So, the next day (after the Statue of Liberty and family bbq day) Phil, Albert, Tim, Melissa and I headed south to Six Flags where I was to find out how daring I really was (since the only roller coasters I had been on up to that point were either state fair coasters, The "Wild" Thing at Wild Waves, or what I was told were relatively tame coasters at the Disney World parks). This was a pretty big deal for me because when I was a kid I was a total wuss when it came to rides. I'll never live down the time my family went to Seattle Center when I was 8 and I cried like a baby the whole way up the log flume ride. I actually ended up liking the ride as I recall, but it took me a really long time to do "tall" rides and "upside-down" rides (and as a sidenote, learn to swim without giant orange arm floats....I was about 9 when I finally took those things off). I made a lot of progress in my teen years and even became the family "dare devil" after doing the zip line in Puerto Vallarta a couple years ago. But Six Flags was to be the real test. After all, this is where roller coaster enthusiasts go to get their thrills!
Quick side note! We had to go through Rutgers on our way there so naturally we HAD to stop at the famous "Grease Trucks" on campus. If you haven't seen these on Man vs. Food, they are food trucks that serve the most ridiculous and calorific sandwiches ever created. I could give you a couple examples, but no need...we took a picture of the menu:
Disgustingly awesome right? So I got the Fat Knight and it basically fed all five of us, though I think I ate the most...hehehe.
We continued on our way to the park and got there about half-past-hotter-than-hell (it was about 113 degrees at some point during the day). Record-breaking heat was not about to stop us from having the time of our lives however. We lathered on the sun screen and headed in to get started.
So we "warmed up" (literally, it was so friggin hot) on Superman, which was the first time I've been on a roller coaster where you're suspended face down. It was pretty cool, but little did I know what thrills awaited me!
Here's Albert having way too much fun with the remote control boats. Some people are so easily amused :)
Our next ride was Nitro, which was Phil's absolute favorite roller coaster up until that day I think. We all loved Nitro due to its height, speed, stomach rolling drops, and for some of us (mainly Albert) ability to make you nearly pass out from the G's on the last corkscrew. We went on it a couple times and then headed over to a water ride to cool down.
We did most of the park's other older roller coasters, ate lunch, did another water ride, and then moved on to the newer, more awesome roller coasters. El Toro was the park's new wooden roller coaster. The kids had gone on it before and they were just raving about how fast and cool it was. We figured "yeah right, it's a wooden roller coaster, how awesome could it possibly be?" Holy crap. HOLY CRAP. That thing went so fast and took such steep dives I honestly could not make sense of the physics that held the last car to the track. Phil and Tim's hair in the picture below should give you an idea of how fast this thing goes.
After El Toro (which could be Phil's NEW favorite roller coaster) we headed over to Kingda Ka. The tallest, fastest roller coaster in the U.S. It was so tall and so fast in fact, that we didn't get any pictures on it for fear of dropping the cameras. But you can get the idea here and here. Amazing. Uh-may-zing.
After that, I was a little worried my brain might explode from all the roller coasters. So we took a break and went on a lame parachute thing (which probably would have seriously freaked me out when I was 8 years old).
After Kingda Ka, I was feeling pretty good about myself. But I had one more test to prove my fearlessness. The kids really wanted to do the Dare Devil Dive, but they were scared to do it alone. So in my "I just went on the tallest, fastest roller coaster in the US so clearly I'm a bad ass" stupor, I happily volunteered to go on it with the kids.
Here we are suiting up.
And here I am, actually really excited for this. I was definitely high on thrills at this point.
As you can see, Melissa wasn't so sure after getting the gear on.
Tim was even less sure.
Here we are listening to the operator's instructions VERY carefully. This isn't something you want to screw up people.
Oh and here we are, walking to our sure deaths...no biggie.
Oh crap, we're actually doing this.
Oh crap. I can't believe we're actually doing this!
This is about where the kids really started to panic. I reassured the kids they would survive to tell everyone how great it was, but when they asked me why I wasn't scared I started thinking to myself, "hmmmm...maybe I should be more scared than I am..."
Up and up they raised us, higher and higher. And then...
Holy crap! I can't believe we actually did that! That was...well there are no words for what that was. Crazy perhaps. But good crazy.
On our way back down to earth.
So that settled it. I am a bad ass dare devil who is unstoppable! At least until someone tries to convince me to bungee jump or sky dive or drive in the left lane on the NJ Turnpike...
We ended our fabulous day at the park by riding Nitro one more time, in the very front. That much fun should be illegal.
Another fun-filled day on the East Coast!
Stay tuned for Part Six (Philly, DC, & Baltimore) and the finale, Part Seven (Jersey Shore)!
Holy cow..you are nuts! lol. The rollercoasters all sound like a blast..but that bungee thing .. no f-ing way! haha .. although my motion sickness on rides has gotten worse in my old age dang it ..
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