Trip Report, August 15th!

[Justin_M17]

I've been told that I have a talent for writing, and I love writing Trip Reports, so here goes!

Friday was my first time going solo at KI. I have to say that it was a nice change going to KI with out the whole...

"I wanna ride [insert Ride here]"

"Nah, that's boring. Let's go to [insert Ride here]"

*Repeat 20x*

Anyway, I got to the park as the National Anthem was playing. I went to join the quene to run into the park by the Cinnabon store. As I turned to salute the flag (Been drilling with the Navy since I was 13. Junior version of course) I got a few compliments on the hot pink Paramore shirt I was wearing. But the anthem finished playing and everyone ran back into the park. I started running as fast as I could towards Firehawk. I like riding Firehawk as my first ride of the day because the line is always ungodly long after noontime.

I ended up being on the first run of the day, on the very back car, thrown in next to a few girls three or four years younger than me who looked scared to death. As we pulled out of the station I figured I may as well try to distract them from the unrealistically loud chain lift with a little conversation. I asked them if it was their first ride (Classic opener at KI) As though it wasn't obvious that it was. They told me that it was and that they were a little bit worried. I told them to relax and that the restraints were supposed to be a little bit loose because it was supposed to add to the thrill of the ride.

After we got off they seemed happy that they had decided to ride. We walked to the photo station and had some laughs at the faces we made for the camera, then I said bye and headed towards FoF. No interesting story about that one, but looking at my picture, I saw something that piqued my curiousity. I rode in the very back seat of the last car, yet somehow there were aliens sitting in the imaginary car behind me...I wonder how that happened

Walking away from FoF I didn't know what to head to next, until I heard gunshots coming from the BLSC. I walked down there to check out the line to see if it was too long or not. Turns out that it was fairly short, so I went ahead and hopped into line. Leaving the house, I hadn't realized how boring it would be standing in lines by myself all day, but fortunately BLSC provided me with a way to entertain myself. Standing in the middle of the bridge that the train goes under before going into the station, Summer of '69 by Bryan Adams (One of my All-Time favorite songs) came on over the speakers and I started to sing loudly and play the air guitar. That one got me some wierd looks from some of the guests who were around my age, and some looks that seemed to say "Yep, I've done that" from the older/middle aged guests.

After my stunning imaginary concert, and a fun ride on the coaster, I walked back into Rivertown. After lingering at the fenceline for awhile watching how the construction was taking shape, I set a beeline for The Beast. Walking past the Coke machines by the entrance I overheard a guy around my age telling his friends that The Beast is a crappy coaster, that it's too boring, and that it should be taken out and replaced with a ferris wheel, which would be just as exciting. It took every last ounce of my self-control not to turn around and give him my two cents worth, but I just kept going.

It was roughly 11:30 now and the lines were starting to get long, but it was only about a half hour wait. I heard people complaining about how long it was taking and I thought to myself about how things must've been when The Beast had first opened (Not even having been a thought in my father's head at the time) where ALL of the extra quene lines were being used and the line was still flooding out past the entrance for the ride and smiled to myself. Lacking music to dance to, the wait seemed twice as long as it was for BLSC, when in reality it was just as long if not shorter.

The ride on The Beast was as epic as ever, although I finally realized that in the double helix near the end, there was plenty of room for my head to be safe without having to duck down. After getting off and having a look at my picture, It was time for The Crypt. The line was just as I had expected it to be: Backed up to the point where people were nearly outside of the "Cave" structure. But as I walked past it, the line moved forwards and I ran inside, relieved to be out of the sunlight and into the cold, spooky interior of The Crypt!

The woman who got into line behind me must have thought that I looked fairly "at-home" leaning casually against the handrails and guessed that it was definitely not my first ride on this. She tapped me on the shoulder and asked what exactly this ride was. She looked like she was about in her mid-thirties, with two little girls who barely met the height requirement to ride, so I figured that I would be better off to just tell the truth. After many rides on Crypt, I've not been able to come up with an adequate explaination as to what exactly it is (I know It's a Giant Topspin, but most of the guests at KI aren't as savvy with the technical names for rides as people on this forum are). My best attempt was "Two parallel, vertical rods connected by another rod, with counter-weights at one end and two rows of seats at the other. The two rods spin around while the seats we're in also spin."

But evidently my description was enough to spook her (Or maybe it was just the skeletons and spiders littered throughout the hallway) because she took up her kids and walked out of the line. It took roughly six circuits before it was finally my turn to strap myself into the seats and enjoy the feeling of not knowing whether I'm upside down or right side up. As the ride began to go into motion, a group of three or four guys next to me started to sing "I can ride The Crypt with no Handlebars, no Handlebars, no Handlebars" over and over again while reaching their arms out in front of them. After all the time spent silently waiting in line to ride, I was fairly bored so I stretched my arms out and began to sing along with them. It was completely random, but I had fun (Which is more than I can say for the rest of the guests on the ride at the time, because I got a few dirty looks as I walked out into the sunlight.)

