A few weeks ago, Rich and I took a road trip to Pennsylvania to visit his parents, and on our way back, we stopped at King's Island in Mason, OH. We spent the day riding roller coasters and other rides, and I figured this was a good opportunity to write about my progress on this dream!
I haven't always been into amusement parks and thrill rides... When I was young - like 3 or 4 - my dad and uncle smashed me between them on the Tilt-A-Whirl at a school carnival. My dad is not a small guy, so I could barely even see out from between the two of them. It made me violently ill, and I begged my dad and uncle to "make it stop". I was pretty much petrified to ride anything ever again from then on. So when my best friend in elementary school invited me to go to Six Flags with her, I was excited to go but not excited to ride anything. I unfortunately don't remember what my very first roller coaster ever was, but I do remember being forced (almost literally) to ride rides that day. I ended up enjoying myself very much though, and from then on I was totally hooked. (It took me until I was 14, however, to gather up the courage to ride the Tilt-A-Whirl again at a carnival...)
Until 2008, the only amusement park I had been to was Six Flags St. Louis. I used to ask for a Season Pass for my birthday every year so I could go all summer. The house we grew up in was only about 25 minutes away from the park, so my parents would drop my friends and me off in the morning, we'd spend all day riding rides, and then they'd come pick us up again later in the evening. I can't even count the number of times I've been to that park. It makes me wonder how many hours of my life have been spent waiting in those lines for the same rides over and over!
In 2008, my family took its first-ever family vacation (that wasn't to visit other family members). We went to Myrtle Beach, SC for a week in June that year. My boyfriend at the time, David, came with us. While we were there, we visited my second amusement park - Hard Rock Park. The park was rock & roll themed, and it was a ton of fun. The park wasn't crowded (
foreshadowing...), and it was very clean. The rides were awesome, and they all had fun rock themes. All of the roller coasters were unique in their own ways. I wish we had spent more time there, but my mom isn't into riding thrill rides at all, so she was pretty bored for most of the day. We ended up leaving around sunset.
I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to go to this park at all, because at the end of 2008 (its opening season!), it filed bankruptcy and was subsequently sold before the 2009 season. If you're following, that means we managed to go to the park during the
one season it was open, by complete accident. I have a few souvenirs from the park that I plan on keeping a hold of for a long time to come - who knows? They might be worth some money some day!
In August 2010, David and I had a trip planned to go to Cedar Point, in Sandusky, OH. Our plan was to drive to Sandusky on a Monday, spend Tuesday and Wednesday at the park, and drive back to Missouri on Thursday. We planned to spend two days in the park because there are so many rides we wanted to ride that we figured it would take more than one day. We spent the first day riding about half the rides and roller coasters in the park, including Top Thrill Dragster, which we waited in line about two and a half hours for - it was rainy that morning, so they kept shutting the ride down. It was worth the wait though to experience a ride like that. It goes from 0 to 120 mph in less than 4 seconds, and it's one of only two roller coasters in the world over 400 feet tall. By dusk, we were tired and sore, so we headed back to the hotel to get some sleep before our second day of roller coasters.
However, when I woke up the next day, something was wrong with me. Like, seriously wrong. As we were waiting in line for our first ride, I got very dizzy and felt as though I was going to throw up or faint (or both?). I thought I might just be dehydrated, so we got out of line, I drank a bottle of water, and hoped to feel better. But instead, I just felt worse and worse. David finally got the park employees to call First Aid, and they came and got me in an ambulance and took me to the First Aid building. They also figured I was dehydrated, so they gave me crackers and Gatorade and sent me on my way. But I just keep feeling worse. Finally, we ended up leaving the park without riding a single ride. We went back to the hotel, where I tossed and turned in bed all day, filling myself with water and Gatorade, thinking I was just severely dehydrated. But I never ended up feeling better. The following day, the day we were supposed to drive back to Missouri, I ended up asking David to take me to the ER, because I somehow felt even worse then the day before. They
also said I was likely dehydrated, so they sent me off with no treatment or tests, telling me to eat bananas and drink Gatorade... This was the beginning of a long few months of misdiagnosis before I was finally diagnosed with something called
POTS the following January. I have now been struggling with this syndrome for 6 years, and, while it's mostly controlled by the three medications I take daily, I still don't feel "normal". And I'm not saying Cedar Point gave me POTS, but... if it quacks like a duck... Anywho, that is another story for another blog.
