So this blog was started a good ten years into my coaster adventures, there's a lot that I've seen and done since before it was even started. This is by no means a comprehensive list of everything I've done in my travels ever, but here are a few blurbs and photos about my journey as a coaster enthusiast.
2010- Every year, my family and I would go on a vacation focused on a coastal city on the East Coast, and would always stop at an amusement park in the vicinity on the trip. That summer, I had gotten a camcorder for my birthday, and my mother had encouraged me to get a YouTube channel with it. This caused me to run into the coaster part of YouTube, where I saw all these cool coasters and wanted to ride them. I managed to talk my parents into doing Kings Dominion as that year's park, having never been there before. It was Intimidator 305 and Volcano: The Blast Coaster that got me into this hobby. So many things about them, from the ability of a roller coaster to make someone black out to Volcano's reuse of the old mountain structure just hooked me for some reason. Sadly it rained and we didn't get to ride much else, but this trip went beyond that. I was hooked! I was a coaster enthusiast!
2011- This was the season of "Jarrett the loser behind a screen." I largely associate the 2011 season with finishing up my junior year of high school coming home from school, bitching about my horrible English teacher, heating up some microwave eggrolls, and sitting around playing Rollercoaster Tycoon or NoLimits or watching coaster videos while waiting to go to driver's ed that night. At the time there was a coaster called Cheetah Hunt opening up at Busch Gardens Tampa that to me looked like an amazing ride that combined art with engineering beautifully, I was obsessed with this thing and ran home from school every day to see if any updates were out on it. While I spent most of this season sitting behind a computer and living out this interest online, for my birthday I did finally get to go to Cedar Point for the first time ever, and acquired a new number one in Millennium Force. My family and I also went to Carowinds in Charlotte, NC as part of our vacation to ride their new Intimidator that opened the year prior.
2012- I had done it! I had graduated high school, I was going to Wright State to study mechanical engineering with dreams of designing roller coasters, but I still lacked a driver's license. I had a job, at least, and now had money to spend at parks when I got to go to them. My family vacation took me to Dollywood that year, as they had just added Wild Eagle which I had been watching like a hawk all offseason. I thought the wing coaster concept was so cool and we almost didn't get to ride it, as it was pouring down rain when we rolled into Pigeon Forge. But the rain stopped, we managed to go into a deserted, foggy, wet park and ride this beautiful coaster as it swooped and dive over the Smokey Mountains as they smoked. I also got to go to Kings Island on Labor Day weekend that year, having not been since earlier in 2010.
2013- Traveling with family was the big theme this season. I was working hard for a driver's license but until then, I had family that I could go theme parking with. I was getting more active with coaster forums online and met a few people that way as well. After loving Wild Eagle, Cedar Point opened a really cool wing coaster called GateKeeper right in my backyard, so that was my main focus of the season and while my first trip there was a bust due to wind, my second trip my cousin and I won line skippies from Plinko and got to cut a huge opening line to ride right in the front. My immediate family also took a coaster-free vacation to Mexico this year, which sort of began my interest in the culture side of travel. At the end of this season to make up for the coaster-less nature of the Isla Mujeres trip, my dad and I flew to Tampa where I finally got to ride my beloved Cheetah Hunt and I loved it! This snatched that number one spot from Millennium after a good front seat ride. Sure it was an unpopular opinion but I absolutely loved this thing as much as I expected to.
2014- Kings Island had spent all season moving dirt around the old Son of Beast plot and putting up signs, so when they announced this sick-looking invert called Banshee, hearing the year 2014 became synonymous with that roller coaster alone. I had been getting more active in the coaster community and made it a goal to go to Banshee's Media Day. On a freezing early April morning, I barely slept that night before getting up ridiculously early to get to ride to Kings Island with some coaster friends for Banshee Media Day and man it was worth it, numb fingers and -10 degree wind chill and all! And I still got a C on the chemistry test I did after all that! 2014 also marked the beginning of me using the driver's license I had gotten at the end of 2013 to go short distances, though nothing over 3 hours. But the most important aspect of this season was when I flew out to Las Vegas to visit my cousin and her husband, which started the tradition of my annual region trip. Vegas-LA 2014 included Adventuredome, New York New York Casino, Six Flags Magic Mountain, and Knott's Berry Farm. Later this season I also had help from friends to go to Canada's Wonderland and Holiday World, where I got a new number one at the latter. Voyage during full fall foliage in the chilly October air can't be beat!
