Monday, April 18, 2005

Thanks for the memories!


The Tram of Death!

So today, as I do most every day, I had to see what [url=http://www.majornelson.com]Major Nelson[/url] was talking about. And today it brought back a frightening experience that I had soon forgotten about. I'll explain......

My wife and I had taken a weekend trip with another couple up to Cedar Point. It's a whole whopping 1 1/2 hours away but we wanted to go up and have a good time. After riding all morning and baking in the sun we decided to head out to the car and have some lunch. We had packed a complete meal and wanted to just relax without the extra cost of buying food in the park. Well, after filling our bellies, of course the ladies decide that they want to ride a ride that is waaaaaay in the back of the park.

The easiest way to get there was by an overhead tram car, pictured below. We get all loaded in to the car, and we're sent on our merry way. Well, just after releasing us out of the building we heard some noises. As our car hit the main lines to take the ride up to the top we heard something metal hit the top of the car. I look over my shoulder, as I had the view with my back to the ride entrance. I see a large 4"-5" wheel fall to the depths below us. I look over to see a few people, ground-side, horrified by what they just saw. The only response that came out of our car was from my buddy Dave that had to remind me that if we hit the top of this line were not gonna be safe. We have roughly 6 poles to cross over the length of the park. With each post, we all held our breaths wondering if the next click would hurl our car over the cable line from rocking and send us crashing.

Needless to say, this went on 5 more times until we reached the end and they stopped the ride (mind you were only 15 feet away from the exit facility now. Ahhh, I'll never forget that day. Dave and I both made our women proud when they saw how pathetically scared we were.

Never mind the thoughts going thru their minds of death and destruction, we were the wooses!!