This journey all began out of a semi-drunken conversation Baha, Jim and I had at by b-day celebration. I can't exactly recall how the conversation began but, I remember at the end we had this great road trip conceived. We would drive from Boston to Indiana to ride the Loop, via Buffalo with a side trip to Canada's Niagara Falls and then from Indiana to Cincinnati, OH to King's Island to ride The Beast! The Loops (really, Fun Spot's Afterburner) significance is that it is 1 of 4 left in the world of this particular type of coaster and most importantly is used to be at Riverside (now 6 Flags) where our friend Jim has many a memory. And we all know the value of nostalgia. As for The Beast, well that just happens to be the oldest wooden coaster in the World and I also think the longest at 4mins (possible +) long. Now doesn't that sound like a roller coaster pilgrimage worth taking!
Day 1: Friday July 19th Boston, MA to Buffalo, NY (with side trip to Canada)
With a cooler full of drinks and lots of treats for the road we were off. I took the first shift Boston to Syracuse, not to be a hero, there would be plenty of driving to go around, it was daylight and I could drive this part of the trip with my eyes closed, do to many trips to upstate NY to visit family, particularly my dad. Baha did Syracuse to Buffalo.
We arrived at Ethan, Jen and Phin's house at 4:30pm. Ethan is a very good friend of Jim's and he was gracious enough to let us crash at their beautiful, huge, awesome Victorian house for the night. Hurray, one less night in a hotel! And very good company with homeade beer and friendly cats. While they went to a family dinner; Jim, Baha and I went a mile drown the road and crossed the boarder into Canada via Peace Bridge. Few minutes later and we were at Niagara Falls. Jim and I have seen them, but they are beautiful and we wanted Baha to see them. Being that close how can you not!?!
As you can see we had beautiful weather that day and in fact every day of our trip. Perfect Simpson clouds galore.
4 comments:
Whoops - the Beast isn't the oldest, but it is definitely the longest!
mmmm...The guy running the ride said it was the oldest wooden coaster in the world. I thought. Oh well.
Ah, well. Who knows.
Some quick research (what would we do without Wikipedia?!) reveals that the oldest operating wooden roller coaster is Leap-The-Dips in Pennsylvania, built in 1902!
The Beast, on the other hand, dates back to 1979 - the Racer at King's Island is older than that one!
WOW! 1979, that's it. Looked older than that, ah well...there you have it.
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