From Dale, IN
Holiday World held its first enthusiast event since 2003 on Saturday. Although it was hosted by CoasterBuzz, it was the begin to a return to some normalcy. Although the over 150 attendees paled in comparison to the old Stark Raven mad events, it was a good restart.
First of note was the live recording of a CoasterBuzz.com podcast in the Holiday Theater, which I arrived upon during its recording. To hear it, you can subscribe to it through Apple's iTunes, or go to podcast.coasterbuzz.com. Hosted by Jeff Putz, some of the CoasterBuzz staff participated, with special guest Holiday World President Will Koch.
After the podcast, I met up with some friends, like Dave Bowers and Paul Drabek, and went for some rides on the three coasters, as well as the Liberty Launch.
One of the coolest parts of the event was the construction tour of the park's next wooden coaster, the Voyage. So far, the lift structure has reached 2/3 of its height, and one of the 90 degree banked turns was being completed.
Shortly after the construction walkback, dinner (pizza, chips, fudge) was held in Kringle's Banquet Hall, where an auction of old coaster parts raised over $600 for the Red Cross.
The end highlight was the exclusive ride time on the Raven and The Legend. Throughout the day, I got 11 Raven rides, and 12 on Legend. Later on in the night, double rides were being given. Just like I remember, the two were full of air and laterals, like that of few other coasters.
Thanks to Jeff Putz, as well as Mrs. Pat Koch, Will Koch, and Paula Werne for making this event such a memorable time!
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