Julie goes to Indiana Beach and SFGAm Photo TR

Tuesday, August 9th, 2005

 

My cell phone's alarm went off at 8:30, and we both got up and ready to head out. We both showered, then took a peek in the little store in the hotel to see if we wanted to get breakfast there or out somewhere. They didn't have a big selection, so we decided to find something on the way. When we asked how to get to Great America from the hotel, the lady said it was directly across from a Burger King, which solved the problem of where to eat breakfast!

 

The Burger King was very easy to find, and I got a egg and cheese croissant and hash browns and mom got the same thing but with bacon. As we went to the park, the line at the parking booth was huge! Once we got in, we parked at the very end of the very last row in the center section of the lot, so we'd easily remember where the car was parked. As we approached the turnstyles...holy cow, it was JAM PACKED! Surprisingly, it took no time at all to get through the gates and through security. There was some sort of Looney Tunes character show going on in the courtyard in front of the double decker carousel, but not many people seemed to be paying attention.

 

At this point mom did another one of those things that makes her increasingly difficult to travel with. When I first suggested this trip, I said that we'd need to split up in the park so I could ride coasters and she could do whatever she wanted without having to wait for me all day. So she gets a map and says that we need to stop and figure out what we will go do first and when we will meet and stuff. I said that I needed to hurry and get started on the coasters before the lines exploded, so she should just call me later when she wanted to meet up. So she starts moping saying that she wants to do this and that with me, and see this and that show...then goes "Whatever, I'll just follow you all day I guess." This is classic Mom guilt trip in action. She tries to guilt me out of going on the coasters just so I can spend time with her...but it doesn't work! I tell her no, I am walking this way to go ride something, and that she needs to call me at some point in a couple of hours when she's in between rides and we will meet up for lunch. If she followed me, she would complain after every ride that she's waiting on me for too long and having no fun, and that I should be more considerate of her, and I wasn't going to have that happen. So I walked off towards Raging Bull, and I don't know where she went from there.

 

When I got to Raging Bull, the line was posted at an hour, and the line looked every bit of an hour long. Viper was posted at the same legth, so I decided to save those two for later in the day when hopefully the lines would be smaller. I passed Chubasco along the way, which I destictly remembered riding in '96, and also loving the name.

 

I walked up the center of the park, hoping to get on Demon instead. This next credit was #150 for me, and I figured that Demon was a fitting choice for a small landmark like #150. In 1996, I almost rode Demon, but I remember watching it from the triple ferris wheel thingy and talking myself into being scared of it, so I didn't ride it. This time it looked like nothing, so I hopped in line for it. There was about a 2 train wait...so much nicer that Raging Bull's hour wait! The ride was unexpectedly good...very smooth, and the inversions through rockwork also added excitement to the ride. There was also a light up blinky tunnel that I had no idea was there! I was glad I'd chosen this one for my #150, as I really enjoyed it.

 

I walked on and came up on American Eagle next. Again in 1996, my mom videotaped American Eagle's train going down one of the drops, and all of us were like "I'd have to be crazy to ride that!" haha. To my surprise, this coaster has two tracks...a forwards and a backwards...bonus credit!!! It has a really long line, and some very ambitious extended queue that I bet hasn't been used in decades. Once I got in line for the forward side, it broke down for about 5 minutes while I was standing behind an extremely stinky redneck man. Once the ride was going again, don't you know that I ended up sitting directly behind him, so I was downwind of him the whole time! hahaha

 

As soon as I went down the first drop, I knew American Eagle was something special. It felt just the way a classic woodie should feel, and had fantastic floater air on every hill. This was definitley a coaster that I could ride all day, and that I wish was within an easy drive of me. It was just a perfect blend of everything that a good woodie should be. As soon as I left the forward side, I went around and did the backward side, which was just as great. This coaster is definitely in my top ten woodie list, since it shares so many great qualities with Great American Scream Machine at SFoG.

 

Iron Wolf was next door, so I hopped in line for it next. I waited probably about 20-30 minutes for it, which wasn't terrible considering how crowded the park seemed. This was the only of the coasters at the park that I wouldn't ride frequently. It wasn't bad, but it was definitely the roughest coaster they have (that I rode), and stand ups aren't my favorite genre of coasters anyway.