2015- It was time to long haul it! A year and a half after getting my license I drove to Cedar Point myself, and I wasn't about to stop! After nabbing Leviathan at the end of summer 2014, I had said "had it been a little bit longer or done something with the terrain it would be my number one." And a week later, Carowinds announced Fury 325, a larger version of Leviathan that did just that! Fury was in my crosshairs as well as Holiday World's enigmatic Thunderbird addition, which I had correctly predicted would be a launched wing coaster the year prior. I managed to do all the driving on a Beech Bend/Holiday World/Kentucky Kingdom trip as well as switching off driving on a Carowinds road trip. But my biggest accomplishment this season was #Penn2015, my first and only solo region trip in which I drove myself all over the state of Pennsylvania. Skyrush managed to snatch that #1 spot from Fury (after Fury held it for less than a month), I finally made that pilgrimage to Knoebels, and beat the hell out of my car while it needed an oil change and was on its dying breath but this was the year that I learned I could be that serious coaster enthusiast I saw at events and the like. A few coasters from RMC were announced at the end of the season that caught my eye, when I made it a goal to try and get to Silver Dollar City by season's end to get Outlaw Run. It was a total dumpster fire, a 10 hour drive took a total of 14 due to torrential rain and flooding in southern Illinois and Outlaw Run wasn't able to run in the cold.
2016- Ah, the year of the RMC. After Lightning Rod, one of the coasters that sparked an interest in RMC, wasn't ready for the opening weekend event I had planned to do, the trip was diverted to Silver Dollar City where I managed to ride Outlaw Run after the total failure of a trip back over Christmas of 2015. From there, it was just RMC after RMC after RMC for me. Kentucky Kingdom, a park that I found rather boring when I was there the year prior, announced Storm Chaser and I was able to ride that and loved it. Then on the New England 2016 region trip I got on Wicked Cyclone, a coaster I had heard amazing things about the prior year that ranked very highly for me. Then at the end of the season, I managed to get not one but three rides on Lightning Rod, which knocked Skyrush out of that number one spot after blazing around the Tennessee mountains at night with no chill. Six Flags America and Darien Lake were also new parks I got to experience outside of the region trip.
2017- While this season was somewhat unimpressive in terms of coasters that opened or new credits I added to my count, I did do a lot of growing as a person this season. Influenced by my interest in RMC and their use of existing manufacturing processes to do revolutionary things, as well as realizing how unlikely it was that I would actually work on roller coasters as a career, I took up an interest in manufacturing that led to me to switch my major from mechanical engineering to mechanical engineering technology. Not a lot of coasters opened this year but fortunately for me, one park that did was Kings Island. Mystic Timbers I always sort of saw as a strange and unremarkable addition but when it was actually under construction, my interest built until I got to actually ride it on Media Day where it blew me away racing around the woods in the predawn darkness. The region trip this year took me to the western Great Lakes parks up around Wisconsin. Mystic Timbers as well as Goliath, Avalanche, Hades 360, and Renegade all kickstarted another interest of mine: wooden coasters made with modern technology. In addition to this, I squeezed in a relaxed weekend on the East Coast and an overnighter to St. Louis where Six Flags St. Louis surprised me and the city itself surprisingly became a new favorite of mine after the horrible experience back in 2015. That was one of the first trips where I deliberately dedicated time to culture, stopping at the Route 66 museum and Cahokia Mounds. Kings Island also added Winterfest this season, allowing me to get my coaster fix on weekends in later months of the year without leaving the state for warmer pastures.
