I originally planned for Texas Stingray to be my 1000th coaster.
Back in March when the pandemic shutdowns started, I grabbed cheap airfare to Texas for late June.
My original plan was to fly to Dallas and make a large loop hitting Magic Springs,
Silver Dollar City, Frontier City, Cliff’s Amusement Park,
and pretty much every park in the entire state of Texas.
As of late June, all of those parks had reopened except Cliff’s. However, a day before my trip,
covid-19 cases in Texas really started spiking. That was particularly true in the Dallas, San
Antonio, and Houston areas. It didn’t appear that the parks would close (and they still haven’t),
but I figured it would be irresponsible and inappropriate to visit those parks
while the mayors of the respective towns urged citizens to stay home.
So I made the smart decision and cancelled my flight. But I had to eat the cost of the non-Six
Flags and SeaWorld parks. Or so I thought… I found a reasonable price on a last minute
flight to St. Louis, so I started reconfiguring my trip. I still wanted to hit Silver Dollar City,
Magic Springs, and Frontier City, but I still had an extra week available.
It was a no-brainer to add the two other major parks in Missouri,
but I then realized I could travel east towards Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.
And that’s when I realized Orion could be my 1000th coaster!
I just had to rack up enough credits on the way. My trip began at Six Flags St. Louis. I had
previously been to this park, so there were no new credits. But it was my first chance to see
the new measures Six Flags implemented following the lockdown. I loved the new entry procedure,
but the wipedowns in between cycles were brutal for efficiency.
That being said, I was able to get on all the major coasters at least once
and I was reminded that Six Flags St. Louis is one of the chain’s most beautiful parks.
Day 2 brought me to one of the best parks in the world in Silver Dollar City.
Like Six Flags St. Louis, there were no new credits here, but I didn’t care one bit. I was
just happy to be back at Silver Dollar City. This park is perfect. I love the ride lineup,
the staff, the food, and the atmosphere. And the covid-19 precautions didn’t really slow
things down outside of PowderKeg. My only regret was only having one day at this park.
Before making the drive to Magic Springs, I planned to hit a mountain coaster,
but they had all closed early. So instead I made a pitstop at Bigfoot Fun Park.
This small park is home to one of those Soaring Eagle thrill towers.
And I was in for a treat because I rode the Sky Sling with the ride operator who knew how to throw
his weight around to give us a ride with non-stop flipping! In the past, I’ve only gotten one or two
flips on these rides. And I still thought it was insane because of the minimalistic restraints.
But with flipping like a Zipper ride, I found a newfound love for this ride.
Day 3 was the first day on the trip where bad weather was an issue.
In the morning, I was nervous if Magic Springs would even open.
Every single weather site called for thunderstorms lasting most of the day.
I was a bit irritated I had driven to the remote regions of Arkansas for a closed park…or
so I thought. Magic Springs, much to my amazement, actually opened. And the park was dead.
The storm held off for the first hour, so I was able to quickly knockout all the steel coasters.
But before I could make it to Arkansas Twister, the thunderstorm started. This shut the rides
down for two hours and again much to my shock, the park waited it out and reopened everything in the
afternoon so I was able to get on Arkansas Twister, bringing my coaster count to 987.
The coaster collection at this park is nothing to write home about, but it is a really beautiful
park. It’s just in the middle of nowhere. That night I drove to Oklahoma City and on day 4,
I went to Frontier City. And I didn’t have the best experience here.
I had originally allocated a full day here, but half the attractions I wanted to ride were closed
including Diamondback, the Tumbleweed Chance rotor, and the water rides. I knocked out all
four operating coasters quickly, bringing me to 991. And while the park was charming,
there wasn’t much I wanted to reride. So I started looking at my options.
I originally planned for Wonderland to be Day 5 of my trip. This park was located in Texas,
but Amarillo wasn’t listed as code red so I felt comfortable visiting there.
So I made it to the park by 6 pm and this was the surprise hit of the trip.
The park has a really odd mix of attractions and if anything, I wish I had a bit more time there to
get some more rerides. But most importantly, I got 4 new coaster credits, bringing me to 995. The
only coaster I missed there was a SBF Visa spinner that was closed due to the park needing a part.
A bad idea then popped into my head. The smart thing would have been to make Day 5 a travel day.
It was roughly 9 hours back to Missouri. But instead,
I saw a path how to get a second day at Silver Dollar City. If I drove through the night,
I could make it back to Silver Dollar City for opening and a second full day there.
I then weighted the pros and cons of a hotel bed versus Outlaw Run, and Outlaw Run won.
So I grabbed a supersized coffee and drove through the night. And to be honest,
the drive wasn’t as bad as I expected since I had something amazing to look forward to. After
my second day at Silver Dollar City, that was just as great as my first day, I crashed hard.
On Day 6 I made my way to Worlds of Fun, which is towards the bottom of the Cedar Fair parks,
but it’s a decent park nonetheless. I enjoyed getting rerides on the major attractions like
Prowler and Patriot, but the highlight of the day was coaster credit 996, the Cosmic Coaster.
I thought this was off-limits to adults, which is why I skipped it during my first visit in 2018.
