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Episode 16 - Get to the Cedar Point with Jacob Nave image

Episode 16 - Get to the Cedar Point with Jacob Nave

Afternoon Delights
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10 Plays1 year ago

This week we have a tale of redemption. Our very first guest Jacob Nave is back to take the crown for most listens in the Nave family away from his brother Joey. This week we discuss summer activities, our favorite stadium foods, and learn a little bit about the history of Roller Coasters before drafting the best rides at Cedar Point. Be sure to tune in to help our first-ever guest reclaim his title.

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Transcript

Welcome Back Jacob Nave

00:00:00
Speaker
Good
00:00:24
Speaker
Good afternoon, Delights. I'm your host, Matt Lattimer, just trying to bring you a smile on this Wednesday, but I couldn't do that alone. So I brought on a very special guest, our second return guest, the very first guest on afternoon, Delights. That is right, everybody. Mr. Jacob Nave is back. How are you doing today, Jacob?
00:00:43
Speaker
doing well. It's great to be back after all those first, second, second, first. I think I kept straight where I'm at in the podcast history, but yeah, ready to chop it up with you.

Addressing Rumors: Jacob vs Joey

00:00:54
Speaker
Now, the reason that you're coming back from what we have heard is because your brother Joey Knave just absolutely shattered your listener record and you won another shot of title. Can you confirm these allegations?
00:01:06
Speaker
They're partially true. I think I wanted to come on mainly to clear up that I'm pretty sure he just was lying basically the entire time he was on his podcast appearance. But yeah, it's been a while. I think I've got a better radio voice than he does. We might look the same, but we don't sound the same. And looking forward to not blabbering on as long as he did, not misspeaking as often as he did, and just giving the listeners a really positive experience, you know, over the next half hour or so.
00:01:33
Speaker
I don't know. I think I'm feeling a little bit of brotherly jealousy here. You know, why don't you tell the people what Joey is like in your eyes? He's aloof. He's, as he said, he's very quiet. He's very even keel, very independent, introverted. You know, definitely hangs out in some corners of the internet and read pages that I don't frequent as often. But yeah, he can be funny. He can be clever and witty. You just have to catch him on the right day to make sure he's in a good environment that he wants to show that side of himself.
00:02:02
Speaker
I agree, Joey is maybe the weirdest person that I know, but you know what? That's just why I love him even more. Yeah. I mean, he's my brother, so obviously love him and obviously kind of feel the way of, you know, I can make fun of him, but other people can't.

Chocolate Bar News

00:02:15
Speaker
All right, Jacob. Now there was some pretty big news dropped today in our group chat. A little bit of a surprise. We've been teasing it for a while now. Would you like to break that news to our listeners?
00:02:26
Speaker
Yeah, we have, the chocolate bar is going to be live sooner rather than later now. You know, when I talked with the chocolatier himself, that's chocolatier this side of Willy Wonka, talked about how I enjoy white chocolate and I enjoy fruit. He's whipped up knaves, strawberries, and cream, which, just in the one photo I've seen,
00:02:46
Speaker
looks delicious. I love ice cream over the summer but I might just be ordering a half dozen of these every month and that might be my sweet fix for the summer. I'm very excited to try it but trust him with you know making a shit flavored chocolate bar sound good and I think this is a unique taste that doesn't really exist in the market and I think people are gonna love it. Now as I write and seen this picture looked like it had some fruity pebbles inside of the chocolate, is that correct?
00:03:14
Speaker
I'll be honest with you, I cannot confirm nor deny what that might be in the white chocolate. That was not something I don't think we originally talked about, but again, I have full faith and confidence in trusting his judgment. I do love those free kid cereals, so I'm sure that'll be a twist and a cherry on top that'll make it taste even better.
00:03:34
Speaker
I'm pretty excited to give it a try. If you're listening out there, people, it's going to be online soon. Maybe give it a month or so. We'll let you know when it's live. And you just head over to CopperCattleChocolateFactory.com.

