Knoebels/SFNE (Again)
The truth is, there were just a few coasters left that I knew I just had to hit before I left, or I would never forgive myself. Oh, there are plenty that I'd like to hit, even some I'd really like to hit (Apollo's Chariot being foremost on that list), but only a few that, to miss them, would have never let me start my new life on the west coast with a clear conscience, and I'd always be looking back.
But the truth is, I didn't have much time. So yesterday, I hit 'em. I didn't spend nearly as much time riding the coasters as I would have chosen, and I didn't spend nearly the amount of leisure time at the parks as I would have chosen, but there was work to be done. In fact, the entire expedition felt like a business trip, and the whole day I could feel myself checking things off of my "to do" list.
So this trip report is not about the people, the sights, the sounds, the flat rides, the food, the shows (though when have you known me to write about the shows), and the lovely care-free glimpse of youth that these parks are here to offer us. This is about getting there, getting in, getting on, and getting out.
Hey, how do you think I feel.
8:00 AM - Get in the car. Begin my trek towards SFNE to hit Superman, which as we all know was closed the first time. Bastards.
8:30 AM - Get to route 287 and remember all of the wonderful things I'd just gotten through reading about Knoebels, and remember how stupid I felt for not going there the first time I'd gone to Pennsylvania to seek out fun on rails.
8:31 AM - Turn left instead of right, and head towards Knoebels.
11:00 AM - Get to Knoebels. Enjoy the rare feeling of walking into an amusement park without having to pay anybody any money. Buy tickets. Go on rides...
Phoenix (+4) - With the year 2000 being the inaugural season of my intense coaster geekdom, and under the wave of the wooden coaster revolution, perhaps it's understandable (if not completely forgivable) if I have a vague bias against the "old workhorses", and instantly give favor towards the gleaming new computer-designed, next generation CCI/GCI woodies. Perhaps it was with this mindset that I approached Phoenix, tickets in hand and urgency of heart as I glanced from my watch back to the front-seat line, back to my watch, etc.
This mindset was dealt a strong blow as soon as the train left the station and sent us into a long, pitch-black tunnel which I had not even noticed while walking up to the platform.
This mindset was then obliterated during the next minute, as I was tossed up and down and around like a ragdoll's ugly stepchild as we sped over various speed hills, a double-up, a double-down, and the most ferocious "bunny hops" I'd ever experienced. I felt as if I'd been standing up half the time, and right at the end, even my fearless brain had had enough and instructed my hands, without my permission, to slam down on the lapbar and grab onto something, anything, you idiot.
An absolutely blistering ride, and for those that care about such things, the most, and most violent, airtime I've ever experienced on a wooden coaster. Almost by far.
And I'll never have a sneer in my voice when I say "classic woodie" again. Phoenix is what it's all about.
Whirlwind (-1) - All I could think was, "You know, once upon a time, this was probably an amazing ride." A lift hill. A corkscrew. Turn around. Another corkscrew. Stop. Normally I'd give this sort of inconsequential, harmless ride a 0, but this wasn't even interesting enough to earn a 0. I still would have given it a 0, but there was this loud CLUNK sound as we got to the top, and it irritated me. Tough luck, Whirlwind.
Twister (+3.5) - My eyes opened by the big bad bird, I headed over to the spotless, towering Twister, which appeared to have just started its trips for the day. When I got to the station, there was nobody there, except for the ride ops. I got in the front seat. The man on the mic began his safety speech with "Attention, rider..." I acknowledged with a thumbs up, and then I was off, all by myself, in the front of a train on a coaster I'd never ridden, and had no idea what to expect. This is good!
There's this game called Rollercoaster Tycoon that you can play on your PC, which lets you build your own coasters and watch happy little people ride them. Sometimes you want to build a really tall coaster, but you can't, because there's not enough room. Well, you could always just build half the lift hill one way, then have the train turn around and have another lift hill going the rest of the way up in the other direction, but that's kind of cheating, because in real life no coaster actua-
Imagine my surprise, then, as we -- that is, I -- began the second half of the lift. This unorthodox trip up to the top of this particular pile of lumber is, in my mind, one of the ride's highlights. Particularly because the final turnaround (from the second lift hill to the first drop) is taken at pretty high speed, and waaaaay up in the air. I'm not afraid of heights, but even I found this a little unnerving. But it's a coaster. We like unnerving.
