RollerCoasterTour.com's Kick Off Party!
RollerCoasterTour has officially begun!
I woke up early (err, 7am) this morning and took my time leaving Metro Detroit …
Wait …
Before I get started with these coaster updates let me just state that I’m not into long diatribes about the architects or the colors or whatever. If you’re into that, sweet! But you can get it elsewhere. There are a ton of coaster enthusiast websites out there that go into great detail about rides and parks and all that. More power to them. I know how much time and effort it can take to create databases & forums and edit video & photos.
Me? I’m doing things a bit differently. I just wanna have some fun, ride some coasters, see the US, and attempt working while I’m on the road. I’ll share photos and videos where I can, and where I have something good to share. :)
Back to the lecture at hand. Perfection is perfected so I’m a let ‘em understand. Whoa, wait. That’s Snoop, not Karol.
Anyway …
I got to Michigan’s Adventure in Muskegon, MI a little after 12:00pm EST.
I had 3 coasters on my list. Shivering Timbers, Wolverine Wildcat, and Thunderhawk. Let me explain the list: for every park I go to I have a list of “must ride” coasters. This is a list that fits my criteria. ;) I’m not interested in going on every wildcat variation or every corkscrew variation in the country. That’s just boring. Once you’ve done one 60 second coaster that does nothing but go in two inversions you’ve done them all. :)
Anyway … off to Shivering Timbers, a big wooden coaster that looked like it would be a good start to the day.
I got my GoPro chest strap ready and walked to the front ride line. Looking confident, I was hoping employees would ignore the fact that I had a camera strapped to my chest in what looked like some kind of prepubescent training bra for grown men. They didn’t ignore it.
“Well that thing isn’t going anywhere! That is the coolest camera holder I’ve ever seen.”
Ahh, much better than I expected. See, coaster parks have rules against cameras on the coasters. It makes sense. Liability and all. But these kids didn’t care.
As you can see, that ride is BUMPY. Shivering Timbers is a fitting name. Shivering Karol’s Lunch Out Of His Body is a better name. I’ve gone sky diving, hang gliding, bungy jumping (134m), canyon swinging … and I’ve never felt so shaken to the core as after that ride. I don’t even remember Cedar Point’s Mean Streak loosening my guts like this bad boy.
On to Wolverine Wildcat.
Same schtick with the camera. But this time a fat girl said I couldn’t video tape and I had to put it away. Mentioning her weight has no bearing on anything. I’m just upset. Don’t hold it against me. (Unless you’re Britney.)
Wolverine Wildcat is another wooden coaster. Not as fun as Shivering Timbers. But then, it also didn’t shake my bowels loose. So it has that going for it.
Next I headed to my car to exchange my chest strap for my wrist mount. I came prepared. While the wrist mount is pretty big, it isn’t as obvious as the chest strap.
I got in line for ThunderHawk and hoped for the best. After ~25 minutes of waiting I sat down in my chosen front seat and started recording. Since the camera was strapped to my wrist and my arms had limited movement (ThunderHawk has an over-the-shoulders restraint) I did what I could to get a good shot.
Later, when I got to my hotel to check out the video all I could hear was a click click clicking sound. The wrist strap can’t handle coasters. :( The video looks OK, but watching it with sound is unbearable. Maybe I’ll upload it some day. Maybe I won’t. Suspense!
That was that with my coaster list. There were only 3. Since riding them took all of 90 minutes I decided to go on the CorkScrew and Zach’s Zoomer. CorkScrew is exactly like you’d expect if you’ve ever been on a ride called CorkScrew. Zach’s Zoomer was a wooden ride for children that I barely fit in. My knees were not happy in the slighest.
Oh, right … so how did I rip my pants?
As I was getting off Zach’s Zoomer I pulled on my pocket to unbutton it so I could get my Nexus One and take a beautiful photo for you. Instead of unbuttoning like a good little pocket, the button didn’t budge and the pocket flap ripped. Not as exciting as you thought, right? Well, guess what? I went on Zach’s Zoomer FOR YOU! You better get excited or I’m never going on a ride that isn’t on my list again. :)
See the full photo set on Flickr (this was a Flash slideshow)
{ 25 comments }
Shivering Timbers was my first ever coaster (not that I’ve really gone on that many). I remember it being bumpy (and scary) as shit. I think it used to be the tallest/fastest wooden roller coaster in the United States (world, too maybe?) at one point.
Anyway, cool to see you there. Hope the rest of the trip goes well!
Yeah, somebody mentioned something about it being one of the biggest at one point, but I don’t know if that was ever true. In any case, as bumpy as it was, it’s a good ride.
