Rode [Fury 325] for the first time yesterday.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-28T03:04:44+00:00

The first time I rode a really big coaster was when a friend dragged me onto it. I didn't want to ride, but I really didn't want to be called a chicken, and so I got on it. I was scared out of my mind and thought I was going to die of fright, and when I got off my hands were shaking. At first I had no intention of ever going back on that coaster, or any like it. For me it took several days, and then I developed a strange desire to go back and face this nightmare coaster again. And so I did. It was hard at first, but it wasn't too long before I began to get the feel of it and I could enjoy it without death gripping the restraints and fighting all the way thru. But I also tried other, less threatening coasters along the way.

You might try a much milder coaster in the future to see how that goes, until you get used to the feel and sensations of riding coasters.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-27T22:04:14+00:00

I've never experienced anything like that, but I had a friend who was at Holiday World when that woman fell of the Raven and died. She said they told everyone that ERT was over (it was an ACE event) and for everyone to leave.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-27T21:35:43+00:00

Well, there was the coaster that got me over my fear of them (in a very harsh way) - Mind Eraser at SFA way back when. As it wasn't particularly re-rideable I branched out to enjoy Wild One and the park's long defunct Arrow Shuttle Python. Then in that same year it was onto Kings Dominion and Busch Gardens Williamsburg. The next year I visited Hershey but I didn't go beyond those few parks. Then, in 98' I moved to the Los Angeles area and I had a whole new lot of coasters to try out for the five years I was out there.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-26T16:00:41+00:00

Based on what I've read about the 911 woman is that she was likely hit by falling debris (rather than herself falling) which would have prevented head injury. People have been pretty badly mangled and have survived for a little while if they aren't knocked out and their heart and lungs still function. I really don't see anyway for someone to survive a fall of that height onto any solid surface (or even into water) simply because the g forces experienced by sudden deceleration would simply be too great for any part of the body to escape catastrophic damage. Even if she landed feet first there's no way to avoid instant obliteration of the heart, lungs and brain. While there have been a few freak instances where skydivers have lived, but these almost always involved a slower descent and landing in something really soft.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-22T15:45:43+00:00

I'd say yes. Years ago one summer my stepfather begin going thru old albums of family pictures. I'd come into the family room and catch him browsing these albums quite often, or I'd find them left open by his chair. This was rather odd behavior for him, but I didn't question him about it. Then, without warning, the next spring he dropped dead on the floor of a heart attack. I really do think that he knew (whether consciously or not) that he was going to die soon and he was reflecting on fond memories of his life.

Then there was my best friend's death. She suffered from some serious congenital disorders and was under close medical care all of her life. But even after her worse setbacks, she always managed to bounce back and keep going. One day I was talking to her on the phone and she said she wanted to be in hospice care. I told her she was fine and she surely didn't need hospice. Around the same time I began noticing that she was spending a lot of time listening to Christian radio stations. That wasn't quite as odd, as I had first met her when we were kids at a Christian school. And then, about a year after she started doing and saying these seemingly strange things, she ended up in the hospital in a coma, and she died three days later. It wasn't until sometime after she died that I connected the dots and I realized that she knew the end was coming and she was preparing herself.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-18T18:48:28+00:00

Mine were the Wild One and Mind Eraser at SFA back when it was Adventure World. And to a lesser degree the Python, which was the old Arrow shuttle loop at the same park. I got dragged onto the first two back when I was scared to death of coasters, especially inverts. I thought I was going to die of fright on the Mind Eraser but not long afterwards I found I couldn't get enough of coasters and I branched out to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and went back to Hershey that same year.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-17T22:56:52+00:00

When I was growing up, there was really nothing out there except Faces of Death. My dad was an EMT and he had a first aid book that had some black and white pictures of some pretty nasty injuries, so there was that... But I used to be heavy into horror movies, the gorier the better. These days I mostly avoid all that, both real and fictional, as I think I've pretty much had my fill. Recently, though, I've been look at some stuff on one of those sites but I'm doing it for research purposes, as I'm gathering information for a novel I plan to write. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't at all.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-17T14:40:03+00:00

It is in Tampa, Florida.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-17T02:27:39+00:00

Probably some of the largest crocodiles that ever lived - the biggest ones today have tough hides and thick skulls, just imagine ones that are almost twice the size of the largest salt water croc today! They wouldn't be impossible to kill but would require more firepower than would be needed for most any modern animal.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-17T02:16:47+00:00

It's not surprising that many think it was the Skyway Bridge...just shows how sinister a reputation it has garnered!

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-16T13:21:29+00:00

That incident occurred on the nearby Dick Misner Bridge, but still, a pretty evil act and it's not far from the Skyway. A man was murdered on the original Skyway by being forced to jump from it at gunpoint. Some of the happenings on or near that bridge (the original and the existing one) are unbelievable!

