Entries this day: SFoT

SFoT

18 April 1999

On Friday the 17th, Wende and I drove to Dallas to visit Six Flags!! We actually left a tad later than we had hoped, plus made a stop by my dad's to get my brother's snail mail... We got to Dallas area by like 9pm.

First stopped by my friend Carrie's house to say HI. She had her friend Wendy over for a slumber party (small party). Carrie, Wendy, Wende and I all talked about whatever and watched Wendy ride her unicycle, and ate some of Wendy's muffins (she had made 72 for a lunch thing at her work). I tried out the unicycle a bit and did relatively well.

Then off to my brother's house, fully on the other side of Dallas. Carrie lives in Mesquite; Fred lives in Denton. Got to his place at like midnight, and he was up studying some crazy math stuff. (He's getting a doctorate degree in math at like Stanford or something) We said HI to him then went to see his friend Tamara who was doing security dispatch stuff graveyard shift.

Then slept.

(I'll tell the story faster)
(note: several of the coasters listed are linked on Six Flags site. This site requires the Shockwave Flash plugin)

Got to Six Flags by 10am, though they opened at 9. Oh well. I had never been before. Wende had been, but it was a super long time ago and she didn't totally remember the layout of the park. So map in hand I searched out Flashback, but ended up near two different coasters: Mr Freeze, and Batman The Ride. Mr Freeze was not currently working and Batman was not completely built. Some people nearby were all, "let's go to Flashback!" We followed.

Flashback is cool. It starts by pulling the train backwards up an incline then dropping it back through the station and through a couple of twisty inversions, a proper loop and then up another hill. The train is pulled forward further up the hill then dropped backwards through the whole thing again. Awesome. I got some pics, but didn't get to sit in the front seat; I was a tad bummed about that.

Walked toward Shockwave and found the Mine Train. Wende said it was the first tubular steel coaster in the world! It's a pretty cute little ride, similar but a tad longer and squatter than Excalibur was at Astroworld. I got pictures while riding it, including some shots of different coasters in the park.

Then to Shockwave. It's a tall gangly sort of ride, quite spread out over a several acre site. Alongside a highway (I-30?), two loops kick off the action, and then some wild dips and various twists and turns. I got some pictures while waiting in line. After riding, someone asked how it was. I said, "pretty good! Better than it looks!"

We continued our trek around the park and found Texas Giant. It's a pretty huge wooden coaster, 14 stories tall with a top speed of just over 60mph. My brother had said it wasn't that great, that I should skip it. We rode anyway, and I certainly enjoyed it. Just as the ride began, I recognized I was out of film. Doh!! So no pics while on that ride, but I got a few after we rode. The thing is so tall that I found it difficult to get a good shot.

Then to Casa de las Banderas for lunch. We got supreme nachos and cheese for inflated amusement park price and chilled for about half an hour.

La Vibora ("The Viper" in Spanish) was next on our list. It's a bobsled coaster thing. Is it a coaster? Is it a sled? It's something that was pretty fun: sleds with wheels rolling down a trough. Like a water slide with no water.

At this point we had essentially ridden each coaster on the outer perimeter of the park, so we were back at the entrance. "Let's go try Mr Freeze again."

This we did, and this time it was open. The line was longer than it first appeared; the architects had done a sneaky job of weaving the line around where it couldn't be seen from other parts of the line. Through turnstiles we went, then the line appeared to go out 1 door and immediately back in an other door. Outside the door was another set of turnstiles.

While outside, we had a good view of the coaster. It started out flat and was accelerated to 70mph and then straight UP, 90 degree twist, then 180 degree loop, 90 degree untwist, straight DOWN, then a big lazy loop thing then straight UP right between the original UP and DOWN. Magically the train is pulled higher at this last UP and then is dropped backwards and does the whole thing backwards!!

The entire ride lasts 40 seconds.

I was intrigued by how the train is silently magically lifted at the end (middle) and by how quickly the train would rocket back out of the station again, full of new people.

I ignored how quickly the train was emptied and refilled, but pondered the lift.

"OH wait!!!" I remembered. The train has silver metal fin things on each side. Electromagnets lift it, and electromagnets achieve the initial acceleration and the final deceleration!!! Phat!!!!

Once we got back inside, there was plenty of line left, but thankfully no turnstiles. As we got closer to the beginning of the line, we noticed an odd thing: for some reason, after waiting for some minutes, a huge gap would appear in line, bubbling backwards to the end. "Are people just gawking and not paying attention????" Hmmm.

And then the ultimate intrigue: the line hits a wall and splits. Which way to go? No indication is given on which way is best or what. Hmmm.

