A Year of Blogging: August 16, 2011

August 16 is 'Roller Coaster Day'. It was on this date in 1898 the roller coaster was patented. And thrill seekers have been rejoicing ever since! I am not a roller coaster person. I get motion sickness very easily- sometimes, even at age 35, I still get carsick if I sit in the backseat for too long. I can sort of handle the kiddie roller coasters, but anything beyond that: forget it. A few years ago, a college friend invited me to go to Kings Island with her. Kings Island is an amusement park nearby. Her company was hosting an event for the employees, and she didn't want to go alone. I had never been, so I thought it would be fun. After we had made our way around most of the park, she wanted to ride The Beast. It is the world's longest wooden roller coaster. I told her 'I don't like roller coasters' and she said 'this one isn't bad, it's wooden.' I reminded her that it was named THE BEAST but she convinced me. Well, she grew up in this area, so I thought she knew what she was talking about. Turns out, she had never been on the ride either. As our bodies hurtled along this rickety coaster, I issued death threats to her and she alternated between apologizing and praying. We were both an awful shade of green when we got off the coaster. Some interesting facts about roller coasters. The fastest is in Abu Dhabi and reaches a top speed of 149.1 mph. The highest roller coaster, 456', is located in Jackson, NJ. As I looked at the coasters listed on Roller Coaster Database, many of the coasters at Cedar Point in Sandusky, OH make the lists of 'fastest, highest, biggest drop, etc'. I will try to remember not to ride the coasters there, no matter how convincing my travel partners are.