Part 2:
So Thursday it was time to head to Hershey, PA. I was there once before, but its been years, probably 10 years or more so I was just a little kid, barely remember it at all. The drive from Pittsburgh to Hershey is normally just over 3 hours, but the damn turnpike had construction like crazy, we were stuck in a traffic jam that set us back about an hour. But all was cool, we still got there at 4, which gave us an hour before we had to get to the park to get the evening passes, which started at 5PM. Got a lot more done that first night than I expected, and we still had the whole day tomorrow. Overall, I had an awsome time at hershey. The crowds were light both days, got a lot of rides and re rides in on everything. I'll post some pics I took complete with captions under them for you guys.
This one is a nice shot with Great Bear, a nice inverted coster on the left, and looming in the background is Storm Runner, new at Hershey for 2004. More on that one later.
Here's a really nice picture of Wildcat taken at sunset. This is one of 2 really awsome wooden coasters hershey has. This one was just really fast and exciting the whole way through, with lots of great airtime.
This is a shot I took at night of Lightning Racer, the other amazing wooden rollercoaster at Hershey. I took it at night without the flash, which means that if there is any camera movement at all the whole shot will blur. So I sat it on a cement border thing and set the timer. Turned out pretty good I think. You cant really tell by this picture, but Lightning Racer is a racing coaster. To trains are dispatched at the same time on seperate tracks, and they race throughout the twisted course. Besides being probably the smoothest wooden coaster ive ever been on, it also had some nice air, a tunnel, and it was all that more exciting with the racing aspect.
Here she is, Hershey's brand new Rocket Coaster, Storm Runner. Its one of only 3 in the world to use a special new type of Hydrolic Launch. Very powerful. Ive been lucky enough to now have gotten on 2 of the 3 in the world that use this type of launch(more on that in part 3). Anyways in this shot is the station, its got a cool dual loading station, loads from both sides, it really speeds up the loading process. You can see the two openings where the trains come through before they are launched on the right and left sides of the station. Also just barely visible on the far right of the picture is a train about to be launched. The launch was very powerful, 0-72MPH in 2 seconds flat. It then goes into a 150foot top hat, does a few awsome iversion elements, and its over, all in about 40 seconds. But man, its one hell of a 40 seconds. Here are a few other shots of various parts of the ride.
The most amazing thing about Storm Runner was how short the line usually was, and how quickly it moved when it was long. First time I rode the line was completley full, and I still got on in 40 minutes, which is great for a ride this good, especailly considering its brand new. On Friday I got re rides on everything, the crowds were light all day, it was awsome. Saturday we drove to Canton Ohio and on Sunday we visited the Pro Football hall of fame. It was alright, overall I think the baseball hall of fame is better, more to see, but it wasnt bad. After that we drove to Sandusky, OH, which was only an hour and a half drive. Part 3 of my trip report will be the last, and it will cover Cedar Point, the best amusement park in the world, and my experience there, it being my 4th time being there. But thats for another day.