Day 2, Friday (SFO - Auroro, Ohio).
After a fabulous and long day at Cedar Point the Reids, Shaggy, and the Brock men were ready for the trek across I-80 for park formerly known as Prince I mean Geauga Lake. I read attentively all the construction reports that Ray P. had posted and figured it would be a good idea to purchase a Six Flags season pass this year.

We stayed in Sandusky on Thursday night and drove to SFO the next morning. Shaggy decided he would drive half way and get a hotel room. So here we were roaring down I-80 and about half way there and I hear a horn blowing wildly, thinking to myself that nobody would know me here. Within a few minutes I see a brand new blue Neon in my rear view mirror with my buddy Shaggy at the helm. We get to the park a few minutes before the parking lot is even open. My mistake! I thought the park opened at 10:30 but, it was SFKK that opened at that time while SFO was scheduled to open at 11:00AM. Tell me why they would not want people at least in around the shops early like other parks? The gates did not open until a few minutes before 11:00AM and then there was an instant stampede towards BKF. But, there was one lonely security guy that was going to keep everybody back on the interlock. Here is a suggestion to management – hustle over to Home Depot and buy a few hundred feet of rope. Not to hang yourself with but, rather to use it for crowd control. We were all getting a little bit steamed because the crowd was not let to stampede until almost quarter past the hour. We were very careful with the boys not to lose them or get trampled in the rush.

We made our way over to Villain and it would not only be my first steel structure woody but also my first CCI. The themeing to the ride was great and the loading station was also spectacular. Nolan wanted to ride with Shaggy so dad was left to ride by himself. This was my first look at the new rolling stock and instantly fell in love with it. I left my lap bar as high as possible and the young girl sitting beside me though she was doing me a favour by locking it tighter. Well! Villain turned out to be a great ride and has lots of air and the trick track really works well on the ride. I give Shaggy and Nolan the two thumbs up of approval as I came back into the station. So I do the old get out of seat late, walk slow on the platform trick looking for an empty seat. I was able to hop in with someone and got my second ride on Villain. When meeting up with the rest of the group at the exit I was willing to forgive SFO (wipe the slate clean) for our early misadventure because of the two great ride I had on Villain. Only negative on the ride is not with the coaster but, rather with the operations – SFO you bought two trains use them both.

Next up was the Double Loop Arrow. Looks like this coaster just recently got some fresh paint and looked pretty good. I sat in front of some young girl who literally screamed here head off the entire ride. Where are your earplugs when you need them? Did I mention that there were a million yellow buses in parking lot? We did it for the count and none of us wanted to rush back.

We walked back to Raging Wolf Bobs but, it was not open. On the way we got some real nice looks at that wonderful B&M Floorless. Shaggy was feeling brave and said that he would ride their Sky Coaster since he knew it was small and not open.

Batman Knight Flight has a height limit of 54" and this eliminated Nolan from riding and Adam and mom are not into loops. This left Kevin, Shaggy, Roger, & Adam as a perfect foursome to wait for a front seat ride. My buddy, Shaggy, is a big Batman fan and I could not care less. I just found it funny listening and watching how excited he was over the Batman theme. We decide the wait the extra few minutes for a front seat ride. It was very interesting watching the floor disappear underneath the ride. Of course it was an eerie feeling knowing that a young ride op had fallen through that platform just day before. SFO purchased three trains but, it was only running with two and that is all that this ride crew could handle. The ride was fantastic. I go from zero B&M’s to three different B&M styles in two days. Did I ever mention that I would love to have a B&M scream machine at my PCW ?

We meet up with the rest of the gang and defer lunch until we ride Big Dipper. We get onto the loading platform and the heavens open up. The Reids back off to the back of the platform while Shaggy and the Brocks decide they will brave the elements. Well! They got soaked and within 10 minutes the rain had stopped and the Reids keep dry. We took a few spins on Big Dipper and it was a very fun coaster. The seats have tons of padding for when you get sent flying over the hills and dips.

We decide to split up again so the four BKF riders can ride S:UE (Intamin launched) while, Donna and the Reid boys head back to Villain. Villain still only had one train running and the wait was around 30 minutes. S:UE’s first impressions are very intimidating and this is the main reason I think there are not large line ups of guest to ride. I had already made my mine up that I was not going to ride their boomerang. So I was trying to talk Shaggy into a back seat ride on S:UE figuring it would have the least inversions going backward. I just hate going backwards through inversions and hence, the reason I dislike Boomerangs. Shaggy wants the front so I give in. The thing I like best about the OL:FOF is the launch. Well if you are like me on this than S:UE is for you because you get four launches on one ride. The front of the ride gives you more twists than the back. The first launch is exciting because you go from zero to fast in seconds and maybe go half way up the twist. Then you are dropped backwards and the ride launches you powerfully backward almost to the top of the ride. Then an other launch that takes you back to the top of the twists. There was no wait so I convince Shaggy to ride the very back. He said, "did you notice on the last backward drop that brakes grab you?" I honestly didn’t notice. (Hee hee) Just before we rode the back a young girl got on with her bother and her head was hanging to the side and I was trying to give her a sign to put her back into the head rest. She motioned what? and oops it was to late and bingo the launch happens and we were scared to look at her when she got back. She must have gotten shaken up because she couldn’t find her back pack that was right in front of her. I think if I had been at the park with just my family I probably would have not ridden. But, thankfully Shaggy dragged me onto for my first ride. It was great.

Then they want to do MR Hyde’s Nasty Fall I was hoping that there was only room for three in a car. Unfortunately for me there was room. The first time I ever seen one of these 1^st generation Intamin drops was the Drop Of Doom at West Edmonton Mall. Back in 1986 I though it was the scariest looking ride ever. But with all the new drop ride it is pretty tame. I did it just to say I did it and would not rush back to any of them. Not my type of ride.

We decide to split up since Shaggy wanted to get back to PKI to meet with Eric. Nolan and I decided to wait for Serial Thriller. But, before Serial Thriller we walked back to S:UE in the remote chance that Nolan wanted to try it. Nolan declined and said, "maybe next time." Nolan likes Six Flags Vekoma SLC’s because he is tall enough ride them while he is 2" too short for PCW’s. I like the way they have the ride sunken into the midway. I feel sorry for the poor rides ops who have to manually move the flush gates. That is a Health & Safety problem waiting to happen for the workers.

When we were finished with Serial Thriller it was almost 4:00PM and we wanted to get back to Villain to meet up with Ray p. We sat down had a hot dog and Coke and seen these two guys walking towards us saying, "are you guys the Reid Family?" It was a pleasure spending a few minutes with Ray and Michael. I wish we could have stayed longer which would had allowed you guys to show us your park. I hope we can get back to your park soon.

It was about 4:45PM and we decided we better hit the road and get to our Hotel near PKI. I had not driven down I-71 to PKI before and wasn’t quite sure how long it would take. It wasn’t that long and we pulled into PKI’s parking lot before 8:30PM but, that is another TR.

We really liked the park and the new 2000 ride package is a fabulous addition. I think we were able to enjoy the park because we had prepared our selves for a newly converted Premier Park to Six Flags. You can’t allow a few things that go wrong to destroy your day. You are there to have fun so dam it have fun. We didn’t expect Paramount treatment so we were not disappointed when some things didn’t go the way we would have liked. The Reids give SFO two thumbs up.

Regards,
Kevin Reid