Closing weekend 2006

I'll try to keep this fairly brief. I stayed in a Lighthouse Point cottage with Catherine, and Mike and Artemisa Jandes from Chicago. I didn't do a lot of public complaining about it last year, but the thing was just not clean the last two years, and this was really the last time I was going to try it. Fortunately, everything was tip top. And thank God, because the weather would keep us in there quite a bit.

Friday night we didn't have any really strong riding ambitions, but we hit a few rides. Honestly I barely remember which ones other than Blue Streak, which, poor thing, has just been slow in this cold weather the last few weeks.

We finally got around to seeing "Eternal Jamnation" at the Red Garter, and it was the show I've been waiting for for years. Those hideous costumes were gone from the old show and the set was Kiss-free. They also brought back "Bring Me To Life" by Evanescence, which frankly is a necessary song to show off the talent of the female singers in a rock show. And imagine my surprise to hear "Rock of Ages" by Def Leppard. And did I mention there was no Kiss? Seriously, if they're going to stick with the rock theme again next year, this is the closest they've gotten to the perfect show.

Saturday started with breakfast at the cafe off the Breakers lobby. I was fairly alarmed when we got there because I could smell it, but was not aware that they moved it out of Friday's. Nine bucks isn't a terrible deal really, if you've done the whole Vegas buffet thing. We did it Sunday too, and were quite satisfied.

We did the early entry thing and rode Skyhawk. What a great addition to the park, if you don't count the down time.

Right after that we jumped on Millennium Force, which ended up being a bit painful as the sleet went horizontal just as we pulled out of the station. I've done the ride in cold weather before, but this was a new and unpleasant experience! Yeah, it sucked, but it's still one of those rides I'll always remember.

Another try on Blue Streak and Wicked Twister, and we noticed the sky was very, very dark to the west. The cold and the wind was already taking its toll, so we headed back to the cottage. While crossing the Camper Village parking lot, the sky opened up with the 50 mph gusts and horizontal sleet. Not good.

We all passed out for a lengthy nap and some TV.

At six that night we had reservations at Bay Harbor. We watched the sunset with the view of the park. Our waitor was top notch, and the food was amazing. The menu is actually fairly basic, but you can't beat the presentation and preparation. I'd still like to see some things a little more vegetarian and health conscious (yes, you can make gourmet food like that), but overall it was a great meal to remember. My compliments to the chef.

After dinner, the four of us recorded the podcast in a little under an hour. With a few beverages, we were off back into the park.

Honestly, I can't believe how many people were there. The weather couldn't have been much worse unless it was raining all day. We did get a few laps on various rides, including maXair, which I had not been on in awhile. They even started up Raptor, which I thought was asking for a rollback (though it ended up doing so Sunday morning, when I wouldn't have expected it).

Sunday was much nicer, but I really wasn't feeling well, so we didn't spend a lot of time there. Just getting into the park was a first, because the last two years we just left on Sunday without going in!

Overall, good weekend with good times. Would've liked to have connected with more people, but weather made everything harder. Good cap to a good season.

Unless they removed it for last weekend, there was a Kiss song in there: SHOUT IT OUT LOUD.

I saw the show in early Oct. I agree it was an awesome show! The song selection was great! Really suprised me.

As for the sleet, I can't imagine how MF was. I was on Magnum both times it started sleeting, and it was bad enough!

I was also on Magnum when it was sleeting and it hurt like hell. I rode MF first thing in the morning on Sunday and it was FRIGID!!! I don't know what was worse of the two. No matter what, always great rides and I'd do it in the middle of January with no shirt if that's what it took for me to get a mid winter ride high. You know the guys that do the polar plunge into water after New Years? Maybe we can do the Polar Launch on Dragster...lol

We were just sitting down on Skyhawk as the sleet started. I was really coming in heavy and we were the side who was getting it head on. Fortunately as the ride cycle started the sleet stopped. About 15 minutes later we were in the Gemini station and it started to pour rain. The weather was crazy last weekend.