Taming the Bull...

Our Great America Trip was great. We left the church about 8:30 a.m. and made it to the park right when it opened around 10:00 a.m. And from the get go we were off and running...after we put on our sun screen that is.

First we headed to Superman where we promptly stood in line for about 40 minutes before spending one and a half minutes on the ride. But it was worth it. On Superman, they start you seated (see pciture to left) and then when the ride starts the seats pull up so that you are riding the roller coaster like you would by flying. Pretty cool.

Although the wait was long, the neat thing is that while you are standing in line you actually stand underneath the ride. So you get to watch many people go before you even get there. And you are somewhat prepared and know what to expect. And they have the walk covered when you are going to be directly under the ride...I guess so if someone is throwing up it won't get on you.

From Superman, we took off to the Batman roller coaster. And that one shakes you up pretty good. You're feeling nice and dizzy when you get off.

A special note needs to be mentioned here. As you see in the above picture, the only people who did not ride any roller coasters were Melinda and Alison. Trust me, we tried to use peer pressure to get them to ride, but they weren't having it. And that was fine. They stood in line with us the whole way up and talked with us and people watched. But when it was time to get on the roller coaster, they headed to the other side and held everyone's stuff while we rode the coasters. So I thought it would be nice for you to see what they did most of the time. They did ride on the teacups and the family innertube ride where you get wet. And then they spent a couple of hours at Hurrican Harbor on the lazy river and in the wave pool. I'm just glad they had fun.

Now back to the roller coasters. After Batman, I can't remember where we headed. But we rode the Iron Wolf, the Eagle, the Viper, and then the Raging Bull. Now some people (Jess) were afraid at first to ride the Raging Bull. It has a ginormous drop and there are no harnesses just things around your waist, so you feel like your coming out of your seat on the way down. However, its good to know peer pressure still works on some people (at least concerning roller coasters). So we talked Jess into going with the rest of us (Steve, Ruth, me, Jakob, Andrew, and Heidi). And of course she loved it like the rest of us. (The picture to the left is of us getting ready to tame the bull.)

The Raging Bull to me was the best ride in the park. It was really cool and a really smooth ride. Plus we saw where the camera (the one that takes your picture while your riding the roller coaster) was stationed and we posed everytime we came to it and then got to see our pictures after we got off the ride.

In fact the Raging Bull was so great that we rode it three times and so we really tamed the bull. Some of us also rode the freefall, which is a giant drop straight down. It takes you higher than any roller coaster in the park. And you sit up there for about 3 seconds just waiting and it drops you straight down. You get down in about 4 seconds. It was awesome. Second best ride in my book.

And we did other stuff like the Whizzer, and the teacups, and the boats roller coaster, and the family innertubes, and the swings, and just about every ride in the park. Overall it was a fun day but very tiring. Can't wait until next year though.