Back to Dave's Adventures
Back to Dave's page...
"FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiivvvvvveeeeee!!!"
I started by picking up unaffiliated coaster nut John Peck. He had never been to an enthusiast event before. He had a lot to learn. We took the somewhat leisurely drive to Santa Claus, and arrived just in time for the photo walk-back. I strapped on the camera and we headed for Ravenswood. I said a quick 'hello' to Paula Werne who was manning the gate, and proceeded back to take some pictures. As if I don't already have a nice collection of Raven photos. This year, because of construction on the ______, we weren't able to go all the way down to the turnaround, but we were able to step down into the middle of the return leg and take some shots from there. Then it was back to the car to unload cameras, then off to the Raven.
Raven has eight drops, not counting the ramp from the brake run to the lift hill. We sat down in the back of the train. I whipped out a tape measure and collected some data, as it is rare that I get a chance to ride in a train with single-position lap bars anymore. It's so refreshing to ride in a PTC car with no headrest and with no lap bar mechanism taking up valuable real estate where my feet should be...although I had almost forgotten about that little box with the lap bar solenoid in it. That's the one thing that I don't miss with the ratchet-bar trains.
One. We plunge down from the lift hill, into the tunnel entrance which is obscured by Raven spit.
Two. After a quick turn at the top, there is a quick drop to bring us in line with the lake turnaround.
Three. Another quick drop shoots the train around the first turnaround, actually built on a pier in Lake Rudolph, and back up near the top of the lift.
Four. A quick dip to waste a little time, a rise parallel to the first drop, and a turn to the left, and then...
FIIIIIIIIIIIVE!!! The train takes off like a Raven out of hell, plunging down an impossibly long drop and launching riders into the lower stratosphere. At the bottom of this drop, there is a ridiculously small rise through more Raven spit.
Six! Steeper, but not as long as the fifth drop, the fifth and sixth drops actually combine to form a sort of extended double-dip. If the fifth drop wasn't enough to get you airborne, this will do it. This leads into the turnaround at the bottom of the hill, and a look at the topography tells you it is all uphill from here.
Seven. That doesn't stop Raven from undulating its way up the hill. It's a double-S curve back to the station with two small, quick, and potent drops to keep you as far from the seat cushion as the lap bar will allow.
Eight. One last dip for the final curve and sudden landing on the approach brakes. A skilled operator brings the train in and parks it.
Thank you for flying Raven Air. No kidding. It takes off, it flies, it doesn't slow down. The sound from the wheels is a high-speed roar unlike anything you would expect from a little wood coaster. The Raven has a Halloween theme to it, but I didn't realize that extended into the black arts for defying Physics like this!
John was impressed. I told him to wait until the evening ERT if he really wanted to be impressed. We decided to 'do' the rest of the park.
Holiday World has a decent ride complement...well, here's the list--
Kiddies:
Comet's Rockets - Allan Herschell - Sky Fighters
Blitzen's Airplanes - King? - Swing Ride
Dasher's Sea Horses - ?? - Swing Ride
Prancer's Merry-Go-Round - Herschell - Kiddie MGR
Dancer's Thunder Bumpers - Foster? - Kid bumper boats
Salmon Run - Eyerly - Bulgy the Whale
Indian River - Venture - Canoe ride
Family:
Howler - Zamperla - Family Coaster
Doggone Trail - SBF - Jeep Ride
Majors:
Raven - Custom Coasters - Wood Coaster
Scarecrow Scrambler - Eli Bridge - Scrambler
Frightful Falls - Hopkins - Flume
Banshee - Chance - Falling Star
Virginia Reel - Sellner - Tilt-A-Whirl (cable)
Raging Rapids - Hopkins - Rapid River Ride
Roundhouse - Hrubetz - Round Up
Eagle's Flight - Rocco - Flying Scooter R/M
Freedom Train - ?? - Miniature Train
Thunder Bumpers - Foster - Bumper Boats
Rough Riders - Barbieri - Bumper Cars
Paul Revere's Midnight Ride - Eyerly - Spider
Lewis & Clark Trail - Arrow - Antique Cars
The Scrambler is glass-smooth and runs at full speed for a nice long cycle. The Banshee has a strict NO SINGLE RIDERS rule which John used to his advantage a couple of times. Unfortunately on one cycle Scott Short and I shared a seat, which was probably not a very good idea. I do understand the rule, though. The Falling Star is not my favorite platform ride (I rather prefer the Zierer flying carpet, like the one at Kennywood), but the one at Holiday World is smooth, fast, and forceful.
