Various Trips of 1996 (Part One)
One of Molly’s favorite places to
go for weekend trips was Lake Placid . Since it was only a drive of an hour or so,
it was a nice venue for some short trips.
There was an Econo Lodge just inside the village (you’d drive past the
bobsled runs, ski jumps, and torch, but you wouldn’t reach the Olympic Museum
yet). That was a good central location
to have as a base point.
Even though the Olympic events
ended back in 1980, the Lake Placid region was
still used for various athletes to train.
It also hosted trials, semi-finals, and other meets designed to place on
the national levels, as well as some exhibitions. While were up there, a skeleton competition
was taking place. The sport of skeleton
is very similar to luge, where a single person rides a sled down an icy track
at insanely-high speeds. Luge has the
person laying on their back and feet first, while skeleton is on-the-stomach
and head first. It doesn’t matter how
you’re sitting, reaching acceleration of up to 5g will still hurt you pretty
bad.
Yes, this is the same track which
is also used for bobsledding.
Bobsledding is where a two or four person team rides down inside a
cart. The cart, also known as the
bobsled (which the sport is named after), has steering and brake controls
inside. While the speeds are comparable,
in my opinion bobsledding is slightly safer.
Since you’re inside the bobsled, if it flips (which does happen now and
then), the exterior of the cart can protect the occupants from impact. While both the luge and skeleton sleds have
small hand-brakes on either side (for limited steering), it’s really no
different than zipping down the hill behind your house on the plastic
toboggan. If the thing flips, you’re not
attached to the sled, and you’ll go spinning ass-over-tea-kettle until what
little friction the track provides brings you to a jarring halt.
Since this was only a Friday
through Saturday trip, once we had our breakfast at the Bear’s Den restaurant
in the village of
Lake Placid Lake Placid
are always nice to look at.
SIX FLAGS GREAT ADVENTURE (JACKSON , NJ
Part-time during the summers, Molly
worked at the Great Escape theme park in Lake George . Hey, who doesn’t like having extra money, and
she enjoyed it. I’d gone to Storytown
(what Great Escape used to be called) every year through grade school, and a
couple times during the end of my high-school run. To me, it’d become pretty repetitive, so
there wasn’t much sense in going in my post-college life. Roller coasters are okay, but they never
really “thrilled” me. Since Great Escape
had been acquired by Six Flags, that meant Molly could use her employee
discount to visit any other theme park within the corporate family. Take a trip to New Jersey to check out a different
location? Sure, I’m game for that.
And New Jersey ’s toll system really does
suck. With the New Your State Thruway,
you get your ticket when you enter, and that tells you what you’re going to pay
when you exit. With New Jersey , it like every five miles or so
we had to stop at a tollbooth and chunk out a quarter here or seventy-five
cents there. That adds a lot to the
drive time too. Ultimately, that eats
into your play time too, as we weren’t planning on spending the night down
there.
Once we got parked, then we went
around various rides that we didn’t have to wait too long to get into. Since it was a hot summer day, the lines were
crazy for any water-related ride. We
hadn’t brought a change of clothes, and it’s no fun to wander around a place
soaking wet, no matter how hot it was.
Shoes don’t dry that quick. And
there’s the thought of what potential wet clothes will do to your car
seats. Still, the temperature was much
cooler around the water rides, so we stood there to get some breaks from
walking. We just made sure to check the
splash pattern so we could remain cool and dry.
Theme parks are designed to have an
“one price admission” so the only things you’ll spend your money on when you
get are over-priced greasy food, watered-down warm beverages, and bric-a-brac
souvenirs. Some time there’s a side
venue which requires you to pay a little extra to check it out. There were two I found down there, and
overall they were worth the extra what I paid for them.
The first was an indoor “laser tag”
course. A group of twenty gets suited up
in orange or green gear (ten on each team), and you have a fifteen minute
match. The area was dark, with
black-lights providing the only illumination.
Each team has an objective to score more points than the other, but
it’ll give you an individual rating too.
