Photo courtesy of
Joyrides

My first coaster trip of the year! This has been the longest stretch between coaster trips for me in 5 years. The last trip I'd taken was to Phoenix Phall Phunphest at Knoebels nearly eight months ago! With my move to Arkansas in February, however, and now living semi-retired, my disposable income is no longer as free-flowing as it had been in the past. Party's over, everybody out of the pool, that well has run dry! So I knew I'd have to consider carefully which coaster event I chose to attend this year. At first I opted for the ACE Coaster Con in California. I love the enthusiasts in California (well, most of them) and thought the ERTs at Six Flags Magic Mountain had an opportunity to be outstanding! I also looked forward to visiting Disney's California Adventures and several other smaller parks I'd never been to before. But once I took a look at the expense involved along with the time I'd need to be away, I decided this wasn't the best time to visit California. And frankly, once I took a look at the lousy SFMM itinerary I knew I had made the right decision. Likewise the ACE European Coaster tour. This would have been a great, memory making trip to take with friends. But as with the Spring and Coaster Cons of this year, I didn't like the itinerary that ACE came up with. And it seemed silly to me to spend thousands of dollars to go all the way to Europe only to feel frustrated by an itinerary that has everyone leaving the majority of parks mid-day with virtually no nighttime ERT. So that left Stark Raven Mad and TimbersFest! They're great events but I knew I couldn't attend them both. Timbersfest offers a unique opportunity, since the park is never open past sunset, to ride Shivering Timbers in the dark. But getting to this park is a major pain, and frankly, it's a terrible park. I always have fun when I go there, but really, it's an awful park, one of the worst in the country - if it weren't for Shivering Timbers I would never go back there. And Cedar Fair's recent acquisition of this park is not exactly encouraging. Their track record after taking over parks is dreadful - remove any signs of theming, pour concrete everywhere and impose as many ride restrictions and restraints that you can find. In short, they suck the joy out of every park they take over. At Stark Raven Mad, on the other hand, I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart! Holiday World is a park that's as well run as any park in the country. They pay attention to the little things - cleanliness, friendliness, operational efficiency and customer satisfaction - which in turn become big things and a major reason why people choose to come back. Is there any question about our choice? We're going back to Stark Raven Mad! Cindy Stout and I hastily threw a five day trip together. We met at the Indianapolis Int'l Aiport and drove down to Santa Claus, Indiana on Friday afternoon. The weather was great - sunny, low 80's, with little to no humidity. We arrived within five minutes of each other and by the time we got to Holiday World we'd have half a day to spend at the park before the event officially began. The drive from Indianapolis to Santa Claus is easily the best in Indiana, a state I otherwise find excruciating to drive through. Quite honestly, I would rather be sentenced to a lifetime of listening to Mike Saunders interminable coaster analyses while having my own endless trip reports read to me word for word than face one more mind-numbing drive through the state, an experience that leaves me begging for a lobotomy with 5 hours to go! This particular drive, however, takes only 2 hours and features a beautiful 30 mile stretch through Hoosier National Forest. It is lovely! By two o'clock we were in the park and ready to have fun! Holiday World is a nice family park with something for everyone. It is extremely well run, that is the best way to put it. I think too many coaster enthusiasts, as usual, have gone overboard in their feelings for the management that runs this place, confusing good business for personal relationships and enshrining this park with unrealistic qualities. They've led folks to believe this place is more than it really is, which is simply a well run family park with two outstanding wooden roller-coasters. Having said that, there is an emphasis on customer service here that tops even Disney, making it easy to see why enthusiasts love this place so much. Parking is free, complimentary soft drinks are provided in Pepsi Oasis stations and food venues throughout the park, and inner tubes are provided free of charge in the waterpark along with free sunscreen. I love their Spider, it's my favorite flat ride in the park. I also like their Tilt-a-Whirl and Log Ride. But to be honest, unless you have a family or you're a waterpark afficionado, there really isn't a whole lot to do here. Cindy and I are avid do-the-entire-park goers, and after two hours we had done everything there was to do, minus the waterpark which my skin won't allow me to do, leaving only