OKC-Texas-St. Louis Trip 2018 - Trip Report

For over a year, I had been planning a trip to Texas. In May 2016, I had the chance to spend a couple hours at SFOT before an event I was attending that weekend. Unfortunately, it poured all morning and with about a half hour to spare, the only thing I was able to get on was New Texas Giant and Runaway Mountain. So I was very much looking forward to getting back to the park and getting all of the credits I had missed. During the summer of 2017, I picked up my first true credit card (I know, I know) which included all kinds of points that I could use for travel and whatnot. By the time I started planning the trip, I had about 50,000 points to spend, which through their site, equals about $750 worth of travel credits.

In September 2016, I flew to OKC to attend "Ride for a Cure Day" at Frontier City, an event run by Paul Davis IG: @paulydavi and Central Plains Coaster Club as a fundraiser for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. During the process of getting to know that group prior to the event, I found out that Paul's brother was in the later stages of MDA, and Paul ran the event in honor of his big brother. I truly enjoyed the event the first time around, and I wanted to head back if they ever did it again. So when Paul contacted me to tell me that June 15, 2018 would be the official date, I planned my trip to coincide with the event. The only thing Paul had to agree to for me to attend again was to take me bass fishing that weekend for some big Oklahoma bass (more on that later).

So around January, I started planning the trip. Because I didn't want to pay a ton of extra fees for renting a car in one place and turning it back in at another, I decided to fly in and out of Dallas and to just drive everywhere else. I transferred many of my credit card points over to Southwest and booked all my flights. In fact, I only paid for one of the four flights out of pocket.

Fast forward to June and we get into this trip report.

I had a 5:50am flight to Chicago booked on June 14th, followed by a 7:20am flight to Dallas. I left for the airport around 4:15am, knowing its only about a 15-minute drive and that with TSA-precheck, I wouldn't have security lines to worry about. After checking in and quickly going through security, I was ready to go.

Both flights were uneventful.

I landed in Dallas around 10am on Thursday, June 14, collected my bag and took the shuttle to retrieve my rental car. Being by myself, I always book the cheapest car because A. I'm cheap and B. I don't need a big car so I want good gas mileage. I often get upgraded for free anyways, so it works out sometimes regardless. Well, I was given a Hyundai Sonata hatchback. Now, the car got really good mileage, but the tank was small so I filled it up a bunch of times during the trip. It also had no pickup, so it was like driving a go-kart all week.

My original plan was to go on a tour of the Ballpark at Arlington (or whatever it is called now), but I never got around to buying a ticket and I figured that since it was a nice day, and the forecast was really unstable for the upcoming week, that I would head over to Six Flags Over Texas for awhile and try to knock out some of the credits that I was missing. I want to thank Eric at IG: https://www.instagram.com/rollercoasterandmore/ for all of the tips and advice he gave to me about the park, including helping me find some areas for both rides and pictures that I couldn't find. Give him a follow on Instagram and on YouTube.

Now, Six Flags has a very inconsistent policy regarding DSLRs. The policy basically says that you can't have detachable lenses or lenses longer than 3 inches when extended. I had heard the sometimes you can get them in SFOT/SFFT and sometimes you can't. With that in mind, I rented a Panasonic Lumix camera for those parks. Now, the Lumix lens does extend more than 3 inches, given that its zoom range was 18-400mm. However, I took the battery out prior to them looking at it, so that if I flipped it "on", they still wouldn't be able to extend it and it would look like it was fine. Turns out, they didn't even question it.

After I entered, we had a few minutes to wait before rope drop, and as soon as they let us in, I headed right to Pandemonium since it was right in front of me, it was already running and I knew those types of coasters by design tended to get a longer line, even on non-busy days. I rode with two of the biggest hillbilly gentlemen that I have ever met, who told me it was one of the most intense coasters they've ever ridden. It was a typical Pandemonium, nothing special.

After leaving Pandemonium, I headed over to grab a locker and ride Batman. Now, I don't know what it is about this Batman compared to all of the others I've been on, but I found this one to be slightly rough and for some reason, seemed shorter (I know that it isn't - it was weird). I only rode it once, in the back right seat.

