MiA, CP, SFGAm, and other places.

[Red Bull]

EDIT: Pictures are here: http://redbull.smugmug.com

This is extremely long, so beware. If you just want to read the SFGAm portion, it is near the bottom. It was my first time going there.

I actually posted this on another forum, so some of the smiley tags might not be the same as they are on here.

July 29, 2004

As of now, I’m sitting in the hotel room in Muskegon, Michigan.

The day started out by leaving the house at about 5:00 am. I didn’t even go to bed since my goal was to try and sleep on the plane. We arrived at the airport were we checked our bags and were ready to go. Our flight left at 7:42. We sat around for about an hour or so before we boarded the plane. We got on the Super 80 and left right on time. We sat near the back, but it wasn’t too far. The flight was actually pretty nice and for some reason, I wasn’t nervous like I usually am on flights. Even with the turbulence, I was ok with it an actually thought it was fun…The flight was about 3 ½ hours long and we arrived at Chicago O’Hare. We rented a car and set off on our journey to Muskegon, MI. It took quite a while to get there, but that was only because of some traffic that we got into. We ate dinner at and Applebee’s where I had chicken fried chicken and a bowl of French Onion soup. Yum. We continued our drive and arrived at our hotel at about 9:30 and went to bed to get a good sleep for Michigan’s Adventure!

July 30, 2004

Place: Michigan’s Adventure
When: Friday
Crowds: Light
Weather: Rainy at first, but stopped. Cloudy but not too cold.
Who: My family and I

Today was Michigan’s Adventure. My dad and I ate at McDonalds where I got a sausage McMuffin combo with hash browns. I love sausage McMuffins. We got there at about 11:30 (park opens at 11) and went in with our Knott’s passes. The weather was nice because it was cloudy but warm. Before we left it was raining, but it stopped the rest of the day. Our first ride was Shivering Timbers. 2 train op and the line was only just at the bottom of the final ramp leading into the station. Wait time was about 10 minutes. Great ride. I got front car, row 2. The airtime was good, but not nearly as good as in the back. Next was Wolverine Wildcat. There was only one train operation so we waited about 20 minutes. Got back car row one. Fun ride, but would be better without the wait. After that I took a spin on Corkscrew. One train, 15 minute wait. Got near the back and got stapled which really hurt. We went to Zachs Zoomer where I got the front seat since there was just one train wait…like the rest of the entire train. I like this little ride. I wish I could have it in my backyard. I hadn’t gotten the kiddie coaster credit the last time I was here so I rode the Big Dipper (or was it Little Dipper?) I went in the very back and it was really jerky. I actually got slammed around on this little thing. I feel bad for those little kids that ride it as their first coaster.

We were hungry so I got a chicken on a stick and a Pepsi. Chicken on a stick is really good. After that I filmed some rides and went to the car to get my swim suit for the water park. It was kind of cold, so there weren’t tons of people there. I rode most of the slides except the kiddie ones and the big family tube ones since I was by myself. The rest of my family met back up with me later and we went back into the park section of the park. I rode Corkscrew again and the paddle boats. After that we were hungry so I got some mini donuts with cinnamon sugar. They were good…yeah. Since that wasn’t going to be my dinner, my dad and I both got a chicken on s stick combo which is 2 chicken on a sick, fries and a drink. Yeah, that was good too. After that I went on the swings. After I got off the rest of us went on Mad Mouse. Fun little coaster. Wait time was about 10 minutes if even that. Did some more filming and took some more pictures. I went on the log ride where I got log #13. Not themed at all, but that doesn’t really matter. We headed to the new train thing they have so I could get come more video of Shivering Timbers. We got off and went to the ferris wheel so I could get some more video of the whole park. I decided to test my luck at the “guess your third pitch speed game. I lost. Rode Corkscrew again since there was no line and their new car ride thingy. I got a nice pink car. Oh yeah, I was stylin, yo. These ones don’t even have a gas pedal. They are electric and all you can do is steer and honk the horn. My dad and I rode the log ride again and got the same boat. When we were about to go, I was wearing my blue ACE shirt and the ride op says “Are you guys a member of ACE?” We said yeah and he said that he had the same shirt. Cool…I guess. After that we rode Shivering Timbers again. My dad and I rode after that ride since it was almost a walk-on. We rode Thunder Bolt after which was fun, but not fast enough. When we got off, we rode Trabant. It was my first time riding one of these and this one was really slow. I was expecting it to be faster with more airtime. I did some more filming and took some more pictures and we left the park right at closing.

The park was fun and I got the kiddie coaster credit that I didn’t get the last time I went. The water park was fun for a couple of hours and I bought one of those big squirt things. The crowds were light which made for short lines. It’s a great park if you are in the area.