the two coasters for the rest of the day. Most of the flat rides they have are of the once is enough variety. I really wish the park would add a haunted house or interactive Sally dark ride. Right now the emphasis is on building up the waterpark, which is understandable, but it kind of leaves folks like me wishing there were more to do. They have the best customer service of any park I've ever been to, but without children or unless you enjoy the waterpark, there simply isn't enough here to keep a parkgoer in the park for the entire day. It is a wonderful place to come and spend half a day though, much like the wonderful Waldameer and Conneaut Lake Parks in Pennsylvania. It's all minor quibbling, really, and I only mention it to take issue with those who proclaim Holiday World to be the be-all, end-all of parks. Heck, I don't even consider it to be the best park in Indiana! But I do think it's a wonderful small family park with something to offer everyone! We spent our first hour here with Shawn Mamros. Shawn is one of the people I really look forward to spending time with. He loves history and so do I, and I always intend to have long conversations with him where I can pick his brain about various coaster and park histories, and then we end up talking about cartoons or food or some such nonsense. Shawn is the kind of guy who is game for anything and that makes him easy to hang out with. We also ran into Kathy "Aunt Rose" Lyons - so dubbed because of an outrageous scenario I created, all in an attempt to trick my friend Sean Flaharty into introducing himself by calling her the wrong name. Aunt Rose is a hoot, plain and simple. She loves to laugh and talk - boy, does she love to talk! We got several rides and several laughs with Aunt Rose before we lost her in the crowd. And speaking of crowd, one of the unfortunate downsides to the increasing popularity of this event is the fact that you cannot leave your travelling partner. Cindy and I used to split up and go ride with whoever we wanted, knowing we would run into each other at various points throughout the night. No more! Now, there is no guarantee that if you split up you'll ever see that person for the rest of the evening! Stark Raven Mad has become so popular that I only saw and talked to but a handful of friends, barely seeing, or even missing entirely, other friends who at any other time I'd have felt slighted or hurt by not getting to spend any time together. I felt it more acutely on this particular night knowing that it would likely be the only time I would get to see many of these friends all year. I never did see Keith Hopkins. I barely saw Sean Flaharty, who was busy with other people, and his mom, Phyllis. And I barely saw or got to talk to Sue Barry, Rus Ozana, Dave Bowers, Dave Frasier, Mike Saunders, Mike Overell, Glenn Dobbs (who I didn't even recognize), James Draeger, Dave Althoff, Larry Johnson, Cory and Heather, Kris and Hannah, the Chicago boys (and Joe), the Schwartzes and MCB, the Martins (although I was happy to see Dennis riding with Debbie again), the Drabeks, Ulrichs, Fluhartys and Ansleys. I didn't get to talk to Tim Melago or any of the California guys other than the only man to hit on me, boyfriend Greg Galley. It's kind of sad, really! It just didn't feel right not getting to spend any time with people you genuinely like and care about and WANT to see, and knowing they're right THERE. And I guess now would be the right time to say it just didn't feel like SRM to me without Dave Sandborg, David Hamburger, Shawn McLaughlin, Lee Moon, Jeff Johnson, Jeff Tolotti, Steve Nuss, Sean Winder and Joe Schwartz. Fortunately the people we did hang out with were a ton of fun. For awhile at least, we got to spend time riding with Fred Biedermann, Shawn Mamros, Greg Galley, Max Cannon, Jeff Cook, Brad Haller, Kurt (aka James), Dave Johnson, Aunt Rose, Julie Stone, Glenn Payne and Jim McDonnell. Fred has gone totally bald while Julie continues to be at death's door at every coaster event she attends. Cindy and I turned the corner and there's Julie, sitting in a wheelchair, with a wet towel wrapped around her chest, sipping a cold drink and a Holiday World attendant pushing her chair from behind. The funny thing about it was that neither Cindy nor I thought it the least bit strange! We both casually said "Hi julie!" as if seeing her in a wheelchair were the most natural thing in the world! For some reason Julie seems to have more mysterious illnesses and bizarre health related problems at coaster events than anybody I know! It's like I've come to expect it - oh, there's Julie in a wheelchair, hi Julie! LOL! As for the Legend and the Raven, well, as I said at the beginning, Holiday World is a well run park. These two coasters are as good as they can get. Supposedly there is some guy named Jeff that everybody keeps raving about who works on the coasters at Holiday World. I don't keep up on such things so I have no idea if my information is correct, but I do know that the Raven is better than it's ever been, and