Jarrett
Most Obnoxious Member 2016
This season was incredibly successful for me, both on and off the midway. Lots of changes going on in my life now, lots of changes going on in the industry, and while that can be scary it does mean one thing we all know I love: progress. Over the span of this season I finished my degree in engineering technology, left my job of six years to start my first real adult job in my career, I'm taking steps to fix certain interpersonal connection issues I've dealt with for as long as I can remember, and with how things look financially I'll probably have a new car of my own before I hang my RMC hat for the season. Speaking of RMC, my favorite ride manufacturer had quite a big year as well. From their biggest project yet to new trains to those crazy prototypes with track that fits through a doorway, I think it's fair to say 2018 was one of their best years if not their best. But if life's a roller coaster, it's fair to say 2018 could be one of my favorite parts of the ride. Let's take a look back, shall we?
Part 1: Spring
As with 2017, my season began under the roof of I-X Indoor Amusement Park in Cleveland. They had sadly cut their credit count from 5 to 4 and one was inaccessible and two others not set up, leaving just some traveling Pinfari thing held together by pins to be claimed. So on paper it wasn't a good day but Connor, Ben and I had a great time trying out their crazy traveling flats, and getting my first traveling Larson loop was a terrifyingly interesting experience as well. But this wouldn't be the only time Ben and I headed up to the Cleveland airport in 2018...
Once Kings Island opened I made it down for a bit on Passholder Preview night with Ben and some of his other friends. New for 2018 at my home park was Coney Barbecue, a restaurant built in an effort to bring Soak City's popular Island Smokehouse to the dry park. And man did they outdo themselves! The food here is of really high quality, from sausages to tri tip, hushpuppies to mac 'n' cheese, it shows that the park is in good hands with Chef Major. If chain parks keep building stuff like this, I could seriously see the notion of theme park food being corn dogs and funnel cakes being a thing of the past.
The week leading up to finals week was awful for two reasons. First off, it's the week before finals week so naturally it's going to get tough and stressful. But on top of that, I was anxiously waiting until the end, because once that week was over the time was here! I was slated to ride the most anticipated new ride of 2018: Cedar Point's notorious Steel Vengeance! I went in with the point of ranking it fairly, making sure that the hype and anticipation wouldn't sway my opinion. If it was going to take that number one spot from Lightning Rod it would have to earn it. My first ride I ranked it just under Wicked Cyclone but when I rode again in the back, both of us ended up putting it right in our number one spots!
That evening was also special for another reason, after all the encouragement I've received on social media from them I finally got to meet Anne Irvine-Ondrey and Brian Ondrey of Irvine Ondrey Engineering, the control system supplier for quite a few coasters including this one. Both of them, like me, had a dream to work in the industry at some point and chased it and look where it got them! Getting to talk technology with both of them was great, and getting a compliment on the 3D printed steering wheel I designed and made for capstone from Brian Ondrey was probably just as much a highlight as riding the big bad RMC that I'd been following for so long. Getting to meet them was like a graduation present, and quite the nice kick of motivation going into finals week!
Speaking of which, that following Sunday I finally did it! After tons of studying, wracking my brain, awkwardly asking for help during office hours, ending it all with by far the worst experience I've ever had with an instructor, and a major change, I finally finished my degree, graduating with an AAS in Mechanical Engineering Technology walking the stage with an interest in manufacturing I couldn't have predicted four years ago. Getting an associate's degree when you started out pursuing a BS might not be seen as an accomplishment by some but with the circumstances surrounding it and what I've had to overcome at the end of the day to get it I'll take it and be proud of it. Note the phrase I chose to put on my cap and where it might have come from.
Up next for my season was another great step in the right direction socially for my group of friends, and a step away from petty Cedar Point coaster drama. In my circle of friends are Jenny who I met in 2014 and Ben who I met in 2015. In early 2016 there were two separate instances of drama in our little circle of friends, Ben and Jenny over a view expressed in a Skype call and Jenny and I over my relationship at the time. Both my girlfriend at the time had made up with Jenny last year but Ben and Jenny still had yet to work it out. Well it just so happened that both of them were able to be at the park on the same day and were open to talking about things, so I got them together and they managed to work it out, no more drama! All of us were able to get together and ride rides just like old times and it was awesome! That this petty coaster drama that could have gone on years longer was able to just go away was amazing to see, and man am I glad it did because that day was amazing. Seeing Steel Vengeance throw a seat pad from the car in front of Jenny and I, the poopy diaper that ended up under my car at the end of the day, the whole thing was lit.