I walked back around the corner to ride The Joker. Now, it was odd but the one at Great Adventure didn't bother me too much, but I definitely spun a bit more this time around. I got off feeling extremely dizzy, although it was still a fun ride. I think riding it vs. watching it is really interesting because from the ground it looks much more intense than it truly is.

Now, Eric had told me that Mr. Freeze had been having problems for quite awhile, so if I saw it testing, I should absolutely get in line. And that's exactly what happened. Luckily, the line for Mr. Freeze is in the AC (which was working - which I also hear is a bonus). I waited about 15 minutes and got my ride. Now, I don't like going backwards all that much. For some reason, its one of the few things that really mess with my head. That said, this Mr. Freeze was much more rough than the first time I rode one at SFSTL two years ago. The ride itself is pretty cool, and unlike rides after me, the hold brake on the spike actually held us for a few seconds. I just don't prefer going backwards. But got the credit.

Now, the mine trains weren't far, so I decided to go ride them. I got a quick ride on Mini Mine Train. Now, let me say that I typically don't ride kiddy coasters that are strictly kiddy coasters. That said, there were a bunch of adults in line, some that didn't have kids even like me, so I didn't feel too weird about it. Right after this, I walked next door and got in line for the regular Runaway Mine Train, which had a small line. Literally as soon as I caught up with the line, the ride went down. It was entirely too hot to deal with standing in a station for an unknown amount of time, so I headed off to try to grab a few more credits before I left.

I walked over to La Vibora, which was still closed and hadn't begun even testing, but I was pretty worn out, so I decided to sit down for a few and just relax to see if it opened, which it did after about fifteen minutes. I was pretty excited for my first bobsled coaster and if I were someone who liked excruciating knee pain, this would have been the ride for me. Now, I did not know there was a single rider line, or I would have used it, as I did on several other rides that had them. I waited in the regular queue for no more than ten minutes and was quite surprised that they have you take your bags aboard the ride with you. I was also surprised how the lapbar does nothing to keep you in place. I rode with a couple that were probably in their mid 20's. I rode in the very back and the guy in this couple rode in the middle with his girlfriend/wife in front. Now mind you, I'm 5'8" and I felt really uncomfortable in this coaster. This guy was about 6'4", so I know he had to be in pain once we got going. We finally climbed the lift hill and went around the winding course. Every sharp turn resulted in either my knees or my back getting wrecked. Got the credit, but never again.

Now, as an aside - while you're in the Spain section, I have to tell you that I laughed way too much over the fact that their casino ride is a giant sombrero. This is complete with the recorded instructions being delivered in English by a male voice with a deep Spanish accent. I'm not sure we could get away with that in the north, but I found it to be hilarious.

I decided to walk over to NTG to check out the line and it was really the only ride in the park with even a semblance of a line that day. I decided to skip it for the time being and come back later on or Monday to get my rides. It took me a bit to figure out how to get to Titan, but when I walked over, it was a walk-on, so I put my stuff in their bin and boarded quickly. Now, from what some people had told me and from watching the POV and seeing how the MCBR kills the speed, I thought it was be a boring/overrated ride. It was not. I really, really enjoyed it. I greyed out a bit two or three separate times and really enjoyed most of the ride. I was surprised with the intensity. If it wasn't so hot, I probably would have grabbed a couple more rides right then and there.

Now, at this point, I was really confused about the park layout, so I got hold of Eric again, who directed me to Judge Roy Scream, which I had walked past several times and didn't notice it despite the giant sign. What's pretty cool is that you have to walk through a tunnel underneath the road that you came into the park on, to get to the ride. The ride itself was both somewhat rough and not fun. The layout reminded me a lot of Big Dipper at Geauga Lake (RIP), which was one of my favorite coasters as a little kid. So there was that big of nostalgia, but one ride was enough.

I will say I was a bit upset the oil derrick was closed down the whole time I was there. Even though it was blazing hot, I would have liked to get some pictures from up there of the park layout, especially wide-angle shots. Maybe next time.

