Why Summer Is Finally Here

Baseball season is almost two-months in now and the Cleveland Indians sit atop the American League Central.  In addition to that, Cedar Point finally opened last week.  MLB Opening Day and Cedar Point Opening Day: two of the best days of the year.  It’s like Christmas in April and then again in May; a nice lead-up to my birthday.  This is the start of my summer.  I don’t ever want to miss an opening day of either.

I had intended to do a big blog post about Indians Opening Day last month, but unfortunately I never got around to it.  My bad on that.  Long story short, it was a pretty interesting day involving crazy weather, an awesome start from Justin Masterson, a blown save by Chris Perez,  and a 16^th inning loss.  There was the crappy food, crappy food service, drunk guys trying to steal our seats, people in the row constantly needing in and out (the downside to aisle seats), the immense starvation, almost getting hit at a ridiculous intersection, and ultimately finding a hotel room because we were both way too exhausted to drive home after being awake for like, 18 hours.  It certainly wasn’t the Opening Day we expected, but we had a good time nonetheless.

Cedar Point opening day was another thing entirely.  We left early, came home late, and had an amazing time.  The park was littered with obnoxious middle school band kids there for a competition, so the crowds were vast and the lines long.  As such, we ended up buying Fast Lane passes so that we could turn 2-hour waits into 20 minutes.  With those, we were able to ride the Maverick twice in the first row in about 15 minutes and the Dragster twice (once in the front row) in about 20 minutes.  We got a lot of dirty looks from people as we essentially cut them in line, which made you feel quite the dick, but it was worth it.  With the Fast Lane passes we ended up riding 15 or 16 rides, including almost every coaster at least once.  The following can be checked off the list of rides we have ridden so far this summer: Top Thrill Dragster (x3), Millennium Force (x2), Maverick (x2), Raptor (x3), Gemini (blue train), Blue Streak, Mean Streak, Corkscrew, and the Magnum.  We were in line for the Wicked Twister, which is one of our favourites, but it had some major mechanical issues and was pretty much shut down the entire day.  We will be returning next Tuesday, so hopefully it will be up and running then.  As for first row rides, we were in the first row for the Dragster (x2), Millennium Force, Maverick (x2), Raptor (x3), Blue Streak, and I believe the Corkscrew.  We will definitely be riding the Mean Streak and Gemini in the front row next time.  As for the Magnum, we have no intent of riding it ever again as we more or less hate it.  We only rode it that day because it was fairly clear and we wanted to see Canada over Lake Erie, which we were able to do (no passport required).

That first day at Cedar Point was a day of many first for us.  It was out first time going on opening day, for starters.  It was also our first time riding the Top Thrill Dragster in the front row.  It was out first time riding the Millennium Force and Dragster at night, which was actually only the second time we’ve ever been able to ride a coaster at night (the first was the Raptor last summer).  Prior to opening day, we had never ridden any of the wooden coasters, always fearful of how… rough they are; we actually ended up really enjoying them, especially the Mean Streak and can’t wait to ride them again.  On the Gemini, I face my first near-concussion when we hit a sharp, unexpected curve and my head slammed right into my friend’s shoulder.  On the Blue Streak, the train stopped halfway up the hill, which was a first, and then the ride operator came up the stairs and yelled at some chick for taking a picture and took her phone—another first.  At the top of the hill of the Raptor on round two, the jerk at the end of our row decided to spit, so we got spit on for the first time.  I forget which ride it was, but at the end of the ride we ended up with the sunglasses of some girl behind us at our feet, something we had never had happen before and then after that we almost got hit in the face with another girl’s makeup, but the guy in front of us made an amazing mid-air catch—another first.  Perhaps the most terrifying first though was when we almost didn’t clear the first hill of the Millennium Force, which is 310’ tall—at 9:30 at night.  We were almost right in the middle of the train, not wanting to wait longer for the first row so as to insure we could ride another ride before 10PM, so we couldn’t see anything in front of us either, so that made it a little more intense.  As we went up the hill, you could hear the cable creaking and more than one person commented “That doesn’t sound right”.  Then the train started slowing.  Someone quipped, “I don’t think this is part of the ride.”  And then the train stopped just as it hit the top of the hill.  Here we are, something like 280’ in the air sitting at like a 70-degree angle in the dark, no idea what is going on.  Somehow the right clicked back on though, and we made it over the hill and finished the ride.  Needless to say, we were quite nervous throughout that ride and decided not to get back in line like we had discussed.  The entire time all we could think about was this video which we had just watched only a couple weeks prior:

By the by, tomorrow (22 May) is my birthday.  You know, just in case you wanted to get me something.