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Hostage in Hershey AGAIN!://Day 6: Kings Dominion Brings the Heat Without Volcano!

Jarrett

Most Obnoxious Member 2016
So as of last year, I've been going on my girlfriend Emily's Hersheypark trips to get Skyrush laps and this year was no different, with the exception of a few more creds than I got last year! This year Emily suggested I do Six Flags America and Kings Dominion since I'm a bit strapped for cash (gotta pay tuition and student loans this fall...ugh!) and I have passes to both chains, in addition to my Hersheypark early season pass.

Day 0

That morning I grabbed my rental car from Hertz and headed up to Canada to meet Emily for the wedding in her family that weekend. With zero trouble at the border whatsoever, I was over early, and then got a text from Emily that she would be stuck at work later than she expected. And I knew since 2014 that there's a Miner Mike near the border on the Canadian side.

What would a true coaster enthusiast do? I pulled into a fast food parking lot literally still on Huron Church a stone's throw from the border, plugged Colasanti's Tropical Gardens into the GPS, and got my whore on!

This place is strange. Like, really strange. Like, you drive through this absolute wasteland of agricultural fields and greenhouses dotted by wind turbines away from any civilization in the slightest. Then one of these greenhouses, nothing unlike the others, has a nice little wooden facade for you to walk in. So this greenhouse is like a little Chucky Cheese on the inside but because it's in the middle of flippin' nowhere, the place was dead. Like I walk in and all I hear is the hum of the air conditioner and one employee telling me hi. No mechanical game noises, no laughter of guests, no music, it's dead silent. So I walk around and find this racist thing among bumper cars, ride ons, and arcade games.

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Not a soul in sight. So I ran around the place until I got to a food stand and one of the girls there told me to go to the ticket redemption desk and talk to them. So I do that and the girl there is not only very polite with me, but she even swaps my USD out for five CAD Loonies and radioed Zack from ride operations over there. So I used three of the Loonies to get nine tokens, and after finding Zack (who was very nice as well), handed eight of them in for a spin on Credit 255!

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This was my first Miner Mike and surprisingly, it wasn't bad. It was pretty smooth and enjoyable for a little kiddie credit. Zack informed me of another credit at the Leamington County Fair that was from the same manufacturer (Wisdom) that was one of only two built and the only surviving one left, but sadly I couldn't find it and just headed to London.

I got to Emily's around 7 right around the time she got off work and went out for Greek food with her folks that night.

Day 1

Well before Hershey came family obligations, a wedding in Emily's family! I'm not too big on weddings myself but she was kind of guilted into going so we ended up going to support her cousin Mitchell and his fiancee Meg as they tied the knot in Ingersoll.

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As much as I don't like large events like that, I like getting dressed up, and made sure I picked Emily's favorite color combination; teal and purple.

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We didn't mean to but we ended up matching! Emily went with teal and green as her colors (and just about smacked me when I said it reminded me of Fury 325) and we were actually really cute together. But notice the champagne that Emily has? That would end up being a whole theme for this wedding! I had eight drinks (a LeBatt Blue, a champagne, a bloody Caesar, four Sangrias, and a white wine) and Emily had nine (same thing but two champagnes). Needless to say, we were hanging over the edge after the event!

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We had a funny photo contest at the reception and this is what Emily and I came up with, appropriately. Sadly we didn't win but it was sure fun!

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We let both of our hangovers wear off for a bit over some dessert before everyone started dancing. Emily used to do both dance and gymnastics so she was fine, but event though I did musical theater in grade school I've long accepted that I'll always be an awful dancer. So we got up there and danced to Bruno Mars and probably looked like idiots but it was actually kind of fun, especially with a bit of a buzz still lingering.

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We left pretty drunk before they started the slow dancing because we wanted to get up early and get to Hershey early in the afternoon so Emily could get on track to 2000 Skyrush laps. Emily's Nana's old people transportation showed up later than we expected so we got in and took that back to London. After dropping her Nana off we took a cab back to Emily's apartment driven by a cool Quebecois guy playing electronic music at 1 in the morning. We went upstairs, changed, and hit the hay for the long drive that awaited the next day.

Day 2
We woke up to a very rainy morning bright and early and got on the road. After a quick stop at Tim Horton's (because Canada) Emily and I continued on over to the border and had zero problems coming into the States for the first time (coming back, however, is a different story...) and just sped on to Hershey! Once we got there, I immediately let Emily out of the car to run in and get Skyrush laps as I processed my pass and followed her in.

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There was no line so I found Emily doing her thing and marathoned with her a bit! After I got tired of the coaster that brought us together, I went to go check out Hersheypark's newest addition, Hershey's Triple Tower!

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Here's me with another New for 2017 ride! In case you're out of the loop with the flat rides for this year, Hershey's Triple Tower is a new ride that's actually three rides stuck together in one plaza. Hershey's Triple Tower is made up of three S&S towers lined up from shortest to tallest. You have Kisses Tower, the shortest tower and Reese's Tower, the middle tower, operating as two differently-sized space shots, and Hershey's Tower, the tallest, operating as a combo tower. The park was dead so Hershey's had a few people in its line but everything else was a walk on. So I started with Kisses and worked my way up, here's my review on all of them!

Kisses Tower: I was honestly expecting this to be very tame, as it should be being the shortest of the towers. Just a fun little shot up, maybe a bit of floater, but I expected this thing to be, in essence, a minor step up from a Frog Hopper and nothing more. Boy did that surprise me! The blast off was about as intense as I expected but it stops you really fast up there, I got thrown right into my restraint and cursed very loudly in a gondola full of children! You aren't out of your seat long at the top, but it really relies on that restraint to keep you in, there's certainly a sizeable amount of ejector on this thing.