 

When I left the line, I was feeling a little overheated, so I got an orange Icee and sat down in the shade. I tried to call mom to see if she wanted to meet up for a few rides, but I couldn't get a hold of her. Abot 10 minutes later she called me, and we were actually right across the same area from each other. I met up with her in an air conditioned gift shop, and she said she wanted to get some lunch since she was hungry. I wasn't hungry since I was still in the process of downing my large Icee, but decided to go ahead and eat anyway. We stopped at Wascals and both got chicken strips and fries baskets. I ate all of the chicken but not many of the fries since I was pretty stuffed because of the Icee.

 

When we left, I rode Spacely's Sprocket Rockets since it was on the way, then rode the chairswings (whirligig...what a great name haha). After the chairswings, my stomach wasn't feeling so good, so I said I needed to go inside and cool off and let my meal digest a bit more before going back out in the heat. We went in an arcade and I sat down in a driving game until I felt a bit better. When we left, we got as far as a covered walkway at the entrace to the Mardi Gras area, and I had to sit down again. I waited another 5 minutes or so, then I was fine, and we went on about business. Mom said she'd ridden the Jesters Wild Ride and liked it, which I found so funny since she swore she didn't like the Rockin' Tug at Beech Bend, and it's the same ride system!

 

As we passed Condor, I decided to jump on for a ride. Mom was hesitant at first and had to watch it through a cycle, but finally decided to go. She seemed to have the exact same reaction as she did to the Rockin' Tug. She seemed to be struggling through the ride, but later she asked if I wanted to ride it again! I distinctly remember riding this in '96 when the condors on it were black, and thinking that it was just about as big a thrill as I wanted to experience!

 

As we got to the front of the park, we hopped on the carousel, where I rode a pig. Feel free to insert your own fat joke here. After that we went to the simulator. I don't get why it still has Space Shuttle America theming all over it, yet it's the same crappy Stargate SG300 film I've seen at three different parks already this season! The theater and queue for this one are much nicer than the others, and it was also nice that I didn't have to wait through the mind numbing preshow this time.

 

We went on Sky Trek Tower next, and I always enjoy this kind of ride. This one was air conditioned thank heavens, unlike the one at Cedar Point! After the tower we decided to meet up for the 4:15 Circo Magico show, which was 45 minutes away. I'm not sure what she did, but I figured that I could sneak in another coaster in the meantime, so I went to ride Viper.

 

The line was posted at half an hour, which was just about exactly what I waited. This was another excellent woodie...one I would be proud to have in my home park. As I left, I had 5 minutes to get to the theater before showtime, so I grabbed a glass of ice water and booked it over there. Of course mom was mad that I hadn't shown up early, but I pretty much just told her to get over it because we still got good seats and didn't miss anything.

 

The show was good...Cirque Light. They had ribbon flyers, and a girl who spun cloth on her feet while standing on her head, and two guys who did some strength moves that were almost homoerotic! One of the lady ribbon flyers fell as she was running along the edge of the stage to take off. It looked like the box that holds the ribbons in place wasn't up high enough, so the ribbons weren't tight enough, which caused her to fall. I bet she was pretty pissed after the show!

 

When the show ended I was completely cooled off and refreshed and ready to tackle the Superman line. It was posted at an hour wait, but it ended up being 50 minutes. I even found a type on a sign in the queue! I text messaged my friend Peter while I waited, then my phone started to go dead. I quickly text messaged my mom saying to meet me at the carousel at 9:00pm because I figured that I wouldn't have enough battery to call her.

 

Ultimate Flight in Georgia is in a three way tie for my favorite coaster, so obviously I loved this ride. This one lacked just a little bit though since Georgia's is terrain based, and swoops you close to the ground and through ravines and stuff. Still it was an excellent coaster. And just to show how pack minded people are...as soon as we pulled into the brake run, you could tell that people had been spitting while they waited there, so of course everyone in my train was like "Dude, lets spit!" They did the same thing when we passed a canopy over the queue while on the lifthill and it was covered in gum. So of course, everyone spit out their gum trying to hit it. Why is the GP so disgusting?

 

I headed off for Ragin' Cajun next, which is a clone of the mouse at Beech Bend and a bunch of other parks. It's a great design of mouse though, so I don't blame parks for buying them up. I rode with a dad and his daughter, and the daughter had never ridden a wild mouse before. She seemed to hate it during the ride, but afterwards said it was fun. I sat on my hat during the ride, and I popped out of my seat at one point, so I leaned over to get my hat and hold it so it wouldn't fly out from under me. Just as I leaned over, the mouse started spinning out of control and I couldn't sit up to save my life! Too much fun.

