Adventure in Michigan

This blog will be known as the time I drove 784 miles out of my way to essentially ride just one roller coaster. You know, as I just typed that I realize how incredibly insane that actually sounds. Am I insane? Maybe. For those of you who read my crazy coaster blog know I just blogged about my trip to Kentucky Kingdom back in June 2016. Well I knew going into the trip to Kentucky Kingdom that I would take the Saturday after the Kentucky Kingdom event to visit a new-to-me amusement park. I also knew, because it was a Saturday, that I was going to have to pick a park that wouldn’t be insanely busy. I narrowed my choices down to two parks: Indiana Beach and Michigan’s Adventure.

Nice Entrance

I like an adventure so what better way than to drive 784 miles out of my way to go to an amusement park. I will say this first and foremost that I do not mind driving in the car. I have always enjoyed long trips on the road but this was fairly crazy even for me. I decided to travel all the way to Michigan's Adventure. My reasons for choosing this Michigan's Adventure over Indiana Beach were because I already had a Cedar Fair platinum pass to get into the park and they had a wooden roller coaster I have been wanting to ride for years in Shivering Timbers. Then to put a definite on the decision my friend Doug aka The Fury Guy said he would meet up with me at the park. It ended up being a good decision.

What an Entrance area

I left Kentucky Kingdom around 10:00pm and arrived at the Super 8 hotel in Plymouth, Indiana around 1:30 am. I was very surprised at how nice the hotel was for a Super 8. I needed a cheap place to stay so I chose the Super 8 and was not let down. I was so excited about going to a new amusement park that I don’t think I got the full six hours of sleep that I had intended on getting. I got up around 7:00 am, ate a very nice breakfast (surprising for Super 8), and hit the road shortly after 8:00 am for my remaining 2.5-hour journey to Muskegon, Michigan.

Is this really a Super 8?

Wow, I am really in Michigan!

I arrived at Michigan’s Adventure about 10:45 am on Saturday June, 25th and immediately noticed the mega coaster structure that is Shivering Timbers. I mean seriously, this wooden coaster shines as you enter the parking lot. In my opinion it is one of the coolest park entrances out there. The ride is just so huge it is hard to visualize until you actually see it in person. It blew me away really. 

I mean seriously!

Say what!? photo credit: Doug the Fury Guy

It did not take me long until I met up with Doug aka The Fury Guy. Doug and I had first met each other back in May of 2015 as he was out to ride Fury 325 (see previous blog post) over 100 times in a day. I enjoyed my 28 rides on Fury that day while Doug bypassed me, using Fastlane, as he enjoyed over 100 rides (yes, that is a correct number) on the best coaster ever! So, when I saw Doug again at a Holiday World event that same month I called him the “Fury Guy” since I did not know his name. I again saw Doug this May 2016 on a trip I made to Alabama Splash Adventure where I again addressed him as the “Fury Guy.” However, this time we actually introduced ourselves and have since become friends. The legend of The Fury Guy lives will still live on though. 

Doug and I love Shivering Timbers

The park was set to open at 11:00 am and since Doug had already been to this park before I let him take the lead on what to ride and in what order to do so. Of course when I visit a new-to-me amusement park I like to try and ride all of the roller coasters at said park if I can. Michigan’s Adventure has 7 coasters and as luck would have it I rode all of them. We started off with the Wild Mouse coaster because, well, these things suck at capacity. It was a one and done coaster for me as they usually are. Then we made our way up the midway to Wolverine Wildcat. It is an older wooden coaster that only runs a single train operation. It was an average wooden coaster at best and we only managed one ride on it during our day. However, if the line hadn’t of been long on this one I might have ridden it again.

I see a mouse!

Wolverine Wildcat = Michigan and Kentucky

Next up would be Shivering Timbers and boy would it be an incredible ride. I had known about this wooden coaster for years but since it was so far away I didn’t think I would be able to ride it for a very long time. Thankfully, that time was now. The Shivering Timbers wooden coaster was built in 1998 by Custom Coasters International. The ride is 5,383 feet long (VERY long for a wooden coaster) 122 feet high and goes 57 mph. These are all staggering numbers for a wooden coaster. It has hills galore packed with air time and forces and the ride simply goes on for what feels like forever. It instantly became one of my favorite wooden coasters.

