Originally known as "Russian Mountains" -- literally, large ice slides devised to keep Russians happy under the Czar's monarchist rule. The constructions were refined in Paris, where they used a slide of metal rollers instead of ice, as well as Coney Island in New York. With the advent of tubular steel track, inversions such as loops and corkscrews were possible -- and perfected. So thank a Russian the next time yer hurtling down a 200-foot drop at speeds approaching 75 miles per hour.

Roller Coasters

An apparently defunct canned pasta product once offered by Franco-American (SpaghettiOs, et al.) rival Chef Boyardee. Consisted of small, curly pasta (like tiny over-exaggerated mutant lasagna noodles) representing the "roller coaster" and meatballs that were supposed to be the "cars" (according to the animated commercials I remember). And it was all in that typical thick canned pasta tomato sauce that most American kids grow up on. (the label describes it as: "pasta with mini meatballs in tomato sauce")

One of the best reasons I've heard for why people like roller coasters--and I can't recall where it's from--is that it allows for the rider to experience the concrete fear of death without the consequences.

I used to be very afraid of roller coasters, until at twelve years of age a few friends literally dragged me onto one at Dorney Park while we were on a trip from summer camp.  I loved it, and immediately saw what all the fuss was about.

I'd say most of the best roller coasters I've been on were at the Cedar Point amusement park in Ohio.  Definitely worth a trip there if you're in the area.  Other good spots include the various Six Flags parks, the two Busch Gardens parks, and King's Dominion.

According to the Roller Coaster Database (http://www.rcdb.com/), there are more than 1,200 roller coasters worldwide. The overwhelming majority of these - more than a thousand - are steel coasters, only 165 are wooden. North America has the most coasters - 630 - while Europe has a little more than half that and Asia has just over 200. South America has 40 roller coasters; Australia has exactly half as many as South America, and there are only 12 coasters in Africa.

Types: freeform coaster - heartline coaster - suspended coaster - flying coaster - inverted coaster - multielement coaster - impulse roller coaster - terrain coaster - Suspended Looping Coaster - single out and back - double out and back - triple out and back - twister - mobius - gigacoaster - hypercoaster - screamer - impulse
Elements: inversion - heartline flip - cobra roll - dog leg - double loop - single loop - vertical loop - lifthill
Companies: Arrow Dynamics - Vekoma - Philadelphia Toboggan Company - Intamin - Schwarzkopf
Parts: horsecollar restraint - shoulder harness - individual lapbar - lapbar - high back seat
Other: airtime - free-flight

Aladdin's Kingdom: Thunderbolt
Americana Park: Screechin' Eagle
Astroland: Thunderbolt - Cyclone - Big Apple
Botton's Pleasure Beach: Big Apple
Busch Gardens Williamsburg: Big Bad Wolf - Drachen Fire - Loch Ness Monster - Alpengeist - Apollo's Chariot - Wild Maus
Cedar Point: Millennium Force - Magnum XL-200 - Mean Streak - Gemini - Wicked Twister
Clacton Pier: Big Apple
Disneyland: - Space Mountain - Matterhorn
Dorney Park: Talon - Steel Force
Dreamland: Big Apple
Dreamworld: The Giant Drop - Thunderbolt - Cyclone
Duinen Zathe: Big Apple
EsselWorld: Big Apple
Excelsior Amusement Park: Cyclone
Frontierland Family Theme Park: Texas Tornado
Geauga Lake: Mind Eraser - Cyclone
Genting Theme Park: Cyclone
Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach: Big Apple
Kennywood: Jack Rabbit - Thunderbolt
Lakemont Park: Leap-The-Dips
Lakeside Amusement Park: Cyclone
Mall of America: Timberland Twister
M&Ds Scotland's Theme Park: Big Apple
Paramount's Great America: Grizzly - Stealth
Paramount's King's Island: The Beast - Son of Beast
Paramount's King's Dominion: Grizzly - Hypersonic XLC - Rebel Yell
Park de Montjuic: Cyclone
Pleasureland: Cyclone - Big Apple
Pontchartrain Beach: - Wild Maus
Sandspit Cavendish Beach: - Cyclone
Sea World Orlando: - Kraken
Six Flags America: Sky Coaster - Mind Eraser
Six Flags AstroWorld: Viper
Six Flags Darien Lake: Mind Eraser - Viper
Six Flags Elitch Gardens: Mind Eraser
Six Flags Great Adventure: Viper - Great American Scream Machine - Batman the Ride
Six Flags Great America: Viper - Batman the Ride - Demon - American Eagle - Whizzer - Iron Wolf
Six Flags Magic Mountain: Colossus - Riddler's Revenge - Viper - X - Batman the Ride
Six Flags Mexico: Batman the Ride
Six Flags New England: Thunderbolt - Cyclone - Mind Eraser
Six Flags Over Georgia: Viper - Batman the Ride - Great American Scream Machine
Six Flags Over Texas: Batman the Ride
Six Flags St. Louis: Batman the Ride
Toshimaen: Cyclone
Valleyfair!: Steel Venom - Wild Thing - High Roller
Walt Disney World: Space Mountain Splash Mountain
West Midlands Safari Park: Big Apple
Williams Grove Park: Cyclone
Wonderland Amusement Park: Cyclone
Worlds of Fun: Spinning Dragons - Mamba

