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JTW
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7-16

Having passes my wife and I decided to take the kids to the park around 8:00 PM.

I've been waiting all year for my boy to hit a growth spurt and make it to 48" so I can get him on bigger rides. At home he was right at 48, so we decided to have the park measure him and gave him wear the proper wrist band. According to their height chart he is 47. Grrr. Plans changed.

Soooooo, we went to Planet Snoopy for a while and entertained the children. Around 9:15 I told my wife I was disappearing for a little while and made my way to The Beast in anticipation of my first night ride in over a decade.

While in line I struck up a conversation with a nice woman who was in line with her son for his first ever Beast experience. Well played stranger, well played.

I don't usually open up so easily to complete strangers but this had an impact on me in a way as I remember Beast night rides fondly from when I was much younger. It was almost like seeing a reflection of myself in a stranger I'll never meet again.

Anyway, as I got to the station I realized that I would not make the front row before the fireworks and had to grab a row with the shortest wait so that I could enjoy the end of the night with my kids. It turned out that the people I had just met were directly in front of me and at the end of the ride the youngster told me I was right about the night ride being incredible and it was his favorite ride of the day.

Afterwards I met my wife at the arcade near the exit where my children were having some fun and we made it to the path behind the Eiffel Tower near BLSC before the fireworks started. My one year old loved them and it was her first experience considering the week of the 4th was so wet she didn't get to see any then.

PS - The Beast crew rocked tonight. The guy on the mic was incredible and amped the atmosphere up to a level I can't remember. It's like night rides are their Super Bowl and they were saving their best for then.

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  • 2 weeks later...

7-25

Last night at work when I was turned down for voluntary over time I decided that I would be getting up early to take advantage of ERT for the first time this year. After rolling out of bed around 8:30 and leaving the house a little after 9:00 I got to the park around 9:40 and made my way in.

This morning was somewhat chilly by July standards so a near walk on for the front of The Beast finished waking me up and got me ready for the day. As I sometimes do I paired up with a solo rider to fill a row and it seems that every time I do this I'm more and more comfortable talking to strangers. If you've never gone to the park alone or ridden alone try sparking conversation with someone sometime.

The ride itself was standard Beast. The brake shed didn't seem to jerk the car today and it was very smooth by wood standards. Every ride I've taken on The Beast this year has felt that way.

Next I strolled past BLSC and thought I'd give it a shot since I haven't ridden it in a couple years but it was down. I kept walking to Vortex and got in line.

This has always been a front seat ride for me and today was no exception. I've come to expect this ride to be rougher than newer steel coasters and it was as I thought it would be. What I didn't expect and have never experienced on Vortex was a slight grey out during the second loop. I suppose I'm not as young as I used to be.

After Vortex the park seemed very empty still so I thought I could capitalize on that and hit X Base. I chose Firehawk first because it's line was short and normally it's a capacity nightmare and I skip it. Today I did not. Everything was going fine until the ride went down. I stuck around for a few minutes and it came back up quickly.

What I did notice was that one park guest waited while the ride was down then left the line once the operators sent an empty train. I thought she must not know how repairs work because when you test equipment you're usually verifying the repair is complete and you're almost ready to roll.

The ride was enjoyable and made me wish it were more effecient because I really do like it, I just won't wait awfully long or buy FL Plus as a local. I guess while I was in line and riding Firehawk the rest of Ohio woke up and came to the park because it suddenly seemed busy.

Next was Racer. Only Red was running but the wait still wasn't too long. I really enjoyed the 70s rock music in the station since that's the era this ride was from and my parents, aunts, and uncles talked about Racer fondly from when they were young.

The ride was fantastic. I didn't remember Racer having so much air time. I think my butt only touched the seat for five seconds the entire ride. It was much smoother than I remember and I'll have a hard time passing it in the future.

I almost always ride Adventure Express. Today was normal, I just usually do it earlier in my route since I consider it a warm up ride. It was a standard AE ride. The only thing that was out of the ordinary is that I noticed how close the 2014 construction really is. There are footers poured right against AE's layout.

By now the park was very busy and I considered going home. I didn't though. I strolled by the construction area and started the long walk back to Flight Deck. I'm happy to report that I had a thirty minute wait. I love that this short but sweet Arrow is getting some attention from the public.

This was another front seat ride for me. I feel like the view is great and it's pretty secluded in the corner of the park. I do want to note that the 2014 construction is also right up on FD also. There was no concrete but there was a flagged hole. You can see it for a split second at the turn around right before the approch to the brakes.

After this ride I made my way home at about 12:45. I feel like I got a lot done at the park and I enjoyed a day to myself. The weather was absolutely perfect. If only every day could start like today did, I would have no stress in my life.

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FWIW, my son had his 5 year check up about a week ago, he was right at (or just slightly under) 47" w/o shoes on. Since we use KI as his "official" height chart season to season, and he's been checking in right under 48" with shoes on, I'll assume the KI measurements to be pretty accurate.

anyways, thanks for the story, we've been waiting as well for that 48" mark, he's oh so close, but not quite there. You could visably see the dissapointment in his face last time he was measured as he knew it meant he wasn't going to get on The Racer or beast (he wants to go on Diamondback as well, thinks it unfair that he's going to have to wait at least 2 more seasons to grow tall enough). Each trip to the park, my wife and I keep thinking, this is the trip we cross the threshold, but so far, no go. Some friendly advice, I don't know where your son was at last year in terms of height, nor what rides you ride regularly this season, but my son passed the 46" mark late last year, may have been august, may have been halloween, so the 2 attractions that are added at that height (congo falls and white water canyon) we didn't jump on (who wants to get that wet in september/october?), but I've decided to "suck it up" and deal with the drenching this season. My wife won't do either, plus we have a 1 year old toting along so somebody has to stay with her, so my son have had plenty of laughs getting a drenching on WWC and enjoying the great air time on Congo Falls. Both rarely have a line and are quickly re-rideable. On top of that, my son loves the observation deck and getting splashed by the boats on congo falls. If you can deal w/ the drenching, perhaps even find a way to carry towels, and a change of shoes they offer a great bridge to the rides offered up at 48".

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He uses it to his advantage because he doesn't want to ride big rides. I have to talk him into almost everything that will be a new experience and once he tries rides he can't get enough of that particular ride.

He literally tried to climb over me when we were next in line for Viking Fury but afterwards he loved it.

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  • 3 months later...

I've been a few more times since my last post but the most significant was this past Saturday.

My wife and I took all of our kids to trick or treat with the dinos. It was my first time going through and I thought it was neat. I would have liked to take my time and read everything but the little ones were more excited about candy so we kept up with them.

Afterward my older daughter and I headed for her first Beast ride since she was finally tall enough. The boy is still a hair short so he had to sit out and went with my wife to ride some smaller rides that he would be more comfortable on.

While standing in line my girl asked if we could ride in the very front. I almost cried in happiness when she made that request.

As we approached the station I had to laugh about a gentleman wearing a motorcycle jacket and leather gloves ahead of us. He came prepared for cold rides on this windy cloudy day.

So we ended up in the front row of train 2 and had the best ride I've taken on The Beast all year. It was super fast through the shed and the trim almost hurt on this ride. Ultimately it didn't matter as the ride picked up all of that lost momentum through the tunnels and we made it a lot further up the second chain lift than normal.

My girl loved this ride and complained when we approached the station. Looks like I have a mini me and have created another generation in my family tree that will love taming The Beast time and time again.

Of course we had to have a picture of her first ride. I had a blast and my smile was mostly in anticipation of her face in the photo.

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