Whenever my name comes up, most people who know me think of that guy who rides roller coasters and loves amusement parks. They're great places for those who are young, and older folks like me who are young at heart. However, in my case, the various ailments I deal with are slowing me down almost as fast as the brakes slow down a speeding train on a roller coaster. That means that I don't get out and climb on those crazy contraptions as much as I used to, and definitely not as much as I'd like to.
Thankfully, my friends occasionally step in and save the day. In January, my friend Roger Yoshida invited me to join him in celebrating his birthday out at Six Flags Magic Mountain. He even picked me up at my place and did the driving. Normally, you do the driving on a friend's birthday, but Roger and I have been taking turns for as long as we've been going out there.
We didn't get to ride much due to rides being closed because of high winds. But we had a good time anyway.
My friend Cody Kempema invited me to join him and his wife Alisa Ann for a day at California's Great America (CGA) in Santa Clara. You have to remember one thing here: we live in Camarillo in Southern California. Santa Clara is next to San Jose in Northern California, some 330 miles away. About as far as going to Las Vegas or Yosemite. And we're going to go that far for a day at a theme park? What kind of a crazy cuckoopants idea is that? Normally, I most likely wouldn't have tackled such an endeavor, but on the other hand, I have done day trips to the two places I mentioned earlier in this paragraph. A national park and a world famous gambling mecca. In a single day. So, yep, we're going!
The date, place and time were set. We got our tickets online (at an incredible discount, I might add—under $40 because of an online special on the park's website), and they picked me up at my place at 4:30am. We hit the 101 and headed north. That early on a Sunday morning meant that we had the road to ourselves. In order to reach the park early enough to have plenty of time for fun, our rate of speed was a bit over legal. But we were in a Honda Accord that could handle the drive.
Along the way, we stopped at McDonald's to get breakfast and take a short break. Then back on the road headed for the Great America Parkway exit. It came up, we got off, and before long were parked and headed toward the front gate. Our tickets were on our phones (no 20th Century paper tickets for us!) and we were inside lickety split.
My last visit to this park was in October 1999, so there were some new things that I hadn't experienced. And some older things that I have experienced, but always enjoyed.
We started off on The Demon, a classic Arrow looping coaster dating to the park's opening in 1976, with tunnels along the way and a corkscrew at the end. Older Arrow coasters don't age very well, so if nothing else, we were definitely awake now. Coaster fans will understand this.
A few years ago, CGA opened California's newest wooden coaster, Gold Striker. I had wanted to ride this back when it opened because I know from experience that coasters built by Great Coasters International, Inc. are nice and smooth when they're new. Unfortunately, they tend to start getting rough within a couple of years of opening. I'm no expert, but I attribute that to a combination of the fact that wooden coasters don't do well in dry climate (like in California) and newer coasters in general anywhere are made with fairly new wood, which isn't as hardy as the old growth lumber that was used to build older rides (like the Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk). That's just my theory, though. But I was wrong once. Gold Striker has a nice layout and runs the wonderful GCII Millennium Flyer trains, but still managed to transmit the bumpiness of the track to our backsides. Riding in the back seat will do that to you no matter which ride you're on.
A few years ago, CGA opened California's newest wooden coaster, Gold Striker. I had wanted to ride this back when it opened because I know from experience that coasters built by Great Coasters International, Inc. are nice and smooth when they're new. Unfortunately, they tend to start getting rough within a couple of years of opening. I'm no expert, but I attribute that to a combination of the fact that wooden coasters don't do well in dry climate (like in California) and newer coasters in general anywhere are made with fairly new wood, which isn't as hardy as the old growth lumber that was used to build older rides (like the Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk). That's just my theory, though. But I was wrong once. Gold Striker has a nice layout and runs the wonderful GCII Millennium Flyer trains, but still managed to transmit the bumpiness of the track to our backsides. Riding in the back seat will do that to you no matter which ride you're on.
Moving along...we came upon the park's newest ride, Railblazer. This is a new concept in coasters being that the track is essentially a single rail that carries a narrow train with eight single-rider cars. It's incredibly smooth and even managed to have a few inversions thrown into the layout.
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| Combination of a fast ride and a slow phone camera. The train was at the bottom of Railblazer's first drop by the time the shutter clicked. |
After blazing those rails a couple of times, we wandered along checking out the Barney Oldfield Speedway, basically like the Autopia at Disneyland except with antique-looking flivvers. Part of its track ran under the old Grizzly wooden roller coaster. We skipped Grizzly because it was pretty rough when I last rode it (1999), and it tends to run so slow around turns that riders need to get out and give the train a push.
However, it was time for lunch and we hit up a classic burger place. The meal deal we got included a sipper cup with unlimited refills on drinks the whole day. With drink prices way up there, it was a deal we couldn't pass up.
Perhaps it would have been better to ride the 200-foot tall drop tower before lunch, but we tough theme park fans can do it. I had to laugh at the name of the ride: simply Drop Tower. Maybe coming up with a themed name was a challenge. You never know. Drop Tower simply took us to the top, then dropped us to the bottom. Over and done.
