Coastermania 06! Now with more Mania!
I arrived at Briarwood mall in Ann Arbor to pick up my girlfriend when she got off of work. I had not slept in 22 hours and I could feel the Trucker's Choice caffeine pills kicking in. We started heading out and I timed our trip at just shy of 2 hours. Keep in mind I did not include the 3 stops I made to use the bathroom due to the pills.
We arrived and processed in to get our badges and meal tickets. Then back tracked to Breakers Express to check in. The girl decided to sit out the morning ERT to sleep since MF was down. Little did she know ERT would be on Raptor, her favorite. I put on my Chuck Taylor's and headed out.
When I arrived I still had 20 minutes before they opened the rides. I decided to do a little jogging. It's so nice jogging by as Raptor is testing, or getting that runners high as the lights on Dragster cycle down the tower in front of you.
I decided I needed a bigger rush and went straight for TTD. Tony of T&T fame was acting entrance op. He checked my badge and in I went. I got 5 rides in and Dragster went down. Off I went to Raptor where I met Raptor Jo and her "hubby." Very very nice... I decided to ride in the rear with the two of them. If you have the chance to ride with the two of them I suggest you do, they are great people.
I headed back to Skyhawk for 2 very short rides. The load time seems much more efficient now.
Back to Dragster which was running again after a close to 45 minute down time. Rode with a couple of guys from NYC who had words to say about my Detroit shirt. They were all Yankee this and Yankee that. I retorted back with a few choice words and we rode front seat together... Riders are great people, you can disagree about trivial things, but when it comes time to ride, it's time to ride.
ERT consisted of 9 TTD rides, 7 Raptor and 2 Skyhawk.
Around 9ish I called it quits and went to camp at the Maggie entrance. Jerry showed up and his friend (I'm rude Jerry, I should of caught his name) and Raptor0137 showed as well. We made small talk and speculations... Line opens and we are out on the first public train of the day with a 0 trims on the pretzel.
Back to the hotel for some Zs only to be interrupted by some genius who thought it would be a good idea to test the fire alarms before noon. This is very upsetting. What about the people who had long nights or got in to the Sandusky area at 5 in the AM? (raises hand) I'm talking 10:30 am... later in the afternoon when people are at the pool or in the park would be an ideal time, such as 2pm..
After no sleep we headed into the park. We saw MF running with no one on it from the causeway... then finally people were riding, we decided to hold out until ERT.
We got into the park with just enough time to catch the last 10 minutes of Q&A, a ride on maXair before our excellent lunch.
There is something to be said about food services. The food was great. Hot Dogs, Chicken, Beans, Potato Salad, Cookies, Ice Cream, Soda..... It was great. There was a hilarious raffle with banners, a piece of blue tarp from the track at Breakers Express and wood that the mystery track sat on. Hilarious and good times with a few speeches from Tony, Robin and Lexi from Geauga lake.
Janice Witherow (sp?) was there with her daughter. Always nice to Janice and we had a brief conversation with her.
Back out to ride Mean Streak. The line was about 15 minutes. But it was about to get even longer for 3 young girls at the ripe old age of 16. Just as we were coming to our first rest in line 3 girls had come up from behind to join the group already in front of us. Just as one of them was climbing the rail I said “Hey, that’s not cool.” I got a bunch of lip and after explaining to them that I was not going to stand for it, two of the 3 got out while the other turned her back. After 3 warnings of what I was planning on when we reached the platform she ignored me even more.
We reached that platform and I informed the op at the entrance. I pointed the girl out and she asked the girl “did you line jump?” She said, and I quote “Yes, it was only 3 of us” She (the op) held the line at the entrance, got her TL, her TL called CPPD and an officer came, got her 3 friends and made them leave the line. He asked me what I saw and said thanks.
I’ll be damned if I am going to sit in lines from 6am until midnight while people line jump.
Around 7 we headed to the hotel to shower and get food. We decided to try East of Chicago…
WORST PIZZA EVER! Seriously, If the pizza were better it would be a fantastic deal… Not so much.
We got back to the park around 8:30 and got a few quick rides on Power Tower and maXair again. By the time we got off maXair we headed for ERT on Blue Streak. 2 rides later we headed for Maggie and than MF which we rode 6 times in a row.
This was so far one of the better CM’s I have been too. I met a lot of new fun faces and even some old…
It’s Monday morning and my legs still hurt and the rest of my body hates me.. It’s cool though, I would totally do it all over again…
Next year….
You know, I went to East of Chicago at about the same time, and the pizza was definately "off" from what it normally is. I just loaded up on the cheese bread instead, it's hard to screw that up. I've noticed the best time to go is when they're crowded. The pizzas are constantly coming out fresh and taste much better.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun
I went to EoC on Saturday around 1:00, and the pizza was "off" at first, but once they started putting out fresh pies, 'twas all good.
On a side note, I always love sticking around the point on Saturday after CMania - I don't know why, though - it's always REALLY crowded, but I always have a blast and have some time to relax and nap on the beach. 6/3 was no exception, as I had a great little nap in a lawn chair.
I took a whole bunch of night time photos which I will put up as soon as I get around to brightening them a bit in Photochop.
However I had to out this one up right away. He said he would kill me if I put this on Coasterbuzz. So I told him I owuld put it up on Pointbuzz.
Funny picture - Tony was a real trooper that night. Oh and in checking out your Blog - Millennium is spelled with 2 n's as in MilleNNium. Sorry, I didn't want you disrespecting my baby! ;)
cyberdman
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