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Got_it
Posts: 818
Registered: 11/1/2006
Rank: Gold Critic
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 2/16/2007 9:53:05 AM
This is a trip report I wrote for my final project in Creative Writting, I took this trip in '04 and I don't think Hershey has goten any really big additions since then, so it is still pretty accurite. Some of the information about the coasters I gave I know all of you know, but my 66 year old writting teacher didn't so bear with me. Plus this was when everything was up in the air about SFMM
A few summer vacations ago I went on a trip that took me though Pennsylvania, then down to New Jersey. With my new found interest in roller coasters my dad and I set out to discover a whole state full of coasters I had never been on.
We left at 6:00 AM and we needed to get to Hershey, Pennsylvania, by 10:30. We took the back way to route 8 though Terryville, I don’t remember much after that, I fell asleep. I woke up to hear my dad talking very loudly at the guy in the parking lot, I heard swearing so I just put on my head phones and ignored it. Eventually we parked and we got out, it was a warm day, the parking lot had a decent amount of people in it, enough to give some of the more popular rides a 20-30 min line. The first thing I noticed is that the whole place smelled like chocolate. I looked into the distance and could see the steel monster that had put such an underrated park on the map. The red twisted steel poking up though the trees in various places. Although I am more of a wood coaster fan I still wanted to be one of the first people to ride. We walked over to the tram stop and got on. The tram driver was friendly and gave us a history on the park and town. We got off the tram and walked over to the gate. The park was nicely decorated with flowers and a brick walk way. We walked over to the big black iron gates. I had studied all the parks we were going to go to before we left, so I knew what coasters I wanted to go on first and where they were.
We first headed over to the Comet; we could see its big white and back/blue structure in the distance. The Comet was first introduced to Hershey Park in 1946; it stands an acceptable 84’ tall with a 78’ drop. It’s a Herbert-Paul Schmeck design similar to it’s older cousin the Wild Cat that operates at Lake Compounce in Bristol, which opened roughly 20 years before the Comet. It runs two classic PTC 3 bench trains with 4 cars per train complete with bright orange buzz bars. One nice little thing I noticed as the trains were rolling in and out of the station was that they had names painted on the top left of the front car. One of them was named Mork, from the TV show and the other Hallie, from the comet. We boarded Hallie and I noticed that the station was on a very steep angle. Rather then having a drop out of the station and going around to the lift you roll right out of the steep station picking up a decent amount of speed and go right up the hill. After clicking up the steep hill, you crest the hill and get a good view of two of the other parks coasters the Sooper Dooper Looper comes very close to the ride, and the Great Bear flies over head. You drop a pretty steep drop and then go right back up a hill into a turn around supplying you with a nice floating Neg-G, then shoot right back down again into a long bunny hope with almost no force up a turn around which look similar to the first one, there is a trim break at the top of this hill which doesn’t slow the train too much. You continue your turn to the left. Go down that hill then make a ascending half turn to the right go though a few bunny hops and then a turn to the left then a few more bunny hops. Lastly you make a half turn to the left and a bunny hop then on to the break run. It was a nice classic, with pretty good speed and forces. We exited the Comet which lets out into an almost dark ally, which I found odd, and headed to the Sooper Dooper Looper.
From about 1975-1990 parks were going crazy over how big and how many loops and corkscrews they could fit onto a ride. Soon those weren’t good enough, they needed differ
Message updated 2/16/2007 9:58:01 AM by Got_it
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larrygator
Posts: 4654
Registered: 11/7/2002
Rank: Platinum Critic
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2/16/2007 10:37:09 AM
well written for someone at the age you were 2 years ago
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Got_it
Posts: 818
Registered: 11/1/2006
Rank: Gold Critic
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2/16/2007 2:30:42 PM
Thank you, but I wrote this this year on a trip I took 2 years ago. Although I do tend to "see a lot of things coming" how could I have written about Kingda Ka before it was even heard of? 
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larrygator
Posts: 4654
Registered: 11/7/2002
Rank: Platinum Critic
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2/16/2007 3:46:21 PM
Oh I thought you wrote it 2 years ago (knowing KKs stats already) and were just showing it to us while reminiscing.
For the record you misspelled: gotten, accurate and writing (twice)
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Got_it
Posts: 818
Registered: 11/1/2006
Rank: Gold Critic
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2/16/2007 4:40:00 PM
My Bad, the Dyslexia gets the better of me sometimes.
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