If you ever get the fortune to read a good TR from PKI concerning OL:FoF about the new OTSR you may need what this has to offer: relief. Roller coaster enthusiasts discuss certain topics so extensively and have such long terms to type out, or even say, that they will constantly use well-accepted abbreviations. I have all but cut out certain phrases from my vocabulary such as Cedar Point (now CP), Six Flags Magic Mountain (now SFMM), and especially over the shoulder restraints (OTSR). So with a little help from this index of abbreviations you can know that what you read was a Trip Report (TR) from Paramount’s Kings Island (PKI) concerning Outer Limits: Flight of Fear (OL:FoF) about the new OTSR (over the shoulder restraint).


If you have written or know of a node that this index should be linked to please /msg me ASAP and I will update. Furthermore, there are many links that are without nodes that either I will eventually fill or I expect someone to fill. Resources include seemingly infinite discussions and FAQs on rec.roller-coasters as well as interactions with other roller coaster enthusiasts.

Opened >>> 2002 Maximum Height >>> 73m Length >>> 1 620m Trains >>> 3 trains with 36 seats

You lured me towards the ride in the same soft way I had half-dared half-tempted you before to do other things. It is naughtiness masking as innocence; like insisting we can fall asleep together with the boundary drawn by our skin. We always take the bait. We always make each other fail. Big brown eyes told me that this would be nothing close to an experiment.

'...Difficult at first, but then, you will enjoy it - Why are you so afraid? You would be with me, after all.'

'Fine. I haven't regretted a ride so far. The sooner we start, the sooner...'

'Front row? Shorter queues.'

'Not on your life.'

And then somehow we got from there to further on. Strapped; Beside each other, in contact but not nearly enough, eyes closed and head against the cushioning. Slowly climbing upwards and forwards, all our receptors obediently tuned into the decelerating rhythm of the governing mechanism. Then, tantric anticipation - tell me, were you scared, then? You told me you loved me just before... We plunged down. I am thrilled. You aren't. You had spoken too late and your words had to be abandoned unrequited. By then, my body had become four times its own weight and my throat was filled with lungfuls of air.

Tears sprung; I swung between equal doses of feeling in focus and helpless; in control and then out of my mind... this explained only by my continued, yet frantic breath; sinuous whimpering, gasping, moaning... it moved in sync with the roller coaster's multiple climaxing and calming; Naturally, it made you laugh. Then the trip halts abruptly - We stagger out, embarrassed and quietly dizzy, like being kicked out of bed and tossed back underwear that had become momentarily redundant. I begin to savour the relief, the release and that you are done but I want to go again.

Or, could too much adrenaline cause a fever? You laugh at me, brush our lips together and call me crazy; that I wear you out and that we used to be friends.


Created to bring a smile to your face the next time you user search me, davidork.

Roller coaster.

An amusement railroad in which cars coast by gravity over a long winding track, with steep pitches and ascents.

 

© Webster 1913

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