Getting there can be half the fun...

...so don't stop me till I'm good and done.

It’s trips like this that make me wonder why I love this park so much. My original intent was to be in a National Geographic shoot riding Dragster on Friday, September 16, but well, Dragster isn’t running! But why would I cancel a trip to Cedar Point? I later found out that a German TV station was doing a shoot at the park that I was told I could be in.

My flight out of Fort Myers was at 6 am on Thursday morning. Therefore, I did not sleep Wednesday night. Thursday alone is worth a trip report, because I was traveling from 6 am until 7 pm. That’s right, 13 hours of traveling. I had a layover in Atlanta, and then again in Detroit. I finally arrived at my “final destination” in Cleveland at 12:45 pm. I wasn’t planning on checking any bags, but when I got onto the plane in Atlanta they had too many bags in the overhead compartment and they told me that they didn’t have any more room, and therefore I had to check it. The flight attendant asked, “Is Detroit your final destination?” And after I told her that it was Cleveland, she took a napkin and wrote “Cleveland” on it, which did not make me comfortable. Fortunately my bag did arrive at the airport in Cleveland.

I met Andrew Hyde (www.experiencethepoint.com) at the Cleveland airport, and we took the RTA to downtown, where the Greyhound station was. We spent the afternoon in downtown Cleveland and the Greyhound left at 5:40. We got to Sandusky at 7:00.

Now here we are. Sandusky, Ohio. 1 mile away from the Holiday Inn Express, no sidewalk, random signs that say “G Force is coming, all are welcome,” and constant “honkers” made our mile long walk a true excursion. Here we are, Andrew with only a backpack, but me with my laptop bag and a small suitcase. There was barely a shoulder, so we’re inches away from cars going 45 mph, and I’m lugging these two incredibly heavy bags under the freeway, across the onramps, through the tall grass, and we finally made it to Emerald City…err….uh…..Holiday Inn Express. We checked in at around 7:30, and after eating the complimentary cookies at the front desk (which were TO DIE FOR by the way) and settling into the room, and I fell asleep, in my clothes, at 8:00.

Friday! FINALLY! At around 10:30 we made our trek over to Best Buy so I could buy a memory card for my camera, and we called a cab to take us over to the park. We figured we’d check out the boat show, seeing as it was on the peninsula and it was something to do. So after I gave the cab driver 5 dollars, we went over the boat show where we found out that we had to pay another 5 dollars! So we just walked around the marina, the main entrance area, then we went around to the back of park and walked around the resort area back there, ate “lunch” or whatever meal you want to call it at 5 pm, and then walked over to the Magnum entrance, where I saw Tony, the ultimate Millennium Force enthusiast (Tony got his 1000th ride over the summer). We waited at the Magnum gate with Tony, until we got in with Joe Cool. Andrew didn’t have Joe Cool, so he waited at the entrance until 6.

Now, I worked on Millennium Force all summer. I have never, EVER seen the line so short! It was only up the special access ramp. The longest I waited on Friday was about 10 minutes, because it was about halfway down the ramp. All I gotta say is wow. Just, wow. To the maX. It was insanely crazy. I rode it 3 times before I needed to meet Robin Innes, the German film crew, Michael Burkes (the president of GOCC) and Tony. Once we all got together, the three of us rode Magnum and they got a few shots of us on it. They didn’t mount any cameras or anything, they just got shots from the station and around the ride.

After that, they got some shots of us from the midway, then they told us that they were finished for the day. Tony went over to Raptor, and Andrew went and rode maXair and Wicked Twister before going back to get the last ride on Millennium Force.

We got 5 more rides on Millennium Force, and then called it a night. Tony drove us back to the Holiday Inn Express.

Saturday: 7:45 wake up. We took a cab down to the park, went through the main entrance, got in with Joe Cool, and rode Millennium Force 3 times and then decided to hit the back of the park. We took some pictures of the construction makings around Town Hall and then rode Cedar Creek Mine Ride. Then of course we hit the second best ride in the park: Paddlewheel. After a trip around the lagoon with Captain Kirby we got on Magnum, and as we were getting off we saw the German filmmakers outside at around 11:30. We didn’t have to meet them until noon at the Millennium Force entrance, but we walked with them down the midway and watched them get some shots. Then we met up with Tony at the entrance, and then the filmmakers were nice enough to treat us to lunch at Coasters before we started shooting.