After riding Judge Roy, I decided to head out, knowing I was coming back on Monday. It was brutally hot, I was exhausted from the early flight and I knew I still had a 3+ hour drive ahead of me. After a stop at Subway to eat and cool down, I got gas and got on the road to OKC.

The ride to OKC from Dallas is miserably boring, for those of you that haven't done it. But after three hours, I finally checked into my hotel near Will Rogers Airport. After a quick dinner, I went to bed and got ready for Ride for a Cure Day.

I got up early and headed over to Frontier City. The first oddball thing was that the roads near the airport are recently re-paved and apparently OKC doesn't think putting lines for lane markers is important, so it was essentially a free-for-all. I got over to FC a bit early, so I hit up McDonalds for breakfast and then headed over. I met up with Paul, Spencer, Nick and the CPCC crew just before 9 and helped them bring everything in and set everything up. Now, I know for a coaster enthusiast, this is kind of sacrilegious, but I did not ride anything at all during the event. I had been to the park before and while I like their coasters, I don't love any of them. It was a fairly busy day at the park, so most of their rides had lines and I really wanted to document the event in pictures, so I spent a large portion of the day taking pictures and seeing some of their new shows (and old ones too). The spirit of the event is to raise as much money as possible and raise awareness of MDA and what they do. I want to give a shoutout to "Don't Tell Dena" who played a fantastic set in the middle of the event. They were a great addition to the event. Check them out at http://donttelldena.com/ Between the raffles, donations and other parts of the event, I would say it was a decent success. I think we thought it would be bigger than it was, but we are realists. Not to say that Paul, Nick and Spencer didn't work their tails off, because they did. Nick built a working shooting gallery from scratch to raise money (he's kind of an electronics buff) and Paul is an amazing young man.

Now, I can't talk about this event without mentioning one other part. Once the park closed at 9, we tore everything down, packed it into their cars and departed. I received a text in the middle of the night from Paul informing me that when he returned home after the event that night, his brother Trevor whose fight with MD inspired the event, passed away that evening. Its been a few weeks now, but I want to again send my condolences to Paul, his brother Jamie and their parents. I was blessed to get to meet Trevor at the 1st RFACD in 2016 and I hope he's somewhere now where he doesn't have to deal with any of the pain or disabilities anymore.

I met back up with Paul on Saturday night when he took me out to some local dirt track races. The fact that many of the races were contested among teenagers and even some younger kids was pretty neat. Sunday, we did go fishing for a couple hours, but since it was 95+ degrees, we only had mild success catching bass. After a couple hours, we said our tearful (not really) goodbyes and I headed down to Ardmore, OK to stay over night. Ardmore is one of those cool small plains towns. Its not extremely rural or anything, but it is halfway between OKC and Dallas so it was an easy place to stop.

I knew I had about an hour and a half drive back down to SFOT, so I timed it up well, grabbed some eggs and a bagel at the continental breakfast, then headed out around 8:30am. I ended up being one of the first fifteen or so cars in the Six Flags line to get in, which was cool because if you have ever seen their parking lot, its rather strange the way it is set up. I didn't mention the first day I was pretty much parked in San Antonio already. I got in and had to wait for rope drop just like everyone else. I decided to go get my Mine Train credit done right away, which was easy with barely anybody in line. I then figured out where Shockwave was and headed over there for that credit. Shockwave actually surprised me with the little bit of intensity and the lack of roughness. I truly enjoyed it. At this point, with all of the credits conquered (besides the Wile E. Coyote coaster, which I wasn't going to do), I decided to get a couple rides in (as well as pictures in the queue) of NTG before I left. Literally my only complaint about NTG is those stupid plexiglass windows. I can't tell you how many times I banged my elbows, wrists, whatever on them. I get that they make it look like a real car and all, but they're annoying as anything I've ever dealt with on a train.

After my NTG rides, I made one more round taking pictures including a ride on the train and then headed out. SFOT is a great park and for me, the fact it was the first SF park made it really nostalgic. I look forward to going back there when its not a solo trip, so that I take the time to ride some other flat rides and such.