We had been talking with a mom and her two kids, like 10 and 14 years old and we chose left since the 14 year-old said it was faster. Fair enough. It wasn't faster; the right hand line started pouring people through it. That explained the huge gaps in line, but what was back there???

Wow

We got around the corner and I was amazed. Two trains were side by side, each on its own track. The tracks could move independently side to side. The one train would be on one track and move over to the side to drop off passengers and pick up a new set of riders. During that time, the other train would have been moved to the center for launch.

Launch. "Launch" precisely describes this action. The ride operator in charge of pushing "go" would say, "all clear. Train is being launched," hit the button, and with a significant dimming of the lights and huge amperage transformers engaging, ZZZZHZZHZHZHShshshshshsshshsoooooom the train would blast out of the station, 0 to 70mph in 4 seconds. Oh yes. Launch.

Forty seconds later the train would blast back into the tunnel and park gently on its track, which would then move over to the other side and do the passenger thing as the other train did the launch thing.

The process was amazing. The dimming of the lights, the speed, the amperage... incredible. Plus, when the lights were on, they filled the room with cool blue light to accentuate the name Mr Freeze. 1.5 hours in line for a 40 second ride. I loved it!

Wende had expressed interest in riding The Texas Chute Out, so we went there next. It's the parachute ride thing. Just slowly up and slowly straight back down, so nothing amazing, but I was able to get some good arial pics of Mr Freeze, Batman The Ride and Flashback.

Rode Judge Roy Scream. Tee hee. That was cute. I enjoyed how the ride ran parallel to a road, about the same speed as traffic. I took pictures of the car beside us. (I think I got it)

Then a 3-D movie thing called Escape from Dino Island, a takeoff from Michael Crighton's Jurassic Park. It was interesting, but not worth the wait.

At Dryer's Ice Cream place I grabbed a Sprite and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough float. Wende got a cone something.

There were only 3 coasters left: that which used to be called Cliff Hanger (I don't remember what it's called now, but it's the L shaped freefall ride), Mini Mine Train (a smaller version of Mine Train), and Runaway Mountain (a totally enclosed coaster).

I had been on Sky Screamer, Astroworld's version of Cliff Hanger, so I didn't care about doing that again. Mini Mine Train was too small, so we went to Runaway Mountain. At Astroworld there is Mayan Mindbender, which is enclosed, but not tremendously crazy. I didn't expect much more from Runaway Mountain.

The line was super long, but that allowed me to finish my float (without using a spoon, so I had to be careful to keep it from getting all over my face..). There was a super attractive girl in front of us in line. She reminded me of the blonde character in the cartoon Foxtrot (not Paige, but the straight haired blonde at school)

I got some pictures within the ride, all dark and scary and FLASH!! my camera would flash suddenly. I tried to anticipate where to point it so I would photograph track; I was successful twice I think.

I was impressed with how swervy the ride was. It's better than Mayan Mindbender at Astroworld.

Got some pizza and chilled for a bit. My legs really really felt sore from standing all day.

Time to go.

Wait. no. Let's go see if the Mr Freeze line is shorter this time. It was, so we rode it again. We waited less than an hour this time, but still longer than I would have waited if I lived in Dallas and could come to the park anytime.

We chose the right hand side when the line split, and I was still super thrilled with how the whole thing was set up. I can just imagine the same technology in a ride like 3 times as long that doesn't have to essentially stop at each lift. It's like ZZZZZzoooommmmmmmmmm going going going slower slower zzzzzz ....... .... then suddenly ZZZZZZZZZZZZZoooooooommmmmmmmm!!

Amazing. I loved it again.

It was 9pm as we were leaving the park. We had been there 11 hours. It was fully 10pm by the time we had gotten gas in Wende's truck and were fully out of town.

I drove for like 2 hours, till I just couldn't stay awake anymore. Loud music, loud talking, jokes.. nothing was working. Wende had slept some so she drove starting at midnight.

I woke up after 3 am; we were parked in a Kroger parking lot in Huntsville. Wende had driven an hour until she couldn't drive anymore.

I drove the remaining hour or so home. Back in Houston by 4:22am. Church in 6.5 hours.

Wow. What a great trip!!!!

I emailed my brother some of the same stuff. Here's part of his reply:

- Shockwave was better than it looked.
Yeah, at first you think, "Please.  Only two loops?"  When I rode it
a few years ago, I made Tamara and Bill follow me right back into
line.  

- 1.5 hours in line for 40 second ride.
There's a lesson in supply and demand.

- Imagine that ride like 3 times as long, and it doesn't have to slow
- down for the next lift, it's like ZZZZZzoooommmmmmmmmm going going
- going slower slower zzzzzz ....... ....
- ZZZZZZZZZZZZZoooooooommmmmmmmm!!
Soon, soon.