Last roller coaster trip of the year

This weekend I will be taking my final roller coaster trip of the season. The roller coaster club of which I am a long time member is having its annual event at Kings Dominion near Richmond, Virginia. I’ve not been to that park in several years so I thought it a good time to plan another visit. The last time I was there was when they opened Twisted Timbers, which was about five years ago. I was there on an invite with some fellow coaster club members for the media day for the new roller coaster. That is one neat thing about belonging to such a club. You get to ride the newly opened roller coaster often before it is open to the public, and you might see yourself on local news casts. Myself and other club members will again be invited to come and ride the next roller coaster which will open at Kings Dominion next spring. The only bad thing is it really helps to have a very flexible work schedule, as often we are invited only days before such an event is to take place. If you have the sort of job where you are expected to give ample notice before requesting time off, then it can be tough to make these events. I am hoping I’ll be able to give my employer enough notice to be able to go.

I have a long history with visiting Kings Dominion, starting when I was just a child. My mom would take me there on occasion. One time she took me and my cousin, who was about a year and a half older than me when we were pre-teens. I was around eleven, and so he would have been twelve going on thirteen. My mom was never into doing much riding at any amusement park, save for mellow attractions like the Small World at Disney. Well, my cousin decided he wanted to ride the Rebel Yell, which is the park’s classic wooden coaster. I was still in the grip of a bad case of coaster phobia triggered by riding Space Mountain at Disney World when I was much younger. So I wasn’t real keen on riding anything so large and fast. While it is tame by today’s standards, at one time the Rebel Yell was quite impressive and intimidating. As he saw that I was hesitant, my cousin said that we could get my mom to ride with us. She agreed, and we proceeded to get in line. I don’t recall how long we waited, perhaps 20 minutes or so. Finally the line advanced to the point where we were only a few people away from the gates. It was then when I turned around and realized that my mom had vanished. She was nowhere to be found. My cousin also turned around and looked, and then we both realized that we would have to conquer this monstrous mountain of timber without my mom. Despite the fact that my cousin was a little older than me, it was he who was more freaked out than was I.

Then it was our turn, and we took our seats. The first thing I did was to figure out how to get an iron grip on the lap bar. In my younger days I could have swore that Space Mountain was going to fling me out, and no doubt this huge coaster would try to do the same. Then we were headed up the lift hill, with the classic clanking sound of the train making its way slowly to the top. It was at that point, about halfway up, when my cousin turned and looked at me and said “I’m gonna puke on you!” And my response was something to the effect of “Don’t you dare!”  Thankfully he didn’t toss his cookies during the ride.  Well, to make a long story short, the next thing we knew we were hurtled over the top and I held on for dear life. Every hill I thought for sure I was going to flying. My cousin also maintained a death grip for the entirety of the ride. Just like on Space Mountain, my hands were aching from holding on so tight after we got off. Then we met back up with my mom at the ride’s exit. I told her I couldn’t believe she sneaked away like that and left us there. To which she replied “You really didn’t think I was going to ride something like that, did you?”