Reese's Tower: This ended up being my favorite of the three. I love Power Tower at CP and Kisses really exceeded my expectations. It's taller than Kisses Tower so you actually get a very nice view of the park as this thing goes about its business. So it shoots you up, the view at the top is gorgeous, the ejector is as strong as Kisses (maybe a bit weaker but not by much), but it's way more sustained and you're in your restraint for more than just a fun little pop.

Hershey's Tower: Definitely the letdown of this attraction. I was expecting Reese's/Kisses ejector but very high off the ground, but it just doesn't deliver. I like the round gondola on this one, the view is the best of the three, but sadly it's just considerably weaker in terms of force. We got to the top, I was expecting to be thrown out of my seat, and instead it's just a fun little pop of floater. Then it holds you up there, you hear the pistons pressurizing again, it's absolutely terrifying and you expect a horrifyingly brutal trip back to earth, and then, poof! The saddest, weakest excuse for a blast knocks you back down the tower with almost no airtime. This thing's literally a big teddy bear and nothing more, Reese's puts it in its place any day.

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Final verdict: The park needed something like it, but they needed to do something fresh and not seen before. Maybe the triple tower concept qualifies, maybe it doesn't. Those S&S towers, as much fun as they are, are dated technology and most people have experienced them in some form or another before. They kind of played it safe keeping the concept fresh and unique but let's face it: it worked. Sure there have been different programs stuck together in tower complexes, sure Intamin's toyed around with drop tower seating arrangements, sure BGW put all these bells and whistles on Mach Tower, but three different heights and two programs have never been stuck together like this and while it probably isn't the most original way of doing this, it's original enough to make it a hit. I heard all kinds of buzz among the GP comparing the three towers and the whole week, there were people crowded around the base of the tower complex watching them go. The fact that there's three also ensures that there's never a horrendous line for them. They took an old concept, barely did anything to it, marketed it as this new and exciting thing, and people are eating it up like chocolate. Visually, the thing looks great on that hill like that but I personally wish they had done something to connect them at the top. Having like a truss structure or a wavy red ribbon or something with the Miss Kiss, Reese, and Hershey character hanging out on it over their respective tower would have been awesome in my opinion.

After Triple Tower I headed back to Skyrush to tell Emily what I thought of it, took a lap, and then went to give the GCIs some love. I ended up noticing that Lightning Racer was really booking it on the red Lightning side so I rode it a total of sixteen times that night, switching seats to empty ones and casually sitting in the train planning a meetup with Celia (yes, cray cray Celia, you'll see more of her two updates from now) in between laps. I ended up liking this marathoning thing, especially on a modern wooden coaster! Thought I might give it a try... (again, two updates from now.)

After that I went back to say hi to Emily once more before heading out to a Giant to buy us dorm food for the week and then went back to pick Emily up.

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After that train whistle blew, Emily and I headed to our host Melissa's house (Hershey local that lives practically across the street from Great Bear, very good friend of Emily's) and dug into some cold Chef Boyardee out of the can like the classy mofos we are! I managed to get to sleep early, knowing I had to drive to SFA and back the next day.

UP NEXT: Coaster enthusiasm gets ratchet! Jarrett actually enjoys himself on a flying coaster for all the wrong reasons, Six Flags America "aint no motha#$%& Burger King," the worst shin restraints ever that would make RMC Knee Defender haters wish they were instead stapled on Wicked Cyclone, and a 100-year old coaster that Mr. #RMCitorWreckit himself still has as his favorite ride in the park!

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Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
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However good Skyrush is, Emily's marathoning of it always leaves me confused. Surely, surely, she can think of others things to do in that park (or any others, for that matter)? ;)

Another typically Jarrett report, but sounds like the start of a good trip, so looking forward to hearing the rest.
 

Jarrett

Most Obnoxious Member 2016
However good Skyrush is, Emily's marathoning of it always leaves me confused. Surely, surely, she can think of others things to do in that park (or any others, for that matter)? ;)

Another typically Jarrett report, but sounds like the start of a good trip, so looking forward to hearing the rest.
It's pretty simple, to be honest. We're cred counters, she's a marathoner. When I pointed it out, her reply was "why wouldn't you just ride the best coaster over and over again? Why ride another boomerang when you can just sit on something you know is better?"

-x-

Day 2

Today I was planning to go to Six Flags America to clean out the creds we missed when we were there in December for Holiday In The Park when Gotham City was closed off. After dropping Emily at Hershey, I hit the road for Maryland. Traffic was brutal, there was an extra half hour of drive that I didn't know was there, but I finally got there, let them financially #$@% me $20 to park, and busted out the pass to head in!

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First time ever seeing this in daylight! Say what you want about Six Flags America, the entrance does feel very regionally appropriate with the park being so close to DC. Especially the looped announcement reminding guests not to line jump or curse loudly in front of children.

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First stop? Joker's Jinx, fresh off of a blown wheel that resulted in a bit of a problematic valley in the cobra roll!

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We have this exact coaster at home that operates as famed Cred in a Shed Flight of Fear and in the dark? This thing is insane! In daylight? You can see exactly where you're going on the very rusty green track that's probably never been repainted since it opened, it rattled a bit, and just resulted in a lackluster ride. Such a shame, these spaghetti bowls are fun at the Cedar Fair parks, but hey, a cred's a cred! Just need Poltergeist next summer to clean this set out!

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As rusty and ghetto as this thing is when you ride it though, I have to admit that it's visually impressive. Seeing two interesting colors intertwined like that with bright yellow trains swooping and diving around in such a small space is definitely neat to see. I stuck around to watch it a bit, just to get an idea of how Flight of Fear would look without its building.