I drove about 90 minutes down to Waco to my hotel for the night, which was right across the freeway from Baylor University's football stadium. Also, I typically stay at Red Roof Inn because I get a good discount through my union as well as free nights through their loyalty program and this was by-far the nicest Red Roof Inn I've ever stayed at. After checking in and editing a few pictures, I decided to head out for dinner. I went a few blocks to a burger place recommended by the front desk. The name is Twisted Root Burger Company. If you've never eaten there before and you ever get the chance, do it. It was a fantastic meal at a reasonable price. The venue is almost like a giant warehouse. It was really unique, but I truly enjoyed it.

I got up early the next morning to head to San Antonio. I knew I had about a 3-hour ride, so I planned it to get to SeaWorld around opening time, which I did and then head over to ZDTs for the second part of the day. It was a dreary day, although I lucked out with the rain for the most part. After heading through security and entering the park, I wandered a little bit before heading over to Steel Eel. Now, their 3 coasters (and even their kiddy coaster) are all pretty much in a straight line. There wasn't any line for Steel Eel, so I started with that. It is an interesting ride, although I found it rather boring. The ride is basically a drop, a couple airtime hills, turnaround, a bunch of airtime hills. The floater air at the top of the hills was actually pretty good. The ride itself was just boring in general however. Afterwards, I went over to Wave Breaker, which was also walk on. Now, I was hoping for something like Darien Lake's Moto Coaster, just more spread out. The problem I have with Wave Breaker is that after the launches, it just feels like it drifts over the hills. It was still fun, but I wish it was more intense. I understand the makeup of the park and that it caters to a lot of children, but that part was frustrating. The concept is great; the ride experience was only ok. Just around the corner is The Great White, their B&M invert. Now GW is simply another Batman clone, but it is a condensed version, which basically just means that there's less time to recover between inversions and other elements. I actually enjoyed it a lot. It felt slightly more intense than the Batman clones, but because of being smaller, felt different. I lapped the park a few times to take pictures and then because there was no line, decided to minimize the creepiness and go ride Shamu Express really fast for the credit. I did not ride Journey to Atlantis. I know that some consider it a coaster because of the small transition between the lift and the drop - but I don't. Its a giant log flume.

My problems with the park were many-fold: First off, the operations were pretty bad. Steel Eel was running 1 train, which is fine considering how small the crowds were, but the dispatches were more than 5 minutes each. Wave Breaker was cranking out trains pretty regularly that were half-full due to the lack of a crowd. The Great White also had 4-5 minute dispatches, with a small line forming. The other problem I had was that being the biggest SeaWorld park by area, there were tons of random open spaces with nothing to fill them. They do a great job in some places of making a seating area or a smoking area, etc. out of open areas, but then horrible jobs at other times. I did not stay for any shows because the majority of them started much later in the day. There were also earlier show times posted, but none of them happened. I was also severely disappointed with the penguin habitat, which barely allows you to actually see penguins.

Around 2pm, I decided I'd had enough. I was going to head to ZDTs, but it was drizzling on and off, so I changed my plans to check into my hotel, rest a bit and then head to the Alamo/Riverwalk first and then SFFT in the evening to knock out a couple credits and see the nighttime show. The Alamo was very cool. When you see it on TV, you tend to think its just the front of that building when in reality, its an entire complex. The history and story are told through signs, worker stories, etc. I walked across the street from the Alamo to head down the steps to Riverwalk, which I thought was a really cool idea. If you don't know what it is, its a manmade "river" (more like a canal) on which you walk on either side and which is lined with stores, restaurants, etc. on both sides, on two floors. I didn't walk all that much of it, but I did have an early dinner at "The Original Mexican Restaurant", which was a fantastic meal. If I'm ever there with other people, we will definitely walk more of it.

