Roller Coaster Mania

We thought we had accounted for all factors……not a weekend, kids still in school, not a major holiday, how were we to know about Physics Day?

We pulled into the parking lot at Cedar Point and were excited about the lack of cars until we saw the number of buses. One car, maybe 4 people, one bus more like 40. We went up to the ticket line and while we waited there for an hour, were amazed at the number of teenagers in line around us. I had predicted there may be a few instances of schools seeking entertainment at the end of the year but this was overwhelming. After we finally got inside we rushed to wait in another line for over an hour to ride the Raptor, a Batmanesque ride for those of you who have been to six flags. We again noticed the massive amount of teenagers and started to pick up on the cues that these weren’t normal teens. They appeared to be having remotely intelligent discussions, they were all dressed fairly normally no baggy jeans or barren midriffs (well it was about 50 degrees). The tell tail sign that these were not your run of the mill teenagers was the fact that we were at an amusement park and no one was even attempting to cut in line. James even commented on how he had renewed faith in the youth and he didn’t understand why I was hesitant to return to work. Not wanting to let us be deceived too long in our optimism the guy in line behind us informed us that we had happened upon Physics Day. The four geeky guys to one cute girl ratio should have been a sign.

For those of you who don’t know Physics Day is a day created by Physics teachers across the nation to boost enrollment in their classes. In exchange for suffering through a year of Physics you get to go to an amusement park at the end of the school year and pretend to marvel at the properties you have been studying all year being put into play. I’m not being mean here we actually saw one girl wearing a shirt that said ‘this is why I took Physics’.

Other than it being a bit more crowded than we had expected we had a good day, thankfully we finally saw the sunshine after days of rain so that helped. We were definitely some of the oldest people there, but that just added to our novelty. I got a good pep talk from the kids behind us in line for the Millennium Force, a ride that starts you off with a 300 ft. drop and keeps you at about 90 miles the rest of the trip. While we were waiting in line a car stalled at about 298 ft. This is where my enthusiasm began to lag. If I had been stuck at the top I’m afraid more than shaka would have come out of my mouth. It was worth it in the end so much so that we went on it twice! I did have to explain to the guys in front of us what ‘shaka’ meant since they had to listen to me screaming it in their ears.

Due to the crowds we weren’t able to ride all 16 of the roller coasters there, but we hit all the big ones. We even rode one standing up. James had to squat a little to get on it but thankfully he made the clearance on all the turns. The ride of the day though was the Top Thrill Dragster. I don’t know if you have ever seen the top roller coaster show that the Travel Channel does but this ride is at the top of the list. You go over 400 ft. in the air at a speed of 120mph. I almost chickened out after seeing the shell-shocked looks on the faces of all the people getting off the ride; even the ones who had looked confident and smug getting on looked as if they had peed in their pants. Since I had been challenged by my 9 month pregnant sister and wanted bragging rites I persevered. I impressed both myself and my husband by keeping my eyes open the whole time. I am so glad I did, it was the most amazing adrenaline rush. I was still shaking 10 minutes after it was over. Even James was a bit rattled. We may be getting older, but we are still young at heart!

Love, Kim

PS the first two pictures are of the people stuck at the precipice of the Millenium Force drop