4th Stop: Kings Dominion, Richmond, VA

A smaller, older, family-oriented park, with one huge kick!

We flew into Richmond International as we approached the halfway mark of our journey.  We had very nice accommodations in a restored classic of a hotel, the Jefferson. The photo reveals that this is something of a contrast to the Holiday Inn we stayed at in Gurney IL!

Our room was plush, spacious, and comfortable. The service was impeccable.  It was a delight staying here.

But we're here primarily for - more roller coasters!  So it was off to Kings Dominion on Monday morning!

This is a family-oriented, older park (just celebrating its 40th anniversary).  There really are only three significant, contemporary 'coasters here: Dominator, Volcano, and Intimidator 305.

We rode Dominator first. It's a twisty, multi-inversion steel 'coaster that we enjoyed. A good, solid 7.

Volcano was a surprise. This features a track that includes shooting you from inside a dark "volcano" vertically straight up through the top of it! What we didn't know was that this is a linear motor-driven beast, so it was a big shock when just after leaving the loading station we got rapidly accelerated straight into the volcano structure, and, shortly thereafter, accelerated again out through the top. After that thrill, there are multiple corkscrew inversions and twists. It's a fairly short ride, but a truly memorable one!

Kings Dominion has three operating wood roller coasters. The oldest, Rebel Yell, has been featured in movies and, while mild compared to the incredible El Toro we had just ridden at Six Flags Great Adventure, it was still a fun ride. The other two older woodies, though, were really showing their age. We like getting rattled around in wood 'coasters, but these two, especially the Grizzly, were so rough that they were literally painful rides.

Here's P holding her already bruised ribs after getting off Grizzly. No repeat rides on this one!








Finally, there was the biggest, fastest, tallest ride at King's: Intimidator 305. This ride opened in 2010 and, with its 305 foot rise and 300 foot 85 degree first drop, it is almost identical specification-wise to Cedar Point's famous Millennium Force, which we rode last week. We were very interested to see how it compared.

Just look at the initial (60-degree, cable-lift) hill. This is a photo from the loading station as a train starts up that hill. It just feels like you are going to shoot right out of the atmosphere!

Folks, 305 feet is a thirty story building. It's a long way up.

The first time we rode Intimidator 305 we did so from a middle car in the train.  After the thrilling, 93 MPH 300 foot drop, the ride cranks around a big right turn and you pull some serious G's. By that I mean that you get tunnel vision and are on the edge of blacking out around that turn. Seriously. (We found out later that there are many internet discussions about blacking out on this ride.)

It was a great ride. But it got better.

After our first ride on it, we went around the park and enjoyed some of the other attractions, lunch, and re-rides on Dominator and Volcano. But we just had to ride 305 again before we left.

This time, we decided to wait the extra 20 minutes or so to get in the front of the front car. So we strapped in, and off we shot up that hill, and then all hell broke loose.

Turns out it is a completely different experience in that front seat. There is nothing shielding you from the full brunt of a 93 MPH 300 foot plunge. The "wind" on your face is incredible! You are hauling ass, and you know for sure that you are hauling ass!

Whether it was from being a bit tired or from being unprepared, when I (Gordon) hit that big G turn at the bottom of the drop I actually did black out for about 5 seconds or so. I completely lost my sense of where I was and I had a little 5-second dream of some sort. Then I was back and enjoyed the realization that I was on a roller coaster and had plenty of twists and turns to go!

When the ride ended and I got off, I literally couldn't see straight. I thought perhaps it was an aftereffect of being briefly blacked out, but that was not it. What had happened was...

MY RIGHT CONTACT LENS WAS BLOWN COMPLETELY OFF MY EYE DURING THAT 300 FOOT DROP!  And that happened with sunglasses on!!!

So somewhere beneath Intimidator 305, probably nestled amongst myriad earrings, hats, sunglasses, and other fodder, lies a Coopervision toric multifocal contact lens.  This is the first time in over 20 years I have lost a contact lens. And what a wonderful, memorable way to do it!

Fortunately, this happened at the end of our day. Patricia had to take the wheel to drive back to the hotel, where, fortunately, I had a spare contact lens in my travel kit.

For me (Gordon), at least, Intimidator 305 "blew away" Millennium Force.

One parting photo, germane to our trip: A charming kiddie ride featuring wonderfully-rendered biplanes in flight, attended to by Mr. Red Baron himself; Snoopy.