Roller Coasters – SEA 2 Shore

7,671.6 Miles driven in total
2,011 Photos taken with the camera (add in another 300 or so across four iPhones)
642 Miles: longest travel day (Midwest City, OK to Fort Smith, AR, to Beale Street in Memphis, to Dickson, TN)
151 Hours, 11 minutes, 54 seconds of total time in the car
102 Miles walked/hiked
80 Miles: shortest travel day
49 License plates (surprisingly we found a Hawaii but never did find the elusive Alaska plate)
27 Days
25 Roller coasters (plus one Alpine Coaster and one Alpine Flyer)
25 Clothing souvenirs purchased
23 States
20 Junior Ranger badges earned
19 Gas station stops (some less populated than others)
18 Different beds
16 Christmas ornaments purchased
13 Apples picked fresh in the orchards of Capitol Reef National Park
12 National Parks
11 Books read/listened to
11 Bears
9 Roadside attractions
8 Free hotel breakfasts (5 skips of the free hotel breakfast because we were sick of free hotel breakfasts)
6 National Historic Places
6 McDonald’s meals (we tried to avoid them, but man they come in handy when you roll into a sparsely populated town at 9pm without having eaten)
6 Time zone changes
5 Lost items: camera charger/battery left in Utah hotel room, bracelet left on Capitol Reef welcome sign, pair of Keens left in Shenandoah parking lot, koosh ball down a street drain in South Dakota
4 Bison traffic jams
4 Escape rooms…so fun!
3 Times we told the kids to “just eat some snacks” for a lunch…don’t judge
3 Days of body boarding in the Atlantic Ocean
3 Bicker Jar contributions (each child contributed once and then never had to again!)
2 Great Lakes (Erie and Michigan)
2 Rappels
2 Days with rain that slightly altered our plans
1 number of planned stops that we skipped (Devil’s Tower)
Countless Wall Drug billboards, silly family inside jokes (this is Nat Soo Pah), and memories we’ll always cherish

On Thursday we woke up in our hotel just outside Pittsburgh and continued our journey West. Upon entering Ohio we took a pitstop to check out Cuyahoga National Park. After the vast, epic, scenic parks of the West, this park was quite different. An urban park for residents of Akron and Cleveland, we were more likely to find people taking their daily jog or bike ride on the Towpath rather than tourists snapping pictures. It’s called a Towpath because the main strip of park follows the old canal system and the path along the side is where the mules walked to tow the barges. We enjoyed a short scavenger hunt, scenic drive, and the girls got their Junior Ranger badges.

After that, we were off to “A Place Like No Other”…Cedar Point, OH. The Roller Coaster Capital of the World. America’s Roller Coast. My last trip to Cedar Point was in June of 1996 to attend CoasterMania. While I loved the park then, it has continued to evolve adding more innovative coasters and a good selection of “flat rides” (aka…non-coasters) to its lineup. I was excited to have the family relax and enjoy some time there. Oh, and did I mention there are SEVENTEEN roller coasters there?

Only fellow coaster geeks would enjoy my true run-down of the park so I’m going to keep this post short and sweet.

Threat of rain on Thursday made the park EMPTY upon our arrival at 4pm
Actual rain on Friday took away about 5 hours of ride time but due to light crowds we got experience everything we wanted.
While I knew Emily would ride anything with me, Maelle stepped up too. She rode EVERY SINGLE coaster…and usually with her hands up. That girl is fearless. 120MPH launched Top Thrill Dragster? No problem. 300+ Foot tall Millennium Force? Let’s do it again. My new all-time favorite coaster Steel Vengeance? She couldn’t get enough. That eight year old will tackle anything!
Emily rode her 100th coaster! Raptor!
Addie is much more sensitive to coasters and but can spin and spin all day long. I was proud that she worked her way up to ride Gemini and Blue Streak, which for her was a big step up. She’ll continue to experiment with new rides over the coming years and tackle her fears!
Steel Vengeance. Best. Coaster. Ever.
Maverick was really good too. And Millennium Force. And Top Thrill Dragster. And…

Maybe a future post we’ll go ride by ride, but for now some fun pics:

Yay for our first ride…Wicked Twister