 

I figured the line for Batman would be pretty long, so I decided to go ahead and get it out of the way. I noticed the ACE plaque at the entrance, and I guess I don't get it, but didn't Vekoma SLCs come before B&M inverteds? I guess I'm wrong, but I wouldn't have guessed that Batman was the oldest of it's kind. The ride was fantastic, and extremely powerful! There were so many Gs that my legs were itching and I left the blood pooling in my feet. And it was still smooth as glass...a great inverted coaster.

 

Vertical Velocity was closed, but I wouldn't have ridden it anyway. Deja Vu seemed to stay running all day once it opened up around noon, but I didn't want to ride it either. I don't like vertical drops at all, and to add insult to injury, after the drop, it's a boomerang! No way...doesn't look fun at all to me. The last one I hadn't done was Raging Bull, so I headed off in that direction, figuring that if I had to wait an hour, oh well, I'd just wait the hour. I was getting hungry at that point, so I stopped near American Eagle and got two cheesy breadsticks to tide me over. As I continued on, I stopped to take pictures of Demon's corkscrew, and they all turned out really well.

 

I got in line for Raging Bull, and ended up waiting about a half hour for it too. I wasn't sure what to expect of this ride. It looked great, but I didn't want to hype it up in my mind to be all that, then be disappointed. Once I was on it, it was an incredible ride! It was smooth, had tons of great drops and airtime, and I loved the "not so restraining" restraints. You could just see the airtime coming, which was fantastic! Definitely my favorite coaster in the park, with American Eagle being a close second.

 

As I finished with Raging Bull, it was about 8:00, and I still had an hour before I needed to meet mom. I was still just praying that she got my text message before my battery died else I had no idea how I'd meet up with her. I wandered back to the front of the park and got in line for Whizzer. It was the only coaster I hadn't done today, and also the only one I'd ridden before. The people operating the ride were being really goofy! They had a stuffed chicken that played Chicken Dance when you squeezed it, and would burp and gag if you squeezed it more. So they played it over the PA system and made us do the chicken dance, then would make it burp and gag repeatedly into the microphone! It was hilarious. You could tell that it had been a long day for them!

 

As for the ride, it was more thrilling than I remembered, and in hind sight, I'm surprised that I liked it at 16! It's a great starter coaster, and one that should definitely be kept around for a while longer. I was really sad when I heard that the park wanted to take it out and was glad when they decided to keep it, and now I'm even more glad since I got to ride it again.

 

With about half an hour left, the lights on all the rides had come on, so I decided to get a night shot of the Condor. As I waited on a bench and played with my camera, a lady on an ECV came up and parked right in front of me. I was the only person on any of the three benches in the area, and there was no one else standing or waiting anywhere else near me...and she stopped 2 feet in front of me? Not only that but she carried on a very loud cell phone conversation, and I could hear every word. I thought it was very strange...no one else is around, so you need to stop directly in front of me? You couldn't go 5 feet to my right and have your own little space for your conversation? Had I wanted to get up, I couldn't have because she was blocking me. Then her family appears, and they all stand around her...again, I am still the only person in the area and now everyone is huddling around me! Finally when the Condor started I said that I'd been waiting to take a picture of the ride, and would she mind backing up a couple of feet...and it was like none of them had even realized I was there! They were like "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm blocking your view!" then quickly parted so I could get my picture. Very strange!

 

Once that was done I still had about 20 minutes left, so I wandered back into the Mardi Gras section and decided to ride the Top Spin since it had been ages since I'd ridden one. Just about the only thing the ride did was flip us backwards four times in a row then dangle us upside down for a second then stop. It made me extremely dizzy, but in a good way. It could have stood to be twice as long though.

 

At that point I went back and sat down by the carousel and waited, hoping mom would show up. She did, and she told me about how I'd made her have to learn how to read text messages on her phone since she'd never received one before! She hadn't eaten dinner, so we found a place across from the bumper cars that was open and she got a cheesesteak sandwich. The lady asked her if she'd also like a couple of chicken strips since they were closing and were going to throw them out. We said sure, so I ate the chicken strips while mom ate the sandwich. It also came with a pickle! No trip is complete without a good pickle.

 

After I finished my pickle, we headed out for the night since we'd done everything we wanted. Once back at the hotel, I got a call from my friend Peter so we chatted for almost a half hour. It's always great to hear from him! I fixed a bag of popcorn (because it came free with my room, and I had a microwave, so why not? hehe) and went to the little store to buy a soda. I think I was in bed at around midnight, with a 9:00am alarm set.