The following week was a really cool opportunity as an ACE member turned into a total mess of travel problems, but I got a really good RMC and a ton of funny stories out of it! Twisted Cyclone Media Day is stupid early Wednesday morning, Survivor finale is at 8 that night, I opted to do the furthest overnighter in my coasting career to Atlanta for this event. Getting to the rental agency south of town and dropping my car right at open, I endured a grueling 8 hour drive alone armed with only the music on my iPhone and a freshly downloaded U2 album to combat boredom. In the end I showed up to a slight on/off sprinkle that had shut the park's rides down for the evening (spiting me on Dare Devil Dive and a chance to rerank Goliath) and turned traffic to a standstill, making it impossible to meet up with the enthusiast I was supposed to grab dinner with after close. So after grabbing gas station pizza and spending the evening alone watching coaster videos on the streaming player in my nice hotel, I got a bit of sleep, and went back to Six Flags at 5 am! Twisted Cyclone was absolutely incredible, my first ride was a rain ride televised live in Knoxville. It surprised me just how much they were able to pack into that tiny little layout, I loved how they executed the theme, and getting to ride it on media day before public opening was such an honor. After my time slot I shook the hands of SFOG's event organizers and motored back up still fairly early in the morning, leaving me with 3 hours between my ETA and Survivor. Wrong! Because Kentucky can't get down to two lanes for construction that's obviously been there a while, my ETA was driven way, way up. I ended up jumping out of my rental car, dropping the key in the key drop, getting in my car, and having to really hustle at the speed limit to get inside right at 8 pm for the finale. 36 hours. I was away from home for 36 hours when all of this had happened, easily my most stacked trip ever.
After that, there was a really rough week for me at work but Ben and I had matching days off so we decided to go hit up Cedar Point and pregame a bit for the Texas trip coming up. I left my car at his place in Columbus and then we did an overnighter there, staying at Cedar Point Express. Lots of crazy stuff happened over the span of those two days but the funniest was watching Steel Vengeance make these two high school girls cry.
UP NEXT: The summer season is in full swing kicking right off with the region trip, a very long term friend of mine gets home from Disney College Program to the new RMC in his home state, and I ride a coaster I've been eyeing since 2011!
Part 1: Spring
As with 2017, my season began under the roof of I-X Indoor Amusement Park in Cleveland. They had sadly cut their credit count from 5 to 4 and one was inaccessible and two others not set up, leaving just some traveling Pinfari thing held together by pins to be claimed. So on paper it wasn't a good day but Connor, Ben and I had a great time trying out their crazy traveling flats, and getting my first traveling Larson loop was a terrifyingly interesting experience as well. But this wouldn't be the only time Ben and I headed up to the Cleveland airport in 2018...
Once Kings Island opened I made it down for a bit on Passholder Preview night with Ben and some of his other friends. New for 2018 at my home park was Coney Barbecue, a restaurant built in an effort to bring Soak City's popular Island Smokehouse to the dry park. And man did they outdo themselves! The food here is of really high quality, from sausages to tri tip, hushpuppies to mac 'n' cheese, it shows that the park is in good hands with Chef Major. If chain parks keep building stuff like this, I could seriously see the notion of theme park food being corn dogs and funnel cakes being a thing of the past.
The week leading up to finals week was awful for two reasons. First off, it's the week before finals week so naturally it's going to get tough and stressful. But on top of that, I was anxiously waiting until the end, because once that week was over the time was here! I was slated to ride the most anticipated new ride of 2018: Cedar Point's notorious Steel Vengeance! I went in with the point of ranking it fairly, making sure that the hype and anticipation wouldn't sway my opinion. If it was going to take that number one spot from Lightning Rod it would have to earn it. My first ride I ranked it just under Wicked Cyclone but when I rode again in the back, both of us ended up putting it right in our number one spots!
