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Offbeat: Man makes 1,000th trip to Kings Island

Posted at 8:29 PM EDT (0029 GMT)

Jul. 22nd, 2004 -- Today, 41 year-old Don Helbrig of Fairfield, Ohio, entered Paramount's Kings Island on a red carpet. Park officials chose to honor him for making his 1,000th visit to the amusement park. He was given a large commemorative ticket in addition to the red carpet welcome. Helbrig made his 1,000th trip with his wife Laura and 9 year-old daughter Maria.

Helbrig began to visit the park in the 1980s as a result of his love for roller coasters, especially the park's famous Racer. Helbrig has taken 11,673 rides on the Racer, earning mention in the Guinness Book of Records for his 11,000th ride. He has made an estimated 19,000 trips on all the park's coasters combined.

In the 1980s, Helbrig mentioned he was a daily visitor, but nowadays limits his trips to around 25 to 30 visits per season. "You could say in the 1980s I was a bit obsessed" he said. "I went to bed at night thinking about the park."

For Helbrig, it doesn't look as though the fun of Kings Island will wear off anytime soon. "That thrill just never wore out," he said.

For additional information, see The Macon Telegraph.

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Comments
PKIDelirium Joined: Nov 2003 Posts: 422 View Park/Ride Count	OK, this is impressive! Too bad I could nto ahve been there!
7/22/2004 8:34 PM
bk2004 Joined: Oct 2003 Posts: 7729 View Park/Ride Count	Wow! That would be nice to do that with Carowinds! I wonder what he does for work.
7/22/2004 10:50 PM
SFOG Freak Joined: Feb 2004 Posts: 2627 View Park/Ride Count	That's a crap load of visits to a park! Wow! I only go to SFOG maybe 30 times a season, and that feels like ALOT. 1,000?!? My god, this is amazing.
7/22/2004 11:56 PM
HPStormRunner22 Joined: Jun 2004 Posts: 1370 View Park/Ride Count	Wow! I wish i had the time to be able to go to a park 1000 times in the next 20 or so years
7/23/2004 6:34 AM
bgwfreak Joined: Sep 2001 Posts: 10886 View Park/Ride Count	Makes some of our Big Bad Wolf ride counts look paltry he he he I thought I went to Carowinds a lot! He must live there. he he he
7/25/2004 2:32 PM
adderrick Joined: Sep 2002 Posts: 37 View Park/Ride Count	I call that too much dog on time on your hands. I love amusement parks but I will NEVER go to one that often. I think he needs to get out more often and NOT to amusement parks. I mean really what type of glorification can a person possibly get out of that?????
7/27/2004 1:11 AM
Magnum Robert Joined: Sep 2003 Posts: 3196 View Park/Ride Count	And I thought I was a coaster junkie, lol. I'm surprised Guinness would recognize his 11,000 rides without actually being able to prove it.
8/13/2004 6:00 PM

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