Closing Day 05

This is a little late but, better late than never right?

So I arrived around 10am from Farmington Hilll, Mi. We headed straight for Maggie and got right on. A short ride on Gemini and we decided to go up to the front of the park as we had some people we were meeting.

A 15 minute wait for Raptor and Blue Streak we finally met up with my girlfriends Mom, Aunt and Cousin. The former of that group had not been to the point in years.. something like 11 or so. So the look on her face on many of the rides was absolutely priceless.

Her first ride was Raptor which absolutely scared the bejesus out of her. Throughout the day as she rode more rides she felt better and enjoyed them more and more.

While they hit up Mean Streak I went to WWL to say goodbye. As I was waiting in-line by myself I caught Jeff sitting front row in WWL with a couple of people. I did the ride by myself and enjoyed one last quiet ride through the Tree Tops.

The last ride with the group was Millenium Force and I have never seen shear terror on anyones face before, as my girlfriends mom became increasingly aware of what she got her self into. Now, usually around the turns I like to get as much as possible out of them by letting my body go with the train. I loosen up and just let the ride take me where it wants to. She was freaking out and telling me to hold on and put my arms down. When we got off she told us all it well worth the wait and when she comes back next year she will ride that first.

I walked the group to the front gate and kissed my girlfriend good-bye and told her I would see her at Home. It was only 6:00 pm and I was going to close out the park by myself.

I went straight for Demon Drop and said a good bye just in case. Before getting in line the ride op told me (in the vein of the dog ate my homework) that and I quote "It has been bought by some park in Italy and that Kinzel will be going out with a bang in 2007... " also " that WWL will be the home to a new ride who's permit has already been approved by Sandusky and the State of Ohio. It will be somewhere around 500' and this was secured before the heigh ceiling(which I have never heard of) was put in place."

I did not buy any of it.

Said good bye to DD just in case and did a downside ride on Power Tower.

Went to Gemini and rode twice as I had time to kill before closing.

about 7:45 I went and stood around the entrance to Maggie. Waited and met with a few ACE members. We talked about the season and passed around some stories. at 8:05 the phone rang and the ride op was closing the line... so we thought just as we passed the pop machines we were told that was not it. Finally a few short moments later we were told that was it. I let everyone pass and walked up the stairs with the ride op as she made sure no one tried to sneak in.

We waited on the platform and finally got the last train call...

Lets just say our first circuit was intense... Everyone seemed to really be enjoying the ride and you could feel the love. As we came back around the break run and into the station the ride op asked how are ride was. With the enthusiasm of a packed arena we all screamed... He asked who wanted to go again and the station erupted.

Our second run while even better than before was lacking trims on the pretzel. Boy does Maggie get mean.... I loved every bit of it and I cannot thank the crew enough for our second circuit.

Maggie, your crew was amazing this year. The blonde kid running the ride and doing the spiels at the beggining of this year deserves some sort of reward. I think his name was Matt...

Thank you CP and I will see you on opening day.

Peace
Rob

I love riding with newbies. It's alway in interesting time.

Sounds like you had a lot of fun.

I seem to always ride TTD with newbies. Every single one looks like they had just as fun as I did when their ride is over. That's always a very good sign. :)

By the time May comes, it'll be just about 11 whole months since my last launch. It's hard to believe.

Matt was our TL this year.

Matt Rocks....

My 9 trips this year rocked... I plan on making more next year.

The last time I rode TTD this year, I was in the front seat with some
guy that really did not want to be in the front. When the catch car came down the track I told him "thats our ride right there" He seemed a little disturbed that the catch was all that was bringing us down the track.

He got lucky though. I was a single rider that day and I always look to increase the load on the train by telling the ops on the bigger rides that I am a single rider.