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Next up was Six Flags America's tallest coaster, Superman: The Ride, which I also believe is the tallest coaster in Maryland. I rode its clone at Darien Lake last August as well as its sister coaster in Massachusetts (which currently lives in my top twenty combined and top ten steel) and this was the last one I needed to clean out these three sister coasters! So I got in line, strapped my stuff down, and got ready to get that credit!

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A photo I am very proud of that depicts a cred that I found very disappointing.

I was expecting this to be a pretty fun, standard hypercoaster like its clone in New York State. Smooth ride, solid amount of airtime, just good standard Intamin fun. Ha, was I wrong! The first thing I noticed is that the only train they were operating looked exactly like Millennium Force's standard Intamin hyper trains but with one minor detail: the use of knee defenders. Now, I have nothing against knee defenders on restraints. Both RMCs and Premiers have them and they really don't bother me in the slightest. Then I saw the ones on this thing. I didn't get a photo, but it looked like the knee defenders on them weren't touched by an engineer. It's literally two bent pieces of metal sheathed in restraint padding foam very crudely bolted to the T-bar held on by very poorly cut metal that you could easily scratch your shins on if you wanted to. Because of the way these were placed, they really cram your legs in there and it's super, super uncomfortable. Once I was in, they dispatched the train and the climb up the lift began. The ride itself was just really lacking. Yes, there's a bit of solid airtime on the drop and camelback hills, but it's just so rough and jerky. Those positives in the helices really make the trains start rattling to the point where it felt like someone was trying to jackhammer my skull, worst case of vibrating I've ever seen on a coaster. The sad thing? This doesn't have to be a bad ride. Get those new trains Darien has on theirs and actually take care of it, paint it so it doesn't turn up pink in my photos, and I would have really enjoyed it. If Darien Lake is beating you at the maintenance game, that's a problem! Man, if the Intamin in the back of the park did that to me, I couldn't even imagine what that Vekoma had in store for me next...

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I don't even know what the hell Juneteenth is but "LET FREEDOM RING" seemed appropriate for the occasion. I had ridden the other two Vekoma Flying Dutchmen at their Cedar Fair parks and I commonly regard it as one of my most hated coaster types. I hate enclosed spaces so flyers in general usually scare me a bit just for this reason, but these Flying Dutchmen especially freak me out with how loose their restraints usually are. I always feel like my clumsy arse will somehow find a way to dive head first out of that restraint even though I know it's not possible. That lie-to-fly at the top is usually the worst part of the ride for me. Not to mention how brain-jarring Firehawk is; I haven't ridden it since 2013 for that reason and it's in my backyard.

It was down when I walked in, I was hoping it would stay down, they fixed it, I still didn't want to ride it, but I decided that biting the bullet today would ensure that I never have to ride one of these horrible contraptions ever again, so I manned up and got in line.

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When you're walking up to ride a coaster type that sketches you out as is, in a park as poorly maintained as Six Flags America, this isn't exactly a comforting sight. Adam West didn't die for this!

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And what do you know??? I ended up really enjoying it! The loose restraint that I usually find uncomfortable and sketchy for some reason made me really enjoy this ride. I decided that, at the mercy of Six Flags America's maintenance, if I die I'm gonna die having fun! I put my arms out like Superman, scooted up in the vest a bit so my claustrophobic arse wouldn't freak out, and just let it take me on a flight! It was pretty smooth for a Vekoma, the sense of exposure made for the closest to the sensation of actual flight I've ever had on a coaster, and to find it in ghetto, poorly maintained Six Flags America made it easily the surprise of the trip! Also the perfect coaster type for a Batman theme in my eyes. I didn't ride it again because I am still claustrophobic and I was still itching to get out of that restraint by the time the ride ended, but I put this down as my favorite flyer in my rankings! I think after this I only need two B&M flyers and two Zamperla flyers before I have all the ones in North America, and one of each is on deck for 2017!

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This is their New for 2017 ride, Wonder Woman Lasso of Truth! At any other park I would have ridden it but I genuinely didn't trust Six Flags America with a ride that dangles you 100+ feet in the air by just a chain.

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Extremely cool theming on this thing, though! Also liked how it has a fitting musical score like the Windseekers, they were playing "Come Fly With Me" by Frank Sinatra when I walked by to photograph it.

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Creds all cleaned out, time to hit my favorite ride here! We all know I'm Mr. #RMCitorWreckit, we all know I hate any preservation efforts in the amusement industry, and we all know I'd gladly have that 100+ year old historic gem RMCed, but this is one of very few pre-KI Racer coasters that I consider an exception. Currently the oldest operating coaster in the United States and celebrating a very big 100th birthday, Wild One is proof that truly great engineering never goes out of style, still kicking me out of my seat harder and feeling way faster than some of GCI's modern creations! This is, in my opinion, a very special coaster and there's a reason it's currently my #9 wood, leaving it the only classic still left in my wooden top ten. Had to get a selfie to prove I was there when it hit the triple digits!

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It has just as much kick now as it did in December! They let me ride with my restraint nice and comfortably placed, not at all stapled, and it still lives up to its name! Wild One is quite the ejector machine! Not only is there more air on this than Phoenix, but it feels way faster and has amazing pacing, especially for stone age machinery! It needs a repaint (SFA lol) and I saw chain grease-splattered plants growing in between the rail ties, but it's still somehow glass smooth!

After a spin on Voodoo Drop and Ragin' Cajun, I went to go get a glass of water when I saw a big ghetto dude march right up to the food stand very angrily, when the following exchange happened:

Big Ghetto Dude- I ordered my chicken wings twenty minutes ago, I just got off that ride, where is my chicken wings and is this what you call customer service???
Equally Ghetto Female Employee- Look here, this ain't no motha #$%&ing Burger King, you don't always get to have it your way!

