First Halloweekend Friday on the Point! (10/10/03)
The traffic was moderately heavy on I-96, and then onto US-23. There was a lane closure on US-23 which led to a 5-10 minute backup. After that, it was smooth sailing down through Dundee, where they FINALLY finished the construction. WOOHOO! They were working on a bridge right after that, though, and that caused another 5 minute delay. After that, it was smooth sailing on US-23 into Ohio, and the 475 seemed to be a real smooth ride. Onto I-280 where it was mass chaos, and then to just throw me another obstacle, the Drawbridge was up. Blarg. Anyway, after the Lake Freighter went through, they brought the bridge down, and I went on my way. I stopped into the McDonalds in Oregon, OH for a bathroom break and food break. OldCPer and TheRealCP both came up behind me and all of a sudden, before ordering, I'm being asked if I'm bholcomb. LOL. I gotta admit, thats probably the weirdest way I've ever met anyone off the internet so far - and I've met well over 20 people now. Anyway, we talked for a few minutes, then headed off to the Point. At one of the stoplights in Oregon, they wanted to race.. I told them I'd beat 'em, but I knew I wouldn't. My Oldsmobile Ninety-Eight is fragile at the moment - I just got her back from the shop, and I'm afraid of breaking it again.
Anyway, They took the US-6 exit, so I took the Route 4 exit off Route 2, and I managed to beat them both to the Magnum gate by about 5-10 minutes, proving that 4 is faster than 6 (for anyone who doubted that). Anyway, after waiting 20 minutes or so, we were into the park. I ran to Dragster first thing - being out of shape didn't seem to stop me too much - I still was able to run the whole way there. Granted, its only a few hundred yards, but still, it wasn't a tough run for me at all. I managed to get on the first train. I got all strapped in and then TTD was down for Mechanic. Great. So we got back into the lines, and waited while they fixed it. (Apparently it was an airgate problem). Anyway, they loaded us after 10-15 minutes, and we were on the first train out. I was praying for a rollback, and we just barely creeped over the top - but alas, no rollback.
After Dragster ride 1, I ran back and got back in line for Ride 2. I got on after 10-15 minutes of waiting in the last train, in the seat right behind Dan. Dan must have felt the conditions were right for a rollback, because we both put our hands up :P Again, not lucky enough for a Rollback. Darn. After that, Dragsters line was nearing the pop machines, and I didn't feel like waiting in line again since I had an even 10 for the year.
I headed over to Force, and after an almost hour wait, I was on. They had to unload the water dummies still, and then there was an apparent block violation where a train stopped on the lift and another on the brake run. Once they finally moved the train into the unload station, the lift started back up slowly and Force was back in action. The line was pretty quick after that, and I got a great back seat ride. I love force so much. I'm sure going to miss it this winter.
After force, I headed to Magnum. The wait was longer than I wanted, so I only got one ride (last row) in on that. After Magnum, it was around 8 pm so I waited around for the Big GTTP get-together - unfortunatly I didn't see anyone, and after standing around the TTD sign and taking pictures of a group of people in front of the TTD sign, I left and headed towards the front of the park. I decided to see if Wicked Twister was running, which it wasn't. I then headed to Raptor and waited in a 20 minute line, and got a ride in the last row. After that, I got back in line. I managed to get in line a few people back from Jeff, but didn't feel like bugging him to say hi :P Jeff took the last seats on the train in front of me, and then I was loaded up for ride 2. Great ride as always, and I felt really dizzy after it. I rode twice more in a row, then my poor body couldn't take another ride like that. The lines were almost nonexistent (They weren't much past the freeway entrance) and Raptor was running fast and great.
After Raptor, I hit up force again, which had an hour wait. Back row again, as always... But this time I got a special ride - a ride in fog! Nothing like going over the top of that hill in the back seat into a cloud of fog! After the overbank, we went into fog so thick that it seemed as if we weren't even moving for a few seconds. I really enjoyed the Night Fog ride on Force. That's one I'll remember for awhile.
After force, I was tired, disappointed a bit (I still had a lot of fun though - I just wish lines weren't so long) and so I decided to go through Freight Zone and then onto Werewolf Canyon. I thought the werewolfs in the lines were pretty good. I waited about 30-45 minutes for it, then headed home. All in all, I'd call friday a pretty good day, just a little more crowded than I was expecting. I would give it a 8/10 rating.
Trip Report also posted at http://www.bholcomb.com/trcp101003.html
(Doh - Edited since these forums don't support HTML :P)
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2003 Stats - Days in the Park: 9
TTD:10 MF:13 Mag:14 WT:7 MS:9 Raptor:11 Mantis:5 Gemini:8 DT:2 CCMR:4 CS:4 ID:6 WC:2 BS:2
*** This post was edited by bholcomb 10/14/2003 2:01:07 AM ***
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