The harness I wore had a sensor on front and back, and there was also
one on the end of the gun. There was a
little vibration feature to let you know when you were “hit,” but with the
adrenaline rush I didn’t notice it at all.
After a certain number of hits, your gun would stop working, and you’d
have to run to one of two recharge stations to reactivate it. The recharge stations were in opposite
corners from each other, and the two other corners of the square course was
where each team’s home base was. The
home base had a sensor inside, when hit, would register a lot of points for the
team.
Since I’d played real Lazer Tag
with Shawn, Chuck, and others, this was old hat to me. It was a free-for-all, with everyone firing
at whatever moved, and half the hits everyone got was due to
friendly-fire. Tactically, it made no
sense to “guard” my team’s base, due to the time limit (and you’re going to
spend that entire time being dug in on defense?
I think not). I made my way to
the other side of the course, and charged the opposing base. The three grade-school defenders scattered as
I rushed them. Since their base was
mine, I laid down (to provide cover) and continuously shot at the sensor to
score my team a ridiculous amount of points.
The downside of that strategy was I got shot every time one of my own
team made their way into the enemy base.
After the match ended, you were
given a printout which was correlated to the particular harness you wore. It showed who you hit and how many times, and
who hit you. Yeah, I knew I was shot by
my own team more than the enemy. It also
showed that I scored about twenty hits on the opposing base, so my team won
that match. What did we get for
participating? A bottle of water, and a
comment of a “job well-done.” Fifteen
minutes doesn’t sound like much, but to be in motion the entire time was
tough. It was fun, and I’m glad I did
it.
The other interesting there was a
virtual reality (VR) machine. It was a
small amount to pay for a ten minute demo, in order to give you feel of what a
total-immersion video game would feel like.
I stood without in a circular platform with railings, just to keep
someone from unconsciously taking any steps forward. The controller I held on to had the trigger
to fire my weapon, and a thumb-knob to allow me to move forward or backwards
(thus keeping a player from trying to walk).
The helmet had wrap-around goggles, and ear-muffs which cut you off from
the outside world. Everything I saw or
heard was part of the game. There was a
monitor behind me, so others could see what I was seeing.
The game scenario was going down
into the sewer tunnels and looking for aliens.
A “bug hunt” is a pretty basic objective, and perfect for the demo. I’d hear a sound from one side, spin in that
direction, and then open fire on anything that moved there. I doubted I’d be trying to rescue anyone in
such a short time frame, so I’d just assume everything was a hostile. The rendering for the VR computers were a bit
slow in certain instances. I’d hear a
sound, spin to left, see nothing but grey pixels, and then look back the way I
was facing … which at time the system would be showing me what I’d looked at to
the left. Hey, it’s new technology,
there’s going to be some limitations.
>grin<
The other part of the sensory
experience was the one I’d hadn’t anticipated on. When I was standing in line waiting, those
who were jacked in where just making “oohs” and “aahs,” or comments like “this
is cool.” Without realizing it, I really
got into the plot of the scenario. I
didn’t know that until the demo had finished, and the helmet removed to
reestablish my connection with the real world.
It was at that point I was being told that I’d been yelling things like
“die you bastard bugs,” and “frag” (the exclamation used by DC Comics’ assassin
character Lobo). I found it all rather
amusing, as it added to the sensory experience I’d had.
So while I can say the rides at Six
Flags Great Adventure were okay, the best part of the whole day’s experience
were the two things I’d just mentioned.
The laser tag thing was fun, and that would be more interesting to do
with a group. But the VR was something I
want to do again, and the next time I hope the technology has improved to make
it react quicker. Still, I was impressed
at the quality.
For current information on the places visited:
Olympic Sports Complex: http://www.lakeplacid.com/do/family-fun/olympic-sports-complex
Six Flags Great Adventure: http://www.sixflags.com/greatAdventure/index.aspx
Great Escape (formerly
Storytown): http://www.sixflags.com/greatEscape/index.aspx
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