Rides ridden:

Shivering Timbers- 4
Wolverine Wildcat- 2
Zach’s Zoomer- 1
Mad Mouse- 1
Corkscrew- 4
Big Dipper- 1

July 31, 2004

After MiA, we headed to Livonia, MI to go to my friends house. (Livonia is right next to Detroit) My dad and I ate at McDonalds again and I had an Egg McMuffin combo along with a Sausage McMuffin. The drive to Livonia should have been a 3 hour drive, but there was a lot of traffic so it took about 5. We arrived at their house at about 5:00. When we got there we ate dinner and had hamburgers and hot dogs. I had a hot dog…

After dinner I went to my sisters’ friend’s boyfriend graduation party. It was pretty cool and I met some cool people there. We left around 10-10:30 or so and went to Ritter’s Frozen Custard where I got the BEST PEANUT BUTTER MOUNTAIN!!! Seriously, I LOVE these things. They don’t have any where I live which really sucks. It’s a squirt of this liquid peanut butter stuff, 2 scoops of vanilla frozen custard, followed by more of the liquid peanut butter stuff, followed by crumbles of peanut butter cup, followed by whipped cream with a cherry on top. It’s the real definition of heaven in a cup. I should buy a franchise so I can have it all the time. After that we went to the hotel and well…slept.

August 1, 2004

Today, we headed to Cedar Point. We didn’t actually go into the park, but we drove to the hotel and got settled in. When we left, we stopped at Steak ‘n’ Shake for lunch which I have never had before. I had heard that it sucked and I wanted to try it for myself. It was really, really good. I had a bowl of chili, a spicy chicken sandwich with fries and a big glass of Mello Yello. The drive was about 1 ½- 2 hours so it wasn’t bad at all. We arrived there and walked around a bit and tried our luck at getting a Zippo from one of those machines where you bush a button and an arm moves and knocks a Zippo lighter off of the rotating platform. Used up about 6-8 quarters, no luck. It was weird because there was this little kid that had one. When I asked how long it took for him to get one he said, “One dollar”. He must have just gotten lucky. I noticed that Power Tower wasn’t running. Hopefully it would be running tomorrow. So we move on and go to dinner in the Breakers Hotel. We went to a place called Dominic’s. It was good last year, but not this time. We ended up waiting over an hour for our food and when we got it, it wasn’t that good. I wouldn’t go to this place again. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel (My friend and his family stayed in Camper Village) to rest up for a fun filled day of Cedar Point!

August 2, 2004

Place: Cedar Point
When: Monday
Crowds: Heavy
Weather: Very hot and humid
Who?: My family and My friends family

The day started off by eating breakfast at the Breaker’s Express (which was where we stayed) I had a Krispy Kreme donut and a cup of *free* coffee I don’t really like coffee, but I couldn’t resist since it was *free* After breakfast, we went on over to Camper Village to meet up with my friend and his family. We headed over to the park at about 9:00 since people who stay in any of their resorts gets in an hour early. The two rides that were open were Raptor and Millennium Force. After we got in, (we entered in the back entrance near Magnum) I put my camera bag in a locker and we of course, we all headed to Millennium Force. My friends mom doesn’t like the rides so she sat out. We waited about 30-45 minutes. I got the very back seat. Awesome ride in the back with lots o’ airtime. After that me and Scott decided to go on Mantis before the line got too long. We waited about 15-20 minutes and got the 3rd to back row. Fun and not too rough. Next, all of us went to Mean Streak with a one train wait. Scott and I got 2nd or 3rd car, front row. I wanted to make sure I didn’t get a wheel seat because you CAN tell the difference. The ride was well…Mean Streak. It wasn’t super bad, but they really need to find a way to stop that squealing type noise that goes on throughout the whole ride. We went on the swings after that since it was there and it had no line. After that we went to get a Millennium Force freeway pass. We waited in a really long line to get it and our time was 5-6. I also noticed that Power Tower still wasn’t running. Dang it.

It was lunch time so I stopped and got a cheese stick meal at the place that’s across from Wildcat. The cheese sticks were great and the fries were, too. The rest of my family and my friends family went to a place over by the log ride that had pizza and other Italian food. My fries were cold by the time I ate most of them since I had to walk all the way over there. Scott and I decided to split off from everyone else so we went to the Antique Cars. Waited about 5-10 minutes and they were pretty fun. One thing that was good was that it was relaxing and a nice break from the hot sun.

We tried our luck at the Zippos again and still no luck. I spent about 3 bucks. I was really close though. We noticed that there was a line forming for TTD freeway passes so we waited about 50 minutes to get one of those. Scott and I both ate snow cones while waiting and it cooled us off a bit. I looked at the line for Corkscrew and notcied that there was actually a line for it! It was all the way down the stairs. We decided to not ride since it isn’t worth that wait. After that we headed over to Wicked Twister where we noticed that the line was closed, but there was a little line outside of the queue area so we waited about 5 minutes and the line reopened. We got on with about a 2 train wait. We rode a second time where we waited about 10 minutes. We decided that it was way too hot so we went to Disaster Transport to cool off in the line. The ride was fun, but hot inside (except the queue) and a bit too short. It was fun though. I’ve only been on it one other time. Since we were right by Chaos, we decided to take a spin on it. The cycle was very short, but the weight in our car made up for that. Scott and I were spinning so much. It was probably one of the best rides I’ve had on a chaos. We decided to go to the arcade where, yes, we tried our luck at getting a Zippo. I only spent a dollar or two, but no luck. I played a game of DDR even though I was already hot and sweaty. I played Afronova Re-venge standard mode (7 footer I think), Captain Jack on standard (7 footer) and Holic on Heavy (8 or 9 footer) When I was done I was so incredibly sweaty. I wish I had played DDR first and then gone to Disaster Transport because I could have cooled off in line. After a nice, long drink of water, Scott and I rode Raptor. The line was only about 20 minutes so it wasn’t bad at all. It was almost 4:30 by then, which was the time we had to meet up with everyone else. We rode the baskets over to the TTD exit to meet up.