Love this Coaster!

It was getting close to lunchtime, and I was starving at this point, so Doug and I headed over to a pizza place to eat. The food was OK but actually fairly reasonably priced so that was good. Since we were still in the area we decided to take another ride on Shivering Timbers again. After we rode Timbers we made our way onto the other side of the park. I took notice of the beautiful clear sky, and enjoyed the 80-degree day (with NO humidity - thanks Michigan!). I enjoyed the huge lake, which offered great scenery, in the middle of the park housing two rides: the bumper boats and swan boats. We unfortunately did not have time to ride these two attractions but they looked like fun.

The lake was nice

Lake with Swans

We made it to the other side of the park and took a ride on the Thunderhawk (yes that is really its name). Thunderhawk is a Vekoma SLC otherwise known as a “hang n bang” where you sit in seats suspended from the track overhead. Usually these ride models (Vekoma SLC) are known to be very rough (see my recent Kentucky Kingdom post regarding T3) hence the nickname termed “hang and bang”. However, this ride was actually smooth and borderline fum. It was one of the better models of these rides that I had ever been on honestly.

Hang and Bang on the right

Is this a ride or just nice scenery?

Next up we took the train in a complete circuit around the park and admired all of the nothingness in the area. Seriously, there was nothing out there. You could get some cool shots of Shivering Timbers though so that was nice. We made our way around to the kid’s area of the park and I rode Zach’s Zoomer (kid’s wooden coaster) and Big Dipper (another kids steel coaster). I probably looked like a fool riding this one as Doug watched, most likely laughing at me on the inside. Oh well credit obtained and time to ride more coasters.

Lots of land, oh and Shivering Timbers hill

DROP!

HILL!

It was now time to ride the 7th and final coaster at Michigan’s Adventure, The Corkscrew. Corkscrew ended up being the longest wait of the day at around 20 minutes because they were only running one train. It’s a good thing the coaster sucked so I only had to ride it once. It is your typical steel multi looping coaster that has not aged well in my opinion. I mean I love my coasters but sometimes old steel looping coasters need to be scrapped and something newer and more innovative put in its place. 

Of course I rode this

Lots of concrete, oh and Corkscrew

We made our way over to the area where the Ferris Wheel was located and looked around in one of the shops. I was very surprised when I noticed the park didn’t have any good Shivering Timbers shirts! I mean seriously? It is your star attraction and all you have are generic single color, simply worded shirts. I was disappointed. We took a ride on the Ferris Wheel, which cheered me up. I really enjoyed the views I got from the top. You could see the entire park and got great views of the surrounding area. Shivering Timbers was huge and it towered over everything. I got a lot of nice pictures.

Artsy shot

Back of the Park

Front of the Park

I mean look at those hills!

At this point Doug and I both only had a little over an hour to go until we both had to leave for the day. We spent that last hour riding the best coaster in the park Shivering Timbers. It was so great because there was no line and we got in 8 rides before we had to leave. It was one of those moments where you just wished you didn’t have to leave. I grabbed an on ride photo, as I usually do with really great coasters in parks that I don’t visit very often, and made my way out of the park.

No lines on a Saturday?! Say what!

Like the Energizer Bunny...it keeps going and going...

I had a really good day at Michigan’s Adventure. I think it exceeded my expectations. I only got to spend about 5 hours in the park but I think those were hours well spent. I was able to ride all of their 7 roller coasters as well as the train and Ferris Wheel. The weather was great, the crowds were minimal for a Saturday, and Shivering Timbers cracked my Top Ten coaster list. That ride exceeded my expectations on every level. I ended up with 10 rides on it during our visit but those 10 rides were memorable and made the visit to Michigan’s Adventure worth it.  

I enjoyed my day

I see Timbers Hills!

Shivering Timbers is HUGE!

Air Time Galore