for a lot of people it is still their favorite coaster in the park (or anywhere else for that matter). There is airtime in places that didn't exist before, and the coaster is so incredibly smooth I find it hard to believe this is the same coaster that I cracked three ribs on in 1998! The Raven is absolutely outstanding and I so wish I had gotten more rides on it. Again, one of the drawbacks to Stark Raven Mad becoming such a popular event is the long lines it generates on a one train coaster. The Raven is still, and I think always will be, enormously popular among enthusiasts. It has that elusive quality that's hard to define but encompasses airtime, out of control intensity, and a powerful little punch that really is the hallmark of this remarkable ride. The Legend was mercifully relieved of the painful Gerstlauer train that brought so much misery to these old old legs. In it's place are two shiny new PTC trains, and they are just what the doctor ordered! What used to be a coaster that was tolerable for only a limited number of rides, is now a much more comfortable, rerideable and, in my opinion, enjoyable experience! I still don't think the ending has fully recovered that off-the-track, lunge-for-the-brakerun intensity it lost two years ago when it began experiencing problems during in its debut year. It is much, much better now, but it doesn't bring me into the station completely out of breath the way it did immediately after it debuted. The rest of the ride, however, is infinitely better! The first drop is absolute perfection, and there is a disorienting effect now following the first drop, particularly at night, where I expect the train to turn one way and instead it throws me in the opposite direction. I also think the stretch from the double up to the first tunnelled helix is amazing, my favorite part of this ride. I can NOT keep my hands up on this ride, the laterals are simply too strong. The Raven is of course insane at night, but The Legend in particular really kicked it up a notch, to the point where I was completely disoriented in several places and hanging on for the ride. Congratulations and THANK YOU to Holiday World for doing the right thing and making The Legend an even better roller-coaster! One thing I learned on this trip is that The Legend is not really my favorite type of ride. Don't get me wrong, I *love* the changes, I loved the ride and I definitely consider it a Top 10 coaster. But I really think I prefer a different type of coaster altogether. That goes for the Raven, too. The Legend is still in my top 10 and the Raven in my top 20, but I prefer rides that throw me out of my seat and up in the air, not ones that spend the majority of the time pushing me into the side. The Legend and Raven are wild rides of the first order, but my preference is for rides more like Tremors at Silverwood and Cornball Express at Indiana Beach. There were several changes made to the event this year. The one I appreciated the most was the flexible eating time given on Friday night! Instead of watching people fight for a seat and shove their way to the head of the serving line, Holiday World opened the schedule to allow for a more flexible, come-when-its-convenient-for-you block of time. The result was a much more relaxed, much more enjoyable dinner, with absolutely no line, and a more relaxed atmosphere with many people choosing to eat outside. I really enjoyed and appreciated this change to the event! The most notable change this year was the addition of a second day. Because of the increased popularity of the event, Holiday World decided to give attendees a 2nd night of ERT. Eventgoers could attend both night sessions and were given a one day pass that they could use during the day, either Friday or Saturday. Also added to the schedule was a morning ERT at the waterpark on day two and a second night's dinner, this one foregoing the traditional pizza and chips in favor of barbeque and hamburgers. Cindy and I talked it over and decided there really wasn't any reason to stay a second day. Both of us felt like we'd always been satisfied in the past with the number of rides we got from one night's ERT, and the park really didn't have enough to keep us busy for one day, let alone two. So we decided to skip the second day and venture down to a couple of places we'd never been to before. We made our way toward the exit and said our goodbyes to those friends we could find (Julie was having another heat stroke, at 11 o'clock at night, and was busy dousing herself with water). We both commented on our way out how glad we were to get to hang out and have fun with some friends but sad not to spend more time with others, but feeling lucky to be there and leaving with just the right amount of sore! I was extremely happy to be on this coaster trip and exhilarated by Day One at Holiday World! Whether you stay one day or two, Stark Raven Mad is the best way for a coaster enthusiast to visit this park. It is an event not to be missed! Up Next: Beech Bend and the Cave City Alpine Slide