Wet but empty CP 8-27-09

Nothing like waking up before the crack of dawn, leaving house at 5am, getting to CP at 8:30am only to find out the park doesnt even open (to GP) till 11. Yikes when did that happen? Rain started as soon as we got to parking lot. No biggie-hubby and I scooted to WalMart so he could get a rainsuit like my employee blues. He did have a yellow rainsuit with matching yellow suspenders but I guess he didn't like looking like the Gortons Fisherman..go figure ;)
Got back to CP in time for early entry...by now the rain was coming down pretty steady but nothing that drastic. Unfortunitely it meant no Raptor (which I knew) till rain passed. Hubby and I waited and once Raptor finally opened (around 10:30) we took advantage of ERT and got to ride 5x before GP invaded park. We spent the rest of the day leisurely riding rides which were open, and finally around mid afternoon the clouds broke away and the sun made a brief appearance. Didnt take long before the raingear was way too warm for us-thank goodness!

There were still lots of kids in the park today but the crowd was very tolerable and light. There was nothing anyone couldn't have ridden today it was a pretty great day to go.
With the exception of Maverick (and maybe TTD but didnt look) none of the coasters were running with all their trains. Not an issue since it appeared all the guests were getting through the line pretty quickly. The longest wait we had was for Maverick which was maybe 40 minutes. We rode Paddlewheel to see the clearing progress-sorry I didnt bring my camera! Blue Streak and Mean Streak were really flying thanks to the rain.

I saw my 1st CP rat today by Snake River Falls. At 1st I thought it was a huge chipmunk till he came out again and hubby confirmed it was a rat. I thought he was cute but I love rodents anyway. Hubby-not so much :)

One of the Skyride ops asked if I was going to be working Raptor this October...then one of the Raptor crew asked me if my name tag would say Jo or Raptor Jo (they wont put Raptor Jo on it-Ive asked for 3 years) Apparently it looks like I need to work on Raptor again this Halloweekends. I NEVER thought I would say that again but the crew this year is just beyond awesome-I think it would be great to work with them.!! I just have some other things I need to settle first before I commit.

Later on I wanted to do some Raptor marathoning since ride was finally a walk on. No such luck-hubby made 1 ride and quit. He is no ride warrior-but did say I could keep riding if I wanted to. I only rode 1 more time and decided I would stop so we could go home.
I also decided next week I will go solo one day so can spend a day just lapping Raptor to see how many rides can do in one day (can I beat my previous record of 65?)
All the crews were soooo fun today and despite the early crappy weather was really making the rides fun for everyone! :)
I especially loved Maggies op who would say "how was your ride? --Great-goodbye" :)

I actually didnt buy ANYTHING from any of the stores today which even shocked myself! What happened to the TTD and Maverick models they were supposed to have this month?

All in all a great day besides arriving at park way too early and Mother Nature trying to mess it up! The rain must have followed us home, we no sooner get to Columbus the showers started and are supposed to stay with us for next few days. Great! :(

Jo
Lifetime Raptor flights: 2075 :)

I went Monday of last week and happened to check "today in the park" on their website before I left. It's a good thing I did because I noticed the 11a-9p operating hours. I guess that's new for this year. I kind of liked it though. Got to sleep in an hour later and got a bit of night time in the park.

Nice trip report, I can remember having to bring a rain suit on one of my visits back in 2005. I've never seen MF running on train, like they were that day, that's how low the crowds were, and then Mantis stretched my pants, so I had to get a new par that night.