It was about 1PM and the sun was really starting to get to me, so I went straight from the Crypt to the train station to board the train to Boomerang Bay, which was just pulling into the station. After a ride of chatting with a few adult riders and stomping my foot and singing along to a few choruses of "Cotton-eyed Joe" to entertain their two small children who I was riding with, the train pulled into the station at Boomerang Bay. I high-fived one of the kids I was singing to and walked off to the changing rooms. While at BB I rode all of the body slides as well as the Tasmanian Typhoon with some random people I was in line with, and swam around in the wave pool for a bit. After I'd had my fill of the water, I went to the reclined lawn chair where I had thrown my backpack under to lay down and sun-dry. I put my hands under my head and closed my eyes, intending to lay there for a good twenty minutes or more when one of my friends from school came up next to me.

I hadn't talked to her since school let out (Nor realized how good she looked in a swim suit *Wink-Wink*) so I sat up and we sat for awhile talking about how our summers had been and other random topics of conversation until her parents came and told her she had to go. I waved good-bye and decided that it was best for me to leave the water park and the prescence of it's bikini-clad inhabitants before I ended up doing something stupid (Which I tend to do FAR too often)

The train ride back to Rivertown wasn't nearly as fun-filled as the ride heading away from it, but I was back to the dry park and ready for more coasters! First up on my list was Vortex. The line was backed up to The Vortex sign, but I got in the line anyway. I began to chit-chat with random people in line next to me, just trying to pass time. Finally it was my turn to hop into the back seat and go for a ride! I enjoyed the nice bit of airtime I got as the front of the train yanked the back car down the first drop and the jolts of speed I got as it pulled me down from the two loops.

Leaving Vortex I skipped my picture and walked down towards Action Zone. When I got there, I saw my friend from BB watching Drop Tower as it made it's ascent. I walked up next to her and asked her if she'd ever been on it, she replied that she was too scared to ride it. So, with that, I grabbed her by the wrist and half-dragged her into the nearly empty line. As the (Lack of a better word) ring plummeted back to earth we got a huge gust of wind in our faces and she seemed to be having second thoughts about riding it, but I decided not to call her out on them and she went onto the ride anyway. We were assigned to seats which had us staring at SoB and X-treme Skyflyer on the way up, after the ride had stopped spinning.

As the ride shuddered when we got to the top of the tower she went completely insane. Screaming about how she wanted off and how I never should have brought her on this ride. Myself and the guy on her other side tried to calm her down, but before either of us could have much of an effect on her we heard the machine that was holding us up let go. As we started to fall she let out the most god-awful shriek I'd ever heard in my 17 years of living. Back on the ground, we hopped out of our harnesses, retrieved our sandals, and walked over to the tables next to the Action Grill (I think that's the right name...) to put them back on. She told me that she had time for another ride before she had to meet her parents again, so I suggested that we go to Invertigo. After hearing her reaction to Drop Tower, I absolutely HAD to see her face while riding Invertigo.

Surprisingly enough, the line wasn't long at all. It was almost a walk-on for the middle cars, so we waited for the train to complete a circuit of the track and got on the ride. We were the only ones in our "car" so she took a seat while I went to throw our shoes into the bin, then I came back and sat opposite her. She was going to be going backwards first, and as I was pulled up backwards I stole a glance at her face, which told me that she was experiencing nothing less than sheer terror. When I heard us being let go I expected a reaction similar to what I'd seen while riding Drop Tower, but I was surprised to see that she seemed to be enjoying herself. By the time we had gotten off, the look on her face had changed from "Sheer Terror" to "Pure Enjoyment". I told her that she'd better get going before her parents started to wonder where she was, but she said that there was one more ride up here that she wanted to do before she left.

The line to Delirium wasn't that long, I seemed to be having good luck with lines that day, which is an extremely rare occurance. We were able to walk on before seeing the ride in motion so she didn't have a chance to chicken out like I had done on my first trip to KI. We talked a little as the ride swung back and forth, and she screamed every time we swung by the "Leg-Choppers", but I had fun. After Delirium she went to head back to her Parents and I headed up to Coney Mall to get a view of the Fireworks. After I'd sat there and watched for a few minutes I figured it was time to go. After stopping for a quick view of the Diamondback model, I left the park and went home.

[TH13TEEN]

That was a great TR!