For those of you who arent from the area, theres a magical place called the Wisconsin Dells. My friend, Gerald and I stumbled upon it over a decade ago while on our cross country roller coaster trip. Wed heard of a new coaster design firm called Custom Coasters and they had built the Cyclops wooden roller coaster at Big Chief Go Kart World in the Dells. It wasnt a large coaster and it was the only wooden coaster in the area but the reputation Custom Coasters had was big enough to get us there.
As I was leaving Chicago after Pitchfork Festival, I had no intentions of riding any roller coasters in the near future. My main goal was to get to Minneapolis to pick up Crash from the airport and to do an NPR interview with Noah Adams. It wasnt until I pulled out my trusty map (the same one Ive been using for over 5 years) that I realized Highway 94 went right by the Dells. I emailed Jeremiah and had him do some research on Mt Olympus Park (formerly Big Chief). He hit me back that they were open til ten and that it was $36 bucks to get into the park which has 4 wood coasters, more gokart tracks then you can imagine, an outdoor water park and an indoor water park. I added up the miles to get to Minneapolis and figured I could rock Mt. Olympus for at least three hours before driving another hundred miles or so north that night.
For our Off the Wookie magazine this year I did an interview with Chad Miller who works for The Gravity Group (Page ONE and TWO). When Custom Coasters went under a while back a good chunk of the engineers and designers started The Gravity Group to carry on the tradition of world-class wooden coasters. Last summer I rode their newest creation, The Voyage, at
Holiday World, in Santa Claus, Indiana (See Review HERE) and was obviously very impressed. Their other star attraction is Hades at Mt. Olympus. Since they didnt have much room at the park to build a full-on coaster they decided to build the largest tunnel ever for a coaster and have the track go under the parking lot and pop out on the other side. Not only that but while in the tunnel for the first pass they thought itd be a good idea to incorporate the first 90-degree bank turn ever on a wooden coaster. Oh… and, at the time, the steepest drop in America on a wooden coaster (65 degrees).
So, as you can imagine, I was super jazzed to be at Mt. Olympus when only a few hours ago it hadnt even crossed my mind. I wisely decided to ride the three other coasters in the park before hitting Hades. First off was Zeus which, if not overshadowed by Hades, would be considered a pretty good coaster. Its a pretty standard out and back coaster with some decent air and ride time. If it were in my hometown Id be happy. Next up was Pegasus which, I guess, was meant to be an oversized kids coaster. Lets just say it was surprisingly rough and Id be pissed if that was the only coaster in my hometown. After riding the go-karts and wandering around to check out the park I made my way back to the coaster section of the park.
Gerald and I rode well over a hundred coasters on our month long trek across the US and Canada on our tour. We learned something very important during out trip and it was; bigger is not always better. Cyclops is a very small coaster with one train that was built for just over a million bucks back in 1995.. Of all the coasters we rode, including plenty of monsters like Mean Streak at Cedar Point, Cyclops ranked in our top 5. The little bugger just has a way of throwing you around and lifting you WAY outta your seat. The lap bar only locks once at the top and doesnt ratchet down like most coasters. So, when you catch air, you can rise a foot out of your seat. The first ride I took I held my hands up the whole time and pulled out my camera to film video of how quick and crazy fun this ride is. Check it over there on the right somewhere.
The time had come to tackle Hades. The sun was setting and I headed over to wait in line for about 20 minutes. I had to wait an extra ten minutes or so to get the very back seat but it was well worth it. I was extremely excited and a bit nervous, mainly because of the pitch black tunnel. I knew that that crazy banked turn was in there and I wasnt sure what else lie in the dark. Im still not really sure whats going on in those tunnels even after riding the coaster a couple times. What I do know is that Hades is one of the best roller coasters out there. Great first drop, super scary tunnel, big airtime just past the second tunnel, and some great turns. If the line was a bit shorter I would have taken it for a few more spins but instead I headed back over to Zeus for another ride then to Cyclops for two or three more before getting back into Bessie and heading north to Osseo, Wisconsin where I crashed in the back of the truckstop that was just off the highway.
On my way back from 10klf, I had to take another pit stop in the Dells to ride Avalanche at Timber Falls. Its apparently got a top ten ranking in Amusement Todays Golden Ticket Awards (actually, #11) but Im not sure Im such a believer. The ride and design are solid, especially considering the coaster pretty much just circles the park (which is mainly a miniature golf course and a log ride) twice. I think my biggest gripe is that the trains theyre using are only three cars so you dont get the whip youd normally get in the back of a standard, longer train. The first drop was decent and right after that theres a big fan turn thats kinda cool but after that it kind feels like youre just going up and down in circles. Dont get me wrong, Id be stoked if this coaster existed in my hometown, I was just a bit let down based on the coaster being ranked above masterpieces like Ghostrider at Knotts Berry Farm. It was just over six bucks to ride it so I stuck with my single ride and snapped a few pictures before heading on down the road to The Cheese Factory Restaurant.
The reason I was heading there was because I checked www.wififreespot.com and The Cheese Factory won out over Applebees. In all fairness I was a bit curious about why The Cheese Factory would have free wifi and checked their site to find out they were a vegetarian restaurant with a soda fountain and quite the diverse menu.
From the moment I entered I felt something was different. Ive been on the road for a couple months and have a good intuition about places. There was something else going on there that I couldnt quite put my finger on. It was more restaurant than coffee shop or soda fountain so I asked to be placed somewhere near power where I wouldnt be disturbing anyone since I was hoping to be eating at least one meal and drinking some coffee. By the end of my stay I ended up in a very enlightening conversation with my server Laurel about things you normally dont discuss with servers or strangers. Maybe it was because Im a bit out there or just extremely open minded. I wont go into too many details here but a lot of it revolved around time and space and miracles. I guess theres just not that many people out there really controlling their lives and grasping the greater understanding of our place in the universe and perceived time. For more info dig around www.acimi.com.
While I was there I wondered why there wasnt an easy website for travelers to find places to crash for free. I generally post bulletins on our myspace page but very rarely does it lead to lodging for the night. Im sure a lot has to do with the fact that I often dont post stuff until the day I actually need somewhere to stay. Id remembered Id registered at www.couchsurfing.com a while back and hopped on there to send a few messages to folks in Madison. Sure enough, an hour or so later I got a message from Jake who said he had a couch available for the night. I rolled into town, grabbed a cup of coffee, went and saw the new Michael Moore movie, Sicko, then slept great all night on his comfy couch. The funny part is, its the second night and Im actually sitting up sideways on the same couch typing this review. Thanks to Jake, The Cheese Factory, Wisconsin Dells, and all the other folks whove made it possible. Ohhh…. I dont think I ever give proper thanks to Bessie for getting me around the country either so… Thanks Bessie, I love you.
Lastly… Theres a bunch of pics and a vid in here from Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Right after Bonnaroo I met my old hiking buddy Heavy and we snuck into Dollywood (they wanted us to pay $40 each when park was only open for one more hour) and rocked Thunderhead, the number one ranked coaster in the world. It was one hell of a time. If you ever go to Dollywood, be sure to bring lots of spending money because the gift shop is loaded with tons of funny Dolly Parton and Dollywood memorabilia.