Then we went down the entrance of Millennium Force, where they shot us going into line, and got a few interviews. Then we went up into the station and got into the front row. I was surprised we actually went up into load station, because on other shoots they always got in at unload. Tony was wired with a microphone and he narrated the whole ride. They got a quick interview when we got off and then we were done for the day. Andrew and I spent the rest of the day in the park, got the last ride on Millennium Force, and we ended up with a total of six for the day.

That night I went out with the MF crew to Ghostly Manor, the #10 haunted house in the country, located right off of 250. Then we went and grabbed some food, then I went back to the hotel.

Sunday morning we got to the park for Joe Cool, rode Millennium Force 3 times, Mantis once (ughhh!), Wicked Twister, maXair, Disaster Transport, and then I wanted one more ride on Millennium Force to say goodbye to the crew. Andrew and I walked down to Frontiertown to get some shots of the markings by White Water Landing. Then at noon when Frontier Inn opened we grabbed some pizza, and took the train back to the Main Midway. Uh oh… our Greyhound leaves at 1:10 and it’s 12:30 and we’re racing down the Main Midway to get the 12:30 trolley back to Holiday Inn Express to check out, and then we were going to have to call a cab to get us to the Greyhound by 1:10.

We missed the bus. We called a cab to come pick us to take us back to the Holiday Inn Express and then to the station. The cab driver (who was the same driver we saw three times over the weekend) told us that he needed to pick up a girl at Cedars and take her to pick up things from Commons, and then also to the Greyhound station, because she was taking it to Detroit at 1:20.

We got to commons at 12:47. She told us that she was going to run in, grab her bags, and come back. She came back at 1:11. The cab driver sped down 250 and got us to the Holiday Inn Express, where we ran in, grabbed our bags, and went down to check out. The German filmmakers were staying at the same hotel, and in fact were checking out at the same time. I checked out then ran out to the cab, and he drove a mile south to the Greyhound station.

We missed the bus. The girl who was taking the 1:20 to Detroit didn’t seem to show any sympathy, and her bus hadn’t come yet. Fortunately, the lady at the ticket counter told us that the next bus to Cleveland at 4:00. My flight out from Cleveland isn’t until 6:50, so we will be taking the 4:00 bus to Cleveland. And here I am, at 2:25, sitting in the Greyhound station, typing this trip report, waiting for the 4:00 bus. My 6:50 flight out of Cleveland goes to Detroit, and then I fly to Fort Myers from there, and I’ll get in around midnight (hopefully!).

So as I said in the first line, it’s trips like these that make me wonder why I love the park so much. Hopefully I’ll find out one day. But with that having been said, I have a small feeling that this was not my last trip of the season.

It was a lot of work, but it was by far the cheapest way to get to the park... and in retrospect everything mainly fell into place. Oh and next time we must take a boat somewhere down the line because you took everything but a boat to get to the park.

All in all it was a great weekend with some great rides and hanging out with some great people. It was great being introduced to Richard Rodriguez - an amazing and humble man, though his stomach can't quite handle Millennium Force ;) .

The highlight of the TV shoot was when you were giving some big long answer to the reporter's question and the little girl jumped up in front of the camera.

I'm game to do it again...!
*** Edited 9/19/2005 4:50:53 PM UTC by Andrew***

That night I went out with the MF crew to Ghostly Manor, the #10 haunted house in the country, located right off of 250.

How was that? The only houses I've ever been in really are the ones at CP for Halloweekends, which I can tell aren't top of the line (ha). What makes that one so crazy? *** Edited 9/25/2005 12:19:13 AM UTC by GeeForce***

It was pretty sweet. In fact, I signed the guestbook when we left and I wrote "So much better than anything at Cedar Point!" because face it, all the haunted houses at CP are exactly the same.

What makes it so crazy? I dunno, I mean it's your standard haunted house. You go through the rooms, the monsters pop out, bla bla bla bla bla, but there was something about it that just made me really enjoy. Hmmm....it might've been the cute girl that was grabbing onto me throughout the whole thing.