Muscle in Progress

Hey gang, I’m finally home from New Zealand with M   Gosh what a blast it was!  Unfortunately, in order to keep my blog as anonymous as it is, all my posts about each day of our trip will be have to be password protected… Sorry guys, but only current acquaintances will be able to know the intimate details.  That’s the life I lead.  I’ll post a bunch of pics of the scenery though on Flickr so that the rest of you won’t feel completely left out

Aloha Hawai‘i ku‘u one hānau, mai Hawai‘i kua uli a ke one o Ni‘ihau… oh my gosh, I am SOOOOO glad to be home!  Not that I don’t love California by any means but man… this trip was rough!  I know it sounds like I was just having a ton of fun through the blog, but I purposely excluded all the work that went into this trip.  Unfortunately that’s the nature of the blog because of my profession.  But anyway, I’m happy to say “there’s no place like home”

Woo hoo! A day off! A day off!! And GUESS what we did today?? Ever wonder how Hawaiians have fun on the continent? That’s right baby, we rented a car and went over to Six Flags Magic Mountain!! Heheh so be warned… this post is going to be all about the awesome coasters that we got to go on, the stuff that’s made Six Flags an icon for many decades

Unfortunately, they’re operating under “winter” hours so we needed to get there as soon as the park opened, and I’m sure glad we did! With all the choices, we didn’t know what to ride first! I think the last time I was here, I was 12 years old! Hahahha… Anyway, we decided to start at the back of the park and hit all of the “wet rides.” Unfortunately the one we wanted was closed today, but guess what was right next door?

Riddler’s Revenge baby! Oh, and with this coaster, they make you stand up! Yup, you heard me right.. Stand UP! What the hell… hmmm the only bad thing I’ve noticed about these coasters is that there is such a thing as being “too tall”. Thankfully I JUST made the height requirement. We had so much fun on this ride, I think one of my friends tried to cry in the middle of it hahah.

After that we went on some mild-looking wet ride, only to discover that we probably had a hole in the bottom of our boat so by the time we went around the first curve, my shoes were soaked! By the time we hit the bottom of the slide, I was SOAKED head to toe! So what does one do after going on a ride like that? We tried to find one of the craziest coasters around… and we happened upon a ride lovingly titled “Deja Vu”.

You know how deja vu is when you experience a sequence of events and could’ve sworn that you’ve done it all before? So much so that you can predict the next move? Well this is the whole premise of this ride. A floorless coaster… rocketing you forward into a “cobra” like track, complete with a loop in the middle… all to do it all over again when you hit a certain point… only this time you go backwards! What the…. oh, and to make things worse… how does the ride start?? The car pulls backwards and climbs up a 90 degree angle about 100 feet in the air and then just drops and rockets you forward once you’ve hit the bottom of the track. I swear to God, when that coaster started backing up that 90 degree track and we were all facing the ground, I was like “WHAT THE FUCK???” We all thought we were gonna die! And then of course, the only way to make it back to the end of the course is to go through the same kind of 90 degree lift halfway through the course!

Now what does one do after a ride like that? You go on “Superman”! Hehehe nah actually I have to tell you that I was rather disappointed in this ride. Then again, I knew that I would be. The whole premise of Superman is to put you in this car, have it rocket forward at 100+mph, go up a 90 degree angle, hang there and then come right back. I guess when it opened, that was the hottest ride in the park because no one had done that before… but since then, better experiences have been created. Ahh well, live and learn right? I’m sure that some of my friends dug it…

Well I guess our pants weren’t dry enough because from there we went on the Ninja, a classic swinging coaster that goes up and down and all around. Not as exciting as those crazy inverted coasters but hey… it’s a good on to start with if you’ve never been on one

After that we met our true match in a ride called…Tatsu. Now I don’t know what kind of f**ked up drunken stupor the creator of this ride was in when he came up with it… but the unique aspect to this floorless monster is that as soon as you get on the thing and get strapped in… the whole coaster shifts backwards and you spend the whole ride facing the ground, like as if you’re really flying! Now can you imagine what it must be like to go through a loop like that, or go through a corkscrew! Man, we were so messed up by the end of it, my stomach was queasy! I DEFINITELY recommend it for anyone who wants a great big thrill!!

After that insane trip we all decided to take a much-needed rest! Oh my God… whew!! After a while we settled on a more serene coaster. The first coaster to be built with a looping feature, The Revolution was built way back in 1976. God, I wasn’t even thought of back then! But, on my first trip here way back when I was a young boy, this was the first ride my sister and I went on… making it my first real coaster ever. So for me, I HAD to go on this thing for old time’s sake… of course it also helped that by this time, the line had faded into oblivion so we were on it in 5 minutes. And after going through it, now I know why no one rides it anymore. This thing jerks so terribly around corners that my hips and my ribs were sore as hell when we got off the thing!! (and in case you’re wondering… Revolution is the white coaster in front, with Tatsu in the background)

After another much needed break, we decided to hit another wet ride. And damn it, wouldn’t you know that I got soaked head to toe yet again! Why do I ever let people convince me to go on these things???? So, to air dry ourselves, we needed to find something fast and huge… presenting Goliath. Trust me, there’s a reason why they call it that. That first hill was a doosy, not to mention the angled turn at the bottom of one hill that is soooo long that you feel some strong G forces which plastered me against the back of my seat. 85 mph…Jesus Christ!

With only an hour left to go in the park, we decided to hit up two last mega-monsters… a classic and the newest ride in the park. First up, the classic… Colossus. A HUGE white wooden rollercoaster made famous in the last shots of National Lampoon’s Family Vacation. This thing was all about the use of hills. And if you think wooden rides are scary, try riding them at night! Hahahahha… ahh well, at least a good time was had by all

To end the evening we hit up the newest coaster in the park, Scream! Now why do they call it Scream! do you ask? Well let’s just say that this coaster doesn’t know the meaning of the word flat turn. This thing is loop after loop after corkscrew after corkscrew. It just doesn’t level out til the very end! And to make things even worse, we ended up in the very LAST seat of the coaster… and you know what that means… whiplash!!!

Oh yeah, and did I also mention that this coaster is floorless?? Special Thanks to Twisted Rails for the use of this photo. Look at that insanity!!

Anyway, after all of that… we were pooped! Of course not nearly enough to miss the chance to hit up Claim Jumpers yet again heheh. And this time I had an awesome spaghetti.. I highly recommend it. Mmmm… in fact, I have some left overs. Excuse me while I finish it up heheh

All in all, it was the best day out of this whole trip… getting away from the stress of work and just having fun with some close friends. We’re headed home tomorrow. One could only wish that we get bumped up to First Class again, but I highly doubt it. Oh well, one can dream! See ya!