I headed over to the park around 6:30pm in a light drizzle and walked towards the back, not really knowing where I was going. The first coaster I encountered was Superman: Krypton Coaster, whose entrance really blends in with the food stand in front, so I stored by stuff in a locker and headed up to the station. The ride was complete walk on so I headed to the back row. I will say that this now is easily my favorite floorless coaster. The ride is exceptionally smooth, the layout is very cool and unique and I just really enjoyed it. Just like with IRat, which I'll talk about later, diving in and out of the quarry is such a cool setup and concept. I really enjoyed the drop and giant vertical loop. The only negative for me is the lack of places to get good photographs of it.

After SKC, I headed over to Wonder Woman, which had about a 10-minute wait. I was able to get assigned to the back row and like Keltan told me, I slightly pulled out the straps as we left the station, so they wouldn't hurt my shoulders (it was a great tip). I didn't realize before heading to SFFT that they used a rolling station with the trains never actually stopping. The ops on the ride were fantastic and cycled people and trains extremely quickly. The ride experience itself is very very cool. Its interesting to ride by yourself in a single seat and how the maneuvers feel when the train is able to take tighter turns and inversions. The drop was my favorite part because of the small dip beforehand that gives you a huge whip of ejector air. The inversion over the lower part of the lift hill is also very cool.

Now, I wanted to ride IRat after WW, but they close off the walkway from that area over to IRat due to the Celebrate show coming on at 9:15. The layout of the park is actually really easy to figure out, but I hadn't deciphered it yet, and I am awful at using a map to navigate. At this point it was about 8:30 and raining pretty hard, so I decided to grab something small to eat and wait for the show. I went over and bought a piece of fudge and a drink and sat down for awhile before heading over to the amphitheater area for the show. Both Mac Lundie and Jeff Joiner had told me the show was absolutely fantastic, and boy were they right. I'll say this was easily my favorite and the best show I've ever seen outside of a Disney Park. I've included a video below from YouTube user Coaster Storm of the show (the video is great but still doesn't do it justice):

Because of the rain, the show was lightly attended (maybe 200 people?) so I had no trouble getting out of the parking lot to leave. I headed back to my hotel, slept and was ready for round 2.

I headed over to the park just before opening (much too early like usual) and had to wait about 30 minutes for rope drop. I brought the rented Panasonic Lumix with me for pictures, which wasn't even questioned at the x-ray machines. My plan was to head immediately to IRat, which I did at rope drop. The problem was that IRat didn't open with the park, as it was delayed a bit. So I decided to go get an early ride in on WW, which I did again in the back row. I headed back to IRat around 11am, and this time it was open. Now, what was weird was that first off, you have to walk up this like 7-tiered ramp to get to the station and about halfway up and about 3/4 of the way up, there were workers standing in the ramp saying "watch out" and pointing at the ground. Apparently somebody's service dog had taken two monster dumps on the ramp. That was a first for me at a park. IRat was a station wait, and I wanted to sit in the back, but then I realized that while running two trains, the back two rows on one of the trains were closed off, so I moved up to row 10 to make my wait much less. I boarded and got my first ride in. As I mentioned earlier, diving in and out of the quarry is a very cool experience. The drop is interesting in that it banks ever so slightly as you head down, but my favorite part is the dive back into the quarry right before the overbank and tunnel near the end. The only thing I dislike is that the tunnel is right before the brake run. I wish there were some kind of midcourse tunnel, but it doesn't take away from the ride experience. When I redo my top-10 at the end of the month, I'm not sure that it will be in there, but it should definitely be in the top 20.

As an aside, Roadrunner Express is right next to IRat and was down all three days I visited the park and is still down as of today, so I did not get that credit.

