Walt Disney World
The Magic Kingdom
Lake Buena Vista, Florida
January 25 & 30 2013
Page Eight






Ok...time for a nice picture with Grandma and Mom before Bond and Dad goes coaster crazy.



In Fronteirland "coaster crazy" means one thing...Big Thunder Mountain Railroad.



This is the first coaster that I ever fell in love with.  I wasn't always a coaster enthusiast.  In fact when I was a little kid I was dragged onto the Old Chicago Loop unwillingly and it freaked me out so much I wanted nothing to do with coasters.



Then came our trip to The Magic Kingdom in January of 1981.  A big part of the reason I didn't like coasters was that to my mind the steel structures looked flimsy and the 73 foot drop on The Chicago Loop was just so tall and in the mind of a nine year old Big Thunder was "on the ground" and not to tall so I was able to ride this coaster without those fears popping up.



In fact my sister who was two years older than me and I were left alone by ourselves in a very empty Magic Kingdom (hey it was a different world back then) and we rode Big Thunder Mountain Railroad then ran around and got on the next train and did that again and again and again for something like four hours.  For much of that time we had Big Thunder Mountain all to ourselves for a rare "Zen Ride" decades before I ever knew  what that phrase meant.



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Paul B. Drabek