After Drop Tower, we got in line for Tiki Twirl, which is a spin-and-barf ride mounted on a track. It moves up and down along the track, making it sort of a combination roller coaster and spin-and-barf ride. There aren't many of these in parks, so I hadn't ever ridden one. But fortunately CGA has this one, so I got to experience something new.
CGA has a fairly rare wild mouse coaster ride. It's one of a few built by Arrow Dynamics. The ones I've ridden so far have all been built by Mack or other manufacturers (Fabbri, Reverchon), so riding one of Arrow's would be new for me. Named Psycho Mouse, it turned out to be pretty much like the rest, however, but at least I got a new wild mouse credit.
One ride that I didn't want to miss was a ride on the classic Von Roll skyride. Few of these are left in park nowadays. California is fortunate to have one here, one at SeaWorld in San Diego, and at the San Diego Zoo. Known for their history of safe, reliable operation, it's always a treat to ride on one. Interestingly, CGA's skyride has two different names depending on which way you go. Heading north, which we did first, you ride on Eagle's Flight. Going south, you ride on Delta Flyer. We stopped in to watch Space Beagle, a live, Peanuts themed show in a nice air-conditioned theater. Not the greatest show on earth, but we got to sit and relax for awhile.
Cody and Alisa wanted to ride Flight Deck, a B&M inverted coaster similar to Batman—The Ride at Magic Mountain. I got in line with them, but when I tried to fasten the seat belt on my restraint, my big fat belly prevented the belt from being locked. As such, I had to take the second Walk of Shame™ of my life and leave. Funny that this worked out the way it did, being that I rode Batman only a few months ago when I went with Roger.
While in the area, we rode Columbia, the park's huge 200-foot tall double-deck carousel. Of course, we rode on the top level.
After getting off of Columbia, we took a second ride on Gold Striker, only this time near the front. Still somewhat less-than-smooth, but better than the back seat ride we took earlier.
CGA closed at 7pm, so we wanted to get one more ride on Railblazer. Still fast, still smooth, still fun, it was a nice way to end our day.
On our way home, we stopped at Costco to fuel up the car and found ourselves in what appeared to be cruise night in San Jose. But we managed to get our gas and a bite to eat nonetheless. We pulled up to my house at around midnight, just 20 hours from the start of the trip.
I didn't take as many photos as I probably should have, but when you're having fun, sometimes taking photos can be put on the back burner. Next time I take an adventure, I'll try and make sure that my phone is at the ready to record what I can.
Thank you Cody and Alisa Ann for a fun day and a great adventure.
After Drop Tower, we got in line for Tiki Twirl, which is a spin-and-barf ride mounted on a track. It moves up and down along the track, making it sort of a combination roller coaster and spin-and-barf ride. There aren't many of these in parks, so I hadn't ever ridden one. But fortunately CGA has this one, so I got to experience something new.
CGA has a fairly rare wild mouse coaster ride. It's one of a few built by Arrow Dynamics. The ones I've ridden so far have all been built by Mack or other manufacturers (Fabbri, Reverchon), so riding one of Arrow's would be new for me. Named Psycho Mouse, it turned out to be pretty much like the rest, however, but at least I got a new wild mouse credit.
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| The entrance to Psycho Mouse was...interesting...and almost terrifying. |
One ride that I didn't want to miss was a ride on the classic Von Roll skyride. Few of these are left in park nowadays. California is fortunate to have one here, one at SeaWorld in San Diego, and at the San Diego Zoo. Known for their history of safe, reliable operation, it's always a treat to ride on one. Interestingly, CGA's skyride has two different names depending on which way you go. Heading north, which we did first, you ride on Eagle's Flight. Going south, you ride on Delta Flyer. We stopped in to watch Space Beagle, a live, Peanuts themed show in a nice air-conditioned theater. Not the greatest show on earth, but we got to sit and relax for awhile.
Cody and Alisa wanted to ride Flight Deck, a B&M inverted coaster similar to Batman—The Ride at Magic Mountain. I got in line with them, but when I tried to fasten the seat belt on my restraint, my big fat belly prevented the belt from being locked. As such, I had to take the second Walk of Shame™ of my life and leave. Funny that this worked out the way it did, being that I rode Batman only a few months ago when I went with Roger.
While in the area, we rode Columbia, the park's huge 200-foot tall double-deck carousel. Of course, we rode on the top level.
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| CGA's classic double-deck carousel, Columbia. One of two ever built. |
After getting off of Columbia, we took a second ride on Gold Striker, only this time near the front. Still somewhat less-than-smooth, but better than the back seat ride we took earlier.
CGA closed at 7pm, so we wanted to get one more ride on Railblazer. Still fast, still smooth, still fun, it was a nice way to end our day.
On our way home, we stopped at Costco to fuel up the car and found ourselves in what appeared to be cruise night in San Jose. But we managed to get our gas and a bite to eat nonetheless. We pulled up to my house at around midnight, just 20 hours from the start of the trip.
I didn't take as many photos as I probably should have, but when you're having fun, sometimes taking photos can be put on the back burner. Next time I take an adventure, I'll try and make sure that my phone is at the ready to record what I can.
Thank you Cody and Alisa Ann for a fun day and a great adventure.
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