Worlds of Fun

Today, our final day, we arrived at Worlds of Fun in Kansas City. The weather was perfect, if not a little on the hot side. Blue skies, a perfect setting for the curtain call of our trip. The park itself is quaint and pleasant. It just has a friendly air about it. It’s also small enough to traverse in a few short minutes.

This year they opened a new coaster, the Patriot. It is the tallest, fastest inverted coaster in the region. How that region is defined is anyone’s guess. Since I’ve seen bigger and faster, I can only assume that the region constitutes at the very least the perimeter of the park. While the ride is silky smooth and thoroughly enjoyable, it doesn’t do anything new. In fact, the first two elements are taken directly from the many Batman: The Ride clones floating around this great country which starts out in exactly the same way. Of course, critiquing coasters like this is borderline psychotic since few people have the experience to appreciate the fineries of coaster riding, but it makes me feel better and the doctors say that’s good.

Anyhoo, even though Patriot is the marquee coaster of the park, it isn’t the best. That distinction is reserved for a little coaster called Spinning Dragons. Partly resembling a Wild Mouse coaster, riders traverse the track in single four person cars. What makes this coaster interesting is that the cars freely spin around while the ride is in motion (see pic). It’s a lot of fun, and each ride is different than the last.

Worlds of Fun also has Mamba, which is a copy of Steel Force from Dorney Park, and Boomerang, which is a copy of the dozens of Boomerang coasters that blight parks around the country. What an awful ride.

Then there is Timber Wolf or as I prefer to call it, the Lumbering Oaf. The scariest part of that wooden coaster is the fear that it might not complete the circuit and end up coming to a peaceful rest at the bottom of one of the hills. It might be the slowest wood coaster I’ve ever rode.

While this all seems fairly negative, we had a good time. I enjoyed myself, and each of the coasters. They all have their good sides, and since the trip was winding to a close, I wanted to savor every last moment.

Now, the trip is over. Tomorrow, we head back to Philly, and begin to put back the pieces of our shattered lives which consists mainly of going through a week’s worth of junk mail. With any luck the plane will take off when it is supposed to and we will get home with time enough to unpack, get reacquainted with our homes and drift off to sleep in our own beds*. I'll reflect on my vacation, then it's back to writing.

*Sleeping in your own bed can never be underestimated.