One of the features of Stark Raven Mad is the all-day drink service that the park provides. Holiday World, thank you so very much for that, from all of us hot coaster nuts. The temperature was in the 90's, with humidity well above 90% all day, so the park was less than comfortable all day...but Holiday World did a nice job of keeping us filled with carbonated fluids [Footnote 1].
On around from the Banshee we moved from Halloween to Independence Day. We NAPHA members exchanged the obligatory knowing looks at the Tilt-A-Whirl named, "Virginia Reel." We took a spin on the Round-Up, and headed over to the Flying Scooters. Holiday World's Scooters are the road model, and for some strange reason I just couldn't get much action out of them. Last year I was able to get the things oscillating pretty well, in fact it was at SRM-1998 that I really learned how to fly those things. But for some reason, this year I just couldn't quite get it. I made up for my shortcomings the next night at Kings Island, though.
There is now a broad stile built over the railroad tracks which leads to Hollidog's FunTown. It turns out that there are only...ummm...two rides...The Howler and the Doggone Trail, a jeep ride that was SBNO this particular afternoon. The rest of the space was taken up with a very large, very wet climbing structure, which I did not climb on. But I did ride the Howler. The train looks like a very long Hollidog, and each car has a molded double seat and a T-bar. As I am more than big enough to fill one of the tiny seats, I examined the layout and sat in the left-hand seat, straddling the upright portion of the T-bar. The train heads up a straight lift, then turns right, heads down the drop and around a very tight right-hand helix, then swoops right and back into the station. It's a REALLY small ride, and each ride is two circuits. After we got off, I heard that someone was foolish enough to sit on the right. The laterals on that ride are non-trivial. Especially with a T-bar between your legs. I believe that was my 128th coaster.
It was starting to get late. It was time to ride the rest of the rides. We took a trip on the Freedom Train, complete with off-color remarks about some of the nursery-rhyme tableaus from the crowd of assembled coaster nuts. I swear, you can't take some of these guys anywhere...! More fizzy drinks led to a ride on the Midnight Ride, which is possibly the best-running Eyerly Spider I've ridden. Somebody got the brilliant idea to try the bumper boats. These were a new experience for me, as this was only the second park I've visited where bumpper boats are not an extra-pay attraction. They're fun, but I managed to get my shorts wet. Trouble with that is that with the 99% humidity or whatever it was, they didn't want to dry out.
Finally, it was ITOT on the bumper cars. Holiday World has a set of fast-moving, hard-hitting bumper cars that were a lot of fun. There were no reenactments of the infamous Visionland bumper car incident, but these cars did expose a pet peeve of mine about bumper cars. No amount of sheepskin padding is going to keep a bumper car shoulder strap from taking a kid's head off when he gets T-boned in a collision. My personal opinion is that bumper cars should use a chest-belt (as we see at Cedar Point) or switch over to lap bars now that those are available.
A couple of Raven rides filled the gap before dinner. We partook in the now-famous feast of Kringle's pizza, and noted that the back dining room is far too small to hold all of the Stark Raven Madfolk. Fortunately the main portion of the dining room opened for us as the park closed. After dinner, though, we were herded back into the tiny dining room for Will Koch's presentation about the new coaster. He opened and held up a plot showing the ride layout and began to try and tell us how the new ride would interact with existing attractions. He gave us the statistics, and noted that at the suggestion of Kings Island, it would be called the "Son of Raven." He took a couple more potshots at PKI when he described the half-tunnelled helix. Meanwhile, the Loud Guy began his presentation with a bellowed, "ACERS RUUUULE!!!". As if Will wasn't already having enough trouble with the not-very-detailed drawing, this jerk was carrying on. I know I wasn't the only irritated person; I began to fear for the guy's safety. Well, not really; had someone given him the bum's rush I would have been happy.