That evening was also special for another reason, after all the encouragement I've received on social media from them I finally got to meet Anne Irvine-Ondrey and Brian Ondrey of Irvine Ondrey Engineering, the control system supplier for quite a few coasters including this one. Both of them, like me, had a dream to work in the industry at some point and chased it and look where it got them! Getting to talk technology with both of them was great, and getting a compliment on the 3D printed steering wheel I designed and made for capstone from Brian Ondrey was probably just as much a highlight as riding the big bad RMC that I'd been following for so long. Getting to meet them was like a graduation present, and quite the nice kick of motivation going into finals week!
Speaking of which, that following Sunday I finally did it! After tons of studying, wracking my brain, awkwardly asking for help during office hours, ending it all with by far the worst experience I've ever had with an instructor, and a major change, I finally finished my degree, graduating with an AAS in Mechanical Engineering Technology walking the stage with an interest in manufacturing I couldn't have predicted four years ago. Getting an associate's degree when you started out pursuing a BS might not be seen as an accomplishment by some but with the circumstances surrounding it and what I've had to overcome at the end of the day to get it I'll take it and be proud of it. Note the phrase I chose to put on my cap and where it might have come from.
Up next for my season was another great step in the right direction socially for my group of friends, and a step away from petty Cedar Point coaster drama. In my circle of friends are Jenny who I met in 2014 and Ben who I met in 2015. In early 2016 there were two separate instances of drama in our little circle of friends, Ben and Jenny over a view expressed in a Skype call and Jenny and I over my relationship at the time. Both my girlfriend at the time had made up with Jenny last year but Ben and Jenny still had yet to work it out. Well it just so happened that both of them were able to be at the park on the same day and were open to talking about things, so I got them together and they managed to work it out, no more drama! All of us were able to get together and ride rides just like old times and it was awesome! That this petty coaster drama that could have gone on years longer was able to just go away was amazing to see, and man am I glad it did because that day was amazing. Seeing Steel Vengeance throw a seat pad from the car in front of Jenny and I, the poopy diaper that ended up under my car at the end of the day, the whole thing was lit.
The following week was a really cool opportunity as an ACE member turned into a total mess of travel problems, but I got a really good RMC and a ton of funny stories out of it! Twisted Cyclone Media Day is stupid early Wednesday morning, Survivor finale is at 8 that night, I opted to do the furthest overnighter in my coasting career to Atlanta for this event. Getting to the rental agency south of town and dropping my car right at open, I endured a grueling 8 hour drive alone armed with only the music on my iPhone and a freshly downloaded U2 album to combat boredom. In the end I showed up to a slight on/off sprinkle that had shut the park's rides down for the evening (spiting me on Dare Devil Dive and a chance to rerank Goliath) and turned traffic to a standstill, making it impossible to meet up with the enthusiast I was supposed to grab dinner with after close. So after grabbing gas station pizza and spending the evening alone watching coaster videos on the streaming player in my nice hotel, I got a bit of sleep, and went back to Six Flags at 5 am! Twisted Cyclone was absolutely incredible, my first ride was a rain ride televised live in Knoxville. It surprised me just how much they were able to pack into that tiny little layout, I loved how they executed the theme, and getting to ride it on media day before public opening was such an honor. After my time slot I shook the hands of SFOG's event organizers and motored back up still fairly early in the morning, leaving me with 3 hours between my ETA and Survivor. Wrong! Because Kentucky can't get down to two lanes for construction that's obviously been there a while, my ETA was driven way, way up. I ended up jumping out of my rental car, dropping the key in the key drop, getting in my car, and having to really hustle at the speed limit to get inside right at 8 pm for the finale. 36 hours. I was away from home for 36 hours when all of this had happened, easily my most stacked trip ever.
After that, there was a really rough week for me at work but Ben and I had matching days off so we decided to go hit up Cedar Point and pregame a bit for the Texas trip coming up. I left my car at his place in Columbus and then we did an overnighter there, staying at Cedar Point Express. Lots of crazy stuff happened over the span of those two days but the funniest was watching Steel Vengeance make these two high school girls cry.
UP NEXT: The summer season is in full swing kicking right off with the region trip, a very long term friend of mine gets home from Disney College Program to the new RMC in his home state, and I ride a coaster I've been eyeing since 2011!