Yesterday evening I entered an amusement park for the first time in over twenty-three years to enjoy "SCarowinds" and celebrate 10 years of terror that this Charlotte/Rock Hill area of North Carolina has been hosting for fans under the banner of "Haunt X", with awesome rides & 11 haunted areas!
We arrived at about 6:30pm on Oct. 30, 2010 and didn't leave until close at 1:00am on Oct. 31, 2010 to really usher in the Halloween weekend. Fog machines, spooky lighting effects, eerie music and appropriate rock & roll classics, decorations, animatronics and an army of costumed employees created a truly demented atmosphere throughout the park.
As expected, the crowd was massive so we plunged right towards the two coasters that we didn't want to miss out on. The Intimidator is the longest steel roller coaster in the Southeastern United States. It opened March 27, 2010 and the coaster's name comes from the nickname of the late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt. This beast starts out with a 232-foot (71 m; pictured above) lift hill that has a 211-foot (64 m) drop angled at 74 degrees. At the bottom of this drop, the train reaches its top speed of 80 miles per hour (129 km/h) and pulls up into the second, 178-foot (54 m) hill, which has an overbanked turn on the drop. The train then pulls up a camelback hill, which is 151-foot (46 m) tall. On this hill, riders experience negative g-force, which results in a sensation known as "airtime". The train then pulls into a 121-foot (37 m) panoramic u-turn. After the u-turn, there are two more camelback hills, which are 105-foot (32 m) and 90-foot (27 m). These hills are followed by the mid-course brake run. Following the brakes, the train pulls up another hill, which is 62-foot (19 m) and banks into a diving spiral. The train pulls up another 52-foot (16 m) hill,drops, and raises 48-foot (15 m) onto the final brake run. After the train slows, it curves to the left and pulls back into the station. Un-frickin believable ride! God bless America, that first drop scared the shit out of me and the ride never let up, you really do feel the "airtime" and the thing is, you aren't riding in an enclosed car. Four riders sit upon an open air platform, I've never experienced anything like "Intimidator" and I loved the thrilling rush that it gave me.
After that we took awesome rides on Nighthawk, which is a steel flying roller coaster. As the train pulls into the station, it is lifted into an upright position and is laid back down with riders on their backs as it departs, taking them through the ride headfirst. A small turn exists directly before the 115-foot-tall (35 m) lift. After the lift a gentle sloped, small drop exist directly before the "lie-to-fly" element when riders are first turned into the flying position. In the flying position a large turn about 100 feet (30 m) in the air brings riders the biggest drop on the ride, although the drop isn't steep. A horseshoe element resembling an overbanked turn is directly after the small drop followed by a "fly-to-lie" element which is exactly opposite from the "lie-to-fly". After the turn, following the fly-to-lie, riders are taken into a loop preceding another lie-to-fly with a turn. Two corkscrews follow and then the brake run.
The Vortex, which is a steel stand-up roller coaster, was next. Riders depart from the station in a standing position, then ascend a small 90-foot (27 m) lift. A small dip follows the lift hill, preceding the curved drop. A loop follows the drop and is followed-up by an upward and downward banked turn. A helix follows the downwards turn and is followed-up by an oblique loop. After a wide turn the brake run slows the train before it enters the station.
For nostalgia we took a turn on the parks original coaster, Thunder Road, which really ought to be retired. That was the most uncomfortable, jaw and gut-rattling ride I've ever taken. It is really showing its age badly and I'm not kidding, I was in physical pain from the constant shaking, pressure on my chest and that's not at all what the ride is meant to be, nor what it was over preceding decades. Folks, burn this damn thing down and build something else, sheesh!
Out of the eleven haunted fright zones (photos were not allowed inside these attractions) we crept through a couple of the open air "scare zones" that didn't require standing in line and actually waited in line for "DeFex" (new for 2010) a disassembly line full of defects and rejects who tormented you through an industrial strength nightmare; "Cornstalkers" which is famous for two things - cornfields & killing as you fight to escape the overgrown crops and its creepy inhabitants, but don't bother running - you'll just die tired; "Dead Inn" where bed bugs are the least of your worries as you desperately try to check out from the "quaint" little inn - in one piece - because the staff will kill to ensure that you get a good nights sleep and "The Asylum" where insanity is the only hope of forgetting the horrific sights and sounds from within this twisted asylum. One step inside and you wonder just who's running the place!
By the end of the night, my seventeen year old daughter, Stacy, who declined to enter all of the haunted houses, was still frightened out of her wits by the roaming bands of ghouls who entertained the park attendees, so we munched on some Chinese food from Panda Express, by far the best value in the park for hungry patrons. I mean do you really want to pay $10 for a fish sandwich & fries - minus a $5 drink - or would you rather have Orange Chicken and Broccoli Beef and Chow Mein and Fried Rice all for $9.95. Do the math!
Oh and don't let my nineteen year old son, Ian, or my daughters friend, Mary Fran, fool you. They had a great time for sure and actually went through the fright zones with me each time, but they maintained a death grip on my aging carcass and almost tripped me a few times when the ghosts, ghouls, demons and zombies were on the rampage.
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