I figure 27 more laps should be achieveable during MM. It was a good thing I had to do this trip solo cause I cant imagine my b/f (who stayed home to take care of some horse business-including cleaning my horses stalls for me :)) or either of my kids keeping up with me.
So my last CP trip of the "normal" CP season a blast for me, weather was FABU, crowds were very light, saw tons of friends and fellow CP employees, Raptor was running AWESOME (as always :))
Hugs!
CU@CP!
Jo
2000 Raptor Crew
2001 Raptor Crew
Gemini 100 "Survivor"
Po!nter Girl-FOREVER! :)
2001 Raptor Laps: 94 :)
Lifetime: 473
27 to go for 500 lifetime!
(ok so not as impressive as Magnum Dan or even Raptor Dave but I try!!)
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Welcome back Raptor riders-how was your flight??
Jo..I have to meet you sometime! I didn't know that you had horses! I have a quarter horse (yes, only one, but I hope to have many more someday). I'm a raging coasterholic too..I've probably seen you on Raptor before and not even realized it. Will you be at CP on Labor Day or MM this Thursday? We're meeting Joe E. there too..maybe we can all meet up for a few laps :)
The last 2 members of the Gemini 100 crew left last weekend. Sabrina and Amy were the last two left. Dan (who processed IN on the Gem 100 day) just left this week.
As for Oscar, he's a blast.. it's taken him all summer to learn how to pronounce his "G" in Gemini.. and he's very proud of himself for it.. hehehehe
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"Sorry but Millennium Force is currently DFD."
MF total - 393 laps
VertiGo Launches - 28
June 11th, 2001 - Gemini 100
Great report, congratulations on 40X on Raptor. That beats my 34 in one day. Too bad I wasn't their; it would have been...um interesting. ;)
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This second hill is my favorite part of the ride. It is so Cool!
Gemini 100
Its Dan K's fault
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This second hill is my favorite part of the ride. It is so Cool!
Gemini 100
Its Dan K's fault
Jo, I want to ask you if you ever got one of the Raptor Zippo lighters? They dug into storage and found a LOT of CP Zippos and put them out Friday. In 3 days,I got 15 of them and some are extras. I have an extra Raptor if you want it.
Jerry
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http://www.magnummania.com
jerry@magnummania.com
Hooper-NO ONE can kick that Sandusky sky like you and I-it would have been even more fun for me if you were there too. What sort of trouble can my PIC and I get into the rest of the season??
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ;)
Jerry-I love ANYTHING with Raptor on it, please check your email-thanks! :)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm ;)
Jerry-I love ANYTHING with Raptor on it, please check your email-thanks! :)
Jo
2000 Raptor Crew
2001 Raptor Crew
Gemini 100 "Survivor"
Po!nter Girl-FOREVER! :)
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Welcome back Raptor riders-how was your flight??
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