We're Back from our Amusement Park Road Trip

Two weeks ago Eric and I set off for a conference in Madison, Wisconsin, followed by a 10-day trek around the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic in pursuit of riding as many roller coasters as we could in that time span.


We visited Michigan's Adventure, Canada's Wonderland, Hersheypark, Dorney Park and Wildwater Kingdom, Wildwater Kingdom (yes, two different parks have the same name), and Cedar Point. (We also drove to King's Island and went through the parking lot, but it was stormy and we were exhausted, so we didn't go in.) All but Hersheypark are owned by Cedar Fair, where Eric's mom works and (full disclosure) she got us Platinum Passes to get into all the parks.

We did the first five parks listed in five straight days. We drove. I don't think I would recommend doing this (spreading it out and having some rest days would be ideal), but it was a lot of fun to do it once. We had a few days of break before doing the best park, Cedar Point. You should design your trip to Cedar Point to have enough energy to last you anywhere from 10-14 hours to spend in the park.

We also visited Indiana Dunes State Park and Cuyahoga Valley National Park on the trip, as well as stopped at Niagara Falls.

Unintentionally, this wound up also a Big Ten schools road trip. We obviously started at IU in Bloomington; we drove past signs for Purdue on the way north; visited my brother and his girlfriend in Chicago where Northwestern is; stayed for three days at the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the conference; drove past East Lansing where Michigan State is; had dinner with one of my best friends, Courtney, and her husband, Pat, in Ann Arbor, where the University of Michigan is; stayed in State College and drove around Penn State's campus while we were in Pennsylvania; and drove through Columbus, Ohio, where Ohio State is. (For those keeping track at home, we missed the universities of Illinois, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Maryland, and Rutgers.)

Another interesting thing that happened on the trip was that we watched a Beatles cover band, Day Trippers, at Canada's Wonderland on Monday afternoon, and the next night we listened to the real Paul McCartney play to a packed house at Hersheypark. (We couldn't get tickets, but we could hear him outside the gates!)

We rented a car for the trip (a new-ish Toyota Corolla) and put over 2600 miles on it.

And finally, we took notes and made ratings of every ride we rode. You'll be seeing them soon.