Day 7 was the other day impacted by bad weather. The Midwest was seeing bad thunderstorms on this
day. Ultimately, I chose Holiday World because there were zero new credits I needed there
and I would pass right by the park on my way back to St. Louis at the end of the trip, so
I could return if the weather ruined my day. But in all honesty, the weather made my day
even better. While it torrential downpoured quite a bit over the course of the day,
the thunder held off until the late afternoon. As a result, Holiday World was deserted.
This made every single attraction a walk-on with their new InLine virtual queuing system, which
worked seamlessly I might add. So I had no issue lapping Voyage, Legend,
Raven, and Thunderbird. The park did close 3 hours early,
but the park gave rain checks to return, which was a much appreciated but completely
unnecessary gesture since they were open most of the day and I rode pretty much everything.
Day 8 brought me to the recently saved Indiana Beach. After a disappointing visit in 2017,
I was happy to realize the park’s potential. The boardwalk atmosphere was fantastic and I loved the
park’s unique mix of rides- most notably Cornball Express and Lost Coaster. And most importantly,
I got credit 997 on Tig’rr, the park’s Schwarkzopf Jet Star that was closed in 2017.
I had a reservation booked for Kings Island on Day 11, so I needed to find two more coaster credits.
I wasn’t anticipating Diamondback or Spin-O-Saurus being closed.
On Day 9, I started at Kentucky Kingdom and made a quick lap getting rides on Lightning Run,
Kentucky Flyer, and Storm Chaser. Once I had my fill of airtime, I made a quick pitstop to Indiana
Caverns to ride their Bat Chaser zipline coaster. Now I know not everyone would consider this a
coaster, but I personally do. It rides much like one of those old Setpoint suspended coasters.
The ride was mostly uneventful, but the stop on the brake run was so abrupt that it caused some
out-of-control swinging. That brought me to 998. I then returned to Kentucky Kingdom. Originally I
was questioning why I didn’t just visit Indiana Caverns first so I wouldn’t have an interrupted
visit at Kentucky Kingdom, but this ended up being a prudent decision since Storm Chaser
went down for the day shortly after I had left. If I started at Indiana Caverns, I would have missed
Storm Chaser on this trip. So I ended up getting more rides on Lightning Run than I ever have and
I really want to know why more parks haven’t added these Chance Hyper GTX coasters.
Day 10 brought me to Pigeon Forge. I started at Dollywood and made a beeline to Lightning Rod.
Even though this is my favorite coaster, I do not have the best track record getting on it.
For reference, it was closed the first 4 times I visited Dollywood after it opened. And I’m glad
I went there early because Lightning Rod had a ton of downtime later in the day.
After getting a lap of the coasters, I briefly left Dollywood to ride another zipline coaster,
this one being the Flying Ox at Paula Deen’s Lumberjack Adventure Park.
I thought this zipline coaster was marginally better than the one at Indiana Caverns due to the
wilder swinging, but I still prefer the coasters at Dollywood and the region’s alpine coasters.
And that was my 999th coaster so I had Orion all lined up.
So I returned to Dollywood and got rerides on the operating coasters. I got a reride on Lightning
Rod after it reopened, but it quickly went down again. The coaster did reopen towards the end of
the night after dropping down to one train, but it seemed to be having issues with the brakes
while I was in line for my night ride. I stuck it out and was rewarded with a Lightning Rod
night ride, which is an unbeatable coaster experience if you ask me.
I had a long drive to Kings Island, but I got distracted on the way and stopped at the Mountain
Monster. I thought it was closed when I passed it earlier in the day, but it just opened late.
This was something I tried doing last December, but it was closed for the season.
So I was eager to finally try it out. This is a second version of the ride
system used on Terror Dactyl. This launched swing feels like a Skycoaster and it’s a ton of fun.
That’s especially true since you load and unload atop the tower
and the only way down is a drop tower. So really you get two rides in one!
Day 11 was my triumphant moment when I made Orion my 1000th coaster.
Orion was operating on a boarding pass system, so I was only guaranteed one ride on it.
So I requested the front for my milestone ride and really enjoyed the newest giga coaster.
After riding all my other favorites at Kings Island, I lingered around the entrance to Orion
because the park planned to reopen the standby queue after the final boarding
group finished an hour before park close. And as planned, the park reopened Orion’s queue.
And because it was so empty, I was able to quickly board once
and re-enter the queue for a third ride before it was closed off.
The park closed the queue before the 10 pm close since Orion cannot run during fireworks.
Since it was the 4th of July, I didn’t feel comfortable making a long drive at night.
So I hunkered down in a hotel for the night and spent Day 12 driving towards the St.
Louis Airport. I did have enough time to pop into Six Flags St. Louis on the way and the
park was even more dead than my weekday visit at the start of the trip, which I found a bit odd.
But I wasn’t complaining since I could get more rides on Mr. Freeze, Boss, and American Thunder.
And now I’m sitting at home serving a quarantine, but it was well worth it for this trip.
Are you planning on making any long road trips this year? I’d love to hear your thoughts down
below. I think one of the best things about this trip was the flexibility. By waiting to
book hotels last minute, I was able to change my park plans based on things such as the weather.
The only difference from past yaers is that I had to update reservation days as I went.
Thanks for listening and stay tuned for more content here at Canobie Coaster.