Not so long ago, most of us had never heard of Holiday World. A small kid-oriented theme park opened a little wooden coaster and hosted an ACE Spring Conference. Those of who attended discovered just what a little wooden coaster on a hillside could do, we learned how friendly a park could be, we had a great time, we told our friends, the park decided to hold an annual enthusiast's event, and thus, if I dare say it, a legend was born. One thing led to another, and now Stark Raven Mad ranks with the Phabulous Phoenix Phall Phunphest as one of the season's most popular annual roller coaster events. It keeps getting bigger, and it is getting to be as big as CoasterMania, even with coasters a quarter of the size of the ones at Cedar Point.
The popularity of Stark Raven Mad goes well beyond the fact that Holiday World's two star attractions happen to be world-class wood roller coasters. It is at best inappropriate to discuss Stark Raven Mad outside the context not only of Holiday World, but of the Koch Development Company, the very corporate-sounding name for the extended family of Pat Koch, Will Koch, Santa Claus, and all the officers, managers, supervisors, and front-line staff of Holiday World and a number of other enterprises in Santa Claus. It truly is a hyper-extended family, including every person who walks through the gate at Holiday World. In return, in the past eight years we have welcomed Holiday World into our community, most obviously with Paula Werne's participation in the discussion forums. Paul Drabek probably said it best: Among enthusiasts, Holiday World is practically holy ground. It's no wonder, then, that hundreds of us make the pilgrimage to Santa Claus year after year.
By the time we arrived at the park, it was already closed for the day. John and Brad collected their registration materials; I registered for the event, collecting a name badge, a set of tickets (which I noticed were printed in a more sensible order this year) and an event schedule. We headed down a new path through the center of the park, past the new swing ride, to the ampitheater back in the back. There, the auction...where the park sells off its junk to raise money for a good cause...was already going on. Sometimes I wonder what people do with that stuff. The Banshee sign, for instance, has to be nearly 8' long; how would you even get it home? Anyway, the theater was full, so I milled around the outside, chatting with a whole lot of my enthusiast friends, waiting for the auction to finally finish. I was a man on a mission and I was getting impatient!
My impatience paid off, and before long, I was seated in the left hand seat at the front of the Legend train, camcorder in hand, finally shooting POV of The Legend before the sun goes down. Every other bit of Legend POV I've shot is in the dark and darned near useless.
For
2003, Jeff Hammersley has his arm out of that cast (in fact, somebody said they
sold the cast at the auction) he had it in last year, and has been tweaking
The Legend with two good arms. That doesn't mean The Legend is
twice as good or twice as fast as last season (besides, it was last season that
they made the line move twice as fast by running twice as many trains...). But
it means the ride is running in fine form. I just looked at the videotape, and
it actually looks pretty good. I still miss that dead branch that used to hang
over the first drop, though. The ride tears through the woods and over to the
waterpark, around the spiral drop, and then I don't know what to call that thing
on the trip back over to the center of the ride, but it is one of the ride's
two greatest airtime moments. The train zips through the woods behind Frightful
Falls, and negotiates a weird left-banked S-curve. The weirdest thing about
it is the sound the train makes when it goes through, a kind of a "barking"
noise is about the only way I can describe it. What makes it odd is that it
is a noise that The Legend made all over the place when it opened, a
noise that seems to be common on any ride running a Gerstlauer train...it's
characteristic of the Villain and Twisted Sisters (Lola
in particular). But The Legend doesn't run a Gerstlauer train anymore,
it runs a pair of Philadelphia Toboggan trains, and it still makes this noise
just before it enters the double helix.
The half-tunneled helix is slower and tighter, more interesting, and clockwise
compared with the famous half-tunneled counter-clockwise double-helix that may
have inspired it. Actually, apart from the tunnels it has almost nothing in
common with the helix on The Beast. But it's a major feature of the ride,
the ride which shares a wooded setting, a fearsome reputation, a definite article,
and not much else. Yet the comparison is actually a fair one. The Legend
is shorter, smaller, less tall, covers less ground, and as strange as it may
seem, even though it has fewer brakes, I think it is even slower than The
Beast. But The Legend is everything The Beast is supposed
to be, and it's simply incredible.
While The Legend is a great ride, it isn't the namesake of this legendary event. Besides, I wanted to take the camera back to the car as I wouldn't need it once it got dark. But getting out of the park to do that means somehow getting up the long hill between Halloween and Christmas. The hill is only about 12' high, but the path requires a really long walk up a ramp. For some reason, parks have this thing about long winding ramps with no alternate stairways for people who would rather not do so much walking. This is the problem that gives the walkway across the road at Kentucky Kingdom its infamous moniker. And Holiday World suffers from this same malady. Except that there IS a stairway from Halloween to Christmas. It's just that to use it requires a ride on the Raven.