When I first got to the park, it was sunny and hot and then went cloudy midday and then hot again later. So after IRat, I decided to head towards the middle of the park to get my boomerang credit and to ride Batman, their S&S free-spin. Their boomerang... is just as bad as every other bad one I've been on. Nothing really to say about it except the pastel coloring of it is rather ugly, even though it fits in with the theming. Their Batman was a cool experience. It broke down once as soon as I got in line so I had to come back a little bit later, but when I did, I walked right onto it. I rode with this black guy that was about my age and his son, who was probably around 12. It was obvious the kid talked dad into riding because dad screamed like a little girl the whole ride, as I laughed hysterically. Now, I've ridden three Jokers at the various Six Flags parks, but this Batman is FAR more intense. I typically get off the Joker a little dizzy. I got off Batman feeling like I was drunk. I needed a bit to recover afterwards, so I decided to go find some food. I really wanted some barbecue, so I headed into their building that is similar to the Festhaus at KI (can't remember the name right now). I let myself recover for awhile before heading back towards the front of the park to get the credit on Goliath. Of all the Batman clones, it is definitely the best-looking. In terms of the ones I've been on, I'd rank it my second favorite behind the one at SFOG. It is very good, very fun, not rough at all and I definitely enjoyed it.

Now, Poltergeist had been having problems all day and was barely open. It would open for one or two trains and then break down again. I headed back that way, got lost twice and eventually found the entrance (which I had walked by several times). This was the only thing besides WW that had any semblance of a real line. They kept calling out asking for single riders, but I was way in the back and wasn't going to try to push myself through the line with my camera bag in hand. Once I got about halfway, then I answered their call. They kept saying because of the wind (which wasn't very strong), that they had to dispatch full trains, explaining the 7-10 minute dispatch times. When they brought me to the front of the line from the middle, they told me to pick a row (which I took row 10) and I expected them to put another single rider with me, but no, they had me ride alone, as well as the guy in front of me. The ride was pretty much what I expected - an outdoor and better version of Flight of Fear. It wasn't anything special, but it was fun.

The only credit I still needed was Pandemonium, which is the far back corner of the park near Wonder Woman. I headed over there and got in line and it immediately went down after a guest threw up in the station. Now, typically most parks will break out a hose and just rinse the mess away, but for some reason, the ride ops had to clean it up like a kindergarten student threw up in their classroom. That means, pouring the kitty litter type substance on there, mixing it in and sweeping it up. Then they took disinfectant spray on each spot and repeatedly rubbed those spots over and over again. I think they were worried about vomit that got in between planks of the wood floor, which is not coming out that way. It took literally 20 minutes before the ride reopened, but I finally got the credit. It was basically just like the other pandemoniums, nothing different really.

After this, I decided to take pictures for awhile and if lines were short, re-ride some rides again. I was near Wonder Woman, which had a decent line, but is very wide open for pictures, so I stood around and took a bunch of pictures. After about 10 minutes, the music near the ride died and the ride got stuck on the lift hill. Additionally, SKC stopped on the MCBR. I stood around for awhile to see what was happening, and correctly assumed there was a power outage. I waited to see them begin to evacuate riders and walk them down the lift hill, and then I headed over to the other half of the park to see if it too was affected. When I got over there, a lot of the buildings and stands still had power, but the rides were not running. I think I heard someone say that it was for safety reasons on that side, not because of power. I decided at this point (it was about 5pm) to leave and get dinner. I thought about heading back to the park if the power was restored, but I don't believe it was that day.

That evening, I made my plans for the following day, which was my last in San Antonio before heading back to Dallas. I wanted a few more rides on SKC and IRat, so I figured I would head back to SFFT for about two hours Thursday morning before going to ZDTs for a bit then heading north. Interestingly, I decided to try to bring my Nikon in with my zoom lens attached. The guy running the xray machine didn't flag it, but the assistant said to him "that lens looks too big" and the first guy asks me "is it bigger than my hand?". Now mind you, this guy had NBA player sized hands, so it might not have been that big even extended. Regardless, I said no and they let me bring it in. I got to the park at opening and decided to go to Wonder Woman first for another ride since I figured it would get a line and the other two would not (I was correct). I rode in the middle of the train this time, which was still great, but not as great as the back. I got two quick rides on SKC and then headed over to IRat for my last rides there. After IRat, I decided to head to ZDTs for a couple rides on Switchback and some other things they offer.

