Sabbatical 1998 - Day 19

Will He Hurl?

There would be no hurling today.  Although, as one of my readers recently pointed out, Paramount's Great America certainly provides puke potential.

There was only one big ride that I declined to take on: Xtreme SkyFlyer.   Essentially this is a reverse bungie jump in that, instead of being dropped from a great height, you are slingshot into the air from the ground.  I have this agreement with TT that I won't try bungie jumping in exchange for her not killing me should I survive the experience. Everything else was fair game.

When I arrived at the park, I practically had the place to myself.   There were, perhaps, a thousand people in a park that could easily handle ten times that many. What this meant was that I could basically ride what I wanted as many times as I wanted.  And that's exactly what I did.

The first big coaster I encountered was called The Demon.  This evil contraption is a stand up (you stand in place... no seats) steel rail coaster with a couple of wicked vertical loop and corkscrew combinations. There's nothing so exhilarating that watching a theme park flip end over end in your field of vision.  What a rush... but that was just the beginning.

The park's most recent addition is called Invertigo and is pictured at the right.  This attraction is an inverted coaster with cars that seat the passengers so that the folks in the back of one car are looking at the people in the front of the next.   The ride begins as the cars are pulled up a ramp and then let go.  Gravity does the rest.  The cars move through three loops and a corkscrew and then up another ramp... where gravity takes over and the process is reversed. 

I liked this ride.  It reminded me of a similar attraction at Knott's Berry Farm called The Boomerang.  I didn't care for the Knott's version because the motion was too violent for the amount of provided padding.  I actually got bruises.   Invertigo does not suffer from this problem.  Rode it three times and I have bestowed upon it a Hurl Factor 5.

Ten words about my favorite coaster.  Top Gun Top Gun Top Gun, Top Gun.  Top Gun!

Did I mention Top Gun?  This inverted coaster pulls more G's than anything else in the park.  I was wearing ankle-high, lace-up work boots and I thought they might fly off from the force.  The ride regularly rains sandals.  I lost count on how many vertical loops there were, but it has at least four corkscrews to it and one of them is incorporated into a vertical loop.  A mind scramble.  I was in line for this most of the day as were the many familiar faces I saw along side me.   For best terror results, ride it in front.  In an extreme loop you can't see the track... all you can see are your feet dangling in the ether, pointing out various objects as they fly by: carousel... parking lot... child with cotton candy... cloud... sun... MIR... somebody's sandal... etc.  For the shear trippiness of it, ride in the back and watch the other cars whip around like a snake in front of you.  I give it a big, sloppy wet Hurl Factor 7.  Allen likes this ride and wants to be its friend.

I rode and stood in line rode and rode and rode... and then realized that radiation is a fact of life.  So is sun screen.  White people like me turn red in the sun.  So, I'm a little bit marooned right now.  Skin grafts are getting more affordable all the time. 

I continue to be a happy and well-done sabbatical camper.  More hijinx when they're available...

On Day 20!