On that note I decided I needed a break from SFA for a bit and headed to the car to eat the lunch I packed.

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I grabbed a plastic fork from the park and headed to my car to eat some more Chef Boyardee straight from the can in true Jarrett trip fashion. No way was I spending all that money for low tier Six Flags food! Yeah, it was good, and I really enjoyed it.

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After lunch I hit the left wing of the park and decided to reride Apocalypse again, the only reason being that I liked the theming. And guess what? It's still a major headbanger and still a major nutcracker, but I don't think it's the worst B&M coaster anymore! It wasn't nearly as painful for me in June as it was six months ago. Kind of cool that it's just surrounded by dust as if the world was ending too, I might consider this Six Flags's best themed ride that isn't an IP.

After this I did Roar which was running pretty slowly, it felt like Wildcat. Didn't even bother for a photo but I did get a ride op to yell at a lady for having her phone out on the ride.

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I didn't want to hate Superman. I wanted this to be a fun, solid hyper. So I went back over for a few rerides and sadly, my view on the ride tanked even more. If you sit in the front row of a car, the little restraint hardware housing takes up virtually all the legroom and leaves you crammed in there like a sardine with nuts and bolts poking your shins from those vile knee defenders. Intamin's worst coaster, as much as I hate to admit.

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The saddest part? It literally gave up on trying to impress me. I was still willing to try it a few more times to see if there was a certain way I needed to ride to enjoy it, but sadly the thing went down for mechanical while I was about to get back on. It just said "I can't amuse this kid with these stupid knee defenders bolted on, @#$% it I'm done trying!" After getting a text from Emily that it had just poured at Hershey and seeing that the rain would be in Upper Marlboro in an hour, I decided to make my way out of the park as maintenance showed up, probably with a toolbox full of duct tape and wingnuts.

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When your favorite ride in the park is on the way out and there's no line! <3

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No line for the front!

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Got three consecutive on Wild One leaving and holy hell did it blow me away! I still love this thing, such a shame there was no merch for it's centennial but that's an amazing wooden coaster right there. How Six Flags America keeps this thing running like that but has Premiers blowing wheels is beyond me but I'm not complaining! I love this thing so much, it's so much better than Phoenix!

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I was heading out of the park when I got a text from Celia asking me if I had ridden the Wave Swinger that she refers to as "The Swings You Can Get Away With Anything On," so naturally, I tried it! Love how the photo turned out, if anything.

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And I don't even wanna know what made that screeching sound as it went around but I managed to survive, dodging chairs swung at me from every direction!

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I almost bought this shirt last December but I bit the bullet and got it on my way out this time. Gotta admit, I'm glad I own it now!

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Well with the rain rolling in I made a run for my car and put my hand on the door handle the second it started pouring. After enjoying the show of about fifty people running to their cars in a monsoon, I headed back to Hershey to meet Emily.

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And had another #Hersheyparkhappy evening with the three Intamins!

UP NEXT: Jarrett takes up marathoning, possibly the worst way I've ever seen a ride op treated, and that meetup with Celia at Hershey finally happens six months later! Got one update that covers two days coming your way!

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Jarrett

Most Obnoxious Member 2016
Day 4

(NOTE: I'll just warn ya, there is talk about coasters and stuff in this one, but not many photos of them. 90% of this update is just comedy, I'll give you the heads up. Still read it though, we tried out Sidewinder's new brakes!)

The night before I had discussed trying to marathon Lightning Racer on Tuesday just because I thought it would be cute if my girlfriend and I both held records for marathoning at Hersheypark, since I was stuck there most of the week anyway. I liked the idea but when a certain somebody casually asked "who's gonna get more? You on Lightning Racer or Emily on Skyrush?" we both looked at each other and declared, "IT'S ON!!!!"

That morning I woke up, we drove to the park, and with one of our rides not being open for Sweet Start (giving Emily, already the seasoned marathoner, an hour more to rack up laps), I went in to start the day with her. We met up with her friend Kirk from All American Thrills for a bit before I decided to head up the hill and wait for gate drop into Midway America.

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It's on like Donkey Kong! She's going DOWN!!!!!

One of us was marathoning a smooth but violent steel coaster that sometimes gets a wait that often goes down with an extra hour to get laps in. The other was marathoning a wooden people eater that hardly goes down that provides a comparably mild ride. It was about even in my opinion, but one of us would walk away with more laps than the other!

I ran right back to Lightning Racer, picked a row, and got started on my very long day marathoning Lightning Racer, chasing that Laps in a Day record! Things started off pretty easy, I was able to just sit on the coaster and didn't get booted from my seat once. I stayed on Lightning the whole time and didn't even have to get off once. However, trouble started around Lap 35. I had to get off but that ended up being my most consecutive for the whole day.

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They dispatched the two trains in front of us when Thunder decided to be a brat and E-stopped dangling three feet out the station like a dingleberry. Once they got the trains moving again they kicked us from the trains and declared the ride down for mechanical. I used this as my opportunity to take a potty break and grab a water while I was at it. However, my first thought was "what would Emily do?" and then I remembered. I grabbed my water and sat next to Lightning Racer's entrance like an impatient puppy for the ride to reopen.

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Well once I was back, I decided to try and keep things fresh and made a switch to Thunder, which proved to be a mistake. In the span of five laps I was kicked from my seat twice before the ride decided to throw a fit again (this time on the Lightning side), leading them to boot us once more. They got it fixed before I was back around, luckily, so I just switched back to Lightning, accepting that Thunder was bad luck.

