Though the picture does not do it justice nor have any redeeming artistic value, you are looking at the fastest and highest roller coaster in the world. In the center of the frame you see an upside down U. That is the Top Thrill Dragster. Yes, the name is cheesy, but the ride is unbeaten. My family went to Cedar Point in Sandusky OH after Mindy's wedding.
Cedar Point is a roller coaster enthusiast's dream come true- 16 roller coasters including three that have at some point been the highest and fastest coasters. We went for the highest first and worked our way down. Top Thrill Dragster, henceforth known as TTD, is hard to describe because it is not like any other roller coaster you have seen. You are strapped into a dragster and sent forward to the Christmas tree of lights (this may be familiar to NASCAR fans or other racing fans). When the lights say go, and it is a terrifying wait since you know what is going to happen to you, the train is hydraulically shot from 0 mph to 120 mph in like 3 seconds. Yes, you read that right 120 mph! You go up 420 feet at a 90 degree angle with a 270 degree twist. The signs talking about the ride warn that sometimes the train does not make it to the apex and not to panic, you will just return to your starting position. Rebekah and I were not sure that was reassuring- going down 90 degrees backwards....When you reach the 420 foot apex, which we did with no trouble, you see Lake Erie briefly before you head down at 90 degrees with a 450 degree turn. I apologize to Cedar Point for my initial skepticism that a 30 second ride could be that exciting. It was. My mom said they should send you around twice. I am apparently wussier than my mom, because when I got off I was shaking. A lot. I am not sure I would have made it around twice. The website has some point of view videos of the different coasters. It does not do this ride justice. After this one, the rest were only okay. There were several others we liked and did not like, but the TTD was wild.
The 2 other biggies got mixed reviews from the fam. Wicked Twister (my dad had stopped riding rides by this point because of his torn and bruised hamstring- not a good idea to injure your self on your posterior end before riding on roller coasters) was good. Rebekah and I almost blacked out on Millenium Force which has a 300-something foot drop. Too many Gs I guess. We did like the Raptor a lot- our last ride of the day before hitting the road for PA.
6 comments:
I feel woozy just thinking about it...
I can't see the roller coaster! Am I missing something? Do you have one of those pictures where you are right at the peak anmd about to plunge into infinity?
Regardless, I am ready to give it a go.
Allen-
It is just to the left of the blue ride. It looks pretty small in the picture since this was taken from the parking lot.
I hope your cousins like it as much as you did.
Mom
Man, you're brave, especially your parents to go on coasters, i usually end up swearing because I'm so frightened, ask Allen and Doug about the slingshot at Darrien Lake.
I'm pretty sure that the christmas tree lights are only in drag racing (NHRA), not NASCAR. They use flags in NASCAR and if I'm not mistaken, they do rolling starts, so there is no need to anticipate the start to the millisecond.
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