broken ride mountain

this past weekend, i spent a day outside in the blazing heat at six flag's magic mountain with my cousin 'J'. the first ride we got in line for was tatsu, a rollercoaster that even got advertisements on the radio here in arizona. unfortunately, about 30 to 40 minutes into the line, we heard that the ride had broken down and that it would be a 3 or 4 hour wait before it would be up and running again. so we said screw that and went off to another ride.

when tatsu was finally up and running, we waited the hour and forty minutes to get to the front of the line. it's very exciting to be next in line to get on the ride. your anticipation is through the roof as you realize that a multi-hour wait is about to pay off. when our coaster whooshed in with a bunch of frazzled riders, the crowd waiting in line gave a cheer for the safe arrival of our predecessors. unfortunately, it was at this precise moment in time, just as the roller coaster we would be riding on arrived, that the restraints holding the riders in place refused to unlock. this kept the riders stuck inside the roller coaster, which meant that i could not get on said roller coaster. what can you really do when you're next in line? nothing really. you can't go on the ride, but you surely can't leave, as it might be up and running at any time, and you would have wasted all that time you spend in line. so, we waited. and waited. we were next in line for forty or more minutes before they were able to get the ride back up and running.

a single ride down two times in one day. not exactly an impressive showing for the ride maintenance people at magic mountain. incredibly enough, that wasn't the only one. throughout the day, we saw three other rides that were broken, either temporarily, or for the entire day. at least we didn't have to walk down from the big hill like some people we saw.