After about a 50-minute ride, I arrived at ZDTs about one and headed right for Switchback, which is literally right next to the entrance building. I rode the ride in each row, on mostly empty trains. I was honestly surprised by how good it was. I thought I'd like it but not love it, but it was fantastic. Going backwards through a fast, 104-degree overbanked turn was very very cool. I thought it was awesome how they packed so much into a tiny area. The rest of ZDTs is great for family-type trips. The go-karts are very cool. The waterpark is small but fun and who doesn't love unlimited video games? I stayed for about two hours between riding Switchback, the go-karts and playing video games. There was practically nobody there with me except one school group and maybe 20 more people.

I LOVED my time at FT. In fact, I don't rank parks typically, but if I did, it would probably be in my top 3-4 parks. Its that great of a park and layout. I also lucked out in the fact that my first two days there it was 75-80 and somewhat cloudy. The last morning I was there it was hot, but not so hot that it was unbearable. Halfway on my way back to Dallas, I stopped for gas and it was 105 out.

I dropped off my rental car in Dallas and took an Uber back to my hotel, since my hotel had an airport shuttle. After ordering pizza and watching the NBA draft, I called it a night, knowing I had to be up in a few hours to head to the airport.

I got up at 3:30, took the 4am shuttle over the airport and took care of getting checked in, going through security, etc. I ended up sitting across the aisle from one of the members of Texas Thrill Seekers, who were having an unofficial meet up at SFSTL prior to their official event that Saturday at SDC. I didn't realize it until we were waiting to de-board in St. Louis, but we talked briefly before they let us off. I got my rental just offsite at Lambert International Airport and headed over to SFSTL. Now, I landed at 7:20am. It was around 8am when I got my car, so I knew I still had 2 1/2 hours until the park opened. I found the "St. Louis Bread Company" near the park, which is their name for Panera and got breakfast. After eating, I took a 90 minute nap in my rental car, which was much needed.

I headed over to the park, deciding not to bring my camera in because it had been raining on and off. I entered just after park opening and immediately headed towards Batman, one of my missing credits. I walked right on to the back right seat (my favorite and typically the most intense on B&M inverts). As much as I liked Goliath at SFFT, I hated this clone. It was extremely rough and headbanged me to death. Since I was already rattled, I decided to go get the Boomerang credit. Not surprisingly, I was on a train all by myself. I protected my ears with my hands this time, and oddly enough, it was one of the smoother boomerangs that I've been on. They all suck, but this one sucked slightly less. Not too far away was their Pandemonium, so I headed there next. I rode with a nice local family with whom I had a great conversation with about traveling to ride coasters. Strangely enough, this Pandemonium spun way more than any others that I can remember. I got off this one super dizzy.

Next, I headed to The Boss, because I had only ridden it once in my last trip. If you've never ridden it, the walk to get there is like walking to old Mean Streak at CP or to The Bat at KI. It takes FOREVER. And let me tell you, just like old Mean Streak, that walk IS NOT WORTH IT. The ride itself needs to be RMC'd or torn down. It it super rough and beat me up badly, to the point where I almost left after that. It definitely wasn't that rough three years ago when I last rode it. I walked down and rode American Thunder because I didn't remember riding it the last time and I typically love GCI's. American Thunder is another fantastic GCI and my favorite ride in the park. Its well done, smooth and gave me great airtime. Because I couldn't remember if I still needed the credit, I ran back over to the far end of the park to ride Screamin' Eagle (turns out I didn't need it). Screamin' Eagle is also pretty rough. It beat up my back pretty bad. That said, a little kid riding his first "big" coaster with his mom was in front of me and it was awesome to see his reactions, so that made up for my pain.

When I got off Screamin' Eagle, it was starting to drizzle again so I decided to leave. I knew that Hollywood Casino was near the airport, so I headed over there for a bit, took a beating at the slots and then slept in the car for about two hours before returning the rental and taking the shuttle back to the airport. One of the perks of the credit card I got last summer besides amassing tons of points that I can use for free travel perks is what is called Priority Pass, which allows me access to many airport lounges and free meals at certain places. One of those places is a pasta/beer place at Lambert. I was able to use my pass to get a free meal there and it was glorious. Then I pooped and flew home. Great way to end my trip.