Summer Activities and Weather

00:03:44
Speaker
Jacob, how are you feeling about this weather lately? It feels like summer's starting to come on. We've had about, what, three or four sunny days in a row now.
00:03:51
Speaker
Three or four sunny days, three or four days where we've been in the mid 70s. I think we would hit 80 degrees the other day. So, you know, got outside and drank a brewski Tuesday night at a local craft brewery. So that was awesome. But this of course is fake summer. I think it's going to be around 50 degrees on Sunday afternoon. Again, hopefully one more cold spell. And then we were ready for supper and pools and barbecues and all that magical stuff.
00:04:15
Speaker
What are some of your favorite summer activities? What do you like to get out and do when the weather's nice other than obviously hit the golf course? I love America's pastime. Going to baseball games is always fun, especially since they've implemented the pitch crotch. You're not there from like seven to 1030. It's a little bit of a tighter schedule, maybe two and a half, three hours. And really anything outside, ever since I've become a homeowner, love to mow in the grass.
00:04:39
Speaker
Getting out there doing some weeding, putting mulch down, any sort of artwork like that's fun. Love going to a pool or a beach. Got a trip to North Carolina planned in June. Excited to get back down to my kind of old stomping grounds, I guess you'd call her. So yeah, those are a few of my favorite things.
00:04:56
Speaker
All right, Jacob. Now, obviously coming home from North Carolina, you've got the experience both, you know, what stuff is like in the South in the summer, what stuff is like in the North in

U.S. Whitewater Center Memories

00:05:05
Speaker
the summer. What are you missing the most from your time down in Charlotte and South Carolina those summer days?
00:05:10
Speaker
Yeah, my favorite thing that I miss out on in Charlotte was they are home to the U.S. Whitewater Center, where actually for the Olympics upcoming this summer, the team will go down there and train. So really fun to go there and do rafting and kayaking and a bunch of other activities. But in the summer, they do this thing every week called River Jam, where three nights a week they've got live music going.
00:05:33
Speaker
So you bring the lawn chairs, your blankets, they've got really good food on site too. And you can just post stuff, watch people do the rafting, listen to some good music. It was a very unique and cool place to hang out that can't really be duplicated anywhere else. I don't know if we have any festival like that here in Columbus. I'm a big food festival guy. I like going to all the food festivals in the summer.
00:05:55
Speaker
Food Truck Fest, Taco Fest, yeah, the Asian festival coming up here in a couple weeks. They always have some good food and then obviously the big one is the Jazz and Rib Festival. Do you like to partake in any of those kind of events in the summer? What kind of stuff around Columbus do you like to do? Yeah, big fan of the Jazz and Rib

Columbus Summer Events

00:06:12
Speaker
Fest. Again, kind of as I mentioned in my earlier answer, nothing like the value you get of the entertainment going down to a Clippers game or
00:06:19
Speaker
Now you've got the crew, they've got a bunch of home games during the summer, so that's a lot of fun to do. I really think Columbus's metro parks are pretty underrated. We've done a couple of picnics already in the spring, just taking Willa out there and walking around and eating food outside.
00:06:34
Speaker
you know, really anything and everything. I think the stat is if you get like 15 minutes of sunlight a day, you're like proven to be like less depressed and happier and fully subscribed to that. Oh yeah, it is all about the vitamin D. That's why afternoon delights logo is a smiling sun. It's all about smiling. It's all about getting outside, realizing that, you know, today is a good day to have a good day.
00:06:54
Speaker
So we're all about here on Afternoon Delights. I'm with you. I love going out to the Metro Parks. Highbanks is my favorite one. Patel Darby Creek's really nice, but that one's further away, at least for us. Innis Woods Metro Gardens is great. Those are probably some of the ones that we frequent the most, along with Glacier Ridge. Have you been out to Patel Darby Creek? You get to see the bison? We've not been out that way. We love Sayota, Audubon, kind of near downtown along the river. And then I really want to go to Poory Trails. That's the newest one, but I have not been there yet.
00:07:23
Speaker
Yeah, I just looked that up today around Upper Arlington and they had like a mountain bike track to ride on out there. Not too many long walking trails. The longest trail wasn't even a mile, so I don't know if I'll hit it up, but maybe at some point I guess we'll see. Yeah, I'm not a mountain biker either, but to each their own.
00:07:40
Speaker
Jacob, you mentioned love going to the ball games, baseball, we have the crew, some of the other events here in town. Now, I want to know when you go to a ball game, what is your go

