| Evel Knievel Grand Opening TR
In the words of Ice Cube: "Today was a good day..."
Woke up to rain. Boo. By the time I was out of the shower, it had stopped. Yay. Picked up my friend and headed to the park - got there right at opening. I witnessed the first ever "running of the bulls" at SFSTL - kind of amusing. Everyone headed straight for EK. And the waiting began...
We managed to squirm our way through the crowd to get to the mandatory lockers, which actually put us towards the front of the crowd waiting for the rope to drop. After probably a good half hour, some dude came rolling by on a tricked out bike dressed as EK, revved the engine and took off around the corner, never to be seen again. A lot less dramatic than they intended, for sure. Oh well. The actual ribbon cutting ceremony was very uneventful as well. No announcement, or at least not one that any of us could here. They cut it, stood around for about 5 minutes, then finally dropped the ropes and let us through.
Since we were towards the front of the crowd, we made it to the queue quickly and had about a ten minute wait till we were in the station. Headed straight for the back row. Had about 3 groups ahead of us. One train went out, and as the second was leaving the station, it stopped dead. They announced that something was wrong or blah blah blah and they were working on it. Ten minutes or so went by, and it was back up. Next train loads up, starts to leave the station, same thing happens. Argh. We're next in line so we're aggravated- the anticipation was just killing me at that point. Five minutes or so, and it was back up. Hopped on and the ride began.
Initial reaction: fun, fun ride. No killer airtime or moments of "whoa!", but fun for what it was. Very, very smooth. Hit the brakes and realized the ride had shut down again... wtf. They got it back up very quickly though. On the way down the exit ramp, Claire Haines of GCI walked right up to me and asked me how it was. Spoke with him for a few minutes and headed out.
I also ran into Paul Drabek from Negative G, and hung with him for a bit. Hit up Mr. Freeze and Colossus with him and parted ways. Decided we would come back in the evening to see if the ride had warmed up a bit, so we headed home and grabbed a bite to eat and a quick nap.
Got back to the park around 6. Headed straight for EK. Only about a ten minute wait. Went straight for the back seat again. As we were waiting to leave the station, I noticed how fast the other train hit the brakes. Lookin good....
This time around, the ride was out of control. Holy cow. Airtime on every hill and the pacing was insane. I love the s-turn/ bunny hop combo. Works really, really well. This ride totally takes top coaster spot at this park, no doubt.
Jumped back in line and grabbed a front seat ride. Better than I thought it was gonna be. Air in all the right spots and a little more force around the curves. I'm lovin life right now...
Ran to Mr. Freeze and Batman quickly. No lines. In and out in about half an hour. Back to EK. Four more rides in the back seat. Wow. It just kept getting better and better. All I kept thinking was how well this ride's gonna run in a couple of months once it's fully broken in.
All in all, a very good day at the park, and a huge shout out to Six Flags for bringing us a phenomenal ride.
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"I turned off the AC. First one to have a bead of neck sweat reach your butt crack wins." -Family Guy
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