I arrived at the park at 2:30, which was a half hour before it opened. It was pretty cool out even with a jacket on, so I decided to buy my ticket and wait in the car until I saw that people were being let in. Once 3:00 came, I entered the park and headed straight for Magnum, because I knew nobody would go there first. I was able to get six straight rides on Magnum without leaving my seat (except for that wonderful airtime of course ).
I decided to head over to the Force to break up the monotony. The line was nearly nonexistent when I entered the queue, but as I entered the station, the ride broke down, so it was back to Magnum!
When I returned to the Magnum station, there was enough of a wait to prevent me from getting anymore re-rides in. Despite having to reenter the queue each time, I was able to get six more rides on Magnum. While going up the lift hill on my twelfth ride of the day, I saw that MF was running again, so I went back over and grabbed two quick rides, both with minimal waits.
Surprisingly, those two rides on MF took a lot out of me, so I rested on the bench for a good half hour listening to the music that was playing. Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an American” (used in the Summer Spectacular) came on at one point, causing me to sing once again (to myself this time, to prevent any embarrassment ). I considered making a trip to the car to take a sinus pill and take off my jacket, but decided to head back on over to Magnum instead (thank God I kept the jacket…).
I got two more rides on Magnum, putting me at fourteen for the day. Unfortunately, my fourteenth ride was a rather rough one, so I ended the mini-marathon prematurely to go ride MF again.
I rode MF three more times, with each one beating out the previous as the best of the day. On my third ride, it was dark enough for the lift hill lighting to be noticeable, and what colors were displayed my whole trip up the lift hill? Red, white, and blue! Now that it was dark, I wanted to ride my fifteenth and final ride of the night (and my first night ride!) on Magnum to get a good view of MF’s lighting. I noticed that GregLeg, loriu, and Lori’s husband (sorry I don’t know the name…) were headed back towards Magnum. I finally caught up with them in the Magnum station and sat with Greg on my last Magnum ride of the night.
After a fantastic night ride on Magnum, the four of us stopped to get a ride on the Space Shot side of Power Tower, which seemed much more terrifying to me than it did back in May. The ride op (I think his name was Clint?) was nice enough to give us a re-ride.
We finished the night off with two night rides on MF, this thing roars at night. I planned on getting one of the nice fitted MF hats (how much do they cost?) to replace my PSU hat that the Raven stole from me, but the shops were closed by the time I got there (15 minutes after the park closed). Oh well, there’s always HalloWeekends!
Why didn’t I ride Raptor or Mantis you ask? Well, I simply wasn’t in an inversion mood, or in other words, I’m an airtime whore. But regardless, I had an amazing time just riding MF and Magnum. I don’t rank my coasters anymore (it’s too hard), but if I did, Magnum would have gained some serious ground after today. While some were better than others, all fifteen of my rides on Magnum were marvelous. MF was as fast and furious as ever. I can’t wait to get back to the Point (hopefully this year)!
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Joe Cernelli
Webmaster, Kennywood Boulevard
*** This post was edited by Space Cowboy on 9/15/2001. ***
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