2018- My life was coming together! I started 2018 in my final semester for engineering technology and was set to graduate at the end should all go well! And to make up for the lack of new coasters in 2017, we had a motherload for this season, including four new RMCs in the US. When Cedar Point closed Mean Streak back in 2016, I instantly got excited when I recognized beams on site as having the brackets used by RMC to hold I-box rails to the steel legers. Last season, I had gone there a few times to see some crazy contraption come together, including national Roller Coaster Day where I stood in the crowd as Steel Vengeance was announced. When I did the first rider charity event for Steel Vengeance the week before I graduated, I went into it with an open mind and it still blew me away, taking that number one spot from Lightning Rod. Needless to say, I spent a ton of time at Cedar Point this season. I also got to attend an out of state media day at Six Flags Over Georgia (my first time there since 2006) where I made a crazy 8 hour drive one day, got rained out at the park, went at 5 am the next day for media day, rode the coaster in the rain on live television, had my ETA wrecked by construction coming home, and rolled in home ten minutes before the Survivor season finale. This year's region trip, my first one since the start of the tradition where I flew, was a Texas trip I had wanted to do since 2016. I spent a whole week running all over the Lone Star state, experiencing all kinds of amazing coasters including RMC's first hybrid conversion, their prototype single rail coaster, two amazing Gravity Group coasters, and Iron Rattler which I had thought looked amazing since seeing a photo of OG Rattler in a book when I was a kid. Later this summer I also switched jobs, having graduated with my associate's in engineering technology and switching my Walmart job (which I had since 2016) for a skilled manufacturing position in my field. This gave me time to work in a four dayer to Virginia for Twisted Timbers as well as my first time back at Busch Gardens Williamsburg since 2007. The big theme with this season was seeing how much happier I was with a stable career, not constantly worried about school. I almost didn't get to ride Wonder Woman or Lightning Rod (went in November) when I was there to get them, but I learned to still have fun, and learned to appreciate that feeling of getting done with a trip and coming home to a family that loves you. All in all, this was one of my best if not my best season as a coaster enthusiast.
2019- This was the season that cemented my place at work as the nutcase that's always out of state on weekends in the summer. A few coasters were announced, none from my favorite manufacturer RMC, but several that looked really good. Carowinds was getting Copperhead Strike after I had heard amazing things about Mack launched coasters from other enthusiasts and wanted to see what the hype over rides like Helix and Blue Fire was all about. I totally drank the hype Kool-Aid, er, moonshine on a blazing hot Carowinds trip, now making it a point to hunt down these Mack coasters in the way I hunt down RMCs and Gravity Groups. Six Flags Great America got an air launched coaster from S&S called Maxx Force, which I went to ride and loved despite the 8 second ride. Kennywood, a park I loathed when I went in 2015, also got an S&S coaster called The Steel Curtain themed to the Pittsburgh Steelers, and my trip to go ride that showed me a side of Kennywood I could fall in love with. This region trip took me to the West Coast in a 2-leg run around 2 chaotic, populated metro areas on a mission to clean out every RMC in the US, a mission that got me a new number one out of Railblazer and a completed goal when I finished my quest on Twisted Colossus. Towards the end of the season, Kings Island also announced that the giant clearing they had was for a smaller giga coaster called Orion that I ended up very excited for, stoked to have a giga at my home park.
2020- Lol wut? There was a 2020 season? Actually, there was, and while I kept it very brief due to COVID-19 and not wanting to risk exposure every weekend, I did have a solid time on the five occasions on which I traveled. The Silver Dollar City trip I had planned for March got pushed back to June, where I made the trek westward for a few more laps on Outlaw Run and to finally experience Time Traveler with how much Copperhead impressed me. The Route 66-esque road trip was the perfect way to start this season and Time Traveler was completely worth it. I also got to go to first rider night for Orion and after cramming my fat ass into the seat (thanks quarantine fifteen), I liked it way more than I expected to! And just my luck, the region trip in the age of Coronavirus was to Florida, where I got to experience not only awesome coasters like Mine Blower, Mako, and Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure, but got to experience some awesome non-coasters like Flight of Passage, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and Infinity Falls. I could have done more coasting this season, but I didn't want to do too much of it when I'm at work every day around people and visit my parents often. The coasters would be there in 2021, but I wanted to do my part to ensure the virus wouldn't be!
2021- The crazy world we live in is back to normal...kinda. So while it still might not have been what we were used to, it was still a full-sized coaster season. After a chaotic scramble to nab a COVID-19 vaccine, I started the season off with a few overnighter trips to Six Flags St. Louis and Dollywood, which solidly reminded me how much I really missed doing this. This season sported a small spring region trip out west to Salt Lake City for a day seeing the sights and a day at Lagoon, where both Cannibal and the thrill of Olympic bobsledding stole the show for an unforgettable Memorial Day weekend. I managed to get back to Universal Orlando Resort to ride the best coaster I added to my count this season: the dino-mite Jurassic World Velocicoaster that twisted and tossed its way into my number two spot in my rankings. Smack dab in the middle of the summer season I suffered a pretty nasty second degree sunburn which put me off of coasters for a few weeks, but I made up for it with a crazy August. A road trip to Dorney Park, Hershey Park, and Six Flags Great Adventure was a total bust with Skyrush, Jersey Devil, and El Toro all being down, but the great company and memories that were made along the way made it all worth it. While on that trip, Cedar Point also announced that Wicked Twister was being removed, so that warranted a Labour Day trip to ride it one last time before it was closed for good. The fall season also kicked off with a return to Six Flags Great Adventure to get on Jersey Devil after two years waiting to ride this wonderful RMC Single Rail coaster, which unlike the trip a month prior, was a success! Sure it's still a bit of a mess and some of the 2020 rides I still wanted to ride, such as Pantheon and Iron Gwazi, were still not open, but that just set me up nicely for 2022.