Ballpark Dining Experience

00:07:50
Speaker
to snack? What's your food of choice? How are you getting yourself through the game? Yeah, let me just give you like the three course meal. So if I show up, I ideally am going to start the game off with a domestic light beer. Again,
00:08:02
Speaker
huge craft beer fan that you know in the summer. Just give me a Miller Lite, something like that. And then a soft pretzel with salt and ideally cheese. So I'll start off the game with that and then maybe a little bit of a hot take. Obviously if it's like Diamond Dog Night, you know.
00:08:17
Speaker
I'm gonna go a hot dog, but I love bratwurst. So if you can get a bratwurst, if they have stadium mustard, you know, just lather it up with stadium mustard, sometimes you're lucky enough to find some diced onion. I'll throw that on there too. Maybe two of those bad boys, maybe another domestic light beer if needed. And then to cap it off, Dippin' Dots, Ice Cream of the Future, you know, this or that, they try to take over stadiums. No. If I'm at a baseball game in the summer, I'm getting soft-serve ice cream served in a plastic helmet.
00:08:45
Speaker
dish. It's like McDonald's spray. The soft serve just tastes better when you're eating it out of that device. Why? Scientists should study it, but that is my ideal three-course ballpark meal. I think you hit it right on the head with the ice cream. I love ice cream, and yeah, if they're going to serve it in a little helmet, I'm all about that. I do love a good barat, but you know me, it's a hot dog over anything.
00:09:08
Speaker
hot dog at the turn it's a hot dog at the stadium put a couple of those bad boys down now the one thing that stadiums are getting wrong is that a hot dog should never be more than three dollars and even that's too high there should always be at least one option and it should be a hot dog a popcorn and at least a water should we get those three things
00:09:25
Speaker
for like $9 at any ballpark in this entire country. It should be an affordable option for families and kids. And I'm basically a giant kid, so that is usually what I go with, is hot dog popcorn, water. If it's winter time, you know that I'm getting a Tim Hortons hot chocolate. Yeah, those hit the spot at the bully jackets game, that is for sure. And yeah, I mean, hot dog inflation has gotten crazy.
00:09:48
Speaker
I guess hot dogs are the reverse pizza is like I have had some really bad hot dogs so that's what I'm really skeptical about but I mean brought sometimes along that same category too so yeah you gotta be careful but uh you know normally again if you're going to especially a minor league ballpark you know they should be
00:10:04
Speaker
taking pride in their food and then also give a shout out like you know love supporting like local restaurants that might be able to set up shop in there like um again if you're like a local barbecue place and you've got like a thing of barbecue nachos like sign me the hell up for that yeah crew does that really well you got schmitz dirty franks hot chicken take over kendados tacos blue jackets also has schmitz some really good options the one thing that i feel like is lacking in the ballparks in columbus is the crazy stadium food
00:10:33
Speaker
You look around at some of these other stadiums, it's usually in baseball, but there's just some wild, crazy options that you can get. Have you experienced this? What are some of the craziest things that you have had the chance to eat at a ballgame? I'm going to cheat a little bit. So the South Carolina game packs would always have one.
00:10:50
Speaker
home game during the South Carolina State Fair since it's warmer down south. They host a little bit later in the fall and the fried food down there was delicious. One time before a game, I got fried butter. So kind of imagine your, you know, Texas Roadhouse cinnamon butter and then fried up in a little ball like a hush puppy. That is delicious.
00:11:10
Speaker
the latest craze I've seen I believe it's at the Chicago White Sox games they have this campfire milkshake you know they're basically the worst team in baseball but this milkshake is just showing up over everybody in terms of like your influencers from what I understand it's kind of like a
00:11:29
Speaker
s'mores milkshake massive bad boy and basically they think the team is gonna leave but they basically just want this campfire milkshake to stay like I mean if you go look on it at Instagram like just beautiful and graham crackers marshmallows chocolate like it looks phenomenal
00:11:45
Speaker
That sounds

