Trip 07JUL13

so little dates sorry I didn't have much time this week, but nice long good trip. Decided to go that weekend because the rain looked like it would keep some people away and plus I haven't made a trip in some time. After heading home the day before from wpafb we took the leg from around Medina over to the point and arrived three minutes into the ert hour. We went back and parked in the end of Gemini lot, it stinks its taken up but oh well just a bit more walking.

First things first we went back to maverick, they finished testing a bit late and line opened right at 0915. Got my one ride in last row right seat, always a great time. From there we still had a bit of set left and decided to go hit Millie, this was only about a half of ramp wait that morning. Rode first car second row bay seat, good stuff. I will say I love seeing it fully painted one color, when I left at the end of 2011 and entered the military summer 2012 its nice to see all the differences from when I worked there to now. Anyways with a few minutes of ert to spare we went over and got into line for TTD and waited for it to open. This was about a 25-30 min wait, most so far that morning, and man...as my as I hate waiting for that ride, nothing, I mean nothing compares to the force of that launch. I may prefer airtime machines, but just...man...afterwards hit up power tower drop, it still is programmed to charge the turbo drop tank quite rapidly still, making the top of tower time like 7 seconds or so compared to the 12-15 from when I worked her.

After this my one girlfriends best friend had not ridden gatekeeper so far this year so we went to the front of the park and waited for it. As they rode back left, I was the row right in front of them, and honestly I'm surprised at how much one row makes a difference. That back row does get whipped over the wing over with a go of bit of force, whereas the row in front of it gets some, just not all. Still fun ride, not in my list of favorites, its alright, just now what I'm into. Once we got off, we decided to go stuff our faces a t the employee cafe...yum, and man its odd going back in there and seeing that place, and it still smells terrible btw haha.

After getting some food, I saw other people saying mean streak is at least tolerable, so we took the time to head to the back of the park and knick it out while food settled. On the way we decided to start our shenanigans however haha. Every time I go I grab a thing of fries at stockade and go feed the fish under mine ride that we affectionately call "on nom nom fishies." You'd be amazed how potatoes and grease are a delicacy for these guys, hopefully my girlfriend will post the video later, but man, death match in the lake occurred.

After feeding our fish we got a wait in over at skyhawk which took longer than normal because half the ride is still under. Its quite a shame that its halfway through the season and is still waiting, its such a great ride and once we got on I was so glad I waited 45 min for it. From there we all pulled out our phones and waited for tony to tweet something, once we got the clue we headed back to the cp le RR station and there he was. We were quite early however we only were using one phone for twitter thinking all three of us would be eligible..nope. I had to create a twitter account right on the fly there on my phone as I don't use twitter at all lol. Anyways two of us got prizes, one was for a free round of skyscraper and one was for free challenge golf. Not too bad for freebies actually didn't think I'd get that kind of stuff to be honest. So anyways tony, you're welcome I created a twitter finally just for you...its still dormant from that day haha. After this we finally got on mean streak and from what I know about it from 2011, it was better. Its rideable, its alright, but no thrills. The trimmed first drop kills any bit of joy it could bring, but it is smooth enough to ride, get off, and not think that you just got the **** beat out of you. We came back from frontier trail and hit up mantis really quick, same as always, nothing special, just fun.

From here we went to our car, took a break for a tad and then came back to the park. We venture to the front of the park and got blue streak in and holy crap. From not riding it since 2011, wow just wow. That thing just goes, its so ridiculously crazy the up stop wheels are still spinning full speed once you hit the brake run lol..just...damn. we decide used to go do raptor next door afterwards. I'm not a fan of inverts, but it is fun to get that g force pull all the blood to your legs. OK ride, great crew as per usual, but eh. Afterwards, I had my seasonal tofts visit, buckeye blitz milkshake is amazing, go try it. From there we went back in line for gatekeeper again, this time only about a 20 minute or so wait, this time front row for girlfriend and her friend, second row for me. This row was actually a surprise, this rows outside seat actually has quite a bit of force as I started to grey out on the immelman, I actually had to clench up to prevent it from going any further through that element. The rest of the ride was exactly like the front but a bit more force than the gliding feeling the very front row gives you.

From here we waited for tony to tweet again, and missed it by seconds..for anyone who tries to doing, the challenges are over in a matter of like 2 minutes..its all luck honestly unless he makes these clues harder.

After loosing there we went to the car again to get a few things. On the way out we stopped and did skyscraper and loved it as i always do. That first pass over getting a bit of akr, then from there on out getting thrown out of your seat and into the restraint, just amazing. Anyways from looking at my radar we realized the rain was incoming very soon as ttd and Gemini already shut down. As it sprinkled for a bit we sat there waiting it out. Once that stopped we figured let's go do a live e show however, due to rain all wheels that evening was cancelled. I understand why but total bummer they cancel instead of reschedule or postpone, this years show is very nice if you haven't seen it yet. Anyways as soon as we got up to there we looked at all wheels, gatekeeper was cycling, again small wait. We did the same thing again as last time and same results with the front. From here we went to the employee cafe, grabbed some food, and headed home making the three hour drive back to base...and man hearing revellie that morning sucked btw haha.

Anyways here's some stuff worth mentioning. Corkscrew crew has def improved, especially the guy spieling, I believe it was 8sahia or something, I didn't bet a chance to go to park op to get him a spotlight, but good job man, really taking good care of my baby. Blue streak crew for being awesome and giving me a great airtime ride, no staple or anything for that ride, I was being thrown, great stuff. Raptor crew, efficient and bad ass as always. Chris on power tower, man I miss working with ya, sorry you got transferred from ttd, but it was always a blast, nice seeing that crew again. Gatekeeper crew for not taking any crap and stopping the lift for phones three times, get em :-). Tony for making me get a twitter and get a plan of attack to get to him first. B. Short for walking past him in orange and hearing that "hiii." That be does, if any of you have worked with him or been in area 2, you know what I'm talking about.

Good day in the park lots of rides, lots of stuff done, all in all good visit until I head up the next time. Only two rides I didn't get on was corkscrew and maggie and twister for the major stuff I wanted to hit. That 50-60 percent chance of rain and t storms really kept a lot of people sway that Sunday and it didn't even rain until 1700 or so. Anyways thanks for reading, hopefully pics and videos to come later

Sorry for typos btw, all done on a tablet half awake

My wife was one of the 8 people who won the tweetup with you at the train station. :). She won the GateKeeper lineskippies!

I hate you :-P

My wife won a tweet up at the train station too that day. We got a Johnsonville portable grill. I won line skippers to MF the day before.

Ah what I would do for line passes. As an employee you would just ride rides on your day off or whatever and you never really waited for anything. I don't really have that luxury anymore :)