Closing Weekend Adventures

I left for CP Friday afternoon with my friend Gabi and her boyfriend. The trip took 3 hours thanks to the I-280 detour (wasn’t it open the whole way through 2 weeks ago?) and getting caught behind the draw bridge. We set up camp at Bayshore Estates and headed off to the park.

On the way in, we got flagged down by some girls with an odd number looking to find an extra person to get the buy-one-get-one-free deal on Friday tickets. We split up momentarily, as Nick went with them, and Gabi went to the season pass office to have hers re-made since her mother had cut hers up a couple months ago. We all met up inside the gates, and headed off to WT. We finally managed to convince Nick to try it, but he didn’t like it very much.

Next, we headed over to MF, and got on with about a half an hour wait. We also rode Iron Dragon and Wildcat while we were in the area, and had a good laugh at the horror movie they were showing on the big screen. Then we pretty much dragged Gabi through the Fright Zone. She was still terrified of it from last year, and wanted to walk all the way around in order to get to Werewolf Canyon. We waited about 45 minutes for that, and I was pretty disappointed by it. It was cool to see the ride flume drained out, but honestly, the scariest thing was worrying about running into one of the potted trees they had all over.

After that, we took another amazing ride on Magnum. Once we got off, Gabi and Nick decided that they were too cold to do anything else, so we left the park around 10 against my protestations. We decided to find somewhere to get a sit-down meal instead of going back to camp and eating lunch meat, so I decided to take them for their first ever time at the Cracker Barrel, which is somewhat of a vacation tradition in my family.

Once we got back to camp, they went to sleep, and I stayed up for a few hours reading, watching the stars, and shaking my fist at the trains that came by every 5 minutes (although they didn’t bother me as much now that I’m at MSU and I hear trains coming by every night anyway).

Saturday morning, we slept in, and didn’t get going until 11:30. We stopped at the McDonald’s right near the Causeway, and saw a pretty nasty looking crash in the intersection there. When we got in, we went straight to MF, but decided not to wait, and rode Mantis instead. Then we went over and rode Corkscrew in the front seat. Next we rode Magnum without Nick because he claimed that the ride the night before was too painful. We also rode Gemini and MS while we were in the back.

After MS, we split up because they wanted to sit on benches and relax and I wanted to keep riding. I rode the Space Spiral for the first time and then took a trip on the Sky Ride. After that we met up again and went out to my car to eat our sandwiches for lunch.

When we got back in, we waited about 30 min for the Pharaoh’s Secret, which was another disappointment, IMO. We decided to ride Disaster Transport while we were in the area. And then Gabi and I waited about 45 minutes for WT, and had the pleasure of listening to the couple behind us in line debate what body of water we were near. One of them was convinced that it was the Atlantic Ocean. And then they asked the ride op where the Freeway merge point used to be, and she guessed Lake Erie, but said she wasn’t sure either.

Then we took a full loop on CP&LE RR. We headed back and rode Gemini again, before deciding to go back out to the car so Gabi could grab a snack. She and Nick decided to wait out in the car for a while, so I went back in by myself. I rode Demon Drop, and then I wandered around for a while taking pictures of the rides and midways all lit up. I decided to go ride Ocean Motion, but discovered that it was closed because of CarnEvil. I ended up sitting around in CarnEvil laughing at the people running and screaming. After I left that area, I rode the Himalaya, and then got a call from the other two so we could meet up again.

Gabi and I rode Monster and Gemini without Nick (because he was too cold to ride anything else), and then headed back to ride MS again. It had a 45 minute wait, so we decided to skip it, and I just took a few pictures instead. Gabi decided that she wanted to get some Starbucks from the coffee shop in the front of the park, so we headed up that way. Meanwhile, I wandered around the front area, and read some of the fake gravestones up near the entrance. An hour later, when she finally got her coffee, we headed over to Blue Streak while she chugged it. We had an awesome ride, and I rode it again by myself while Gabi went to find a bathroom.

After that, we went to check on the wait for MF, but decided it was too long. We got into a bit of an argument there because they wanted to leave, and I wanted to stick around and ride for the last hour of the night. They ended up taking my keys, and went and waited in the car. I took a ride on the red side of PT, and then got the last race of the night on Gemini.

I decided to head back and ride MS again, and actually had a decent ride in the front seat. I had 5 minutes to make it back to Magnum when I got off the train, but I was held up by the RR crossing gates. This wouldn’t have been that big of a deal, except that when the train stopped in the station, they still didn’t raise the gates. After a few more minutes, a security guard was approaching, and she began to talk to one of the sweeps. Then she pulled this group of about 10 teenage guys over who I had seen talking to the sweeps in the queue for MS and talked to them for a minute. She finally told the gate operator to raise them, but it was too late, and by the time I rushed over to Magnum, they had already closed the queue. Needless to say, I was extremely upset that I had been penned in like that because of some other jerks. It’s not that big of a deal in the long run, because I’ve had plenty of rides, but the end result was that all 20-30 of the people (including myself) trapped behind the gates left the park feeling pretty pissed off instead of thinking about what a great day it had been.

Sunday, Nick decided to sleep in the car instead of buying another ticket. Gabi and I headed in, and got a walk-on ride on Raptor, and then rode it again in the front seat with about a 5 minute wait. We then headed over to WT, and rode that twice in a row as well. We took a ride on the Space Spiral, and then rode the red side of PT with no wait.

We rode Magnum and Gemini next on the way to the back of the park. Next, we waited about 10 minutes for CCMR. That was the funniest ride ever, and I don’t think a single person on our train wasn’t in pain by the end. After that, we headed out to the parking lot to grab some lunch.

On the way in, we rode Blue Streak again. Then we decided to take final rides on Magnum (about a 25 minute wait) and Gemini (5 minute wait). We took the FT to MF where we waited about an hour for our final ride of the season. After that, we made a quick stop at a gift shop, headed out, and made it home in 2:15.

Overall, it was a pretty good trip, aside from the minor conflicts we had. The weather was beautiful, and I got plenty of great pictures, and some awesome memories.
*** Edited 10/31/2005 9:18:14 PM UTC by redwingchik***