The Raven is, of course, the nine-year-old star attraction of Holiday World. Opened in 1995, the Raven is 70 feet to the top, 110 feet to the bottom. It doesn't look like a typical double-out-and-back coaster, but then, there really is nothing typical about the Raven. It was arguably the first world-class coaster from Custom Coasters. Hoosier Hurricane is a good ride, but Raven is the ride that made CCI famous. It's also the ride that made Holiday World famous. And a ride in any seat demonstrates why. The lift takes you to the parking lot, and the first drop is incredibly average, whizzing through a tunnel which this year is not shrouded in Raven spit. At the top of the second hill, though, is where the ride breaks loose. The first drop and second hill are alongside the parking lot. At the top of the second hill you start to realize that the ride really hasn't lost any speed, then it turns right and plunges down a quick, shallow drop, then a long right-hand swooping drop through a turnaround built out over Lake Rudolph. That's the first 'out'. To come back, the train races back up the hill, does a quick fourth dip to keep things from slowing down, then, down the famous fifth and sixth drops. At the top of the fifth drop the Raven kicks you off the seat just enough that you can float all the way down the hill. Halfway down, just as the novelty begins to wear off, there is an aspect change into the sixth drop, which keeps the airtime going. All the way to the bottom. There, the second turnaround first gently pulls you back into the seat, then slams you sideways into the left side of the car. But while the second "out" leg was nearly straight track, the return run is an undulating double-S-curve with two more dips in it so that the Raven truly has something for everyone. Whew! Best of all, that trip ends at the top of the hill, eliminating the long hike up the hill.
I returned my camera to the car. I like shooting video, but night was falling and once dark the camera doesn't work very well even though it does have night shot. Besides, the Raven and The Legend are both really aggressive coasters. One ride with the camera is okay, but for repeated riding, it's good to have both hands free for the grab bars. It might seem inappropriate for a coaster nut to hold on for the ride, but it lets me more precisely control my position in the train, and I've found it to be the best way to avoid the soreness and contusions often associated with extended riding sessions. Which are, after all, what Stark Raven Mad is traditionally about! [Footnote 1]
On returning to the park, I realized it was getting late, so I stopped in at Kringle's for a slice of pizza, then went out for more riding. I started with the Hallowswings. This is quite possibly the neatest looking swing ride I have ever seen, with its halloween theming. The ride sits on the concrete pad previously occupied by the Banshee, a Chance Falling Star which, if you look carefully, can be seen in pieces in the woods behind The Legend. Hallowswings is a Zamperla swing ride very similar to the big ones at Knoebels and Six Flags' Park That Was Still Adventure World The Last Time I Was There. A big difference is the use of different size seats on the ride...there are big seats and there are little seats; I don't know if there are mid-size seats or not. Mark R. told me, but I confess I forgot. What I do know is that the ride looks really cool, and its apparently-hydraulic drive is smooth and quiet. The ride is perfect for Holiday World.
The nighttime ride session continued on The Legend and the Raven, and I took lots of rides on both, mostly on The Legend due to the faster moving line. The event has become too big for the double- and triple rides Stark Raven Mad has been known for in the past. But it's really neat for a city dweller like me to ride The Legend and look up to see thousands of stars in the night sky, most of which are invisible to me most nights. I fell into the Stark Raven Mad pattern of grab a drink, ride a coaster, repeat. Repeat. Repeat. I did mess up my timing, though. I had planned to make my last ride of the night on the Raven simply to avoid the long walk up the hill, but I didn't make it. I had to walk up the hill.
I collected John and Brad, and we returned to our brick-and-stucco palace in Tell City. Actually once we got there we found a late dinner at the only place open in town (a pizza shop). Now that I have had them, I personally don't recommend the chicken strips at Papa John's. They are cut, breaded, partially fried, frozen, defrosted, then baked, so they really aren't quite "right".
John got a ride to the park in the morning as Brad and I slept in, had a bad doughnut in the motel lobby (A long doughnut covered with chocolate icing...and NO cream filling. Doesn't that qualify as "bait and switch?" At least I didn't pay extra for it!), and skipped the morning waterpark ERT. Without cold-weather gear, it was just too darned cold for that. Besides, skipping the waterpark ERT gave us an extra hour to enjoy the coasters! It was fun to ride The Legend, waving at all the cold people stuck in the waterpark!