Scott and I had TTD freeway passes that were from 4-5, we got in line while the rest of our familys waited. The line took us all the way up to the ramp, which saved us about 1 ½- 2 hours. It took about 20 minutes to get up into the station. We debated on whether or not we should wait for the front. Since we waited for the very front last year and since the line was too long for the front, we decided to go for the very back. There were about 6 people in front of us when I hear everyone go “whoooooah”. I look to the launch track where I see the train rolling back. I thought to myself, “Ok, so they’ll just re-launch it again, right?” Wrong. One of the operators goes over the PA system saying that the ride is down and they won’t know how long it will take. Not a problem since we were in the shade and there was nobody behind us. Well, a few minutes goes by and this big group of black people (no pun intended) comes in and decided to take up the rest of the station when they weren’t supposed to. The employee that limits the amount of people in the station had his back turned and they got past him. So now Scott and I are standing there, squished in by all these people, 2 kids are sitting on top of the trashcan right next to us and there is basically no room for us. Now we hear “Can everyone please take a step back to allow the passengers to get back where they were standing.” Ugh not good. So we scoot back as much as possible. I look at the launch track and I can see the train that rolled back coming into the station at about 1 mph. I thought of someone’s video from here that they posted that showed the TTD train rolling back at about the same speed. So the train comes in the station and I hear another “Can everyone please take another step back to allow the riders to exit the train and wait in line.” So I scooted back as much as I could. Hurry up an fix the darn ride! Since we were so close to riding, Scott and I decided that we would wait until 6:00-6:30 if the ride wasn’t fixed yet. It was about 5:20 then. A few more minutes go by and they load everybody back on. Yay! They launch the train and everybody is silent. The train barely crests the top and makes it over…the whole line cheers. It’s finally our turn to ride, so we strap in and start moving forward. Our family is taking our picture as we’re waiting to launch. The brake fins drop and off we go. The launch wasn’t as intense as I remembered it, but it was still fun. I barely even got butterflies in my stomach. We go to the top and I’m hoping for a rollback, but no luck. Oh well. We get off and head to dinner. We ate at a place called "Game Day Grille".We had to wait a while to get in, but I thought it was worth the wait. I got a deep fried pickle that was REALLY good. It cane with ranch dressing to dip it in. It was actually cut up and fried, and there were about 8 pieces. They were so good, so juicy. After my fried pickle, I had an open-top roast beef sandwich that had gravy on it with mashed potatoes. (also with gravy) Wow, it was GOOD. All washed down with a nice, big, cold glass of Pepsi.

Since we all had a Millennium Force freeway that was from 5-6, we headed on over and rode it. We got on within 15 minutes and I took the last car, row one. I sat next to a little kid with his dad behind me. It was the kid’s first ride on it…same with the dad. We were going up the lift and the dad goes “this is gonna be so awesome, how tall is it?” I turned my head and said “310”. He goes “awesome!“ The whole ride the kid was cheering and screaming. I could tell he enjoyed it. We stopped in the final brake run and the kid is still cheering. Then I hear the dad say “We’re moving to Sandusky” I thought that was pretty funny. Then the kid goes “Dad, can we go on this again instead of blue streak?!!” That made me crack up. Glad he enjoyed it. We headed to Magnum for a quick ride. We waited about 10-15 minutes and got front car, row 2. It’s really odd how there are gaps in the station. There will be a huge crowd waiting for the very front and towards the middle and back of the train. There was probably an extra 15 minute wait for the front and an extra 5-10 minutes for most of the other rows, but there was a 2 train wait for the front car, row 2 and 3. Why that happens is beyond me, but I’m just glad that I’m smart enough to look for those gaps. We got off and headed to Gemini where we took 3 rides on it. Our goal (Scott an I) was to break our previous record for how many times we could get on it in 1 hour. We didn’t have an hour to spare since we were going to go on one more Millennium Force ride as our last ride of the night, so we gave up. We all went to Millennium Force where we waited about an hour and a half and I got near the middle of the train. Great ride as always and it is definitely a different experience at night. We got off and went on back to the hotel to rest up for day 2 of Cedar Point.