2022- I'll be honest, this year kind of sucked. It was a tough year for anyone to travel, from $5 for a gallon of gas to chaos at the airport to war in Europe, and I felt it along with several others. But for me, I got to deal with finding my camera stolen before leaving for my Cedar Point birthday trip and coming back from a trip to find my car had been stolen. But the big lesson I learned, but in coasters and outside of them, is that good and bad can coexist in a situation. This season started with an awesome trip to Virginia to see Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion assume opposite roles in their long-running rivalry, with Busch Gardens bringing an incredible new Intamin to the table after three long years wait and Kings Dominion adding a beautiful new themed area with nice but cheap coaster. And speaking of Pantheon, the region trip took me back to Florida for Florida 2020-Too for the other two SeaWorld 2020 coasters that had finally opened, where Iron Gwazi dethroned Railblazer from its spot after three years and became my new number one. And while it didn't involve coasters, my family went to France for a week in early March for a beautiful week of food and culture. All in all, 2022 was a year I put coasters on the back burner and learned that there's other ways to have fun, sometimes it's necessary, but I need to lose sight and not let that mean I can't enjoy them. But I need a car to do so.
2023- As a contrast to 2022, this was not a good year at all in my personal life, and coasters had to be my escape from that. 2023 was a very successful year for RMC Connection, going through a rebrand and getting plenty of media opportunities at big parks like Cedar Point and Hersheypark. Most notably, ArieForce One opened and allowed us to attend Media Day there for the RMC that would go on to be my new #1. Furthermore, Atlanta 2023 as a whole was a pretty fun region trip, albeit a very small one. In July, I also made a very unique spur-of-the-moment decision to travel to Waterloo, Iowa alone for Lost Island Theme Park, and I discovered an underappreciated gem in the middle of the Great Plains cornfields of all places. 2023 also saw yet another trip abroad, with a Dungeons & Dragons buddy going to Canada with me for a few days at Wonderland and a pop into Niagara Falls on the way home. Unfortunately, with the stuff going on at home, I ended this season somewhat prematurely a week after getting home from Worlds of Fun. But I was able to have a few Kings Island trips at Christmas and a return to Hershey that fall, and felt like the break I took was warranted and set me up to come back for 2024.
2024- My best season since COVID and possibly ever, don't @ me. This year was notable for two pretty discernable things: a breakout year for Vekoma to me and my first overseas region trip. In late 2023, my plans to ride Big Bear Mountain had fallen through, I wasn't sure I was going to even go ride Snoopy's Soapbox Racers when it opened, and Holiday World opened another kiddie boomerang themed to...gravy? Meanwhile, while new Vekoma was starting to work here in the States, I crossed the ocean for roller coasters for the first time in my life. SweDen 2024 took me from Stockholm to Copenhagen for beautiful European parks, fascinating history, some of the kindest culture I've ever known, and of course, food that'll knock your socks off. Notable in this trip were my first European credit in Monster, a new #1 wood in Wildfire, my first modern Vekoma thrill coaster in Fønix, and Liseberg becoming my new favorite park. I was able to ride two American Vekoma Junior Boomerangs, two European ones, Big Bear Mountain, and of course, Denmark's tallest coaster; all of which took my least favorite manufacturer when I started doing this and turned me into a certified fanboy. A Silver Dollar City road trip, overnighter to Indiana Beach, day trips to both Kentuckiana parks, and ending up at Dollywood with a bunch of Jeep people happened as well. This was a great year, it lit a fire under me to keep doing this and keep doing it more, and also showed me just how happy being a coaster enthusiast actually makes me.
To be continued...