Saturday,
the park was fully open to the public, which means it was also fully open to
us. The lines for the coasters were at times shorter than they had been the
night before, although the cool temperatures meant that the waterpark didn't
siphon off as many customers as usual, so the park was crowded. The other thing
is, ever since the Raven was built, Holiday World's annual attendance
has increased steadily; I hear they were up 22% last year alone, someone was
telling me they had 750,000 customers last year. And it shows. Throughout the
park, queues are being made longer to handle the larger crowds. But large crowds
are exactly what parks want to see!
I got to the Eagle's Flight, the park's road-model Flying Scooter,
before the crowds did. I took a ride, which was particularly uninteresting,
as usual. The ride runs at about 7.5 RPM, which seems about right, but I just
can't get much control over the tub. I can get the tub to rotate, but I can't
get it to translate, which is the key to a wild ride. I think I finally figured
it out. It's all in the tub hanger bracket. One of the things I noticed right
away on Holiday World's ride is that the two suspension ropes on the tub are
almost touching each other. By comparison, on Kings Island's machine, the suspension
ropes are about a foot apart. Here, let me show you via ASCII artwork:
\ / \ /
\ / \ /
\ / \ /
----oo---- ---o##o---
/**[ ] **\ /**[ ] **\
/***[ ]****\ /***[ ]****\
!***[--- /]*****! !***[--- /]*****!
!***[### !#]*****! !***[### !#]*****!
\***[### !#]****/ \***[### !#]****/
\**[###---!#]***/ \**[###---!#]***/
Holiday World Kings Island
The difference is subtle, but significant. The two suspension ropes on the Holiday World ride are close enough together that they form almost a single connection point. The tub rotates easily around that point. By comparison, on the larger Kings Island ride, the attachment points are further apart, so that the tub cannot rotate around the connection point unless it translates outward or inward. The result is that the Kings Island ride is easy to steer in and out, while the Holiday World ride is not.
Well, that was a less-than-stellar ride. Continuing around the park I took my obligatory annual ride on the Howler, a tiny kiddie coaster that replaced the Firecracker (which, incidentally, is now called the Avalanche and travels with Amusements of America). Returning through the park I introduced Wolf to Paul Revere's Midnight Ride, what I believe to be the second-best Spider I have ridden, after the one at Camden Park. After riding, Wolf asked how the one at Camden could possibly do any more spinning than Holiday World's version.
Throughout the day, I drank lots and lots of iced tea. I'm not generally much of an iced tea drinker, and it's even stranger considering that the tea in question is a fountain drink. Traditionally, fountain tea has been a bitter, lousy, virtually undrinkable beverage more to be endured than to be enjoyed, but for some reason the stuff Holiday World serves is different. In fact, it's pretty darned good, just sweet enough for my taste, and easier to drink in large quantities for people like me who don't care for Pepsi. On a related note, Holiday World has re-plumbed all of the MENs rooms in the park, installing the famous waterless urinals introduced a couple of years ago. It seems they must have hired a really tall plumber to do the work, though...many of us were wishing they had also installed step-stools. I guess it's another way to make us feel like kids again or something. 8-)
I watched Liberty Launch, but didn't like the look of that queue. I figured I would put it off for the night's ERT session. I did ride the bumper cars, which have the classic smell of ozone, and are the best looking bumper cars around, but still aren't as much fun as the ones they replaced. We rode Frightful Falls with some of the Gravity Group gang, and took lots of rides on the coasters. I watched as Paula Werne and Hollidog deputized a couple dozen people to help supervise the annual photo walk-back, and on my way to that photo walk-back I had a Frito pie for lunch, dressed up with the mild taco sauce. New this season is salsa, available for a minimal upcharge...also mild.
This year I participated in the photo tour behind the wood coasters and shot lots of video, and really noted some interesting details about the coasters. It didn't hurt that for part of the tour I had a professional wood coaster engineer as my tour guide.
After the tour there was time for more socialization, more coaster rides, and visits to the park's gift shops. I also had to indulge in the new park delicacy, the deep-fried Oreo cookies. It's simple enough, Oreo cookies are dipped in funnel-cake batter and deep fried. They are, in fact, quite good! Holiday World sells them covered with a layer of powdered sugar; the chocolate sauce is an available option, which I declined
I finished the normal operating day with a ride on each of the wood coasters, then right at closing time I joined the really, really, really long line for dinner in the picnic grove. There, once again, Holiday World had a nice spread including hot dogs, sauce-less barbecue, potato salad, baked beans (night ERT to be jet-propelled?) and a stunning array of cookies. The park's buffet is a bit difficult to navigate, though, as the menu isn't posted, and the selections are presented in an odd order...first the plates and utensils, then packets of condiments (though at this point we had no idea which ones we might need), then buns and rolls (again, no idea what goes on the bread), then the side dishes, then finally the stuff that goes on the buns. In the adjacent picnic shelter, the usual cover band was playing. They have a little talent in performance, but the sound mix was pretty awful. Later, I think somebody must have adjusted it because it sounded better later on. Or maybe that's because I was off-axis from the speaker, as I wasn't when standing in line.
