A Roller Coaster Ride

» 14 Jul 2004, 10:08am in personal, photography, entertainment - 1 comment

Well it's been a while and the conduit was long overdue for an update so here we go!

Saw Franz Ferdinand perform at the Kool Haus on the 14th, which was really cool. If you haven't heard them yet, then you've got to check out these very talented rockers from Glasgow and their fresh mix of The Beatles-meets-disco-meets-post-punk rock and roll (in my opinion :), you won't be disappointed. The show was great, they rocked the crowd, everyone was dancing to the funky beats, and Controller.Controller opened, so how could it have been bad?

I also saw the very talented, pint-sized, John Mayer-in-training Kyle Riabko at The Rivoli. This was a Sony showcase, and I was given the go-ahead to do the online photos for the show. Of course, I haven't posted them here yet, but will soon. Stay tuned.

Now here's an interesting story... for Canada Day, Lisa, Brian, Kristen and I went to Cedar Point, the roller coaster capital of the world, in not-so-beautiful Sandusky, Ohio. If you are a roller coaster fan of any magnitude, Cedar Point is the place to be, with 16 coasters, including the world's tallest and fastest, the Top Thrill Dragster. It was an awesome day in the park -- we barely waited at all for rides, managed to ride most of the coasters at least two times each, and squeezed in some water rides and a few beers, too. After not getting to ride the TTD last year due to it being closed, you can imagine our disappointment when we arrived and found it was closed yet again. Luck was on our side, though, because the maintenance staff worked on it all day, and the ride opened sometime around 9pm. We hustled over to the lineup and after about a 45-minute wait (the longest of the day), boarded the ride. All I can say about this thing is that unless you are a race car driver yourself, you have to ride it to understand what it's like to go from 0 - 120mph in four seconds! Pinned back in our seats, we were then launched 420 feet straight up into the night sky, over the top (where we could see the fireworks show in progress and the park rides all lit up), and then straight back down again (barrel-rolling along the way), and back into the station. Unbelievable.

Okay, the interesting part... sometime mid-afternoon we were feeling like we needed a break from the big rides and decided to go on the Iron Dragon for a nice breezy ride to cool off. The Iron Dragon is one of those "kids first big roller coaster" rides, not very fast, not very high, but it hangs from the track so it still scares the kiddies. On the way up the first hill, Brian says "Wake me up when we're done", which is pretty much what we were all thinking. Halfway through the ride there is a second "big hill" with another lift that pulls you up, like the first hill of most coasters. Well our train coasted into this hill and as we were starting our way up the lift there was a very loud "bang!", the train started shaking, and then slid backwards down the hill, jerking all of us around and making loud banging and grinding sounds! Of course, people (you know who you are :) are now screaming and everyone knows that something is seriously wrong, as we slide down to a flat spot on the track and come to a grinding stop. Within seconds, ride staff are coming out of the woods and yelling up at us, "Is everyone okay?!", and luckily, it appears that everyone is. Brian, sitting behind me, had metal shavings land in his lap during the incident, and we'd later see that some kind of oil or hydraulic fluid was dripping down from the lift motor above, which appeared to have been the source of the problem. The ride spends much of its time over water, as well, so we were fortunate to look down and see we were over land, and on a section where a scaffold runs beside the track. Maintenance personnel came up to check on everyone, comforting a few riders who were more distraught than the others, and some time later, we were all taken off the ride and escorted down the scaffold. Now my big gripe, beyond the fact that a roller coaster broke down while we were on it, is that after taking our names and addresses, the park staff offered us a mere one "line jump" ticket each for our trouble, can you believe that? We should have been given an unlimited line jump pass, a refund of our ticket price, maybe some free day passes, hell, they could pay for our overpriced hotel rooms too!

Other happenings.... shot my first two sub-40 rounds of golf, including a -- drum roll -- 37 last Friday. Went down to the Molson Indy on Sunday with Aaron and took some pictures, which I will post soon hopefully. We found a great vantage point on a hill, near turn three at the end of the longest straightaway, and luckily for us it was where all the action was--we saw three spinouts/crashes happen right there. The sound of the engines is just awesome as they fly by on the straightaway and accelerate through the turns.

That's all the news that fits... gotta run, ttys!

1 comment:

  • kristen: wow. now that is an update! i am still go through post traumatic rollercoaster experience therapy (PTRET) you vivid account of our experience has opened old wounds. i feel like i went through it all over again. heee ;-) can't wait to see the pics of the concert and the race!

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