As I'm heading up to Park #2 (Cedar Point) tomorrow, I figured I should get caught up here. I left Kentucky and enjoyed an excellent dinner and visit with John P. and family and actually got some work done the night before heading over to the park.

King's Island is a decent park, with a couple of outstanding rides. The first several were pretty ho-hum, even their newest coaster, the Diamondback. It was just a brief, fast, average steel coaster. From there it was on to the obligatory Big Drop ride - these are all really the same, but I still enjoy them. Someday I have got to go skydiving and experience the "real" thing. Anyway, KI's Drop Tower was better than most in that it sat at the top for a good 10 seconds so you could enjoy the view and the thumping of your heart while waiting for the drop. The drop however seemed super-short, but then again it always does. Then the Flight Deck, which was pretty old and dull - guess it's cheaper to keep operating it than to tear it down and replace it.

The Vortex was the first enjoyable coaster of the day, much better than it's newer cousin. The twists were twistier, it was longer and pulled significantly more G's. The Racer was a perfectly decent wooden camelback 2-track coaster, though only one side was running. I later learned that once upon a time one side was run backwards - that would have been cooler. But the Scream Machine in Atlanta is still a better camelback. Similarly, Adventure Express was an ok Mine Train, but not exceptional.

Then I made it around to The Beast. Oh My God, what a great coaster. Everything a wooden coaster should be. It has a great first hill, is bumpy as a bull ride and after the second lift has this amazing helix section - right off the chain you start gaining serious speed on a steep angled decline that twists into a tunnel. By the bottom it has gained so much speed that 2 spirals of the helix are UPhill just so you can cruise into the brakepad before the station. As soon as I got off it, I was headed back to the line and did it again, this time in the very back car. The 3rd time I just asked the station guy to let me hang out until there was another single rider, and lucky me the very next load had an empty seat near the back. Finally, I went back for a fourth ride, this time at the very front. I could easily gone another half-dozen times if I hadn't had more rides to still try. Before leaving the park I was sorely tempted to go for another ride, and wish I had gone back after dark to try it at night.

Unfortunately the Son of Beast was closed because someone had reported an injury just a few days before. So if anyone hears of it opening up before the end of this season, please, please, please let me know. If The Beast is that good, I can't imagine how great Son of Beast must be.

From there it was a bit anticlimactic, but still much better than the first few rides. Delirium is what's known as a Giant Frisbee, which I find to be very relaxing for some reason. Like a really big rocking chair. I guess I really like negative G's. The Backlot Stunt Coaster was kind of cheesy, but interesting too - it was basically a Mine Train on a steel coaster frame. Normally a steel track makes a coaster too smooth to feel like a Mine Train, but BSC managed to mostly pull it off. Firehawk and Invertigo were perfectly decent rides. Firehawk ended up being the longest line of the day - over an hour - and I might have liked it a bit more with a shorter wait. Flight of Fear was a really good indoor coaster - normally those are pretty lame because they think just being in the dark makes it a big deal. But it was the only LIM coaster in the park (the kind that take off super-fast) and kept up a good speed throughout the ride. The Crypt was closed, so I have no idea what it's like.

Stupid me forgot the sunscreen and ended up with a very red neck (insert your own joke here) and farmer's tan. And it was a hot day, easily around 90, so I was pretty drained by the time I got back to the room. More work, and then a drive up to Columbus for a day at Origins with the rest of the gamer geeks. Got to play Uruk again - it will hit my dime list before the month is up - and see Janna, Kevin, Ken and other friends. Found out Zong Shi is still aiming for an Essen release, so still crossing my fingers but not holding my breath.

Then the drive over to the Akron area for a weekend visit with Michael G. and family. Played a lot of games and actually got a bunch of work done. Found out that his 7-year old can beat me at Mario Kart without really even trying - not that I'm surprised by this fact. Tomorrow I head up to Cedar Point for a evening of rides, then more coaster-ing the next morning before the not-too-long drive into Michigan for a week there. Then the long drives begin, bouncing through Virginia and hitting a couple more parks before ending up in Charlotte for Gulf Games. I've pretty much written off getting up to the Six Flags in New Jersey. When I was going to head east via Pennsylvania it was doable, but the plans now have me going southeast through West Virginia, so the time-space field won't stretch quite far enough to make it work.

Parts 1 & 2 - Oasis of Fun & Mammoth Cave Nat'l Park

The first stop of the Great Trip as the Oasis of Fun in Atlanta, GA. I got to play several favorite games, including Uruk, Through the Ages and Masters of Venice, which is a new favorite and was a particularly satisfying play even though I didn't win. It was wonderful, as always, to see old friends and meet new ones.

