Six Flags St. Louis

If you haven’t already guessed, our stay at the St. Louis Days Inn didn’t go so well. Slow drains, exposed piping in the room as well as box electrical outlets jutting out from the wall creating that rustic, hide-the-women-and-children, warm fuzzy feeling. I’m never staying at a Days Inn again (if I can avoid it), and I am now the national spokesman for Microtel Inns*. They are cheap and, for the most part, clean and well maintained.

Enough of that. We hit Six Flags St. Louis (SFSTL) on Monday. It was oppressively hot and although there was rain in the forecast, we weren’t rained on once. SFSTL is a nice park, but it is nothing to write home about. It isn’t well maintained and is filled with forgettable rides. But because we already have Six Flags season passes, we only had to pay for parking and whatever overpriced mediocre food we wanted to consume.

But after four parks, the grind of the trip is beginning to show, and I’m becoming less patient, and generally enjoying the parks less and less. Four days ago this park would have been a nice romp. On this day it was just another Kentucky Kingdom and with the compounded heat, we were looking for an excuse to bail.

The only coaster of note was the Boss, a wooden coaster that plays good cop/bad cop at the same time. When riding it in the rear of the train, it throws you around causing multiple contusions. Eric immediately dubbed it the 300 Ughs. Because crowds were sparse, we were able to re-ride with little effort, and the wait for the front was no wait at all.

From the front, the Boss is a much smoother ride. Speed without the pain, the Boss is actually an exhilarating coaster when you strip away the rough edges. Highlighted by an unusual straight away after the first hill, the track winds through the hills and ends with a double helix ala The Beast. But while it is a fine ride, it’s no Beast, and the double helix is little more than an annoyance.

We left SFSTL early because we had a five hour commute ahead of us and no real reason to hang around. Kansas City is up next, our final stop on the trip.

*I am not a spokesman for Microtel Inns. If I could get my hands on the guy who is spreading these falsehoods, I'd give him the what for.