After the Cedar Point incident, I was convinced I was never going to be able to ride any rides or roller coasters ever again. For about a year after I first got sick, I could barely be in a moving car without wanting to pass out or hurl. I was pretty upset, because riding roller coasters is one of my most favorite things. Eventually, I made peace with the fact that amusement parks were part of my "former life" and were just going to be fond memories. I just wasn't going to be able to be one of those people who could ride them anymore.
Then, in December 2012 (which was about 6 or so months after the meds had finally stabilized my dizziness and nausea), I flew to Houston to visit my friend Jenn. During that trip, we took a day trip to Galveston to hang out on the beach, but it was rainy and only about 70 degrees, so we sat shivering on beach towels and watching the one other person on the beach using his metal detector. When we could no longer take it, we packed up our things and headed back to the car. We had seen an amusement park on our way in, and I brought up to Jenn that maybe we should go to it. She knew that I hadn't been on a roller coaster since I'd gotten sick, so I think she was nervous that I was going to become a hot mess if we went, but I convinced her I'd be fine. I wanted to try it so badly. I was finally feeling better, and I wanted to see if I could get back into something I really missed.
We ended up going to the park, called Pleasure Pier, and it was really fun. We rode the roller coaster there, Iron Shark, and aside from it being painful and something I never wanted to do again, I wasn't dizzy at all from it. I was beyond thrilled by this. This was one of the best things that happened after I was diagnosed with POTS; it made me feel like a normal person again. The funny thing about that day though? Jenn was the one who ended up feeling sick after a spinning ride we went on!
After going to Pleasure Pier and not getting sick, I felt like I was definitely able to go to amusement parks again. The following June, my sister, David, and I went to Worlds of Fun in Kansas City, about two hours from here. Friends from work told me that it wasn't as fun as Six Flags St. Louis, so I was pleasantly surprised when it actually was a lot of fun. One of the rides there, Mamba, reminds me a lot of Millennium Force at Cedar Point. I could ride it over and over again! I have been to Worlds of Fun a few times since then, and in my opinion, its way better than Six Flags! Or maybe it's just better because I haven't been there a thousand times.
In July 2014, I decided to try something I never thought I'd be able to do again - go to Cedar Point. Rich moved from New York to Missouri that summer, so while we were driving his car from there to here, we stopped in Sandusky. I was incredibly nervous, but it turned out to be an amazing time. I didn't feel sick at all, and because we paid for the Fast Pass to jump the lines, we got to ride everything lots of times. At the end of the afternoon, however, a tornado warning was issued and everyone was forced to leave the park. I suppose that's what happens when you build things in the Midwest...
In the last year, I have ridden record-breaking coasters at three new parks. In August 2015, I rode El Toro and Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, NJ. El Toro is the U.S.'s tallest wooden coaster, and Kindga Ka is the world's tallest steel coaster (and the U.S.'s fastest). Kingda Ka is a slightly larger, faster version of Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point. Everyone raves and raves about these rides, but in my opinion, they're not that great. The launching from 0 to 120 is super thrilling, but the rest of the ride makes my head ache... El Toro, on the other hand, is incredible. I could literally ride it over and over again. It's amazingly smooth for a wooden coaster, and it's so fast. There is a ton of air-time too!
Then in September 2015, my sister and I went to Silver Dollar City. Say what you will about Branson, MO... Silver Dollar City was an awesome time. It was super crowded, but the lines for the rides weren't long at all. All the baby boomers in the park were there to buy apple butter and take antique photos. I think the longest we waited for a ride might have been 20 minutes. And we loved every single ride there. Outlaw Run was one of our favorites - it currently holds the world record for highest number of inversions on a wooden roller coaster with three. And it is insane. I am trying to plan a trip to go back this summer.
I started this post by talking about Rich's and my trip to Pennsylvania last month, and I'll end it there as well. On our drive up there, we stopped at Cedar Point (my third time there, his second), and we had a blast, as always. It's seriously one of my favorite places on earth. We rode the newest coaster they have, Valravn, which is a dive coaster. It was fun, but it wasn't as thrilling as I expected it to be. Rich really liked it though!
And finally we went to King's Island on our way home. There were two rides there we kept riding over and over again - Diamondback and The Beast. Diamondback is a steel coaster with tons of airtime, and The Beast is the world's longest wooden coaster. It was built in the 1970s, and I can't believe how smooth of a ride it is. And it is really fast! I have never been on a ride like it, and I'm not sure I ever will again.
So there you have it - a way too long description of all the amusement parks I've ever been to where I've ridden roller coasters. I haven't even reached 50% of my goal yet, but I can't wait to keep working on it. I have a list going of the other parks I want to go to, and I keep adding more and more parks to it. If I have kids, they better like roller coasters...
