Barreling down 75. This makes nine visits in the first month, so I'm happy so far. I just about crap myself when I see the semi in front of me simply SLIDE off the road like it was greased. Right sideways into the shoulder. Hair standing on end I decide to slow down a bit. Fatigue's starting to hit me already! I'm screwed. Somehow I make the trip in about an hour and fifteen. There's nothing good on the radio and there's not enough salt on the pretzels.
Before I knew it, I was at the McD's on Causeway Drive. Massive herds of straight-up coaster enthusiasts are clamoring at the doors; I walk in at a jog because I was too freaked out from the truck to stop, and have to fight my way through packs of ACEers to get to the potty. I used to be more a straight-up enthusiast..for about six months when I was 13, before I realized I was a Po!nter and nothing more. So now I walk into a bevy of them and feel alienated. It would be weird to be a person that comes to CP and sees COASTERS....not "Oh God, I'm home!" For them, they'd say the opposite. I am in ACE, and probably always will be, because I had good, early memories with the club and still have a number of friends in it, but I will never be just a coaster enthusiast. The Po!nter blood runs too deep to ever leave it just at that.
No Food For Anne...line's full of baseball-jacketed ACEers. I zoom off and into the Main Lot, nearly turning Dan and Brian into road pizza (or at least messing up their clothes) as I drive by them going about 40. God, it's rainy. It's gloomy. I load on the clothes and go to get my pin (something SO EMBARRASSING happened at the ticket booth that it will stay between myself and God til the day I die. I would never live it down if I said what happened) and find Dan and the gang.."Where's Jo?!?!" "Over there!"..off I run to see my Po!nter sister. Soon we're waiting at the gates, huddled up. The top bananas come out to give the intro speech and the mics don't work, rialing up the enthusiasts in the back of the pack. Then the gates are opened and this literal STAMPEDING takes place...this old guy nearly knocks me down RUNNING to get to Raptor. O...kay! (Yet another nice thing about being a
Po!nter..didn't make it this time? I'll ride it next time) Since we see the line for Jo's baby getting out of hand, we walk off to Mantomatic's ride...Mantis, of course. (We being myself, Jo, Dan, SpartyJeff, Dan's brother, and one or two others, I was too tired to keep total track)