 

Wednesday, August 10th, 2005

 

We got up at 9:00am, and I got showered. We packed everything up and we checked out by about 10:30. There was a Dennys not far away so we stopped for breakfast. I didn't really want breakfast food, so I got an italian chicken sandwich with spaghetti sauce and cheese. It was great but it was really messy! When we were done, we drove into Chicago with the intention of going to Navy Pier for a few hours. Mom swore that she'd seen online that they offered free parking and a free shuttle to the pier, which seemed a little fishy to me. She said the only catch was that we had to park a few blocks away...whatever. So we finally find it after she yelled at me so much to tell her where to go like I'd lived in Chicago all my life. And of course the parking was $18, and she acted confused about why they would charge so much for parking (uh, hello, it's downtown Chicago!). She also seemed to get mad at me that I couldn't find the free parking, which obviously never existed in the first place. Note to self...always do trip planning myself. Never leave it up to my mom.

 

Finally we turned around and left without going to Navy Pier. She was upset with me first over my inability to find free parking at noon on a weekday in downtown Chicago, and second because I didn't know exactly where the highway was from where we were. At this point, I was glad we were on the way back home so I didn't have to be the navigator anymore and get yelled at! She'd say "Just tell me where to go!" and when I'd say "I don't know where to go" well, that answer just wasn't good enough for her. She acted like I was intentionally not teling her the right way to go! Once we finally found the highway it was a straight shot back home.

 

We stopped for dinner at the same exit as the Max and Erma's on the way up, but had a chinese buffet instead. It was right next to Rapers Rent to own...certainly not a store I was endeared to at first glance! hahaha Dinner was good, and we were back home at around 10:00pm.

 

Despite mom's attitude while driving, I had a great time at both parks on this little weekend and both are parks I'd love to go back to. The waits at Great America were honestly the worst I'd experienced all season, and even they weren't too terrible. I was able to do everything I wanted with time to spare, and mom also had fun filling her day with flat rides and shows.

 

-Julie

That's all folks! Thanks for reading!

I am Superman. Please oogle my bulging codpiece.

Look! We actually spotted our car from the sky tower!

But this is how the first one turned out. Looks like I took it in the middle of the day! Eventhough it didn't turn out like it was supposed to, I still like it.

When I took my Condor photo, I actually took two. This is how it was supposed to look...

Raging Bull at sunset

Y'know, I'm straight, but even I noticed all the hot chicks in the park that day.

Just to remind them who's boss, I e-stopped the sky tower as I left. *snicker*

It's a typo! Four years of college finally pay off when I find a typo in a Six Flags queue!

And here is a lovely shot of Superman : Ultimate...hey wait a second...what's that say?...

Homoerotic strenth performances in Circo Magico. Looks like the guy has an extra set of legs growing out of his neck, huh?

Feel free to insert your own fat joke here.

Demon goes through a corkscrew...how can someone *not* take a good picture of a corkscrew?

Demon goes through a head chopping vertical loop.

Woah...NOT a good sign when approaching a theme park!

Another day, another pickle...another fun TR from Julie.

 

I totally get how hard is to travel with your mom (read my HW report and the 100 pound wheelchair of death) but just remember the good memories you are making with her, and that someday you won't have that. At least that's what I remind myself of as I am pushing her ass in the 90 degree heat!! (only kidding, Mom!)

 

Shari "Not only would I have not ridden the pig in the first place, but had I had no choice, I would have forbidden photographs!" Shoufler

Nice TR, it really looked crowded.

 

You didn't miss much by not getting to Navy Pier. To me, it's the definition of a tourist trap. It seemed to be nothing but some shops with overpriced stuff, a few restaurants and a ferris wheel.

Great, fun TR as always!

I wouldn't always believe the queue time signs. They only post for the wait "when full." But, for some reason, they change them to totally random things.

 

I share your opinion about the American Eagle. I love it. It is quite the classic coaster, and a ton of fun. It's great in the front seat going forwards, and back going backwards. It's my favorite ride in the park, followed by Viper and Raging Bull.

Great photos!

 

Hey, how come we never see photos of Julie's mom in these photo TRs?

My mom generally doesn't like having her picture taken, but if you want photos of my mom...you got 'em!

I don't remember what the hell she was doing here, but she looked ridiculous doing it, so I snuck a picture.

My mom putting her feet on the table at Ed Debevics.

Here is a paparazzi-esque photo of my mom underneath the Ferris Wheel at Indiana Beach.