Rides ridden:

Top Thrill Dragster: 1
Millennium Force: 3
Disaster Transport: 1
Gemini: 3
Magnum XL-200: 1
Mantis: 1
Mean Streak: 1
Wicked Twister: 1
Chaos: 1

August 3, 2003

Place: Cedar Point
When: Tuesday
Crowds: Moderate, much lighter than Monday
Weather: Very hot and humid
Who?: My family and My friends family

We woke up and went to breakfast where I had another Krispy Kreme donut. Good as usual. I looked at the board to see which rides were open for the early entry and it was Millennium Force and Raptor. We went over to Camper Village to meet up with Scott and his family. When we were driving in, I noticed that Millennium Force wasn’t running. Instead, TTD was running! So we get in and sure enough, TTD was running as well as Raptor. Sweet. The line was a bit long for TTD, but we decided that we would wait while it wasn’t 90 degrees out with 90% humidity. We waited maybe 45 minutes to an hour and I decided to take last car, row one since the line wasn’t that long. Luckily, the ride didn’t break down while in line. Fun ride….again. I got off when I saw that Power Tower had just opened! Yay. So we got there quickly and got right on. We did the space shot side. Fun ride and lots of airtime. We got off and quickly got back in line for one more ride. Space shot side again. Got off and walked around a bit. Scott and I rode Witches Wheel and it was a fun ride as usual. I love enterprises. I got my cheese stick meal again and I got cheese on my fries…yum. The rest of them ate at the same place as yesterday so I had to take the long hike back. It was way too hot, so we all headed to Soak City where it seemed like the whole world was there. We went in the lazy river once and then went to one of the body slides. I didn’t know how long the wait was since I have never been to this water park. Scott and I ended up waiting about an hour for one body slide! I did get lots of airtime on the last 3 drops, though. We decided to forget the slides and moved on to the other lazy river which was just chaos. There were tons of people trying to get in, the lifeguards were screaming at people not to go in the exit, people trying to grab a tube, etc. I finally got in and took 2 laps. It was pretty fun for a lazy river. We got out and went on those floating thingys similar to “Sinkers and Floaters” on MXC. I made it all the way near the end, but I fell off when I had 2 more steps to go. Me, Scott, and his dad decided to go on the big slide that holds a lot of people. We waited quite a while, but we were in the shade and the line moved a lot more than the body slides. We went up really high on the wall since there was so much weight in the tube. Scott and I went in the wave pool where we were squished in between tons of people and the waves were tiny.

We exited the park and got my camera bag and then went to diner at TGI Friday’s. I had some sizzling cheesy chicken stuff. I would have finished it, but my stomach felt weird and hurt a bit. Now it’s time for one of the funny parts of the trip that you need to know. Earlier, my friend Scott had a joke that him and his friends made up. Scott’s friend asked how much he weighed and he weighed and he said “180 pounds of pimp.” (He actually weighs more than 180, but on with the rest of the story) I was sitting at the table and then I said, “Man, when I get back to the hotel, I’m gonna take a huge dump.” Then Scott asked me how much I weighed and I said “180 pounds of DUMP.” (I weigh less than 180 pounds, but I just said it to go along with his 180 pounds of pimp) Ever since that, it’s been a joke about how much we weigh.”

After dinner we went on back in the park and rode Raptor. Sat in the second to back row and had a great ride. After Raptor, I went in the sky tower. I didn’t want to go in the day because it doesn’t have any air conditioning and my dad said it was at least 90 degrees in there. Got a bit of video from up there and a few pictures. Since I did barely any filming yet, I separated from the group and got some video and pictures. I didn’t get as much as I would have liked to, but oh well. When I went over to Millennium Force to get video and pictures, I noticed that there was nobody in line. The ride was closed and there were a few employees in the station. I was pretty bummed because I really wanted some footage of MF. I went over to Gemini where I happened to run into the rest of my group. We went on Magnum and the line was only in the station. It wasn’t even backed up to the stairs leading up to the station. Had another fun ride on it. Scott’s family had to leave early, but Scott decided to stay with my family until we went back to their house. (We were driving back to their house the next day. We exited the park back to our cars so Scott could get his stuff since he was staying with us in our hotel room. The rest of his family left and we went back in the park. Since Scott and I didn’t get to break our record for Gemini rides in an hour the day before, we decided to do it now. Since it was about 9:45, there weren’t many people in the station at all. In fact, it was a walk-on! Perfect! So we ride once, had a fun ride, got off, and ran back to the entrance to ride again. Walk-on again. We did this 10 times with 98% of the time it being walk on. The other 2% we only had to wait one train. We ended up riding 10 times in an hour. On our 10th ride, we waited for the front, and someone let us go in front of them since they were trying to get on with their group and ended up waiting only one train. So we were successful! It was about 10:45 so we exited the park. (The park closes at 11:00) We went to our hotel where Scott slept on the floor. Tomorrow would be a 1 ½ hour drive back to Livonia.

