As promised, Michael and headed to Valencia on Friday afternoon. The near 100 degree temps were still noticeable, but at this time of year, it's tolerable because most of the park is cast in shadow by the time we arrived at 4 pm. Traffic was a major pain from Chatsworth through the top of the hill going into Santa Clarita, then cleared, so it added at least 20 minutes to the effort. People who make that drive daily willingly are nuts.
We pulled into the first lot, and pulled into a nice spot someone had abandoned, and for once in my life, the tram was actually waiting for us so we sprinted to get aboard. The dropping spiders were waiting for us, and security wasn't a hassle since there were three lines open and only a tram full of folks getting in.
Michael and I joked about why it's Magic Mountain on the walk up to Revolution. The only "magic" in the park is that no matter how many times you walk uphill, everything you need to go on is still UP another hill. Had we run up the queue to Revolution it would have been a true walk on. Instead we had to wait a whole 30 seconds for the next train to return. I realized at this point, security had let me in with my Starbucks cup, and it went on the ride with me. Michael asked me to drink from it going through the loop and I tried. Although it's really hard to do anything that dumb when you're laughing. Of course, I was remembering one of the first times I'd ever taken him on Revolution and brought on the sipper cup, and he was amazed learning about gravity and force (and that mom wasn't wearing spilled soda at the end of the ride). I think I really like this ride best on hot days. I can't explain it better than that, but we always seem to ride this early, and I might change our patterns for future trips to hit this later.
We exited and took the Angel's Flight up to Samurai Summit. We were in the line for Ninja (which was still upstairs) when Michael turned his nose up at the wait. It was all for him, so we walked out of line and went for Superman. I still love this ride. They were only using the left side, but the super-cooled airconditioning was appreciated considering the outside temps. In line for about 20 minutes, we discussed Michael's upcoming birthday party and who he wanted to invite, so we even got trivial stuff done. We opted for row 4.
We sprinted down the back hill of Samurai Summit, and passed the Tunnel Station for the Metro people mover shuttle. The last time I remember that running was the first year we had passes, and never since. What a shame.
Our first shock of the day was the line at Gold Rusher. There were people waiting. Huh? This is always a walk on. But the interesting thing was it was mostly families, and I realized that the rest of the evening would only get more crowded. It was only a 2 train wait, but for Gold Rusher, that's quite a bit. This is still my favorite ride for the use of the natural terrain and that no matter how hot it is at that park, once over the first lift hill, the temperature seems to drop significantly.
We worked our way down to Collosus, and to our surprise, there was very little wait. I realized this was Michael's first time on Collosus backwards as we were a day too early last year, and he wasn't ready to do that in years' past. But he did to the backward coaster in Chicago. I look forward to doing this ride every year, and it didn't disappoint. I realize that this is what the Psyclone cars were meant to do--not torture people on that ride. Facing the bottom of the lift hill is always a little disconcerting, but the ride is just phenomenal.
We hit Scream, and while I love this ride for keeping me out of my seat so much, I wish there was a way to remove the parking stripes, because it just looks silly to be flipped around so much--only to see asphalt.
As we got off, I began to realize I was reaching my limit, and Michael beat me to the punch. He'd done all the ones he wanted to do in a couple hours. I talked him into riding the kiddie cars, and he proceeded to try to crash into every imaginable wall he could conjure. We waited until the "Blood Falls" opened, LATE, so he could see the first people getting grabbed. It's nice to watch that from the tables, and not be the one their grabbing at.
It's not as long as some people might stay, but it was just enough for us. Fright Fest 2003 is in the books, and we're looking forward to our annual Day Before Thanksgiving Trip.
Posted by Angel Zobel-Rodriguez at October 17, 2003 10:23 PM