Cedar Point - America's Roller Coast and Matthew's Worst Nightmare

Kasey and I have been together for 8 years now and have never been to an amusement park together. This is mainly due to my "disability" that I was diagnosed with when I puked after riding a very slow moving ride at the St. Joseph festival when I was about six years old. This very serious condition has manifested itself while partaking in such rides as the Viking Fury at Kings Island Kraft Day 1988 and while trying to impress some girls by riding the Vortex in 7th grade. I overcame and learned to live with this condition, but every once in a while when riding in a car with my father-in-law on the back roads of Etown I start to feel the dreaded symptoms returning. Yes, I am referring to motion sickness.

This summer Kasey finally convinced me to take her to Cedar Point, so we took off work on Thursday and joined our friends Nick and Anna for the three-hour drive to Sandusky, OH. It was a perfect day as the light rain in the morning combined with kids being back in school and a Thursday all made for very small crowds and short lines.

Let me be clear that this trip was not my idea. I agreed to go with two ground rules: 1. I would not go on any rides that went upside down or in circles (no looping roller coasters, no swings, not even a carousel) and 2. I reserved the right to refrain from getting on any ride without fear of harassment or retaliation (can you tell I work in Human Resources?). Why then would I go on this trip at all? Because I love my wife. And I wanted to see if there was a chance that maybe I had outgrown this little affliction of mine.

We started off with a nice easy coaster called The Iron Dragon. Everyone enjoyed the warm-up and it got us ready for some of the bigger rides. I haven't been to Kings Island in years, but the roller coasters at Cedar Point blow away Kings Island (of course with the lone exception being The Beast). The place it just nuts. We wasted no time and went right to the biggest one of all - Top Thrill Dragster. This is one you've probably seen on TV. When it was built a few years ago, it was the fastest and tallest coaster in the world. It is now #2 behind a similar ride in New Jersey. I can't even begin to adequately describe what this thing was like. To summarize, you go from 0 to 120 mph in less than four seconds, shoot straight up in the air to 420 ft, and then come straight down on the other side with a corkscrew roll for good measure. Just watch the video:



Feeling pretty brave after tackling that crazy ride, we next went on the Magnum XL-200. When it was built 20 years ago, it was the tallest and fastest in the world. Not anymore, but still a substantial ride. This is the one that knocked me out of commission for the rest of the day. It didn't go upside down, but it was a pretty rough ride. I spent about the next hour or so trying to hold on and recover while everyone else kept riding. It was a little touch and go, but I held on and came through on the other side feeling pretty decent. Faced with a 3 hour car ride back to South Bend, I decided not to push the issue and be faced with a very unpleasant ride home for everyone, if you know what I mean. I also learned that perhaps motion-sickness is actually a contagious condition. Nick had never really been bothered by riding coasters, but after riding Millennium Force he was pale white, walking/wobbling very slowly, and having a hard time holding his head up. He joined me on the sideline and we looked like two little girls as we stood in line with our wives for a couple more rides and then just walked through the seat to the exit line and watched them ride. No shame in that my friend!

For the rest of the day at the park, I watched in amazement and wonder as my wife rode just about every coaster she could. Myla might have my good looks, but I hope she gets her mom's ability to ride roller coasters!