Rides ridden:

Top Thrill Dragster: 1
Millennium Force: 0
Corkscrew: 1
Gemini: 10 (in one hour)
Magnum XL-200: 1
Raptor: 1

Total Rides Ridden (both days combined):

TTD: 2
MF: 3
Blue Streak: 0
Cedar Creek Mine Ride: 0
Corkscrew: 1
Disaster Transport: 1
Gemini: 13
Iron Dragon: 0
Magnum: 2
Mantis: 1
Mean Streak: 1
Raptor: 2
Wicked Twister: 2
Wildcat: 0

August 4, 2004

I woke up to a cloudy morning with a slight drizzle. Scott woke up to his smelly arm cast in his face. (He had a broken wrist) We went down to breakfast where I had a Krispy Kreme and a very dry blueberry muffin that I didn’t finish. I looked out the window and saw that it was raining. That was odd seeing that it was extremely hot yesterday…We packed up and headed to Livonia. I was squished in the middle seat, but I could put my feet straight out onto the arm rests of the front seats, so it wasn’t all that bad. We stopped at a gas station where I got some TGI Friday’s flavored chip thingys and a Red Bull. The Red Bull was delicious as always, and the chips were alright. We drove for a while until we got to Phantom Fireworks. Since fireworks are illegal in San Diego, I had to stop there. We walked in and were told that everything in the store was buy one, get one for 99 cents except for assortment packs. Assortments were buy 2, get the 3rd for 99 cents. I look around and find just what I was looking for…M-80’s. They seemed a bit small and Scott bought them. He got 2 bricks of those and 2 bricks of Black Cat brand firecrackers. I got an assortment pack, some flasher thingys and some smoke grenades. I wish I had gotten the bigger pack because this one only has fountains and things like that. We got to his house after a long drive and I had Taco Bell for lunch. Three nacho cheese chalupas and some of that really good Mountain Dew Baja Blast. Those M-80’s that Scott bought turned out to be M-80 BRAND firecrackers. We were bummed because we thought that we were getting actual M-80’s. Bummer. We lit a couple things off but saved a lot of them. Since Scott’s cast was kind of wet and really smelly, we had to get a new one. I went with him and waited a really long time even though there was barely any people in there. The guy took way too long to put it on and after he did, Scott could barely move his thumb and fingers. He got glow in the dark color. After that, we stopped at White Castle and I got chicken rings. They were so good. A bit later, me, Scott, Sarah and her boyfriend, my sister, and John went to a Tigers game in Detroit. We were driving in Jeff’s car (a retired cop car) and we almost went into a ghetto. We were going straight and we turned quickly onto the freeway since the ghetto was right in front of us. It was hilarious because John was sitting there and all of a sudden he goes “NO! Ahhh! Turn around! I’m not going in there! NOOOOO!” We parked in some dirt lot and went to the stadium. We had some seats that were up high, but later moved down to the other side of the stadium out of the sun and closer to the field since nobody was sitting in the seats. I had some good chili cheese fries and a Pepsi. Where we sat just happened to be right behind the mom of the same so I was on screen when they showed her. It was pretty funny. The Tigers ended up losing to Texas and we left early since the game was getting really boring. While we were driving out, we drove right next to some of the ghettos blasting the music from Cops. “Whatcha gunna do, whatcha gunna do when they come for you! Bad boys bad boys”. It was hilarious and kind of scary at the same time. We saw a whole bunch of them just sitting on their porch. Detroit has some REAL ghettos! We got home and saw that it was too late to get Ritter’s since it closed already. We ordered a GIANT pizza from some place and I had a slice of that.

We were in Sarah’s room where we were all messing around. John was cracking up at what he wrote on Scott’s cast like “I like Ice Cream” and “My name is Scott” For some reason it was hilarious and John was almost dying laughing. It was hilarious. He also laughed at my “180 pounds of DUMP” written on Scott’s cast, too. After everybody left, Scott and I slept in the camper in the backyard where we watched Super Troopers, but didn’t finish it.

August 5, 2004

We woke up kind of late…around 10:00. Ate breakfast and waited for my parents to come over to the house. They didn’t come until a bit later, so Scott and I went down to Taco Bell to get lunch. I had three nacho cheese Chalupas again and a large Mountain Dew Baja Blast. I love that stuff. We went back to the house and my parents were there so we left to go to our tour of the Ford Rouge Plant. There was a huge group of kids that took up most of the seats in the bus which pissed me off since there was no place for me to sit. It was boring at first with all the videos, then it got cool when we got to actually see the card being made. After a while it got old and boring again, but some of the stuff was neat. We left the place at around 4:30 and ate dinner at a Chinese buffet on the way home. I had 4 or 5 bowls of soup, some potstickers and I even tasted some beef tripe. It was disgusting. We went home and blew some stuff up. John gave us an M-150 that he had and we stuffed the M-150 and a string of Black Cat firecrackers into a duck that we took after some kid tossed in the air at Cedar Point and just left it. The explosion was pretty cool and I got it on camera. We also blew up an Altiods can and a Taco Bell cup. We lit off the rest of my stuff and we had a fire in the backyard with some people that came over. John walked right through the glowing wood which was pretty cool. Time went by and everybody left and Scott and I went back in the camper and finished Super Troopers.

August 6, 2004

I woke up early today because there was a long drive ahead of us. We left Scott’s house and drove to Chicago to go to my cousins house. The drive was very long and I slept most of the time. I stopped at a White Castle in Michigan City, Indiana. That place is total hicksville! Anyways, I had 6 White Castle burgers, one Chicken Breast Sandwich (same size as the normal White Castles) and a Grape soda. It was good. I wish there was White Castle where I live. We got to the house at around 5:30 or so and had this tasty chicken for dinner. We had blueberry pie after and it was the best I have ever had. We talked for a while and then I went to bed.

