Moving Pictures

Not only has it been decades since I visited this park, it's also been months since I've posted in this blog. Time to catch up. My intention on this trip was to ride every roller coaster in the park. None of which I took photos of. That's because they make it very difficult to carry pretty much anything on the rides so wallet, keys, phone, camera all went into storage lockers most of the day. The roller coasters are incredibly fast, hugely varied, and put a tremendous strain on this old body of mine. All for pure enjoyment and thrill. Around noon or so I needed a slight break from being upside down at 60 miles an hour and decided to take in a show. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed these shows as a kid. I had also forgotten how much I enjoyed the penguin exhibit. Especially on a 90 degree day in the Florida sun. That is real ice and there is no glass between the birds and the visitors. The temperature shock was exactly what I needed to cool down a bit and...

I've always been a roller coaster fan since my first time on the big wooden roller coaster at Hunt's Pier in New Jersey. That would be in the early 1970's. My first looping roller coaster was the  SooperDooperLooper when it first opened at Hershey Park in 1977. I've ridden some pretty large coasters all over the country but not for many years. Of course I have always ridden the Disney rides and even Universal's in Orlando but I had to put a pause on the really ferocious rides for a while. A high stress life and a high G-Force roller coaster leads to seeing black spots, chest pains, fainting, and balance problems. Now that I have gotten away from the high stress life, blood pressure under control, no more ice pick in the chest mid day job stress, I just wanted to give it a try again. It was always my dream for retirement to ride the biggest rides in the country. That ended 5 years ago on the Hulk in Orlando, A ride I've been on many times prior, made me ...