Once I was approaching fifty, I got a text from Emily inviting me for lunch with her friend Chris at Gourmet Grille, so I headed over and snagged a Spanikapita and sat down with them for our first conversation about laps since this little battle marathon began: I was at 46, she was at 22, I was solidly smoking the Queen of Skyrush in a battle marathon! After Chris went to his work at 2, I headed back over to go keep on grabbing those laps!

About an hour later I heard over the PA system, "In the Thunder train we would like to congratulate Brianna on her 2150th ride!" Riding it 2150 times??? I had never heard of Lightning Racer having a marathoner with that many laps on it! I had seen the girl I thought they were referring to a few times on the platform that morning but I didn't think much of her.

After taking a quick pit stop at Lap 80, I got back to see Brianna on the platform a bit more when she stopped me around Lap 92 and asked me, "Are you Jarrett?" So I told her I was and she told me she was "Brianna from online." I had never seen this girl but she knew my name so she might have seen me around Hersheypark Connoisseurs or something. So I sat down with her because she wanted to take a few laps with me. She told me that they call her the "Lady of Lightning Racer" and that she had just hit 2150 on it, she had been marathoning since 2008 and claimed she also had a cred count of 800.

Well I talked to her a bit and it sounded fishy. Like, she couldn't remember when she went to Six Flags Magic Mountain, had apparently started marathoning at age 12, and couldn't provide a consistent list of places she had been roughly (even I can list off regions I had and hadn't visited). Not to mention marathoners are usually household names at their parks. Everyone at Hersheypark knew Emily as the Queen of Skyrush and she isn't even local, Brianna's from Baltimore (idk what it is with all these crazy females coming out of that city) and not a single person had told me about her or her marathoning. Well later I told Emily and apparently Emily had seen Brianna online a lot and she's been busted about lying a lot of things in the coaster community, up to and including claiming to work for Intamin. Well Emily's thing against her was that she claimed to have 3000 Skyrush laps without a single one of her ride op friends having ever seen her on the platform. Well according to Emily, later not only did she see Brianna but she saw her when she was getting her 1800th lap, which resulted in a dirty look from this lying enthusiast.

After Brianna left Lightning Racer I was at 97, about to hit 100 for the day which was my goal! I told Maddie, one of the ride ops who had seen me marathoning, and she made sure that when the time came, they had my name right and it would be announced! A few laps later, "We have, on the Lightning train, a coaster enthusiast named Jarrett and this is his 100th ride today!" She was so cool about it!

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All those laps later, I finally hit 100, which was my minimum in terms of goals! I put this on Snapchat with my phone's dying breath and went to go say hi to Emily, who explained the whole Brianna situation to me. Then I went back, seeing what I could do in the couple hours before the park closed.

Well later, in walks three boys with basketballs and stuff that I could tell instantly were trouble. At the time, on the platform was this very nice young lady that happened to be from the Ukraine that was checking restraints. These boys sit down and just start in with the most inappropriate, uncalled for comments directed at this girl while she's trying to do her job. Catcalls, asking for her number, "your Russian accent's sexy," "what's your Instagram," "you have soft hands!" I straight up told them they were being inappropriate and told them to let her do her job. Then rotation happens and Maddie heads over. She's instantly appalled by their behavior so I told her that they'd been doing it and she made sure to watch them like a hawk. They got so uncomfortable they left!

The sun crept below the horizon, the chaser lights came on, and before I knew it, I took my final lap! And my grand total is...

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And with Emily hitting 106 only, I soundly beat her! I beat the Queen of Skyrush in a battle marathon! Sadly, I found out that the record in a day is 142 but this is the most anyone has done in a day this season! Next time I'm back I'm aiming for 150!

Day 5

Got to the park after a minor car mishap and did Sweet Start with Emily, waiting on Celia to show up as we had agreed to meet up that day. After a failed attempt to meet up at Hersheypark got us to become friends in the first place, we felt that meeting up with her there was warranted at least once. So after Sweet Start I'm told to chase her around the park again (just like last time) until I give up and go eat with Emily and her friend Carl and tell Cel to just find us. So she sneaks up on me, scares the crap out of me just like last time, and then our friend Lindy and her son show up and sit with us so we have a full table!

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Lindy and her son went to the arcade for a bit, Carl went home, and Emily went back to Skyrush, so with us right there at Moe's Celia and I decided to try out Sidewinder's new magnetic brakes. Wow, what a difference these make! It was like landing on a cloud when the train stopped, it makes a world of a difference! More boomerangs get these, please! I even filled out a guest compliment on these, saying that they need to keep putting modern hardware on their older rides...totally not referring to RMC Comet or anything. ;)

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Lindy and her kid met back up with us because he wanted to do Stormrunner so we went for that...and it took both of them maybe two minutes to decide that "Jarrett's friend's crazy" as they later told Emily. A few months back Celia had texted me very upset about a documentary "showing pigs being slaughtered" she had watched for school. What's being advertised in line for Runner? PA Pork of course, and she looked at this ad placard with that "Vietnam flashback" look on her face as I tried not to laugh. So we got into the ride, not sure why the back rows were blocked off, and it was awesome as always! Love Stormrunner!

We did Triple Tower next, as Cel hadn't ridden it. After shaming me in line for calling the fizzy beverage in her souvenir bottle "pop," we easily walked on all three! She was expecting me to curse loudly in fear like I did at Knoebels but to her surprise, I was fine! It was a ton of fun, plus we got views all around the park, including my first time seeing Skyrush from it. And that's where we went next!

