Pt 1: Six Flags Great America
Photo courtesy of Joyrides
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This was the weirdest trip I've taken this year! So many weird and
funny things happened on this trip I'll never forget it! Julie Stone, aka CoasterJulie, and her boyfriend, Geoff, were our hosts for the weekend. They picked up Cindy Stout and I at the airport on Friday, then it was off to Six Flags Great America for the day! Our time spent at Great America was weird! It was weird in that we only rode three coasters - Viper, Raging Bull and Whizzer, the entire day! I almost always ride every coaster at least once, but for some reason, on this day, we took a very leisurely pace through the park and spent a lot of time just walking around or browsing! We also rode many of the great flat rides here. Six Flags Great America has the best collection of flat rides of any Six Flags park! I particularly love the Fiddlers Fling, which is run at such a high speed it caused Cindy to remark "it's on steroids!" The Condor, Triple Play and Power Dive are also favorites of mine. Both Cindy and Julie had their boobs pushed out the other side on Power Dive! Cindy had never ridden Raging Bull before. We opted for the front seat first, and she was visibly non-plussed by it. There was airtime to be sure, but it was very tame and lacked any real oomph to it! We saw Joe Campanella working one side - he is such a cool guy! Too bad he couldn't join us for the day! We then went to Viper. I have been championing this coaster ever since I first rode it. It has been in my top ten for quite some time, much to the dismay of certain friends who seemed perplexed by my enthusiasm over it! One of these friends was Cindy, who said "I like it, I've just never had the kind of ride out of it that you apparently got out of it." She did today! We slapped her down in the third seat, pulled her restraint just enough to secure her yet still allow room enough to enjoy the ride, and let the airtime extravaganza begin! The first three seats of Viper provide airtime on a par with the very best wooden coasters. It has none of the violence of it's other Cyclone brothers and sisters (although it does have a couple of nice throws and one good jolt). No, this is a front seat airtime machine. I find it compares more easily to the Phoenix than either the Georgia or Coney Island Cyclone from which it was inspired! Cindy became a Viper convert on this day, and we rode this coaster over and over! Another weird surprise was the food! There's actually good food at a Six Flags park!!! We ate lunch at the Saloon, right next to Viper's gift shop. Gone is the lackluster buffet that never looked good to begin with. Instead the restaurant is serving a southwestern menu of barbequed brisket, burgers, taco salads and fantastic ranch cut fries, all served in tin plates. This was a *very* good meal, the service was outstanding and our food arrived quickly and perfectly prepared. I would highly recommend this place, if for nothing else than getting to watch the train run all along the ceiling! The Whizzer was advertised as being down for the day, but fortunately opened up early in the afternoon. I love the Whizzer, and the more I ride it, the more I like it. It's just fun! It's different, and it's fun, and that's good enough for me. I'm sure the park must have a hard time keeping this coaster in good working order, and I hope they continue to do so. It's obviously loved by the public as well. We didn't go back to Raging Bull until much later in the day, when we rode in the back. First, we ran into Scott Schaffer, aka DrHavocBOH, and Andrew Hartman and his sister. While waiting in line, Scott proceeded to point out the most recent vomit piles in Raging Bull's station. "See there, you can see where it was, that big dark stain. The guy just leaned over and went "bleeeh" and it just went "whoosh" and spread out this way all over the floor and hit these two girls. And you can see this other spot over here where somebody else puked, but it's not as big. Oooh, look over there, that stuff's fresh." Julie later said the Chicago kids are obsessed with vomit. Scott also generously offered each of us a Cool Blast breath mint, which he said he retreived from a pile of vomit. I had this image of him reaching down into a pile of hurl and scooping up this vomit covered box, giving it a shake or two to get rid of the chunks, holding up a cool blast and going "mint?" It was also while waiting in line that I watched American Eagle come flying down the track and jumping up onto the first turnaround, only to be brought to a *screeching* halt. After that, it was like watching a bad movie. In slow motion. American Eagle, the most disappointing coaster I have ever ridden. Dead last on my wooden coaster list. What a waste. Just as we