Roller Coaster...woo hoo hoo hoo

Is everyone else as surprised as I am to find "The Whizzer" (the Wizz-AH!) categorized as a "Max Thrill" on the Six Flags Great America site?

Anyway, yesterday marked my very first inverted outside-looping coaster experience (on Batman The Ride). Scary great. Judging by how mentally clean I felt after that ride, I think I must really have needed that - to take a deep breath and scream a sustained scream for nearly the entire ride. Physically, I was not so great, as I was a bit wobbly afterwards since there are some funny g-forces going on (including heartline-spin-induced zero-g). That was definitely the most intimidating coaster I've ever been on and I'm frankly surprised that I was a willing participant. I'm really happy that I went with the group I went with - I wasn't made to feel badly for not wanting to do certain rides, but I was encouraged (rather than egged on or threatened) to do some rides that normally I would surely have talked myself out of.

I take the fact that I was able to step up to some biggies and enjoy them (if not relaxedly) is evidence that I apparently am my father's daughter in the aspect of roller-coasterness after all. Oddly enough though, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have gone on at least one of the big scary rides yesterday if I'd been with Dad instead of the group of friends I was with. Dad probably would have indulged my pre-ride terror a little more, and the terror would have been a bit greater if I could still have had the parent-child dynamic there.

I had other things, good things, on my mind yesterday and was plenty involved in the goings-on of the day, but in the back of my mind I was so reminded of Dad since he was such a fan of coasters. He would have loved to see me taking on rides like Raging Bull (at night too!) or the craziness that was Batman and the fact that I managed to stitch together a ragged but pleased smile afterwards. A friend mentioned the rather cute hypothesis that the coasters that were running without visible passengers (empty cars used to test the track) were actually full of ghost passengers, and how nice it was that Six Flags was being considerate of its other-worldly clientele. I know the hypothesis was lobbed out there in gentle jest, I have no way of knowing if it was mentioned pointedly or just randomly, and in any case I know it's not real. But it really brought thoughts of my dad to the forefront, and I still felt a little pang, wishing quite childishly that the hypothesis could be true. If it were possible, I knew Dad would have been one of the participant shades, arms raised high, grinning his warm and happy smile down on those of us who remain on the ground. And that image made me sad, mainly because I wish I could see him exactly like that again, but it did make me a little happy too.