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She and Emily were stoked to finally ride together so we went over to find Emily, who was in turn looking for us, before all three got in line. Emily also made her debut on Celia's infamous Snapchat story!

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All three of us ready to go, finally Emily and I in one of Celia's infamous "free on ride photos" that we ask the ride ops to take per tradition!

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We got off Skyrush to find it had gotten chokinly humid, so naturally Cel and I headed right for Laff Trakk before the line got long. The wait was brutal but I forgot how much I love this little coaster! If my ADD were just a tad worse it would be my #1!

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Celia had to leave in a bit so we made our way over to the park store with all the pins she wanted and hit Cocoa Cruiser on the way, because she likes kiddie creds for some reason. It actually surprised me how smooth it was, I remembered it being a bit brain jarring.

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Celia had to get going (didn't want to be driving in PA at night) so I took her to the store where I found her those pins. Waiting on Emily to get 1900, this wacko proceeds to dismantle the whole display of coaster pins trying to find the ones she wants, even though they were all organized in the first place. I literally could not follow the logic behind what she was doing but it ended up making a huge mess that she just left before heading home.

I went up to the platform for Emily's 1900th and filmed it for her! From there I took Lindy and her son home (who proceeded to ask me all kinds of questions about my crazy friend), remembering where she lived. Why would I need to remember that?

She and I would be heading to Kings Dominion bright and early tomorrow.

UP NEXT: I return to the park that sparked my enthusiasm, the Steak 'n' Shake of the amusement industry, RMC erection, and the best International Street ever! And most of it's pictures of coasters, I promise it's a bit more serious than this one! :p

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Hixee

Flojector
Staff member
Administrator
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I like how there are two day twos and no day three. ;)

Urgh, marathoning coasters like that sounds totally not my cup of tea, but if you're enjoying it then who am I to judge? Well, I'm gunna judge, but... ;)
 

Jarrett

Most Obnoxious Member 2016
I like how there are two day twos and no day three. ;)
Urgh, marathoning coasters like that sounds totally not my cup of tea, but if you're enjoying it then who am I to judge? Well, I'm gunna judge, but... ;)
Yeah I wouldn't do it to the degree she does it but I did enjoy being able to say I've done it. It's the same kind of satisfaction that comes with biking a long distance, you enjoy seeing that lap count climb slowly until it's where you want it. I'd try it at least once if you're curious about it.

-x-

7 years ago, my family made our usual stop at a southeastern park on the way back from our Charleston vacation. That year we chose Kings Dominion because we had not been there before, and on their website it said that they had a new roller coaster called Intimidator 305 that looked absolutely mental to little GP Jarrett, about to start his junior year of high school. We get there, we're there first thing that day, and something about this ride captivated me. I noticed a series of small water jets spraying water on the wheels, to keep them cool as they had all that friction burning them up. After seeing all these mechanisms, these water jets, that catch car, that arch lift, these hydraulic OTSRs, these really cool magnets mounted to the track to kill speed, I was fascinated. After this we headed to Volcano: The Blast Coaster and exactly the same thing happened. This beautiful track that was somehow able to spiral around a single line to roll riders straight and not around the track, the way they managed to work the structure into the existing Smurf Mountain, all tied together by that beautiful singing noise of the LSM magnets. And when I finally rode it and go to see all this technology come together to shoot me out of a volcano and send me flying around over 100 feet in the air around a big ominous mountain providing a completely smooth ride experience, it changed my life forever. From that moment forward, from the time I first rode Volcano: The Blast Coaster until now, I was a coaster enthusiast. Now I'm coming up on 300 coaster credits, and it all started at Kings Dominion. Sadly it rained that day and I walked away with only I305, Volcano, Flight of Fear, Anaconda, and Avalanche, but this day changed me so much it more than makes up for it.

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Today I'm going back there for the first time since.

Day 6

After driving Emily's friend Lindy home from the park last night, I knew where she lived and knew where to pick her up on the way to Kings Dominion. So I drove out that way and grabbed her and we got on the road, keeping up with the four hour drive to Kings Dominion from Harrisburg. After a grueling drive (and feeling how hot the windows were getting as we headed south on a day with an already scorching forecast), we rolled in around 11, got Lindy's pass processed, and headed in!

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As we headed in the first thing we see is at the very top of the closed attractions bulletin: "Volcano." My first number one and my favorite ride here, I was devastated. But at least I had the credit! A few days later my friend Matt was here and he found out it blew a drive wheel.

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Lindy and I elected to be GP and go right to Dominator, which had about half a small cattlepen of a line and with B&M capacity, shouldn't be an issue. However, I then noticed the sweltering heat catching up to me. Not even one train into the wait I was already perspiring profusely, so I checked the forecast. 98 and 99 all day with a choking 60% humidity, I knew I was in for quite the burn! And just because Jesus wanted me to burn in that cattlepen a little bit longer (Idk, maybe he wants to show me what it's gonna be like when I go to hell after I die), Dominator is down to two trains. Ugh!

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Here we go! Only major coaster I didn't get last time I was here!

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And it certainly impressed me! You can tell it's had a rough life coming from Geauga Lake with the slight vibration on the lift instantly but this coaster is conceptual perfection. A floorless coaster is supposed to sort of blend the experience of a traditional sitdown looper with the exposure that comes with an invert to me, and this coaster does this beautifully in the first half of its ride. The cobra roll is unarguably the best inversion on any floorless I've ridden and the rest of the first half of this coaster is the perfect above-the-track flying sensation. Everything flows together so nicely and spends a ton of time up in the air like we all know I love. Second half is certainly a bit choppier and it did certainly strike me lightly a few times but all in all, I really enjoyed it. Ranking-wise I don't think it's as good as Hydra (my #1 floorless) so I was keeping it tied with Dark Knight at #2 and put the choice off until I had ridden it a few more times.

