Roller Coasters: Steel Jungles of Fun and Adrenaline

Since I was young I have been a adventure junkie. I love getting out and going new places, trying new things and of course going fast. Roller coasters are the perfect answer for all my thrill seeking needs! But I am not talking about dinky roller coasters, I am talking about the mega huge and fast roller coasters we have all over the country.

The first roller coaster, Switchback Railway, was patented on January 20, 1885 and was located at Coney Island. It went a max speed of 7 mph. Since then roller coasters have evolved to giant metal monsters that range from top speeds of 50 to 90 mph!

My experience with roller coasters has been nothing but tremendous. I have ridden some great roller coasters along the east coast and plan to take in as many as I can in my years to come. But here are some of my favorites.

At Six Flags New England in Springfield, Massachusetts they have several awesome roller coasters. Superman Ride of Steel, opened in 2000, is the best roller coaster at the park. It has a first drop of 221 feet at a 72 degree angle and reaches speeds of 77 mph. It was rated Best Steel Coaster in 2007. With the heart pounding first drop it doesn't stop there but throws in tight curves, heights and drops and even going through tunnels. This is a coaster you cant miss!

Also at Six Flags New England they have Batman - The Dark Knight. It is a floorless roller coaster that reaches speeds of 55 mph. It goes upside down through loopdeloops but that is about as good as it gets. The Dark Knight is a fun coaster but it is way too short of a ride. Superman, as always, outshines Batman on this one.

The Mind Eraser is just like its name implies. If you are looking for a brain shattering ride this is it. It is a looping coaster that reaches speeds of 60 mph. It is a heck of a ride with tons of twists and tight turns but it does throw you around quite a bit. Still worth the ride though!

The last decent roller coaster at Six Flags New England is the Flashback. This coaster pulls you up backwards to the top, 117 feet, then dropped back down through the station into two loops. After this you are taken to the top again and dropped back down. It reaches speeds of 47 mph. A fun ride that gives you a sense of vertigo.

Onto our next theme park! Busch Gardens Europe in Williamsburg, Virginia. Wow! What a awesome bunch of coasters this park has. Apollo's Chariot is the big beastie of the park. With a 210 foot first drop and speeds of 73 mph, who would stand in this gods way? Rated #6 on the Best Steel Coaster list in 2006 this coaster gives you an exciting ride plummets passengers a total of 825 feet total.

Alpengeist, a cool name for a roller coaster if you ask me, is the tallest and one of the fastest full circuit inverted roller coaster in the world. At heights of 195 feet and speeds of 67 mph this roller coaster will knock your socks off. The ride is themed as a runaway ski lift. The name comes from the legendary snow beast of the Alps. It translates to German for "Ghost of the Alps" or "Alps Spirit"

The Big Bad Wolf lives up to its name. It is a suspended swinging coaster that takes you down drops and across the waters edge and just slightly over the shops of Busch Gardens Europe. This coaster reaches speeds of 48 mph with sharp drops and teeth chattering turns.

I couldn't get enough of the Loch Ness Monster coaster when I was at Busch Gardens! It is the only coaster still operating to have interlocking loops. It raises to heights of 130 feet and speeds of 60 mph. This coaster has more loops then Shirley Temples hair! It was rated World's Tallest Complete Circuit Roller Coaster from 1978 - 1983. Definitely not a ride to miss! Along with these great coasters, Busch Gardens Europe has some new ides planned for the coming years.

I also recently went to Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa Bay, Florida. Unfortunately due to weather conditions I didn't get to ride all the coasters but I did get on the important one, the newly floorless roller coaster, SheiKra. What an amazing ride. This coaster means business. With 8 people seating across you are strapped in. You are taken up to the first drop, a height of 200 feet and just when you think you are going over the edge, they stop you, and you just hang there. The first drop being 90 degrees straight down. Just when you relax they let you go. You are going straight down at a speed of 70 mph. There are sharp turns and then another 90 degree drop! It doesn't get any better then this! I do wish the ride was longer, but it was still awesome. It was rated #13 in the Best Steel Coaster list in 2006.

I have saved the best for last. Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio is better known as "The Roller Coaster Capital of the World" and rightfully so. It hosts 17 roller coasters, most of them being on the Best Roller Coaster lists at some point and has some of the biggest and baddest roller coasters around. It has always won the "Best Amusement Park in the World" for the past 10 years.

Millennium Force, the big bad of Cedar Point, is 310 feet tall. This coaster has been voted the #1 Steel Coaster in the World five times since 2001, and has never been ranked lower than #2 since it opened. The first drop is 300 feet (that's 30 stories folks!) and reaches a top speed of 93 mph. Along with tight turns and ups and down, this roller coaster is fast and big. The main attraction of Cedar Point, a must ride.

Top Thrill Dragster is the new kid on the block at Cedar Point. It is a mere height of 420 feet that launches you from a dead stop to 120 mph up a 90 degree incline and then back down 90 degrees but with a twist. That's nothing right? Awesome. This roller coaster is so scary and intimated I almost didn't ride it. But I am glad I did. It was over before the shock of what I was doing could set in.

I wont go into all the roller coasters of Cedar Point because there are so many, and they are all awesome. It is worth the trip to Ohio to go, specially if you are a roller coaster fan.

Check out information on all these parks and roller coasters. Whenever you get a chance, try something new. If you have ridden all the great roller coasters and think there is nothing new to come, you are wrong my friend. They are always coming up with new ideas to try to make us thrill seekers loose our lunch. We just have to keep pushing them to make the riders bigger and faster.