were about to board Raging Bull, I heard Joe Campanella, who was still working, mutter "uh oh." He was looking up at the block brake, where a train had stopped. This caused a twenty minute delay, at which time Joe scampered up the long, spiral, block brake staircase to help calm the panic stricken riders. While waiting, I noticed a set of four steps at the end of the block brake that just seemed to stop. They just dropped off right there in mid air. I hoped Joe wouldn't back up "okay, take care everybody, we'll have this ride up and running for you shortly!" and just tumble right off the end! No, instead he did something completely unexpected. As he came down the stairs I started cheering him, and several others joined in. He looked up, put his arms out to take a bow, and proceeded to stumble into the funniest looking fall imaginable. It was very slapstick, so much so that riders in the train on the brake run laughed at his misfortune! Joe was later taken away that day, banished to operate a flat ride for the rest of the day - due to his fall, he said. What a character! Back to the Raging Bull. I rode with Scott, Andrew and his sister. As we were going up the lifthill, Scott ever-so-nonchalantly reached over and in the blink of an eye, pushed Andrew's sister's lap bar down one click into her waist! Her reaction was so immediate and so funny I couldn't stop laughing. She started *pounding* on her lap bar and then on Scott's, all to no avail. It was an honest to goodness fit! She was a good sport about it, though, and it was very funny. Cindy, Julie and Geoff rode next, and they also sat in the back. Now this is the place to be, or, as Cindy said walking down the exit ramp, "It's all about the back!" All the forces are intensified greatly in the backseat, with the left side being the best seat in my opinion. Strangely, we only rode Raging Bull twice the entire day! Cindy and I tried the tea cups for the first time. These tea cups are INSANE! I swear, I have never spun so fast in my life! I also redeemed myself as a competent tea cup spinner directly in front of Cindy. Unfortunately Julie and Geoff went out to the car so we lacked witnesses to our award winning spinning! While we waited for them to return, we enjoyed watching this little boy puke all over a trash can right in front of us. This kid was cool about hurling - he didn't rush right over, didn't grimace or make any kind of a face, didn't make a sound. No, he just walked up, hands in his pockets, leaned over, and blehhhh. He also made sure he covered all four corners of the trash can with his vomit. He'd stop for awhile, all done.....nope, blehhhh.......walk around the other side, lean over, blehhhh. It was the coolest act of hurling I've ever seen. It was also the runniest. We sat and watched it drip down the top of that trash can for like ten minutes! It just kept running and running! We also shopped at what is my *FAVORITE* candy store near Triple Play. Oh my gosh, they have so much good candy! I bought an Affy Tapple, a carmel macadamia nut praline bear claw, a giant Nestle's Crunch bar, three Blue Raspberry Tangy Taffy with juicy bits of raspberry Sweetarts, and a Wonka Xploder, which is just the most bizzare candy bar in the world. It's like a Nestle Crunch bar with pop rocks that explode in your mouth! We ended our night on Viper, riding over and over. I absolutely love this ride! But I absolutely do NOT love Mike, a ride op who seems obsessed with not just stapling people into their lap bars, but crushing every internal organ he can find! I saw people complaining directly to him about their discomfort (one guy literally screamed "my nuts!") but he kept on pushing long after the bar had buried itself in people's abdomens. I'm telling you, one of these times he's going to seriously hurt someone. I was lucky and avoided becoming a victim of Mike the nut crusher. We ended up getting a double ride to end the night! I really love Great America - it's my second favorite Six Flags park. It's very pretty - I love the poolside double decker carousel entrance (although the flower bed surrounding the pool was completely empty - boo!) The Southwest Territory is one of my favorite themed areas in any park - I love it when all the bells go off! And it's the most well-rounded - there's a better variety of coasters and things to do here than any other Six Flags park. I should also add that this is the first Six Flags park that actually ran rides to capacity - 3 trains on Raging Bull, and 2 on Viper and Whizzer, despite the low crowds. I was also impressed to see every ride but Shockwave running, I said it last year and I'll say it again, I think this is one Six Flags park that has its act together! Up Next: Michigan's Adventure's TimbersFest 2000!
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