posted on February 21, 2004 12:46:34 PM
I used to love rollercoasters. They are one of the few public places where one can scream and barf and not get hauled away by the whitecoats. (Actually, I did like the screaming part and frequently initiated screaming contests as the coaster pulled away from the loading bay.)
I've finally gotten too old to ride them, though, or maybe the new rollercoasters are just too much; in either case, I took my last ride a year ago, on this monster, which is known simply as "X".
As you can see, it's not your conventional coaster. Riders sit two-abreast in individual seats that 'float' outside the track. And those seats spin 360 degrees, so that one is sometimes upside down or flying through the air backwards. That first drop, all 215 feet of it, plunges so close to the ground that it seems surely one's legs will be torn off. Before one can relax and remember that 'it's just a ride, afterall', the coaster hurtles through six head-over-heels inversions, reaching speeds of 76 mph and a whopping 4.5 g's.
I was glad to survive the thing, but it wasn't fun. And I wasn't the only person on it that day who'd started out good-naturedly screaming as we headed up the massive slope to the first drop and wound up hollering 'Holy sh!t! Holy sh!t! Holy sh!t!'
posted on February 21, 2004 01:33:32 PM
I use a personalized measuring stick when judging my antics. I call it the drool factor. What is the likelyhoodily if something goes terribly wrong that I will end up dead versus helpless drooling fool in wheelchair. Dead - I'll do it. Wheelchair - I pass.
Based on that, I don't do rollercoasters. I have done skydiving. No way I would bungy jump but I probably would cliff dive.
I know - I'm a little strange
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on February 21, 2004 01:40:30 PM
The roller coasters are great fun..it's the amusement parks they're located in that get to me....too many people.
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(Actually, I did like the screaming part and frequently initiated screaming contests as the coaster pulled away from the loading bay.)
