La Ronde - Six Flags

Ok, more details on the La Ronde trip, now that we've caught our collective breath, here's a bit about what we did that day. If you're interested.

After arriving at the Park, we were told that there was the potential that it could close early, due to bad weather. It'd been raining off and on during the morning, but had stopped at that point.

Still, we decided to risk it and keep going. Once we walked in the park, we decided to get in all the stuff we'd like to do in case the weather turned. My main goal? Ride as many of the roller coasters as possible. I'd never been on one before, but I sure planned on getting some in that day.

First stop for me was the Cobra. This ride goes at over 75 km/h, flipping (or inverting) the riders over once. I got in the passenger area, which in this case wasn't a seat. On this ride, the rider is standing up for the whole trip. Strapped in, the ride began to move ahead. And that's when it hit me what I was doing. Up, up, up the ride went. Melanie watched from the ground, taking photos along the way.

Yeah, I'm in that photo. At that point, I started to think about what I was doing. That thinking didn't last long, since I was soon hurtled down the other side of the metal hill. I won't tell you what I was thinking at that point, as there may be children and other fragile eyes reading this. But by the end, I was loving it. I was nothing but grins by the time I got off that ride.

Next up...the Vampire. All told, this had to be my favourite. I did it not once, but several times. It was THAT good. Over 80 km/h, with not one, not two, but 5 inversions! Awesome.

I'm on top, in the middle of the arch. And loving it. Oh, did I mention that you're hanging from the thing, your feet dangling in mid-air? I'd say pointing at the ground, but that didn't happen that much.

Another great ride there was the Monster. This ride is the second largest wooden roller coaster in the world. Mom, don't worry. No inversions on this one. Just one large, rattling, 20-year old wooden roller coaster, travelling at 96 km/h.

One of the highlights of the trip to La Ronde was the newest ride, Goliath. This ride takes you over 1 kilometer of track, with an inital drop of 171 feet, travelling at 110 km/h. That's highway speeds. Sweet. But going up the steep incline, I remember thinking "man, this is SO not right...". While hurtling down the hill, that was reinforced. I recall noting that I seemed to feel like I was almost floating at times, due to the negative G-forces from the dips and so on. I won't bore you with the details. Suffice to say, I was floating. But the next time I was on the ride (yes, I went again...), I noticed that I was much more secure in the seat. Was it due to the confidence in the ride and myself? No, I realized that my harness hadn't been secure enough the first trip. Oops. That could have ended badly. But the ride was fun.

Not to be left out, Melanie went on a number of rides as well. She wasn't allowed to go on some of the more wild rides, but she still managed to get some real thrills from going on the other rides. In particular, she did a few of the water rides, as well as another ride or two. Quite the adventurer!

The other time she had her heart rate go up was when I was on the Orbite. This ride puts you in seats, which surround a tower. Without warning, the thing fires you like an ejection seat (but still around the tower) and high above the park. Awesome for me, heart-in-the-throat for Melanie. But all in all, a great day!

More on our adventures later...

Matt

We're in Quebec City now. And it's been a long day. We walked a good portion of the historic area of Quebec, the section known as Old Quebec. The weather held out for us, with only a little drizzle. But that didn't matter, because the city made up for it.

I won't go in to it all at the moment, but we can sure tell you stories about how incredible this city is. It's just how we picture Europe would be. Seriously. But without the Krispy Kreme donuts we had in Montreal before leaving. Mmmm...

The food here is incredible. The culture, unbelievable. The exhaustion, formidable. So, off to get some rest.

We'll put some pictures up tomorrow for you all to check out. Ok, I'll put up a couple, but without captions. Hey, we're tired, and it's late!

Oh, and if anyone wants to travel, just three letters to remember...CAA. Lots of discounts from it, and great hotel rooms because of it.

And no, that's not a paid endorsement. But if they ARE reading this and want to reimburse us....

Just a thought.

Oh, I forgot to add the link to the photos....

Click here for Montreal photos!

And here are the Quebec City photos.

Welcome from Montreal. Or should I say Bonjour? We got in here last night after driving up from Fredericton. We'd stayed there Friday night. Good thing, too...seems I forgot to put the bag with Melanie's meds in the car, as well as some other handy things like toothbrushes, etc.

Oops.

But with the help of the pharmasist in Fredericton, we managed to get the meds, albeit the next morning, on Saturday. So all was good, and we were on our way.

After crossing the border into Quebec, Melanie quickly realized the language barrier was there. Luckily, most people either could speak a little english, or we could carry off enough french to get by. Really!

Anyways, back to last night. We got into Montreal just as it was turning dark. After we checked in, we went for a drive downtown. And got lost. Hey, it's a big city. Using our collective luck, we finally found where we were and came back to the hotel.

Today, we went downtown again (now that we know our way around...) and checked out the big underground mall and went to the train station. Central Station is beautiful. I'm uploading a few photos for those that want or care to see them. I'll provide a link at the end of the blog here.

After we did that, we took another drive around town, and found Chinatown. We shopped a bit, looked around, and then headed on our way to La Ronde.

What's La Ronde? Only one of the Six Flags theme parks. With the largest roller coaster in Canada, and one of the largest wooden roller coasters in the world.

Sweet...

I even got Melanie on a few rides. Not the big ones, but some interesting ones. All in all, I did every roller coaster there, some several times. Nice thing about a cloudy day, with threat of rain. Not many people, no lines.

Well, I'd better get going. Tomorrow, Quebec City!

Talk soon.

Matt