Unique Stadium Foods

00:11:46
Speaker
pretty awesome. We need some special milkshakes going at the Columbus Clipper game stat. For me, think the craziest or at least like the best food that I have had. It wasn't even a concession food. But in college, if you went to an Ohio State baseball game, softball game, something like those outdoor spring summer sports, they would usually have a Buckeye Donuts food truck there. And then you could get a donut burger from the Buckeye Donuts food truck.
00:12:09
Speaker
And that's what I want to see at more stadiums. I know some baseball stadiums do it. I think that a lot of places they call it the Luther because of some famous baseball player or somebody, but a donut burger at a stadium would be really special. I also want to give a shout out to two of the things that I've seen online. So the Houston Astros, good shout out to them. They're cheating on their diets just as well as they're cheating in baseball, but they have a chicken and waffle cone. So it is a fresh made waffle cone that they shove with mashed potatoes and then top with fried chicken.
00:12:39
Speaker
I'm all about mashed potatoes. I'm all about fried chicken. I love ice cream. This is a savory ice cream to me and I'm going to eat like 50 of them. And then let's give another shout out here to the Arizona Dymabacks doing a churro dog, which is a churro inside of a hot dog bun topped with ice cream and whipped cream and different like hot fudge and caramel sauces. That looked unbelievable. You could alternate. I want a real hot dog and a churro dog.
00:13:01
Speaker
Yeah, that sounds dangerous. It really does. How are you feeling now? You know, we'll loop in. We've talked about some of the sports. The Blue Jackets season just ended. Jeff Rimmer has retired. Blue Jackets won six and three, but they finished in the bottom four on the NHL yet again. Looking for a new GM. How are you feeling about the future of the Blue Jackets?
00:13:18
Speaker
Yeah, what'll

Columbus Blue Jackets' Season

00:13:19
Speaker
happen is they won't move up in the lottery. They'll probably end up picking fifth or sixth, drop a spot or two. That seems to be how it always goes. They'll add another, probably, defenseman or center to a already stacked group of prospects, and then probably talk myself into delusion of them making a leap forward next year. But I hope they can find a good general manager. I think that's priority number one. I wouldn't mind them moving on from Elvis, kind of eating the cap space and the buyout, getting him out of the way, turning the team over to the Neil Terrasog or
00:13:48
Speaker
you know, how even jet grieve showed more potential in the last couple weeks, but Tarasoff can't stay healthy. So yeah, just hope they don't get injured next year and hope the young guys take another step. And then maybe by the time the game at Ohio Stadium rolls around, they're not completely out of it. Maybe they're six games back from a wild card spot. And if they get hot, they can get in the playoffs. But, you know, we're probably two years away, realistically.
00:14:09
Speaker
Yeah, I think at least two years, probably more. I think they need a different owner. What shocked me the most though about this season is this was the most attended season for the Blue Jackets from fans in 20 years. 17,000 average attendance. You think that most of that is just the away fans or what do you think is so special about the Columbus Blue Jackets that keep these fans coming back after 25 years of misery?
00:14:34
Speaker
Yeah, there's definitely something to the road crowd aspect. Pittsburgh, Detroit, Toronto, went to a Rangers game this year and there were a ton of people from New York there. So that helps, but I really do think they're fun to go to, especially on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night. You know, hit up somewhere downtown or
00:14:52
Speaker
Grandview or the Arena District pre-game. I think they still get a lot of good buy-in from corporate partners to give tickets away. You know, my current employer, we have like half-season tickets that divvy up among the employees. So yeah, I mean, it's a fan base that deserves better than they had it. I mean, if you go online and you look at the highlights from when they beat the Lightning five years ago, I mean, that building gets loud when the team's good. So hopefully it'll be back that way sooner rather than later.
00:15:17
Speaker
I hope so too. The city needs it. This state really needs it. We need one team to be truly great. Give a little to some people from Ohio. The crew is truly great, except for, you know, they've drawled like seven games in a row now. We're not worried about the MLS season yet. Just make the playoffs and get hot in the fall. Nancy ball will come through. I don't know. At least the blue jackets aren't the Arizona coyotes got a feel for those 4,000 fans last night that stuck it out for a team that's getting ready to leave them. You know, you as a Browns fan, obviously know what that feels like.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I obviously wasn't like alive and can't really remember what happened there. But I mean, I remember talks in the blue jackets, potentially having to move, you know, 15 years ago. So that sucks. Jacob, do you guys have any trips planned

