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Do you like thrill rides?


Longjohn

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I LOVE thrill rides!

There's a similar drop ride, though not as tall, called the "Mach Tower" at Bush Gardens in Virginia that I rode around 2015 with two of our family's teenagers. Believe it or not, there's a MUCH scarier ride at Busch Gardens, The Crypt, described below.

The only thing I didn't like about the Mach Tower is that the trip down is too short a period of time. You strap-in with your legs dangling and the ride rotates sideways as it rises and you get a panoramic view of the park (see vids at bottom) and then of the whole area, including the river as you get near the top. Then there's a pause at the top to make you nervous and the sudden drop is a thrill.

I also rode every one of the eight roller coasters there - including the one you ride standing up. I was the aged hero of the four family kids on vacation because they weren't allowed to go on the coasters without a family adult and I was the only adult that wanted to go on the scary ones.

We went to the nearby, same-company-owned, Water Country USA the next day which had some really thrilling water slides, including one where you ride in a huge inner tube that seems like its going to go over the side when you hit hard curves.

By far, the scariest and most fun ride at Busch Gardens Virginia is The Crypt.  Even our the teenagers were too scared to ride it with me and it was a lot of fun:

Observer view:

Participant View:

 

Here's the Mach Tower:

Observer View:

Participant View:

 

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The biggest LONG thrill ride I've been on was White Water Rafting on the manmade, competition-level course at Wisp Ski Resort/Theme Park at Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland last Summer.  For a 90 minute experience, you pay about $115 per raft of 4-6 people plus guide (plus about $26 if desired for a USB stick-drive with about forty 3648 x 2432 pixel pictures of your ride that they take for you - resized versions of some are below).

First, you go to a small lake where you learn the commands and do some brief training with all rowing forward or backward, one side forward and the other backward, one side rowing and one side resting, etc.  Then it takes you about 7 minutes to drop through the course's series of rapids to another small lake, alongside of which is a big rubber belt that carries your raft back up to the top lake - and you run the rapids again.  We did them 6 times, getting more proficient each time!

Here my sister-in-law Lori and I, sitting behind her, are rowing while Lori's brother Scott and his wife Dierdre are resting as we respond to guide Ethan's commands while trying to escape from an eddy that had us spinning around:

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Sometimes we all had to row as hard as we could to keep the bow headed for the next rapid:

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A couple times early on, we managed to turn the raft absolutely backwards and slam into the rocks and even went over this rapid backward - the currents are tricky on the competition-level course:

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Our extended-family's other raft, with nephew Ryan in the 2nd row closest to the camera and nephew Adam on the front row's far side, are laughing because...

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...they outdid us and went sideways through our backwards-rapid!

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But they eventually figured out how to properly shoot the rapids:

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Back to our raft. Here we're slamming into the rocks again, but at least we're pointed forward:

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We often struggled to stay in our seats as we shot the rapids:

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We had to keep paddling right through to keep the raft pointed forward, even though we were half-out of our seats, engulfed in spray and couldn't see ahead:

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By the last couple of passes through the rapids, we were getting pretty good, shooting the biggest rapid perfectly...

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...though you can see by the expressions on our faces it was still a scary thrill:

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Scott and I were too heavy to ride up front, so Lori and Dierdre got the biggest thrills:

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3 hours ago, donkpow said:

As far as I am concerned, thrill rides assault riders. I don't mind getting beat up as long as I can be in control.

That was one of the good things about our White Water Rafting experience: a little time was taken at the beginning on a calm lake to train us how to respond to commands and control the raft as a team.  So even though our hearts were in our throats when we were grabbed by the fast current as we entered the course, we had a little confidence that we could control the situation.

At one point, then-10 year-old nephew Adam fell out of his raft. Like most kids living near the Chesapeake Bay, he is a good swimmer and, wearing a life jacket, had no problem swimming back to the raft.  Fortunately, his mother was in the extended family's other raft and didn't witness the event!

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The best thrill ride I was on was as a door gunner flying nap of the earth while harnessed to a tether to the helo.  In a hard bank I was literally parallel to the ground and  just freaking raking on the 60.  

Roller coasters got nothin on that.

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1 hour ago, ChrisL said:

The best thrill ride I was on was as a door gunner flying nap of the earth while harnessed to a tether to the helo.  In a hard bank I was literally parallel to the ground and  just freaking raking on the 60.  

Roller coasters got nothin on that.

Reminds me of flying in a helicopter without doors in the canyons around Fresno, CA, when fighting fires in the 60s.  Pilot was retired Navy. At least, I don't remember any doors.

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19 hours ago, donkpow said:

As far as I am concerned, thrill rides assault riders. I don't mind getting beat up as long as I can be in control.

I gave up The WIldcat in Hersheypark because of that.  A newish wooden roller coaster that just slams you around.  I'll still ride some steel rollercoasters but not newer wooden ones.  The older ones are ok because they are not so rough.

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14 hours ago, RalphWaldoMooseworth said:

A newish wooden roller coaster that just slams you around. 

Steel coasters will beat you up way more than the wooden ones, as a general rule.  No give in steel.  I don't like the steel coasters, they just feel like they are missing something or other.

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