August 7, 2004

Short Water Park TR

Place: Magic Waters Water Park
When: Saturday
Crowds: Average
Weather: Cloudy and cold most of the time
Who: Me, my family, and my cousins family.


Today we went to Magic Waters Water Park. It was a fun little park and it wasn’t too crowded. I got on all of the slides with the exception of the kiddie slides. I went in the Lazy river which was too cold to be a lazy river. They must have not heated it at all because it was cold! I went in the little kiddie area with the big bucket. 98% of the little fun things to do in there didn’t work. The big bucket was cool, though. Went on all the body slides and all the tube slides including their newest one…The Abyss. It was actually 2 slides. While I was there I had a Fried Twinkie, Chili Cheese Fries, and a Mello Yello for lunch. Yeah, healthy lunch. We left at about 5:45 since the park closed at 6.

We went home and had these good hamburgers with peppers, big chunks of garlic, and onions. They were really good, but filling. They were also spicy! After dinner I went to bed to rest up for SFGAm!

August 8, 2004

Place: SFGAm
When: Sunday
Crowds: Heavy!
Weather: Very nice, sunny but not too hot with a breeze
Who?: My family and my cousins family.

Today would be the day I hit my 100th coaster. I have to get on 9 coasters to hit 100. I got up with my camera and video camera all charged and ready to go. We left the house at about 8:30. On the way, we stopped at McDonalds to get breakfast. I had an Egg McMuffin combo with hashbrown, a Sausage McMuffin sandwich, and Powerade. Yummy as usual.

We arrived at the park at about 5 minutes to 10, got preferred parking for 5 bucks extra and went in the park. Right away, Kashev (my cousin) and I went straight to Superman: Ultimate Flight, while my parents went to get a locker. The line was out the entrance and it was only about 10 minutes after park opening! Luckily, not all of the switchbacks were open and we got on the front row in about 30 minutes. In the station, I could see my parents and sister waiting in line and they were pretty close to getting to the station. I got on the ride and strapped in. They were very comfy seats and restraints. I got the left outside seat. We tilted forward and we were off! Going up the lift hill was very cool since you are facing down. We got to the top and off we went. We hit the Pretzel Loop and it was so awesome! It was so odd and intense. This is now one of my favorite inversions. The rest of the ride was fun. Nice and smooth. The twist at the end was very cool and different. Rating- 9/10 My count from this point: 92. After S:UF, we went to Batman: The Ride. The line was about 40 minutes long and I waited for the front. Good, intense ride and I like the color scheme better than the original all black one. During the ride, my feet hit part of a tree. It was on the turn going into the second corkscrew. It didn’t hurt, but I felt my foot hit some leaves. Coaster count: 93. Rating: 7/10. Next up was Iron Wolf. The line was about 40 minutes long and I was planning to ride in the very front. We got up on the stairs and were almost in the station when I see an empty train go by. Uh oh, I thought it had broken down. After waiting a bit, they let the other train go by empty. I was wondering what was up with it so I tried to get a look in the station. I saw them spraying the restraint and some of the seat and car with cleaner and the ride op had gloves on…someone puked. This pissed me off. It was in the front row, too! Far right seat on the train with the lower car numbers (13-18?) They sent it out empty again and loaded the next train. Since I didn’t want to take a chance at getting that train in the front seat, I decided to take the back row. They loaded the puke row when the train came in and some guy actually sat in that seat! I would never have done that knowing what just happened. If I had waited for the front, I would have gotten that row, too. So me, my dad, and Kashev took the very back row. Some parts of the ride were pretty rough and some were fine. I did like the hang time on the first loop. Coaster count: 94. Rating: 6/10.

Next up was American Eagle. Since I had not ridden it before, I decided to ride facing forwards. The wait was about 20 minutes and I got somewhere in the middle. I thought it was a great ride and smooth for a coaster that seemed to be old and rickety. I think they should find a way to fix the restraint release though. It was too loud and a lot of times, it took a few times for the restraint to come back up. Coaster count: 95. Rating: 8/10. After that, I was going to go on it backwards, but the line got too long. (out to the food court) I was hungry so I got some lunch at the food court right there. I had 12 buffalo wings which were pretty good and some celery that came with it. I played a few games that were there and didn’t win anything. After lunch, I saw DDR in an arcade and stopped to play. When I got up to the machine, it wasn’t turned on. I walked up towards Demon when I stopped in my tracks…There was a Maui Wowi! I LOVE their smoothies. I didn’t get one right then, but I did get one later. Since my sister and parents wanted to ride Giant Drop and I wanted to ride coasters, me and Kashev went to Demon. We waited a good 45 mins-1 hour. Got last car, row one. Pretty good ride and not too rough. I loved the lights in the tunnel after the first 2 loops. Coaster count: 96 Rating: 8/10.

