Gee the silver comet hides itself well. Looks like an overgrown county fair from the road. Our expectations took a dip. We pull off the road and into the FREE parking lot, look at the front half of the park, Still no Comet sighting. Our expectations take another dip. Well we get out of the car and stand around waiting for the ticket cages to open. We meet Peter from Pittsburgh and chat while standing in line. Remembering this to be their first day of full daily operations.
We watch the ticket sellers get trained, we watch the picnic table become a season pass processing area (only $40!) Around 11:30 the gates were opened and Peter was first in line. "1 Adult - ACE discount" (Ticket seller summons supervisor, we are now tying up the one and only ticket lane open) ACE disocunt, oh yeah $5 off. ($15.95 -> $10.95) We get in line get our tickets (guess what more ACE cards!) She doesn't even look at them $21.90 please! We enter the park. Get our ridestamp. We make our way though the park, actually taking the long road , whoops. under the Giant Slide, and around to a lifeless midway. Yeah the flat rides were open but there were no takers. The familys were off in kiddieland in the front half of the park, and the coaster enthusiasts were impatiently watching the Silver Comet go though all its pre-ride testing battery. Then we watched the Silver Comet operators get trained. Finally at around 11:45-noon the chain drops and we make our way up to the station. We move right to that back seat. Brand new PTC train, Individual "Thunder-Run" style seatbelts. (groan) orange lapbar. And soon we are dispatched for a wild ride. Good air, good laterals good pacing, nice(#78). Then we exit and "Walk around" (Twisted Sisters this isn't) go up the ramp, and now in seat 2. It's getting better! Exit, walk around, up the ramp, Seat 1. Now THIS is where it's at. good floater air, nice laterals, and a coouple unexpcted lateral thrusts! We have a winner folks. Two more rides in assorted seats and it was time to see the rest of the park. Oh another interesting thing, in an empty seat the wrapped the seatbelt through the 'loop' in the lapbar.
Down the midway past a fine assortment of portable rides, all looking like they are WELL taken care of. I mean all the ride pieces look brnd new. I jump on Chaos, Eric again goes to take photos. After wating a couple minutes and seeing no other riders, I am soon off for a solo ride in Chaos. I still think the ride is a dud. We pass the Kamikazee, the Round Up, and host of other rides, and make our way back to the blue and yellow painted Scwarzkopf Wildcat. Paint job looks brand new. Cars are in good shape, we sit down are informed "When you reach the final curve into the station, brace yourself for a sudden stop" We are soon on our way around the Wildcat(#79) Eric says the layout differs from Cedar Points, and they only had about 4-5 cars. Two stop loading, and that final station apprach brake was not THAT bad. Tiwsted sisters final brake is much worse. We exit and are soon heading back to the Silver Comet. Three more rides, I LOVE this ride, and on my final ride I vacate the front seat and Jim Westland is climbing into it. Sorry to ditch you Jim, I had a tight time schedule to keep. Past the gift shop, a quick walk through kiddeland. We spent more time at Martin's than we planned, and still had to drag each other kicking and screaming out the exit gate.