Fortunately for Will, a cardboard tube was rushed to the front of the room. A cardboard tube with the word, "______" [Footnote 2] written on the side. Inside was a sketch of the ride, showing the whole coaster, along with the nearby attractions. Raven's Daughter is going to wind over and under the flume, the waterslides, seemingly half of the waterpark.......It's going to be a pretty darned impressive ride. We were informed that, at CCI's suggestion, they are planning to use a single Gerstlauer train, but that they intend to request some fairly significant modifications from the ones on Twisted Sisters. When he specifically mentioned "more padding" I briefly went nuts. 8-) I think I can still feel those bruises from Twisted Sisters Day last November. He also mentioned that after much discussion they decided to inaugurate the ride next season by holding Stark Raven Mad on May 7, the day before the 2000 season opens.
It was more or less at this point that Will remarked that there was a roller coaster waiting for us to ride it, and with that sent us out to ride the Raven. Mind you, this was to be a five hour ERT session, this time without the weather delay and added theming. No rain, either. I have no idea what it is, but once the sun goes down, the Raven changes character. The pothole at the top of the second hill becomes noticeable. The drops feel steeper. The train feels a whole lot faster. The riders get excited. Raven goes wild. The crowd starts plotting to beat the living crap out of the Loud Guy. There is really only one word to describe how the legendary Raven runs at night, and the word is "Wow." And this year we ride Raven knowing that next year, the Raven's Legendary sibling will give us all a reason to come back for more.
Interesting, late at night the wildlife...I mean the crickets and frogs, not the coaster nuts...takes over the kiddie ride area. Walking out the Raven's exit you can hear the frogs croaking and it sounds exactly like a bunch of Hampton kiddie ride buzzers. Which is interesting since Holiday World's kiddie ride complement does not include a single Hampton ride.
On into the night the Raven flew. As the night wore on, rides became double rides. By a meaningless coincidence, the amazing fifth drop on the Raven also happens to be the thirteenth drop of a double ride. It's the little things you start to notice when you've been riding a while. Midnight came, and for the last ride of the night the station lights were off as the train flew through on its first pass. I can only imagine what it was like for those riders passing through that utter blackness, cheered on by an exit platform loaded with coaster nuts. We could have ridden all night [Footnote 3], but it was time for the event to end and for us to leave.
You do start to notice little things after a while. Unfortunately it was as I was driving out of the parking lot that I heard it: "SCRAAAAPE!!" It was a metal-on-metal noise. It sounded just like a Corkscrew train entering the station. There being no Corkscrews about, unfortunately I knew exactly what it was. It was the sound of an automotive brake rotor being slowly ground into a fine silvery powder. Realizing there was almost nothing I could do about it, I considered my knowledge of automotive braking systems and noted that the caliper still functioned, some surface was still able to rub against the rotor and therefore the vehicle remained safe to drive. I cussed.
"What's wrong?" John asked.
"Oh, nothing," I replied. "We seem to have suffered a catastrophic
failure in the left-front brake assembly."
We sped towards Louisville at 65 mph, finally reaching our hotel.
The next day would take us to Kentucky Kingdom, Coney Island, and Paramount's Kings Island. Then we'll find out what was wrong with the car. After all, I have to keep my priorities in order!
--Dave Althoff, Jr.
Footnote 1: Please, no lectures about how soft drinks are diuretics and therefore are not the best thing to hydrate with... [Return to text]
Footnote 2: Now that the announcement has been made, it is okay to fill in the blanks with the word, "Legend." [Return to text]
Footnote 3: ...and still have begged for more. The Raven spread its wings and gave a hundred rides as its wheels clanked and roared..... Sorry, maybe Dana can do better... [Return to text]
--DCAjr
Next: Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom
Back to the 1999 Park Visits index
Back to Dave's Adventures
Back to Dave's page...