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Heading back through Old Virginia to the woodies I noticed how wooded the paths in this park were and I love that! Wish KI had kept some of the trees in that dead central hub where Backlot is because this is beautiful! I didn't remember it being this visually appealing.

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Sadly in this corner of the park, things go from appealing to appalling pretty fast...but I don't care because RMC! Spite me all ya want, I'll gladly come back next year!

Didn't bother to take any photos of it, but next up was Rebel Yell, which ended up being the most split racing coaster for me in my rankings. Usually I just stick two sides of a racing coaster together and put my preferred one above, but this thing was just so varied I couldn't do it. Blue was the side we rode first and I really enjoyed it! The airtime was definitely there and I was absolutely being kicked from my seat a few times. Even had a few rough "spank you out of your seat" spots where the irregularities in the track actually catapult you up into your seat. But then we rode Red...and that was a mistake expecting the same thing. I got no airtime and it just spent the whole ride violently striking my back. No idea how a set of mirrored racing coasters can provide such different ride experiences but I ranked them at least fifty spots apart simply because where one had airtime, the other one matched it with pain. Blue is awesome, red is #RMCitorWreckit.

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Speaking of #RMCitorWreckit, we headed to Ricochet next for photos of Hurler. I was expecting a one and done out of this coaster, and that's what happened, but this is my new favorite wild mouse! It's just so smooth while it zips around those INSANE TURNAROUNDS, it felt like a longer version of its Carolina cousin because that's what it is. Also my favorite photo I've ever gotten of a wild mouse.

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So here's Hurler from Ricochet's platform exit! They've ripped up everything but the footer brackets in the turn and they've started adding custom fabricated rails to it, it was also pointed out in the construction thread (where I've posted a more complete update) that they've started additive work on the far end of the first turn.

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And apparently you need to walk through a very nice Dinosaurs Alive gift shop to access Grizzly.

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Like Rebel Yell, they were only running one train so it turned a three train wait into like a fifteen minute wait in the hottest station ever. The good news is that this is coaster is actually pretty good. A bit rough in spots but it was definitely ejecting me from my seat on that lower to the ground run it does. I really liked it!

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Afterwards we went back to International Street to grab some Mexican food at Border Cafe. Their International Street is way prettier than ours, I'll admit, and I loved walking down it. But when we got our food, it was room temperature. Amazing flavor, but cold meat. Lindy and I went to Guest Services but the girl Kristen there was a total twat simply didn't listen to our concern and just said "I'll put in a complaint" and went back to her phone! Horrendous customer service! We then headed up to the pizza place and found a food supervisor and took our frustration right to him, and he told us to come on back and he'd get us some pizza. Plot twist? We didn't want pizza we wanted a tolerable meal.

After that we headed back to Congo to do Backlot, which was about a ten minute wait on two trains. It was the last of the Backlot clones I needed and I'm ranking it above CW's and below KI's. None of the effects were working at all, not even flashing police lights, but for some reason there's a violent pop of ejector on the finale drop into the spillway. Possibly the strongest airtime in the park even!

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When it's so hot the devil has to turn on the A/C and your favorite ride in the park is having her time of the month. </3

After that, Lindy went to go hit the water park and honestly, had I brought my bathing suit I would have in a heartbeat. I'm not even a waterpark guy but I've never been that disgustingly hot and sweaty at a park. So Lindy went to the water park and I used that opportunity to knock out the kiddie creds. I hit Woodstock Express first and it turned out to be the smoothest of those kiddie wooden coasters I've ridden, but it was still on one train so that was hell waiting for a kiddie cred in the hot sun like that. I went to find the standard Rugrats Vekoma suspended coaster they usually have in these kiddie areas, but after fifteen minutes of searching, I pulled up RCDB to find out they don't have one.

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Walking off of Woodstock I found a ride supervisor and asked her if I could get Great Pumpkin Coaster. She told me no and that I would need a kid, but at least she wasn't rude about it like Kristen was or the Panda Express food sup would end up being. But I went over there and did my thing and they found me a kid I could adopt to ride with and the next thing I know I have Kings Dominion all cleaned out! Love the location of this one too, it's in the trees unlike KI's which is right on the midway backing up to a shipping crate building. Onto reride the next kiddie coaster!

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When I became an enthusiast in 2010, it was the mechanical equipment on this ride that captivated me. When I actually rode Intimidator 305, I felt the experience was slightly underwhelming and all I really thought was interesting was seeing in muted color when I got off. Now this was August 2010 when it had those infamous trims to keep the wheels from melting around that first turn. Now I see all kinds of enthusiasts having it as a number one and I simply never got it. It's not an offensive ride by any means, but from day one I always remembered Volcano being the superior ride. Not to mention I couldn't get over how much I hated the NASCAR theme. But I had less than fifty creds when I rode it so I always kept my mind open to one day reriding it and liking it. It was so hot that day that when I was about to get on it overshot the station brake sensor and maintenance had to come back it up and run it a few times to get the control system back on track. It was a hot day and overshooting is a problem I've seen happen on Skyrush when it's hot, which usually causes them to block off rows to lighten the train and make it harder for it to gain enough momentum to do that. So here I am expecting this machine to be running at its absolute best and just TEAR THAT LAYOUT UP. I'm expecting to black out (even though positive force isn't something I care about in the slightest, hence why I have this coaster ranked with other "boring" rides like SFMM Goliath and Batman clones), expecting those turns to shake me like a rag doll, and I'm expecting Skyrush ejector.