I met back up with everyone else and got my Maui Wowi. I had Strawberry-banana and it was gooood. We got in line for Raging Bull and the sign said 45 minutes when queue is full. Wrong. We ended up waiting an hour and a half. They were handing out boarding passes which I though was a great idea. I even saw quite a few people walking out of the line. It’s amazing how stupid some people are. Even when somebody did try the “excuse me” trick to go up to the front of the line, I just let them since they wouldn’t be allowed on. The ride must have broken down because they ran 6 empty trains. I got the second to very back row and got in. Wow, these are the most comfortable seats ever! I pulled down the restraint that fit perfectly and off we went. The whole ride I couldn’t believe how comfortable the seats and restraints were. The ride was great and had some good airtime, but some trims took away what could have been more airtime. Coaster count: 97. Rating: 10/10.

Since we were close to Viper, that’s what we rode next. The line looked long, but there were no switchbacks open, so it was only about a 20 minute wait. Looking at the coaster, it reminded me a lot of Psyclone at SFMM, so I wasn’t too sure about this one. I got on second to front row. The first drop was just good and the rest was great! It was nice and smooth and had a good amount of airtime. I really liked this coaster. Coaster count: 98. Rating: 9/10.

With only 2 more coasters to go, and time running out, I skipped dinner, headed to Whizzer and waited 45 minutes for it. I got the very back and I found the lift to be pretty strange. It’s not the spiral up that’s strange, it’s the way it goes up. It almost looks like something similar to LIM’s that pull it up since I saw to chain or cable. Does anybody know what propels it up? The ride itself was fun and some parts were jerky, but overall a great ride. I’m glad that they didn’t tear this one down because I thought that it was a pretty cool, unique ride. Coaster count: 99 Rating: 8/10. I got off and got my camera bag since I hadn’t gotten any video yet. I scrambled around trying to get as much as I could before it got too dark. I also got some pictures. I ended up only getting about 5 minutes of footage. I guess I’ll find a way to edit something that short. Now it was time to decide on which coaster would be my 100th. Either Ragin’ Cajun, Déjà Vu, or V2. I was going to go on Ragin’ Cajun, but the time posted was 90 minutes and the queue was completely full and out a bit. I’ve been on a spinning Wild Mouse before with what looked like the same layout, so it didn’t matter much to me if I missed that one. Since I had already been on Déjà Vu at SFMM, then it didn’t really matter if I missed that one either. Besides, the wait was 2 hours. So I decided on V2. The queue was full and we waited about 40 minutes. Since it was my 100th, I waited for the front. I’ve been on other Intamin Impulses which include Wicked Twister and the modified V2 at SFMW, but I hadn’t been on an original one with just one spike twisting and a holding brake that actually works. I got on the front row with Kashev and he was pretty nervous. We got the all clear sign and off we go! The front is a different experience than the other rows. Looking up the twisting spike looks weird and the holding brake was sweet since there was noting below me except the ground. I had a great ride. Coaster count: 100! Rating: 8/10. I had achieved my goal! We had a bit of time left after V2, so we went to American Eagle where I rode backwards. I got the very front seat (or would it be very back?) with no extra wait. It was a different experience having no car in front of you and going backwards. Nice amount of airtime and some good surprises. I liked going backwards better than forwards. The guy behind me hit his hand on a tree because I heard him while the ride was going. When he got off he said to the ride op “You need to trim your trees!” He wasn’t hurt or anything, but I thought it was kind of funny. I counted it as a different coaster since it had a slightly different layout. Coaster count: 101. Rating: 9/10.

Since I didn’t have dinner, I got a baked potato on my way out. It had butter, sour cream, and nacho cheese. It was really good cheese and sour cream…err…I mean potato. We left the park at about closing time and headed home.

I wish I could have gone on the rest of the coasters and gone on some flats, but I didn’t have enough time. I need to take another trip back there so I can get on some of their flats like King Chaos (Their Top Spin), Revolution (Huss Frisbee) and Triple Play. I wish I could have gone on Monday, but since my sister had to register for her classes at a certain time, I couldn’t go on Monday.

Rides ridden:

American Eagle forwards: 1
American Eagle Backwards: 1
B:TR: 1
Demon: 1
Iron Wolf: 1
Raging Bull: 1
S:UF: 1
V2: 1
Viper: 1
Whizzer: 1

Some notes about the park and some things they need to fix:

-I noticed that there were lines at the exit for handicapped people. 99% of the people looked absolutely fine. I think that there should be some sort of requirement to get a handicapped pass because those people that were sitting in wheelchairs were fine. It made me mad just watching it. What they should do is have the family stand in line and have the “handicapped” person wait at the exit and when the rest of the family gets to the front and gets on the ride, the “handicapped” person can get on with them. It would be fair that way.

-The food was better than SFMM
-Park was nice and clean
-I loved the boarding passes used on Raging Bull
-I had a great time.


August 9, 2004

Today was the last full day of being in Chicago. We went over to this mall where Kashev and I spent the day in Game Works. It is similar to Dave&Busters, but you can buy your cards with time on then instead of money, but the ones with time don’t allow you to play the games with tickets. We both got the all day card. I played a lot of DDR and some other games. I played some shooters and racing games, too. It was really nice having time on the card instead of money because I could have played as long as I wanted! We were in there for a long time while everybody else was in the mall. I really liked Game Works. We went back home and I had some more of the tasty chicken for dinner. I also had some REALLY good scalloped potatoes. I could have eaten the whole bowl. After dinner, I went to bed.

