I had Dinner at Damons right on Sandusky bay and my family had to restrain me several times from jumping in the bay to swim to CP. After I was released I drove about 5 minutes to the causeway were I was greeted by a mass exodus of cars leaving the park. Good! It had been raining for about an hour so the air was quite humid. Not only that, the sky was Erie and had a brownish tint to it. It was only 8:30 when I arrived and it was dark with just that Tint lighting up the sky.
It pretty much drizzled or rained the whole time which made for some rain soaked rails :). I started out with Blue Streak which was in top notch from. Next was about a 10 minute wait for Raptor in seat 84. If you don't seat in 81 or 84 I think the ride is just fun, but in those seats I feel it is intense as well. Raptor ran the fastest I had ever seen and my eyes even fuzzed out in the helix.
I headed to the force to find an hourish wait which I though was kind of odd so I decided to wait till near close. Plus I had this feeling that something was not right. I walked all the way around the logoons until I hit Magnum. The line was about 10 minutes and I got 3 straight rides in 1-3 with rain soaked rails which were excellent. I could not figure out why the line wasn't dying down like normal though.
Then Matt gave me a tip and said Millennium Force would be down the rest of the night. The lift hills lights were out so I presume the power went out, along with later someone telling me they had to get out of line because of the power. I don;t know if a train was stopped on the lift or what happened if the power did go off. My guess is the final set off retractable magnet brakes would lock shut and the last train would stop outside unload.
Here is were CP shows its class and left Magnum AND Raptor open an extra hour till 12 with almost ERT conditions. I got 14 rides total in on Magnum, 12 of those being in 1-3. For the last hour they turned the trims off. The rain at times made it a bit painful, but it just slicked up those rails making for the best rides of my life. I did not bring my watch so I could not time it. The pure speed that magnum was going over the bunny hops made for some wicked ejector air. With the slick rails, warm humid air, no wind and trims off, I have a feeling that tonight is one fastest times Magnum has ever ran. I still can't get over the relentless up and down pounding that Magnum's bunny hills bestowed upon my body. Pleasure spiked with pain I would say :).
--------------
2001 Force Laps-80
2001 Magnum Laps-199
6/11/01 Gemini Laps 100
*** This post was edited by Joe E. on 7/18/2001. ***
Yes there was a massive power outage on MF and Mantis. Lucky Brad and I. We were on the last train that ran that night, after waiting around 40 minutes we hit the blue train for the last ride. (in the back with nice airtime) Upon returning to the block brakes before the exit station all the lights went out. I said "Last MF ride for us, none for you" looking at the people on the entrance ramp. Hehehe. There wasn't a train on the lift, just one in each station and one sitting outside the exit (that was ours). A mantis train was sitting on the midcourse brakes. That nice rain helped make alot of people go home too. We left around 10:30pm as we had had our share of Raptor ERT.
-------------
I rode Magnum 5 times and MF once with Robin Innes.
Gemini 100
It's Dan K's fault.
I was in line for Millennium Force just past the vending machines when the power went out. it was a very weird feeling. at one second the music is blaring, the hill is lit up bright, and trains are roaring by. the next second everything went black and the crowd just went silent. Does this happen very often because it has never happened when I am there until yesterday.
Power outages are pretty weird!
I experienced one on Magnum in '89. Came to stop at end. Then noticed everything got quite. Saw the train in station unload guests. Ride-op came out and said the power went out. Sat their for about 30 min before getting walked off. Very Cool!
Found out that everything from Corkscrew to Frontier was out.
Anybody else lucky enough to remember this?
jerry