After dinner, people began to line up to leave the picnic grove. We had been told that we couldn't leave after 8:00 until the park was clear, which makes perfect sense. As the magic hour approached for the night ERT session to begin, Pat Koch approached the center pavilion and took the microphone. "I'm afraid I have some sad news," she began. The grove got quiet. Her clear tone was serious, but businesslike. "Just after 8:00, " she continued, "a rider was ejected from the Raven."
At this point, my brain took the word "ejected" and translated it to "asked to leave."
"She was one of your own," Pat continued. My brain finished the speech: This was the stern warning that someone had violated the park's trust, had done something seriously foolish, and had to be disciplined...and that there should be no more of this tonight lest someone get hurt.
"She is on the way to the hospital, and it doesn't look good."
Then
it sunk in. "Ejected" in this case meant "thrown
from the train." From Raven. From Raven?! How is
that possible? Raven has a strong kick of airtime, but it is just a quick
kick. The float is sustained, but it's not even freefall, there really isn't
enough there to throw somebody clear of the train...is there? I ran through
the possibilities. Decades of studying and riding roller coasters, and I can't
imagine how it could happen. Pat continued, saying that the seat belt was apparently
unfastened when the train returned to the station. I immediately thought there
had to be more to it. I don't think Raven is capable of throwing a rider,
and if it isn't, it shouldn't matter whether the seat belt is fastened or not.
I've ridden all over that ride, and I've spent a fair amount of time in the
air, but never crashed into a lap bar or been pulled down by a loose seat belt.
Pat then stated that she thought the night's activities should be cancelled,
and she offered a prayer...for us, for the victim and her family, for the park,
and for the industry. She requested that we refrain from gossip and speculation,
and she noted that staff would assist us out of the park. The group sat for
a moment in stunned silence, then slowly processed out of the picnic grove.
I didn't know it at the time, but I was actually among the last to leave. The
park had stationed employees at intervals...basically at the path intersections...to
send us out the long way, through Independence Day and Christmas
instead of through Halloween. On the way out I caught Paula Werne between
phone calls; I hadn't had a chance to talk to her all weekend, and I had to
say a few words. Among the Stark Raven Maniacs, the unofficial crisis
team was assembling as ACE President Carole Sanderson and ACE PR director Sean
Flaharty made themselves available to the park, local enthusiast Paul Drabek
offered his assistance, and anybody who could offer any assistance did so. Mostly,
we got out of the way. A few of us had gathered just outside the gate. None
of us wanted to admit what we all were almost certain had to be true. We finally
adjourned to a site in the campground shortly after the county coroner arrived.
We knew what that meant. We still found it hard to believe. Particularly the
more technically minded of our group. We thought we knew exactly what happened
but we couldn't believe it. Whoever she was, she was an enthusiast, for
crying out loud! But there was really no other explanation. Either the Raven
is a wilder ride than any of us thought, or...
...Well, the scientific investigation will conclude in a few days. I think I know what happened. I think most of us present know what happened. It's a terrible, terrible tragedy. Stark Raven Mad was officially cut short after the accident, but in a way, it's almost like it is still going on, and we're just not there anymore. We're glued to our computer screens watching the situation unfold. We're offering our prayers for the rider's family, and for our friends at Holiday World, and for each other. We're looking for closure to the event.
Stark Raven Mad was a fabulous event as usual, so far as it went. Holiday World remains a wonderful park run by wonderful people, a place that is home to two wonderful wood coasters. For a day and a half, I had a whole lot of fun. For two days I got to hang out with a bunch of great people, all kinds of people united in their love for roller coasters. That was all great, and a terrible accident cannot change the fact that I had a great time in the park. In the face of disaster, I got to see another side of Holiday World, and in fact of the enthusiast community assembled there. I watched as the park began to manage the disaster, I listened to Pat Koch, I watched and talked with my fellow enthusiasts, and I realized something very important, something I shared with Paula right away. I think it is because of the special kind of people who are the Koch company. I can't fully explain it. I got an overwhelming sense that in spite of it all, no matter what happens, everything is going to be fine. I can't explain it. But I do know that as events unfolded something became clearly obvious which I was sure I already knew. Holiday World is run by genuine good people. Caring people. Honest people. It's no wonder the park is almost considered holy ground. It's the Koch family ministry, and it's a distinction that Holiday World justly deserves.
--Dave
Althoff, Jr.
Footnote 1: The extended riding, not the soreness and contusions. 8-) [Return to text]
--DCAjr
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