Day 22 – July 10, 2019

So that wonderfully restful night of blissful sleeping was cut short by a horribly wretched odor. I know what you are thinking. Kathy checked, it wasn’t me. It was coming from the air conditioning. Concerned that the fumes could be impairing our health, Kathy checked with the front desk.

They explained there is a quarry in Sandusky that operates overnight. Occasionally, the quarry folks hit a pocket of surfur gas that fills the city with a toxic smelling odor. The air conditioning pushes all that smelly air directly into every hotel room in Sandusky. Thankfully, the gas is not harmful to humans. But it did mess with our sleep. By the way, Ashley slept through all of it.

With that little bit of nastiness out of the way. It was time to have some fun.

Our wonderful hotel is a mere 5 minutes from Cedar Point. Our Knotts Berry Farm platinum passes get us access to the park one hour early. We were at the front gate right at 9 o’clock.

The park is situated on a long and narrow peninsula. It is surrounded by Lake Erie on three sides which is really lovely. However, because of the topography, it is 1.4 miles from the front gate to the back of the park. Want to guess where our first ride of the day was?

After a 17 minute, 1.4 mile walk-run we finally made it to our destination: Steel Vengeance.

Steel Vengeance is a world-record breaker with a resume unmatched by any other coaster in the world. Steel Vengeance is the tallest (205 feet), fastest (74 mph) and longest (5,740 feet) hybrid coaster that packs in almost 30 seconds of airtime – the most airtime on any roller coaster in the world.

Ashley stood and stared at it. The wait time was 30 minutes. Which was amazing, because this ride routinely has lines over 4 hours long.

Ashley joined Kathy and I in the queue. Her initial thought was to sit it out.

As the minutes passed, Ashley softly talked to herself. “Should I do it? No, I can’t. Or can I?” This mental tug of war continued until we were to be seated in the coaster.

“Oh, what the heck. I’m doing it!” Ashley announced.

As Ashley was firmly buckled in and our train left the station, doubt flooded her mind once more. Did she do the right thing? Could she handle it? Oh well, it was too late anyways.

As we reached the peak of 205 feet and the train soared straight down, Ashley let out a massive scream. I turned slightly to see a huge smile on her face. It was then I knew we had her hooked.

As we exited the ride, Ashley was euphoric and wondering why she was nervous.

Next, we rode a coaster called Maverick. It is another in Cedar Point’s collection of best in class coasters. This one accelerates up the lift hill and descends at a 95 degree angle. After numerous, high speed twists and turns, the train enters a 400 foot tunnel while of accelerating to 70 mph in 3 seconds.

Ashley again went through all of the mental gynamastics until she convinced her self to ride.

On exit, she proclaimed her love for the ride and questioned her anxiety.

We celebrated Ashley’s new passion for roller coasters with an elephant ear. It is a flat bread completely covered in cinnamon sugar. Delicious.

The pattern of anxiety, ride, question anxiety continued as she boarded bigger and faster coasters.

The final nail in the coffin was Top Thrill Dragster. This coaster accelerates from 0 to 120 mph in 3.8 seconds. It then shoots straight up 420 feet. After cresting at the top, it goes straight down as it spirals once and then returns to the station.

And with that, Ashley had conquered every type of coaster ever built. There is no coaster on this planet that she can’t ride.

After Ashley deftly handled Cedar Point’s impressive collection of roller coasters, she looked at Valravn with sad eyes. Valravn, the world’s greatest dive coaster, had been involved in an incident three weeks prior where two cars bumped. It had been closed ever since.

When we first entered the park, Ashley looked at Valravn and said she could never ride it. Now she was disappointed because she “really wanted to ride it.” Maybe next year.

At the end of the day, Ashley rode 11 different roller coasters. All world class. None for the faint of heart.

Ashley said she was excited because she had conquered her fears. But mostly she was happy because she no longer had to hold our stuff while she waited for us.

We ended our day by watching the show Beach Blanket Beagle. The same show is performed at the massive Charles Schultz Theater at Knott’s. Cedar Point hosts in the show in a tiny theater and yet there were maybe 30 people in the audience.

During the show, the performers came to the audience to get kids to do the twist with them. Ashley would not be pursuaded.

Kathy enjoyed the show but said she could do the twist better than the entertainers.

It was a great day at an epic park. The temperature was hot but manageable, the crowds were incredibly small, and Ashley was now a coaster freak. I can’t wait to ride Fury 325 at Carowinds with her.

We retreated to the hotel and quickly fell asleep. This time with the air conditioner off.