{"id":1105,"date":"2018-12-29T16:31:34","date_gmt":"2018-12-30T00:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hovorka.org\/?page_id=1105"},"modified":"2019-01-05T10:30:10","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T18:30:10","slug":"sandusky-2001","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/hovorka.org\/index.php\/trips\/sandusky-2001\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandusky 2001"},"content":{"rendered":"
Day 1 - May 24, 2001\r\nLast updated: 6\/24\/01 5:00pm CDT<\/pre>\n
In May of ’01 we went to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. We were planning on going to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL, but the weather was rainy and in the mid 50’s. Sandusky was forecast to have some rain and mid 60’s for temperatures. Rain is not a problem since we have our heavy duty rain gear from Alaska. We opted for the warmer temperatures.<\/p>\n
There were other reasons we chose Cedar Point over Great America. One is that we’ve never been there. Two is that it has more roller coasters. Three is that of the two new coasters that were debuting this season at Great America, only one was going to be open at the time we wanted to go. So we packed a bag and split town.<\/p>\n
Today we drove to Sandusky, Ohio, on the “Northcoast” along Lake Erie. Our drive was uneventful except for some nasty traffic in the Chicago area due to road construction. It was a Thursday morning, so there was some rush hour traffic too. Total drive time was about 7 hours, including a stop for lunch and fuel. Gas was about 30 cents cheaper in Indiana and 40 cents cheaper in Ohio at the time (Chicago’s gas was about 2.10 for 87 octane, 2.20 for 89 octane)<\/p>\n
Our hotel was the Holiday Inn in Sandusky, not far from Cedar Point, maybe a 5 minute drive. We had dinner at a place called Damon’s, which had great views of the lake (actually of Sandusky Bay if you want to get technical). Very good food with friendly service and great views of the lake and Cedar Point. I had something called the Grilled Meatloaf Mountain. Boy was it huge!<\/p>\n
Downtown Sandusky must close at 5pm, if it’s ever open. \ud83d\ude42 No people, a few parked cars, closed stores and buildings for sale.<\/p>\n
What is that smell?<\/p>\n
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Day 2 - May 25, 2001\r\nLast updated: 6\/24\/01 5:00pm CDT<\/pre>\n
Our hotel is not one I’d recommend, at least not the room we were in. We asked for a quite room away from the indoor pool (it was a HoliDome). The location was fine, but the air conditioner was fairly noisy. Also the hallway is well lit, and a lot of that light seeps in to your room.<\/p>\n
Woke up bright and early and got out the door so we’d have plenty of time to get to the park and buy tickets before they open (10am). We purchased the two day pass for $62 each, (a savings of $23 each over the single day admission). We planned on hitting all the major coasters at least once today, and we did. They have 14 roller coaster, but 3 of those I would consider to be kiddie coasters.<\/p>\n
Cedar Point<\/a> bills itself as “America’s Roller Coast”. It’s located on a spit of land jutting out into Lake Erie (see maps). Their newest coaster is the Millennium Force, the “tallest fastest coaster in the universe”. Its tallest peak is 310 feet, has an initial drop at an 80 degree angle, and it achieves speeds of 93 miles an hour with a track length of over a mile. Wow! In the picture below, the cars travel from left to right.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
But Denise and I both agree that the best coaster is the Raptor.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
The Raptor is fast, long and loopy. It clocks in at just under 60 mph, rides last over 2 minutes, and it turns you upside down 6 times. The fact that your legs are hanging free under the ski lift type chairs only adds to the excitement.<\/p>\n
We had great weather. We only had two minor periods of rain. We left about 6pm to get some dinner, because one meal a day at a theme park is more than any person should be eating. Plus we hit our objective of riding all the major coasters.<\/p>\n
Dinner was at Ruby Tuesday’s. It’s a sports bar in a shopping mall. Average food, but we wanted something light after our mega meal at Damon’s the night before, and the total junk food for lunch at Cedar Point.<\/p>\n
This town has a very odd smell, almost like tar or asphalt.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Day 3 - May 26, 2001\r\nLast updated: 6\/24\/01 5:00pm CDT<\/pre>\n
Today we planned on being at the park from opening at 10am until about 2pm. We had a 6-7 hour drive ahead of us and we didn’t want to get home too late in the day. Today we focused on riding the Millennium Force once more and the Raptor twice. It was raining very hard in the morning, but since the winds were low and there was no lightning, all the rides were operating. This was great because it kept the crowds down and the line for Millennium Force was about 15 minutes. We were lucky enough to sit in the front car this time. That first drop is amazing from the front seat. You can’t see the track when you come over the top of the initial hill. It appears like and feels like you are dropping straight down. The only down side was that rain hitting your face at 93 mph hurts. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
The rain did stop after a little while and it was another great day.<\/p>\n
The ride home was uneventful. It took 6.5 hours to get home, including stops for dinner and fuel.<\/p>\n
All in all this was a great trip. It had the spontaneity of being “last minute” and it was a ton of fun. I highly recommend Cedar Point if you are a coaster fan and are bored with your local theme park.<\/p>\n
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Ohio\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Day 1 – May 24, 2001 Last updated: 6\/24\/01 5:00pm CDT In May of ’01 we went to Cedar Point Amusement Park in Sandusky, Ohio. We were planning on going to Six Flags Great America in Gurnee, IL, but the weather was rainy and in the mid 50’s. Sandusky was forecast to have some rain … Continue reading “Sandusky 2001”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":499,"menu_order":10,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1105","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hovorka.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hovorka.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hovorka.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hovorka.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hovorka.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hovorka.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1105\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hovorka.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hovorka.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}