All six of us (Shredley, Joni, Joyce, Scott, Linda, and Norman) headed Southwest to our home away from home, Cedar Point, in Sandusky, Ohio. On the way, we stopped at Corky and Lenny's for some monster corned beef sandwiches and amazing fresh deli pickles. We arrived at the Microtel on Sunday night and collapsed into our beds.
On Monday morning, it was off to our favorite place outside of Hawaii, Cedar Point. We were greeted by Mallie of the season pass office with hugs and kisses.
A warm welcome from Mallie of Admissions (Photo by Joyce Harris)
After Mallie's greeting, the sisters were welcomed by Charlie Brown.
Joni, Linda, Charley, and Joyce - Charley loves the sisters
(Photo by Shredley)
It was time to take the whole gang for a personal tour of Boneville. We were met by George Richmond, Animations Manager of Cedar Point, who escorted us on a fascinating and educational backstage experience.
George, our group, and a skinny stranger with a gun (Photo by Joyce Harris)
George ,also, took the two of us by motor boat through the animated river ride. We got some great shots of the local inhabitants.
At Hook Finn's, fish are jumping and the coasters are high (Photo by Shredley)
Cedar Point is an annual tradition. Their collection of 16 roller coasters are considered the best on the planet Earth. See our December 2003 column "Cedar Point: Roller Coaster Capital of the World”.
Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster- "Ready, ready to go!” (Photo Courtesy of Cedar Point)
The tail end of Hurricane Katrina hit Northern Ohio during our visit. We left the park early because of the wind and rain, and slept until almost noon the next day. By the time we returned in the afternoon, the clouds broke, the weather was lovely, and there were no crowds.
Shredley's sister Joyce works for FEMA and was informed that she was going to be deployed shortly to the Gulf Coast. Luckily, she was able to finish the vacation with us before she had to leave.
Joni's sister Linda advanced her coaster riding stature by riding Cedar Point's Gemini, a tubular steel coaster with a wooden frame. It features a 118 foot first drop. The trains race, and riders slap hands with passing opponents.
Gemini- trains racing down the first drop (Photo by Joe Schwartz www.joyrides.com)
The next day, Linda and Norman left for their home in Florida and the remaining four drove West to Indiana Beach Amusement Park.
Joni & Shredley get ready for a delightful park experience (Photo by Joyce Harris)
Indiana Beach is a beautiful park built on a peninsula of land surrounded by a flowing river. Five roller coasters are interwoven on a modest sized piece of property. The Hoosier Hurricane and Cornball Express are great wooden thrill rides. We'll cover Indiana Beach in a future column.
The tangle of coaster track and the pier as viewed from the sky ride (Photo by Shredley)
We drove South towards Santa Claus, Indiana, home of Holiday World And Splashing Safari. Holiday World is the home of two spectacular woodies. We were met by owner and amusement park legend Pat Koch. She walked us over to their twisting coaster called The Legend.
Joni and Shredley with Holiday World owner Pat Koch
The other wooden coaster in the park is a world class award winning out-and- back ride called The Raven. Due to a giant thunderstorm caused by Hurricane Katrina, only one train was running. Because of time restrictions, we were only able to take one ride. It was memorable and smooth. The train dashed over Lake Rudolph before returning to the station through a beautiful forest.
The Raven train plunges into the woods (Photo by Shredley)
After a 13 hour drive, we arrived back at Cedar Point for the finale of this trip. The night before we left, we ate fresh fried perch at a Lake Erie waterfront gazebo with our friends George and Judy Richmond, Mike and Becky Nelson, and of course, our dear Mallie Millis. George brought two beautiful Taylor guitars, and he and Shredley played until dark. The party moved to Cold Stone Creamery for Ice Cream and the exchange of gifts. The next day, we were on a flight back to Hawaii.
2006 promises to be a riot of fun. Many of the coasters will be new to us.
In June, we'll fly to Atlanta, Georgia. Hopefully, we'll get to take in a couple of Atlanta Braves baseball games.
We'll start with our second visit to Six Flags Over Georgia. New for this year is Goliath, a massive steel hypercoaster, somewhat similar to its namesake at Six Flags Magic Mountain in LA. The park will have eleven roller coasters- no end of fun!
Goliath, an out-and-back screamer with plenty of air (Photo Courtesy of Six Flags Over Georgia)
We'll drive Northwest to Rossville Georgia and visit Lake Winnepesaukah. This amusement park features a classic woodie built in 1967 called Cannon Ball.
Riders fired up on Cannon Ball (Photo by Joel Rogers www.coastergallery.com)
Our next destination will be the Beech Bend amusement park in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This park has four roller coasters. New for 2006 is the Kentucky Rumbler. It is a Great Coasters International twisting wooden scream machine.
We will travel next to Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. In 2004, the park debuted Thunderhead, another award winning GCI wooden masterpiece. Fellow members of American Coaster Enthusiasts have raved about this ride. We can hardly wait to experience it.
Thunderhead at Dollywood, our destination coaster (Photo by Gonchar www.coasterimage.com)
Our final east coast park will be Paramount's Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina. There are 12 roller coasters at this park, including Borg Assimilator, a flying coaster that was renamed and relocated from Paramount's Great America in San Jose, CA.
Our return trip to Hawaii will include a stopover in Seattle, Washington for the wedding of Joni's daughter, Leslie. While there, we'll check out Timberhawk: Ride of Prey, a woodie at Wild Waves & Enchanted Village amusement park in nearby Federal Way.
Timberhawk dives into the timber (Photo by Eric Sakowski www.rcdb.com)
As usual, we plan to end our roller coaster riding season in August at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio.
Our March column will feature an amusement park near the Nation's Capital, Six Flags America. There's another thrilling Superman: Ride of Steel to be experienced.
Much Aloha!
-Joni and Shredley
Next Installment: Chapter XXXI: The parks; Six Flags America, Upper Marlboro, MD.
Related Links:
www.cedarpoint.com
www.joyrides.com
www.sixflags.com
www.coastergallery.com
www.coasterimage.com
www.rcdb.com
www.aceonline.org