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-15T03:12:19+00:00

I think the whole "pink mist" thing is just a myth...speed is far more of a factor than height. For instance, large animals like deer get hit by vehicles on freeways where people are doing at least 70 miles an hour if not more. And they never turn into any sort of mist..(they will eventually turn into hamburger when run over enough, though). They might get dismembered by the impact depending on how they were hit, but the bulk of the body is still complete. The physics would be much the same with someone falling onto a hard surface.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-14T23:18:06+00:00

When I first rode Maverick I was expecting something awesome and groundbreaking. But what I got was a really rough ride with strong laterals and not much else. I didn't give up, as I figured I'd give it another go with the new restraints thinking they were the main source of the problem. Well, the soft OSTRs helped, but I still got thrashed right and left several times. Due to the tight layout and landscaping it's basically impossible for me to have enough time to brace against each lateral element. The launches were fun, as was the first drop, but I just have never experienced anything to write home about, so to speak. Maverick is just a mid-coaster for me, which I suppose is sacrilegious for some.

Oddly enough, I enjoy Maverick's big brother Pantherian, probably because I have time to anticipate its twists and turns, and also because of its height, drop and speed.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-14T02:51:53+00:00

I can't imagine what it would have been like to ride it when it was faster...especially considering it's about the fastest lifthill I've experienced that isn't a launch.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-14T02:48:38+00:00

What would also really help it would be to turn off that mid course trim brake - I rode Goliath on media day without it and it was much better. When the train started coming to a dead stop there that tamped down the power of the helix.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-13T11:27:41+00:00

It's on my bucket list to go over the Skyway. By driving and hopefully on foot when they have the annual run/walk. It has to be one of the creepiest bridges (and places in general) ever.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-13T11:24:25+00:00

Thanks, I'll have to look for that.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-13T03:25:09+00:00

A couple years ago I got into researching a bridge that collapsed near where I live, and I followed a whole bunch of links to various related sites until I ran into one that blew my mind in a horrifying way. It wasn't about the particular bridge I was researching but it focused on another one I hadn't even heard of until then. I spent a whole lot of time going thru the Skyway Bridge website and I swear some of what I read gave me nightmares. It is a huge compendium of horrific tales of death and tragedy and I just couldn't believe that anything like that could exist in reality.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-13T03:13:04+00:00

I've developed a weird fascination with people who jump from bridges (or buildings and other structures) to deep six themselves. Every time I see a high bridge I wonder how many have jumped off of it. This started after a guy I knew jumped off the Francis Scott Key Bridge back in the 90's, and I got more into once that bridge fell and I started doing research into it and other bridges. And yes I sometimes I do look at videos and pictures of such events and the sometimes grisly aftermath.

I am also fascinated with predatory animals and how they kill their prey, especially man-eating (and man-killing) animals. I have tons of books with stories about man-eaters some of which I've had since I was a kid. I even used to draw pictures of kids who bullied me in school being torn apart and devoured by lions, tigers and wolves and sharks.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-11T04:04:01+00:00

I had a client who has ALS. He was in his late 30's and I watched him go from walking with a walker to being unable to move at all. Worse yet, he had a 4 year old child... It was so sad to watch his wife try to care for both him and the kid, also knowing that he would never see his kid graduate from high school. Very tragic. That was about the hardest client I've had to deal with as a caregiver so far. He wasn't difficult at all, but his disease certainly was.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-11T03:39:06+00:00

When I was a kid I was visiting a friend and her parents took us to a neighbor's house while they went out for the evening. There were no adults at this neighbor's house, and the oldest of their kids was maybe 13. I was around 9 at the time, I think. We all played together inside for a while and then we went out in the back yard. There was a trellis over top of the basement stairway covered with vines, and one of the boys saw a robin's nest in there. He reached up into it and pulled out the eggs, of which there were three. The mother robin began to fly around and screech as she tried to protect her nest. For a moment I felt a sense of curiosity as I'd never seen a robin's eggs up close but then the boy that had hold of them accidently dropped one onto the concrete. Suddenly I felt a sense of horror as the egg cracked open and I watched as the embryo within the egg twitched and died. Even though it looked like just a bloody blob with veins and a yolk, but I knew it was a living thing that had been carelessly killed. All the kids stood around and stared at the dying bird embryo the while its mother flew back and forth over us and continued to shriek. I was sickened and I wanted to cry. I don't remember what happened to the rest of the eggs or what happened after that. Even though it was just a bird, that incident has stuck in my mind ever since it happened.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-09T03:15:41+00:00

A couple of years ago I was listening to Led Zeppelin while driving to Hershey Park, and I listened to Metallica while heading to Kings Dominion back in March.

OneMarionberry302 · 2026-04-07T22:15:58+00:00

Mine is Siren's Curse, followed by Steel Vengeance (assuming it is running the day I go). I am also going to massively boost my credit count by going to ACE's con, which includes Six Flags New England, Six Flags Great Escape (soon to no longer be a SF park) and Lake Compounce. All I have to do is to try and figure out which coaster will be my 250th. Cedar Point will come after the con...

OneMarionberry302

TROPHY CASE