Sun Moon Stars Girl )-(

Welcome to my little place to vent…

We went to SFMM again today - yes we’re getting as much out of those season passes as possible - but the REAL reason we went was to go on something special. For Fright Fest at this particular SF, they bring the cars from one wooden coaster (because they have headrests) onto the larger, older wooden coaster. Colossus used to be a dueling wooden coaster (I mentioned this in a previous post), but has since gone defunct as such. Now they use that track to run the coaster backwards during the month of October!

As Kris said, I cannot describe the feeling of going backwards on a roller coaster. We had the pleasure of going on the ride three times, and I think once we’d gone on it once, we could have gone on it all day. I laughed like a maniac during the first run, because you’re going on a coaster backwards - can’t see when it’s at the top, or going to drop. We didn’t get to ride again on X - another coaster I can’t really described the feeling of - but I didn’t care for the two hour wait. I’d gladly go on Colossus backwards four times in the same amount of time.

I would definately recommend this a something any coaster enthusiast should have checked off their big list. I’ve heard that it might still be run backwards when we go back in November. That would be awesome, but I’m not holding my breath. It was the reason we went this time, but I wish there hadn’t been 1.2 bajillion people in the park that day. I’m also hoping sometime in the (near) future SFMM will adopt the same Fastlane/q-bot system they have at both SFNE and SFGA. With it, we would have been able to go on X today, even just once. For some reason they still have this rudimentary, archaic handstamp/paper ticket Fastlane thing. Crazy.

Anyway, still had an awesome time. Hopefully we’ll get some other people to come with us in November - it’s so much better to go with at least four people in a group. That way, if one person wants to ride something, there’s a possability that at least one of the other three will come with.

Additionally, Kris recently came up with some hilarious ideas for some t-shirts, which I had a hand in designing. He’s also got a site up called popCoaster.com that he’s been posting about our coaster trips. I can’t believe we have checked off seven of the ten “US top drop steel” - and will have two more by the end of the year! (This is mostly because we stopped at Cedar Point and have gone to three SFs this year, with one more stop before the end of the year.) I can’t wait to visit more places with Kris.

What is going on? It’s not supposed to rain in Southern California! We’re supposed to have sunny, mild weather for the whole year! Did we bring the rain with us?? After all, it rained while we were in all the desert states - New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada… So why not here?

Yes, it is raining in southern California. Thank goodness we didn’t go on Saturday to Six Flags, since I have the unfortunate experience of doing my laundry twice thank to the rain. One might ask now - how much can it rain in SoCal? It’s been foggy and cloudy since Saturday. Are we now in San Francisco? It’s still raining now. And I’m not talking the drizzly moistness that sometimes occurs here - mind you, in the mornings before the sun burns it off - but actual downpour.

And it’s not really the rain that bothers me (although not expecting it to be like this sort of disturbed me at first) - at least it won’t last long, or be like this all the time. What tickles me pink, and I have to mention it again - it’s raining…a lot…but the sprinkers are still going off! I should also mention that there was a water main break over by our friends’ place…ironic that they ran the sprinklers to “release the pressure” of the water main. My friends’ parking lot is practically flooded. Ashleigh said there was dirt all over it, and kid’s toys from who knows where. Nate said the water was ten feet across. They have had nothing but problems over there, but alas, that’s material for another time.

Why are you running the spinklers when it’s raining? They make sensors for these types of things!

Today I finished up what was a month’s-plus worth of laundry (no, it’s not the first load I’ve done since we got here!). Instead of doing two loads today, and just the folding/hanging from yesterday’s three loads, I had to do three loads of laundry today. Why you ask? Well, yesterday I decided to save myself some and take advantage of the California weather - clear and warm - to dry my clothes (most of which have to be air-dried anyway) outside.

They weren’t dry by the time we went to bed, by the time it got dark and was late. I doubled checked just before retiring upstairs to make sure nobody had swiped any of my underwear. It seemed pretty safe, so I decided to leave it there overnight, and let it dry in today’s sunshine. Ha.

Kris woke up in the middle of the night, both of us wondering what the heck the strange noises we were hearing were. “It’s raining - downpouring!” Kris told me. “Oh no!!!” All my laundry got soaked. Not only did I have to rewash everything (after running out in the rainstorm to take it off the lines and make sure none of it had fallen to the ground), but I had to hang most of it to dry again. The weather seemed unconducive to hanging laundry outside, so I brought the outdoors inside with a fan - which is presently gently blowing my delicates dry while they hang off the shower curtain rod.