After Oasis, I stopped off at Six Flags to get my season pass, as it had to be done there and I'll need it for future stops. Then on the road for 4.5 hours and 300 miles to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where I'm writing from now. I worked for a bit, then got some much needed sleep before heading up to the Wild Cave Tour in Mammoth Cave Nat'l Park, which a few years ago had been a pretty traumatic experience for some friends but I was really looking forward to it.

I did a similar "real caving" guided tour at the Waitomo Caves in New Zealand back in '01 and absolutely loved it. That expedition involved rappelling down 2 different 100+ foot high waterfalls and some really tight crawls, one even through water. So I'd really looked forward to the tour at Mammoth Cave and it didn't disappoint.

There were only 5 of us in the group, plus 2 guides, Heather and Gabe. Best of all, the other 4 were equally gung ho to go the toughest route and crawl the smallest spaces. We started out simply enough, but quickly came to the area known as Bare Hole. Heather showed us how to get through it and made it look easy, but it helped that she's 5'0" and weighs a buck-oh-five soaking wet. Then it was through a variety of passages with names like Kathleen's Crawl and Birth Canal (with included Fallopian Tubes). Many times we were on our hands and knees crawling along, and sometimes even on our bellies, trench crawling or just pulling ourselves through. There were passages that were only half again as tall as your body as you laid completely flat.

After lunch they showed us the smallest hole that guests were allowed to crawl through, and Brett (the only other guy among us paying customers) and I were the only ones to have a go at getting through it. It was so small that if you didn't turn your head sideways, you'd get stuck before even getting started. I actually had to breathe out completely to get my chest small enough to squeeze through comfortably. Inside the little room on the other side someone had left a baby-blue telephone behind. I don't know if it was some inside joke among the rangers or what, but it made me laugh. Getting out of that small hole was tougher than getting in (proving it's easier to get into trouble than out of it) because it was uphill, but with a little help I managed it.

Then we headed over to Pinson's Pass. Here Gabe took a few minutes to work out exactly what the best way was to squeeze through. He'd only recently come back to MC and it had been over half a year since doing this stretch of the cave, and a while for Heather as well. They were really indulging the group's wish for the parts of the tour that many groups never tried. Eventually he worked out where to put your hands, feet and butt and at what part you had to support your weight on your arms and slowly drop a foot or so to get to the next footholds, then twist around and face the other way and do something similar to get down to the next level. All of this had to be done above what was about a thirty foot drop. It was a bit unnerving, but we all made it through with no troubles. From there it was a long and difficult "canyon walk" which is where you have a foot on the wall on either side of the canyon underneath you.

At that point the cave system began to open up a good bit as we got to Cathedral Dome and then Creighton's Dome. There were very few stalactites as the MC system is a very dry system in most places. Then we came to the Lion's Head which was another challenging route like Pinson's Pass. It led to another long canyon walk, then the Otter Slide, which was best navigated by sliding on your butt, and Hooter Alley, which was a small crawlspace with a some breast shaped stalagmites that gave it its name. Much of the last 1.5 hours of the trip was through large passages with high ceilings and narrow trail through the rock, but all upright walking and we kept a good pace. Just when it had all been going easy for quite a while, we reached what's called "threading the needle". This was a very steep climb through, around and over rocks and snaking into small crevices. It was some serious rock climbing! This was my favorite part of the trek, and easily the most exhausting. It was a half-hour of almost continuous climbing. We made the trek from Star Trek Room to the Compass Needle in 33 minutes, which according to Heather was 2 minutes faster than a group of 3 Marines did it last year. Maybe she was just being nice. The climb covered about 150 feet vertical distance, in parts going literally straight up as we had to lift ourselves through holes to the next level of the trail. We were all breathing hard when we made the final egress into the last dome.

All in all we spent almost 6 hours in the caves and covered a little over 6 miles. And now I'm feeling every bit of it. I absolutely loved the trip and would certainly love to do it again, but there are side-effects. My shoulder and leg muscles ache when I move, and my elbows and knees are raw. I have a few scrapes and bruises, but not as many as I expected. I can certainly tell that it was a hard 6 hours of physical exertion. But it was an awesome time - I wish I could have gotten some pictures, but a camera would never have survived the adventure.

Tomorrow I head up to Cincinnati and Part 3 will be on Wednesday when I do the first (of at least 4) roller coaster parks, that being King's Island.