The rest of the ride is plenty joyful, with steep drops, and some speedy helices, at least one of which has some pretty decent air attached to it, so you're half out of your seat while you are being slammed to the side. I've decided, with my experiences on this, Boulder Dash, and Villain, that this is my favorite sensation in a wooden coaster. Let's call it, "lateral air". That sounds nerdy enough.
Also of note are the new PTC trains which have the most gorgeous paint job I've ever seen on a coaster train. They're sort of halfway between purple and maroon, and are a work of art themselves. They're the kind of trains you just enjoy getting in, and not just because you're about to go on a ride. Less fortunate are the weakly sprung individual lapbars, but after Boulder Dash, I've learned to forgive this.
1:00 PM - Head out on the next leg of the trip, to SFNE, and stop at Wendy's. Wendy's, in case you weren't aware of this, still has the best fast-food burgers in the business. My advice, though, is to have them hold the lettuce and tomato. Don't need any of those goddamn vegetables getting in the way of the beefy, cheesy prize.
4:00 PM - Realize that it was further to SFNE from Knoebels than I'd figured.
5:00 PM - Realize that it was a lot further to SFNE from Knoebels than I'd figured, and then I started to worry that SFNE was going to, pardon my German, fuck me over again. There were so many things that could go wrong, and if I got aced out of the hyper-hyped Superman again on this, my last trip to SFNE, I was going to start drowning small animals for the stress relief.
6:00 PM - Get to SFNE. As I'm walking through the little gully between the parking lot and the park, I can see Superman. Know what I don't see on it? Trains. And I'm walking, and walking, and no trains, and no trains. I get to the front. At least that goddamn "Superman is Closed, Loser" sign was not up. I began gingerly walking towards the Superhero section (or whatever stupid thing they're calling it). No trains. I walk down the final flight of stairs that lies before the ride entrance.
One little bitty blue train starts crawling its way up that first beautiful hill. Then a little while later, a red one. And there was much rejoicing. (Yaaay.)
Then I saw the line. The line was long. But the line moved fast. At 6 PM, the wait was just about an hour, perhaps a minute or two less. I rode towards the front. I went back. The wait was just about 45 minutes. I rode towards the back. I went back. The wait was just about a half an hour. I rode in the middle. Then I went to ride the Cyclone, which I'd also missed the first time. It was closed. But by this time, I didn't care. I got to ride Superman. Then it was getting dark, and I went back and waited another hour for the front seat. Then I got the hell outta there.
Okay, ready?
SFNE's Superman: Ride of Steel (+5) - The Ride of Steel at Six Flags America (and thus, SFDL, since they are identical) earned a +4.5 from me. The intense speed, and the air over the hills wowed me like never before, but the time spent in the helices which could have been spent going up and down felt like a bit of a waste. This version simply corrects that, by offering more. An extra big hill. A couple extra bunny hops. An inverted turn (I am in love with these inverted turns, by the way.) A first drop through an extremely misty tunnel. A last turn through another tunnel. More, more, more. The air is the same ultra intense, "I sure hope this lap bar holds" style, but as with everything else, there's just more. It's all good. This coaster is pretty much flawless. And as with any of the Intamin hypers, the front seat is the place to be just for the wind in your face.
Others have lauded this thing far more than I could ever do here, so I'll just offer something new. Here's what I liked better about the other version:
I really missed that one part on the other Superman that is just straight and level for a bit, leading up to the "ultra-air hill". On slower coasters, something like this would be boring. But it's fun going a zillion miles an hour straight ahead, anticipating the looming tower of steel you're just about to hit. I also like that straight, level part of Villain right before it drops off the face of the Earth. Maybe I just like straight and level. Comes from being a pilot, I suppose.
No matter. They're all fabulous. Hopefully the Intamin hypers will take over the world. So far, so good.
But I still didn't like ROS as much as Millennium Force, so nyah.
10:00 PM - Head home.
1:00 AM - Arrive home. Realize I just spent eleven hours driving, and four hours waiting in lines, to ride a total of four rides for a total of twenty minutes.
1:01 AM - Cry myself to sleep.
The truth is, I'm moving away from the east coast in a few days, and I won't have a chance to be back to hit the east coast parks which I've fallen in love with until next year, most likely.