My memory was spot on, Intimidator 305 thing is so boring and uninteresting I simply can't even describe. The drop was actually very powerful and it has the best drop of any giga, I'll give it that. That first turn was just as powerful as I remember and I greyed out with black spots when it started pulling up into the reprofiled section, here comes that ejector! Wrong! It was bad B&M hyper-esque floater, very reminiscent of Nitro a few weeks back. The turns were pretty standard and I was just sitting there with a few extra Gs of force loading me down into my seat. The single transition where it rises into an almost flat airtime hill and then banks back the other direction was absolutely phenomenal, but the rest of the ride was just turns and Gs. Yes, it has those Maverick transitions, but it's only three of them I found to be at all thrilling and that element isn't nearly as substantial as a powerful airtime hill. Coming back on the home stretch I was expecting some ejector out of those hills and then nope! A trim put any chance of that right to rest, we glided over those two hills with hardly any force at all to pull us from our seats. Then came a few more instances of the ride laying the Gs on us, it so delicately struck me once, and then it was one more mildly amusing snap into the final brake run. All in all, this thing is a waste of steel, waste of money, and a waste of engineering. They could have done something way better with the resources it took to build this giga and they build a mildly amusing force machine reminiscent of a flat ride. It's exactly like NASCAR, all this speed and it does nothing useful or interesting with it. Verdict: #IntimidatOVERRATED

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With Volcano gone dormant for the day and all the creds I needed and rerides I wanted out of the way, I headed back to Dominator!

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Got a cool shirt for me and some lanyards for Emily and then Lindy wanted to meet back up, so she showed up and we took a ride.

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Wow, what a great B&M coaster. I officially placed this as my #2 floorless after we rode in the back. Not only does it dish out a great ride with a beautiful flying sensation, but if the Geauga Lake truther conspiracy theorists on Facebook see that I'm enjoying what Kinzel did with this, they're gonna flip the next time I decide to have a little fun with the topic. Like me, Dominator started life in Ohio and then made its way to Kings Dominion and I finally got to ride it, so that makes me very happy. Wonderful coaster they have here, a solid second best for the park.

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Lindy and I went back to I305 so she could ride it once for the day. She enjoyed it, I did not, but I was honored to ride with her. Got a lovely photo of it too while I was over there. But a park this big has no major airtime machine, and with what I saw on Grizzly of Hurler, the park knows that. If they're doing what I think they are, that's an important coaster that Kings Dominion needs. Especially with a big pathetic expensive Intamin with no airtime on the other side.

(Someone PLEASE help me convince Emily that this thing is nothing like Skyrush, she's dying to ride it and I keep telling her it lacks that ejector that makes or breaks a ride for her!)

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After that we headed back over to the other side of the park to do Dinosaurs Alive and we both loved it! Flatter than the path at home but the sandy Mid-Atlantic soil made it feel a bit more authentic, shame there's a good chance it'll be gone next year but it's prime real estate for a new attraction. So I went for more Hurler pics.

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After that we went for Panda Express. We told the supervisor Bali about what happened and asked him if he could comp our meals there too and he was a huge jerk about it but he ended up doing so. So we get our food and sit down and what do you know? Lindy has a bowl of rice and four big undercooked, undersauced broccoli florets with a few tiny chunks of beef in them. For the $13 she paid for it, that's unacceptable. We didn't complain because we didn't want to look like those people out for free stuff (nevermind my meal plan) but that's still embarrassing for a giant chain like Cedar Fair. If anyone has ever been to a Steak 'n' Shake, you know what I mean when I say it's the Steak 'n' Shake of the amusement industry. A wonderful product served to you in an absolutely dreadful way, between this food service and the reduced train ops.

We then went for a final spin on Dominator and then saw their Origins show and it really wowed me. Some pretty cool stunts in that show, I'd check it out if you have time at this park. One of those giant flexible posts, one of those hanging rings, trampolines, plenty of cool action on a very cool set with this show.

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We ended up leaving KD after but walking out was a beautiful experience. They have the lights on their Eiffel Tower and fountains synced to instrumental electronic music and the park was absolutely rocking! Such a magical way to end the day as we walked out (and Lindy complained again about the abysmal food service to someone that cared more than Kristen and let her fill the complaint out herself) and headed back to Harrisburg, leaving behind an absolutely beautiful property with a mechanical wonder going in for next year.

Both of us were miserable on the drive back though, with me dripping with sweat the whole way back and Lindy's allergies deciding to act up. So after I got her home I headed back to Hershey. After 30 more minutes of driving at 1:30 in the morning, I finally made it back! I headed up to our host's place and woke up Emily just to let her know I got home safely and say goodnight. She actually woke up for a bit to see the lanyards I had purchased for her and to tell me she was high in the 1900s for Skyrush laps, but refused to get near me because I apparently smelled really bad after sweating that much that day, something that sniffing my button down confirmed.

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When I was changing into my pajamas I noticed a white spot on my sleeve. So I laid it out and it turns out it was so hot this happened to my Mystic Timbers shirt! It has since washed out but I've never sweated that much at a park! Once I was all nice and clean I went back over, gave Emily a hug and a kiss goodnight, and at 2:13 am, I was finally asleep.

UP NEXT: The South Rises Again at Hersheypark and Emily goes for her 2000th Skyrush lap! Will she get it? Find out in the pulse-pounding finale to this trip report!
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GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
Nice report! I'm seriously torn with I305. I personally think it looks dull and lackluster, but loads of people are telling me I'm going to beg for mercy once it's my #1. Glad(...?) to hear it's not completely changed.

Btw, what are you talking about with Steak n' Shake? I love that place! Sure it's not the best chain out there, but it's better than those god awful Waffle Houses...

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