Rock n Roller 16: Six Flags St. Louis

After a long drive over from Denver the previous day and a comfortable stay in the Comfort Suites we headed to the local Walmart to pick up some supplies before heading into our first part of the now famous, Rock n Roller 16 Coaster Tour across America. We stocked up on sunscreen, breakfast and some toiletries that we did not bring with us and headed to the park.

We were first in line, just like Clark and the Family Truckster in the 80s flick Vacation. We knew all along this would be our own version of a visit to WallyWorld but we would do it over and over and over again. We would also try our best to do a daily Facebook Live video. This would turn out to be a lot of fun and our friends and family from all over the world would tune in to watch our silly antics.

Our first stop was to pick up our season passes at guest relations. We found an awesome deal online early in the spring that would allow us unlimited entry to any Six Flags park across the nation for less than 75 bucks each. The only problem is that we had to have a “home park” to pick up our passes. Since St. Louis was the closest to Denver, this was it. We decided to pay the extra hundred bucks for unlimited parking and headed into the park.

It was hot, dang hot. So hot that you would sweat in the shower hot. We waited in line for the park to open. Holding us back was not John Candy from WallyWorld but a pimply faced teenager fresh out of school and probably working his first summer job. It occurred to me after I had ridden about 75 coasters on this trip that we literally put our life in the hands of a group of teenagers making minimum wage.

At 10 am sharp the floodgates opened and the masses of thrillseekers headed en mass. Our first coaster was a woodie, American Thunder. What a way to start off the trip! We quickly headed over to Mr. Freeze: Reverse Blast, it was so cool in there with the air conditioning. We had only been at the park for an hour and Michele and I were already melting.

After Mr. Freeze we headed over to a drink stand and bought a drink container for 20 bucks each that would allow you unlimited drinks all summer for the one price. We slammed a couple of sodas and headed back to the coasters. The drink plan tuned out to be a great deal. Drinks in the park range anywhere from $3 to $5.50 and we would drink a couple drinks at each park.

We rode a couple more woodies, the Screamin’ Eagle, and The Boss. Both Michele would come to love the old wooden coasters. By the time we made it around to Ninja I could tell Michele wasn’t feeling well. We rode Batman and Michele got sick. Real sick. We were out of the park and back in the truck by 2:30 and for the next 12 hours Michele was out cold. Looking back on it she could have died that day. It was a combination of the heat, the travel from Alaska to St. Louis in less than 36 hours, the temperature–an extreme of almost 50 degrees–at one point in the park it said 107 degrees and a “feels like” temp on 117, and some medication she was taking.

Michele quickly raised her head as we passed the Arch and didn’t budge again until we stopped for a milkshake somewhere in the middle of Indiana.

It took us almost 12 hours to drive less than 500 miles from St. Louis to Sandusky, Ohio. It was a constant barrage of road construction, cops and truckers through Illinois and Indiana. I tried my best to entertain myself listening to podcasts while alternating between SiriusXM Radio’s Road Trip Radio and Rock Bar. The next morning we would go to the Roller Coaster Capital of the World, Cedar Point. But first it was time to crash in another hotel. I don’t think we even turned on the lights before we were asleep.

Tomorrow: Cedar Point

Coasters to date on the tour: 6

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