After a marvelous weekend at the cabin, I decided to drive back to southern Cal with Bethanie and her kids. We did all kinds of California things, like swimming, going to the beach, laying out, etc. Well by the time Thursday rolled around, Beth and I decided we needed a little more excitement in our lives, so we took the kids to school and headed up to Valencia for a day at Magic Mountain. We did anything our little hearts desired (taking pictures with extremely buff guys etc.), and ulitimately had a fabulous day. The park was closing at 6:00pm, and it was about 4:45 or so, so we decided to take one more chance on their 85 mph roller coaster, Goliath. Was this a mistake? Who knows.
We sat in our favorite seats - the vert back seats on the train out of about 7 or 8 cars. We started going up the first ChinkyChink hill (ya know when they pull you up and up and up....) and if any of you know how high this particular roller coaster is, you know about the adrenaline rush Beth and I were getting when we were reaching the top. Well out of nowhere, the ride suddenly came to a hault. There are two trains that run the same track, so we just figured the second train wasn't far enough ahead of us, and we were being held up there so the other car could finish it's ride. Well as the minutes past, we figured that definitely wasn't the case. Glancing behind me was a very scary thing, because there were no other cars or people back there. Only a long long long STEEP piece of track and a lot of open air. Suddenly a guy appeared into view around the bend, and he started hiking up the forever long stairs that go up beside the track on both sides. (He happened to be climbing up on Beth's side of the track.) About 5 minutes later he reached our car, and told us all that the computer system that runs the coaster had a small glitch and had automatically shut down, so as soon as they rebooted their system we would be going again. The guy (probably 19 or 20 years old) stayed up there with us and made sure we were all OK, and Beth and I were just enjoying the view and taking a rest. The hill we were on was so steep that even though we were in a sitting position, we were laying on our backs. I'd have to say it was quite comfortable, given the circumstances.
About 15 minutes went by, and again I glanced behind me, only to behold a girl in a tank top with slacks and dress shoes was hiking up the hill with a huge crowbar looking thing in her hand, this time on my side, followed by a guy in nice pants and a tie climbing up on Beth's side. When they finally reached us, she said, "Ok you guys, we are going to be getting you out manually, starting with the top car." Beth and I looked at each other, then chuckled a I-can't-believe-this-is-happening-to-us chuckle.
After a few minutes of evacuating the top cars, they let the first group of about 10 people go down. We all clapped for them as they passed, and watched as they slowly made their way down down down.... Then it was our turn. But of course, by the time the girl got down to me, she was super tired and couldn't release another lap bar. So the guy got Beth out, climbed over her seat, and worked on my lap bar. Finally it released, and I finagled my way out of my seat and onto the stairs. We slowly made our way down, (Beth was the only one going down the stairs on her side because of the mix-up in getting me out) and as the wind lashed our faces, I'm sure we were all thinking, "Why, out of all the rides at this crazy place, did we pick this one at this time!?"