It rained again later - just as we were about to stain one more piece for the study. “What is it doing raining like this in Southern California???” It’s been half a day, the laundry is still wet, but the stained shelf is hung and ready. At least something got done today, but my laundry should have been done this morning!

Do you ever wonder exactly which six flags they film all those silly commercials at? Or how about which theme park people in sitcoms go to for filming an episode? Well, here’s the answer for the first, and a high percentage of the second question - here at Six Flags Magic Mountain! It’s located just north of LA in Valencia, CA - one would say the perfect spot for a year-round open park closeby to one of the top film locations in the entire world. You’ll recognize the giant wooden roller coaster from the opening of “Step by step” as soon as you drive into the park. Once inside, you’ll also recognize key aspects of the crazy dancing man commericials, and a record-breaking roller coaster seen by many on both the Discovery and Travel channels - more on that later.

Kris and I wanted to use our season passes to the full extent. We’d already been to SF New England and SF Great Adventure once this season. Those started our summer of “roller coaster trip usa.” We continued on our actual road trip to Cedar Point, where we had a blast, but unfortunately is not part of the six flags conglomeration. Along our travels we passed several six flags we could have stopped at - in Gurnee, IL (outside Chicago), in Eureka, MO (outside St. Louis (both already closed during the week when we passed by -even before Labor Day!!!), and Frontier City, in Oklahoma City, OK (which was not included in our season pass, but also not open - ). Darn. It was pretty clear when we passed by the parks too, even without the SF signs. All 3 were easy to see from the highway, and included several familiar coasters from the other parks we’d already been to.

In any case, we finally made it out today to visit Magic Mountain. We waited like 3 weeks longer than we originally planned, but finally went, and had an awesome time. It’s a big coaster park, with as many coasters as Cedar Point (that’s 16). I think the overall park at CP is better, but MM has the better coasters. Again, CP has the “big” record breakers, but MM has the most original coaster recently devised.

So went went on everything, except the Superman (wasn’t working, and we figured we’ll be back). After having been on many of the top ten “high” coasters Goliath didn’t really scare us. I got a bit shaken on the stand-up coaster, the Riddler’s Revenge. Not impressed at all by Batman the ride (yes, it’s the EXACT SAME COASTER as in about 9 other SF parks - you wonder about these things…). Enjoyed Deja` Vu, the Ninja, even the Gold Rusher. Enjoyed the Revolution - a “revolution” in roller coasters - the *very first* to go upside-down. It’s so funny too, you have to take your stuff with you on the ride (yes, I asked Kris, “Doesn’t this thing go upside-down???”), and there’s this warning at the top of the hill before the loop, like, “look out, here it comes!” The Viper is the Great American Scream Machine in NJ, the Scream is the Medusa in NJ. We didn’t go on the kiddie coasters - not worth it in a park with so many others to choose from. The wooden coasters were good, but once again, the dueling Colossus was only running one track. This might have been because the other track was being prepped for Fright Fest, but still it’s a shame to see such a cool concept go into such disrepair. And they just built a new one in PA! Why would they build new ones if the old ones aren’t popular? Oh well.

Kris told me about a Fright Fest thing that MM does, and I almost didn’t believe him. Apparently the cars from both wooden coasters are interchangable, and they take the cars from the Psyclone and run them backwards on Colossus!!! Thankfully we were a weekend early - I wouldn’t want that to be my very first experience on that coaster - backwards. Yikes.

And finally - the X! This is the only coaster grouped in the “fourth dimension” catagory. I can’t even begin to explain this ride. It gripped me with terror, but also excitement. You start off going up the lift hill backwards, are plumpted down facing the ground, and just are turned all over the place. I understand how the coaster works (the direction of the cars is controlled by a different rail than the cars are actually on), but I can’t really decribe the ride experience other than to say - you have to go on it.

What amazed me the most about our day was the people we met. Waiting in line to ride Scream a second time, next to us was an older couple. Definately old enough to be our parents. Old enough themselves to have grandkids. We started talking with them, I’m not exactly sure how, but they asked us if we’d ridden the X. We’re like, “have you?” Surpringly enough, they’d ridden it - several times. I know my parents have gone on coasters, but I also know it’s going to take a bit to convince my father to go on the X. I highly doubt my mother would go on it. Hopefully I’ll get my sister on it, but who knows. It’s crazy, but it’s a lifetime experience I enjoy having under my belt.

Magic Mountain - you just wait! We’ll be back….