August 10, 2004

Today was the day we left to go home. Our flight left at 7:17. We ate breakfast and pretty much spend some of the morning packing. For lunch I had 2 ½ turkey sandwiches with this really good Chipotle sauce. The rest of the time we just talked until we had to leave. We left at around 3:30 and got to the airport around 5 since there was traffic. We ate dinner in the airport and I had a Philly Cheese Steak sandwich from this hotdog place and a bowl of Chicken Noodle soup from some Bagel place. They were both really good. We DID have row 7 seats on the plane, but thanks to some old people, we got moved to row 16. We left on time and the plane ride was great. I think that I’m over my fear of flying because I didn’t get nervous. The only time I was a bit edgy was on take-off, but that was fine. We flew right by some thunderstorms and I saw some really cool lightning from the plane. Even with the turbulence, I wasn’t bothered at all. I thought that he turbulence was kind of fun. I don’t know how I got over flying, but I did. I wrote some of the trip report on the plane. We landed at about 9:30 and got back to the house at about 10:30 since we had to wait for luggage and a shuttle to bring us back to the lot where the car was parked.

Overall I loved the trip and had a great time. I will edit a few videos, but I don’t have any site to put them on, so you will have to Instant Message me or something to see them. I will post pictures up as soon as I can get them all on an Epson account. Either that or I might buy a Smugmug membership. Thanks for reading this whole thing!

[SFGA 11]

Nice TR. Sound slike a good trip Cant wait to see those pics.

[playerplex]

That is way to long for me to read. From what I did read, cool.

[DejaVu The Ride]

So how was your overall impression of Magic Waters. Did you like Splashblaster and how long did you wait for it? Did you see anything that caught your eye in the back of the north parking lot?

Also, very nice trip report(I had the privelage(sp?) of reading your trip report over at Westcoaster)

[Red Bull]

I did like Magic Waters a lot. It was a nice little water park and you could actually ride everything in one day. I waited about an hour for Splash Blaster and it was pretty cool. Some parts of it hurt though. And no, I didn't see anything in the back of the North Parking lot that caught my eye.

[w00dland]

Wow, I actually read that entire thing. It sounds like you had a great time! Congratulations on making 100 coasters. I know this is one of the most random questions in the world but, how was the baked potato? I like them a lot and was wondering if I should actually make the investment of buying actual food at Great America.

[Red Bull]

Yes, the baked potato was good, and the nacho cheese and sour cream made it even better!

[DejaVu The Ride]

waited about an hour for Splash Blaster and it was pretty cool. Some parts of it hurt though.

What parts of Splashblaster hurt you? I'm just wondering. This is the ride where people like to switch positions in the tubes while they traverse through the second tunnel.

[Red Bull]

Some of hit hurt like on the hills where you would drop down, and then your butt would hit the bottom where one of the blasters are. Like where the water first shoots out, there's a bit of metal kind of sticking up. I'm not sure if that made much sense, but it was the best I could explain it. It didn't hurt badly, but it did just make me go "Hey that kind of hurt".

[vocallaugh]

Red bull you were woundering what made the whizzer go up the lift.

I am pretty sure an eletrical current runs somthing in the train, like a toy train that has a current run a motor, but on a larger scale of course. Thats my best guess.

[The Beast]

I read the entire thing and...You must have spent $200 on food alone. God, this TR made me hungry.

[SFGAm Rules]

the line [AE] got too long. (out to the food court)

WOW! Were they using any switchbacks?

[Maggie&meSFGAm?]

Did you see anything that caught your eye in the back of the north parking lot?

Please explain.
I read the full trip report, and the most notable thing is fried pickles. It doesn't sound too good. If all the White Castles moved to where you live, I would be very happy. We need a Jack in the Box in Illinois, and open Hardees again. I would happy to trade this two for every White Castle over here.

[Red Bull]

the line [AE] got too long. (out to the food court)

WOW! Were they using any switchbacks?

No, they weren't using any switchbacks, but it was about halfway to where you enter. The line did shorten later though.

[DejaVu The Ride]

That's normal on nice August days.(Well at least last year.)

[rich12_16]

Hey redbull, you were at cp the same to days as me, august 2nd and 3rd. on the first day i was gonna ride ttd but the green train rolled back so i didnt. i rode it on the second day though. i was gonna ride mellinnium force on the second day, but it was down and it pissed me off.the lazy river was as u explained it too. oh, and by the way, i live 11 miles from michigan city in laporte indiana. that white castle is gross and was closed down by health people before.n e way, glad u enjoyed your trip, i enjoyed mine.

[sfgamer]

I did like Magic Waters a lot. It was a nice little water park and you could actually ride everything in one day. I waited about an hour for Splash Blaster and it was pretty cool. Some parts of it hurt though. And no, I didn't see anything in the back of the North Parking lot that caught my eye.

I agree, Magic Waters is a great water park. My fav there is the splash blaster.

[Red Bull]

Well, I finally got a Smugmug account so my pictures are up. Here's the link!

http://redbull.smugmug.com/