August 16, 2008

Nursing an Adrenaline Hangover

I'm way behind with posting right now because I haven't written anything about "Into the Corn", the little road trip I took this past week. I will write about that at some point but today's post is about yesterday's trip to Valleyfair, the Twin Cities amusement park in Shakopee. I was going to write this up as an email and send it to my friend Aimee in New York because she's a roller coaster junkie, but then I decided to just post it here.

Yesterday's excursion has been in the works for a long time (with logistics handled by my sister-in-law, Sara) and though I originally didn't think I'd be able to make it, I'm glad I was. I hadn't been to Valleyfair for over ten years so there were a lot of rides that I had never even seen, much less ridden. Of course all the old rides like the Corkscrew, High Roller (which we always called the "White Roller Coaster" and the one that I was afraid of for many years as a kid because I actually shed blood while riding it) and Excalibur.

Most of the new rides built in the last ten years were great. Wild Thing is just your standard roller coaster but it's pretty good. It doesn't quite compare to Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg (which I have been to in the past ten years), but it's high and fast nonetheless. The other new coaster is an old school wooden one called Renegade which has a twisting drop on the first hill. It's a bit rough and my vision was actually blurred for the entirety of the ride because of the vibrations, but the ride is great and has lots of stomach turning twists and drops. We would've ridden it more often if the line hadn't been so long.

My favorite of the new coasters was Steel Venom, which opened in 2003. It's not a roller coaster in the traditional sense because it simply goes back and forth along a track. Riders are first launched at 55 mph up a 90-degree, twisting track, then fall back down and go up the back side of the ride. This ride was especially good because both times I rode, I was sitting in the front car with feet dangling and nothing to obstruct the forward view. When going up the twisting, forward portion of the ride, it actually feels like the train is going to fly off the track, and the view from the front is nearly all sky. The coaster is similar to Kingda Ka at Great Adventure in New Jersey but is a junior version because it only goes half as fast and one third as high. However, it's still a great ride, especially from the front and especially when riding with my brother, John who was a bit scared that there was nothing in front of us.

The other new-to-me rides which I was impressed by were the Xtreme Swing and Power Tower. Xtreme Swing is just that, a giant swing that goes 60 mph in both directions. We must have ridden this half a dozen times and it never got old. At the peak of the ride rider's literally face the ground and then swing around to face the sky on the other side. It also sounds like its powered by steam and it makes cool swooshing noises. I may have to do some research to find out how it actually works.

Power Tower, next to the swing, also appears to be steam powered and is actually two rides in one. It consists of three columns, two which drop riders from 250 feet, and the other which shoots upwards 250 feet. Shooting up in the air was good, but doing the drop portion of the ride was even better for two reasons. First, I am a bit afraid of heights. Roller coasters don't bother me because there is structure underneath, but when I feel like there is nothing under me I get a bit freaked out. On Power Tower, riders are basically sitting in a chair 250 feet off the ground with no floor. Secondly, once up in the air, the ride pauses for nearly ten seconds (building up steam?) before it drops, with no warning, to the ground. So, as if a long delay up in the air with nothing under my feet wasn't scary enough, the drop to ground intensifies the feeling. I especially liked the ride because it scared me so much, leading to a great thrill and much yelling when riding it, which we did twice.

Overall, the rides at Valleyfair may not be as high or fast as the ones in other theme parks around the country, but it's much less crowded which means shorter lines for the rides and more bang for the buck. This year's trip will most likely become a yearly tradition and I'm already looking forward to going back and screaming my head off some more.

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August 2, 2008

A New Home

I moved into a new apartment yesterday. More importantly, I was reminded throughout the day of what happened one year ago as my brother and I were driving into Minnesota from New York with a minivan full of all my worldly possessions. On that same day, August 1st, 2007, the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River collapsed and Minnesota marked the one year anniversary of that tragedy yesterday as the new bridge nears completion.

When I moved here last year I didn't have much time to find an apartment so I ended up in a less than ideal studio in St. Paul a few blocks from the Cathedral. As I wrote at the time, the location was amazing. The apartment was the opposite. Every window in the place looked out at the identical building next door and I couldn't even see the sky. The charm of living in an old (early 1900s) building wore off quickly and the claw-foot tub turned out to be annoying rather than neat.

Yesterday I moved into a bigger and better apartment. It's in a modern building with brand new carpet, a new kitchen floor, air conditioning and, most importantly, it has a bedroom. No more studios for me, ever. It's in a fairly residential area but is close to the shops and restaurants of Grand Ave. I'll now be commuting to work via my own two feet every single day while my car sits in a garage with a tank of gas that will probably last a month, if not longer. I face the rear of the building and look out at the garages but there are lots of trees behind them which is nice. When I woke up this morning I could see blue sky out the window and could hear birds chirping which made me smile. Beyond the trees is a road so I hear a bit of swishing from cars passing but that doesn't bother me. There are also train tracks next to the road but as everyone knows, I love trains, so I find the thrum of diesel engines to be rather pleasant.

Of course there are a few downsides. I am above the laundry room and can sometimes hear the spin cycle on the washers. And since this is an apartment, I do sometimes hear noises in the hallway or a bit of creaking from the person above me. But I expect I'll quickly get used to these noises, just as I got used to the sirens and street noises when I lived in New York City.

I set up the kitchen yesterday with a little help but there is much more work to do over the next few days. Time to get back to unpacking.

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June 28, 2008

Smokestack Demolition

I consider myself a fairly well informed person but I was disappointed to discover that I missed out on the demolition of a 570-foot high concrete smokestack this morning just a few miles from my apartment. However, the smokestack hitting the ground does explain why I felt my building shake at 7:30 am. Although I wasn't there to witness the event, others recorded it on video (below) and in photos. I am so very bummed out that I missed this!

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