 Trip Report: 06 Blue Streak Challenge 
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| I first heard about the Blue Streak Challenge in 05 when they were trying to get riders for that year. To me it was a no brainer, Ride my favorite rollercoaster for 12 hrs while help raise money for the maintenance of it. Whats the catch? There wasn't a catch. But I was unable to join that year. So I knew that next year I was definitely in. | |
| So the following year arrived, my friend Andrew, and I registered and we were in. We came within two close calls of having it canceled. The first is that the park almost didn't open. But luckily someone donated money for it to open. The second happened June 22, two days before the challenge, during a lightning storm the Blue Streak was strucked by lighting on its chain lift. The ride was closed due to the storm at the time and no one was hurt. But the shock traveled through the chain and to the motor. The original 1938 75 horsepower motor couldn't handle the lightning and was fried. The Challenge was moved to the next month. I still went up to the lake that week and hanged out at the park for the day and had lots of fun at this historic park. |  |
| So with the challenged scheduled for Jun 17 we had another problem. Andrew's lake house was rented out that week. So we deciede to camp out at camper land. CLP's camp ground. So on the 16th we headed up. Set up camp and then we had the whole afternoon to do something. So we decided to spend it in Splash City we had a blast there and when we were finished we headed over to check out the Blue Streak. We didn't ride but we did talk to the ride ops and learned about the different brake sections and how the hand levers work. Then I stood by the Blue Streak next to the brake run and examined the skid brakes. One of these days I'll draw a diagram how the brakes work. I find it fasinating how everything is layed out on the Blue Streak. After that we hit the sleeping bags ready for the morning |  < |
| So the day arrived, we headed over the the Blue Streak 30 mins early. We met the other riders, who all were really nice. We also got the opportunity to explore the station some. I checked out the levers. The levers are actually about 12 ft long. They go all the way down to ground level where their pivot point is at. After one test run the Blue Streak was ready to go and at ten o clock we were off. I sat in the back seat, my favorite seat because you get launched over the hills. I also was able to talk to some other riders while I rode, and learned more facts about the Blue Streak. I also was able to notice how significantly faster the ride gets as the track gets warmed up. Riding over and over again without the train stopping was a blast. Next Page |
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