Pants and you just do not agree.
P.S. Wooden roller coasters are scary as hell and I applaud you.
I’m just gonna stop wearing pants altogether.
Or you could switch your pants for shirts and vice-versa. You might have better luck then.
Awesome, the much-anticipated tour has begun! I think you’re one brave man for going on all these roller coasters – I went to Michigan’s Adventure as a kid and I got scared just watching other people on “Shivering Timbers.” I thought it was going to break apart, it swayed around so much.
I noticed your knees are right up against the divider in the video – are most roller coast seats too small for you to fit comfortably?
The world isn’t built for tall people. :) Yeah, my knees get a whacking on a lot of enclosed rides. And my knees are also pretty much why I didn’t get a hearse to drive around the country. :)
Awesome! Thank you for the video footage..and thank you for this very creative tour! How fun:)
Thanks for following along Joy.
Hey Karol, I will be following you every step of the way on your journey….it’s pretty cool! I’m a MAJOR coaster enthusiast!
Firstly, “Shivering Timbers” is the tallest & fastest rollercoaster in the State of Michigan….but it never was the tallest overall (steel or wooden). It opened in 1998 and by then, wooden monsters over 125 feet tall had already been built (and steel was already exceeding 200 feet and about to exceed 300 feet just 2 years later). Shivering Timbers is such a great ride!
Secondly, you said you make a point not to ride “variations”…well Thunderhawk is a Vekoma SLC that is severely cloned to death….if you aren’t careful, you’ll be riding over 20 of them on your journey. Corkscrew rollercoasters generally have more differences in their layouts then these, haha.
Anyway…I will definitely be checking your updates tomorrow, this was a very cool idea you had thought up and I hope you have fun doing it. I hope you enjoyed your day at Michigan’s Adventure and I hope your next park is just as fun.
P.S…when it comes to wearing that vest strap camera onto rides…I know there are rules against it for safety reasons, but I’m sure if you talked to the park ahead of time and let them know its safe and all that stuff, they’d let the ride ops know and would have no problems with video!
Enjoy the trip and I’m sure I’ll be commenting again :)
Have a safe journey my friend!
Hey Brett, yeah, I’ve contacted some parks and they said I can’t get a camera pass. I’m not cool enough. :)
Thanks for following along!
You make riding rollercoasters look easy. I love the nonchalant up/down arm movements; you remind me of Mr. Bean on that episode where he’s falling asleep on the coaster. I, however, would probably be screaming bloody murder.
I was trying to brace myself from the shaking and I guess that’s what my arms look like. Except on the drops where I lifted my arms up. It’s more fun screaming bloody murder, but I didn’t want to mess up the video! :)
That’s what I meant– on the drops, how you casually put them up for each drop and then casually put them back down, lol.
Ooohhhhh, gotcha … P.S. You better start learning more country songs, because the next time I’m in Austin I think my knowledge of the twang will surpass yours.
Very cool thing you’re doing, nice to see you are startin in my home state!
If you get a chance, check out my friend who also has a unique outlook on life and is skating 3,000 miles on a cross country skate, he’s from Fowlerville, MI. You guys both can be a big inspiration in just getting out there and DOING whatever it is that you need to do. Very cool, good luck on your tour and I’m jealous and would love to do that too :)
Thanks Benn. I tweeted out his site. He’s got a fun project going on!
err, nm, guess I didn’t tweet it … something went wrong :)
No prob, I talked to him about you and we are doing a whole world one with you next year ;) Good luck, I’ll be checkin up on ya
hey, that´s a nice trip you´re taken! Wish I could join you! Me and my family are coaster lovers too.. We have heard about your trip trough the www.orlandotips.nl site.
You should visit Europa, we have some great coasters here!
We are from the Netherlands.
have a great coaster time
Maybe we will see you when we are in Orlando in July.
Thanks Anja! I’ll be in Europe next year (and maybe later this year) so I’ll definitely try to check out some coasters.
Hey Karol,
great to meet you in Gurnee (Chicago), wish circumstances were better. Did you wind up hitting Great America today?
Thanks Darby. Heading there right now! :) Will post about it when I get to Wisconsin later today.
Awesome! May the rest of your tour be the smoothest! I’ll see you in Portland!
Hi Karol im in michigan my state getting ready to leave to michigan adventure in a few hours. Im so excited even though ive been to cedar point , im a ride warrior there so it wont compare
Ive ridden all the rides at cedar point and im only eleven . Have u been to cedar point? I wish i was going on a roller coaster tour cause im a roller coaster freak. Have a great trip!!!:)