Travel Plans and Reflections

00:15:59
Speaker
this summer? Doing anything fun as a family? Yeah, we are going, I'm going down to North Carolina. Jen's going to hang out with some friends in Charlotte. I'm going to go to the US Open at
00:16:07
Speaker
And then we're going to head down to the Wilmington area, a little south of Brunswick Island beaches. They're there for a few days. And then on the way back, I think we're actually going to stop for one night at New River Gorge National Park, which is the newest national park here in the US. And it's about halfway between Wilmington and Columbus. So it works out well.
00:16:28
Speaker
Nice, that sounds like a good trip. You know, I was surprised at our food discussion too, we'll pivot back a little bit, that you did not mention any of the food from the masters when you worked there. I would have thought for sure you would have brought up the pimento cheese sandwich. Yeah, I mean the pimento cheese sandwiches are good and all, don't get me wrong.
00:16:45
Speaker
You know, it's like a winning room type of deal. It is just pimento cheese on white bread. So, I mean, it's not rocket science. If you get Palmetto cheese, I think you'd find that most Walmarts slather that on your favorite bread. Basically the same. But the Georgia Peach ice cream sandwich, that was the go-to there, right up my sweet tooth alley. Georgia Peach ice cream surrounded by two sugar cookies. I ate probably two of those a day with my employee meal dollars that I got.
00:17:12
Speaker
So I'll have to get down just to eat some ice cream. Don't even care about the golf.

Amusement Park Food

00:17:15
Speaker
Now, Jacob, I know that you're a big amusement park guy. You love going to Cedar Point. You love going to Kings Island, Carowinds. How do you feel about amusement park food? What are some of those things that you love? Thinking of summer activities here.
00:17:28
Speaker
So I used to always love, again, going down the dessert train again. It's amazing. I'm only 400 pounds. I love funnel cake. I feel like if I'm in a setting like that, I'm probably going to get funnel cake. I feel like, too, you just find really good chicken tinder baskets, salty, some honey mustard right up my alley. But I will say in recent years, the Constitution doesn't do as well after as many roller coasters. So try to limit myself so I don't throw up. So I'm more so just going for the rides than the food at this point.
00:17:56
Speaker
That's a fair assessment.

Roller Coaster History

00:17:58
Speaker
I do love the elephant ears up at Cedar Point. Can't go wrong with a good funnel cake. To me, the best of amusement park food that I've had is for sure at Universal Studios. Pretty much everything hits the spot. They got that crazy chocolatore in what does have ridiculous milkshakes. I feel like Harry Potter World has truly like the best bang
00:18:17
Speaker
for your buck. And it's also probably the healthiest amusement park food that you can get. Like you can go and get just like a piece, like a roasted grilled chicken breast with a bunch of vegetables and like corn and some potatoes. And that's all it is. And we'll usually go, you know, we go as a big family group. So we get one that's like a giant like feast thing that feeds four people and it's only like, I don't know, $35. Truly great deal. So I love that. If you go down for Halloween horn nights or you go down anytime that it's nighttime and you walk around,
00:18:46
Speaker
and now you gotta get about four or five alcoholic beverages in you and then head over to Simpsons World and get the chicken and waffle sandwich with the maple syrup mayonnaise and it's pretty unbelievable. You do it sober and it's like this is okay. You do it when you're buzzed or drunk and it's maybe the best buzzed or drunk food that you're ever gonna have.
00:19:06
Speaker
My favorite brewery in Charlotte Foodwise had chicken and waffle tacos, which were fantastic. And those were good. You didn't even need an IPA in you to scarf those down. All right, Jacob. But that brings us into some afternoon delights place at the table. Are you ready for this? Let's do it. As you know.
00:19:24
Speaker
For as long as there have been humans, we have been thrill seekers. From fighting and taming wild beasts to exploring the unknown, we have sought adventure. As society progressed, beasts became tamed, we explored everything, and it was time to seek new thrills. And this led to one of the most common things that thrill seekers find today, and that is the roller coaster. So did you know that the original roller coaster was actually referred to as Russian mountains?
00:19:52
Speaker
and that the actual name in Russia for a roller coaster, the translation is actually American Mountains. That's because in the early 17th century, the Russians, they used to make sort of giant sleds or ice slides, rolling hills that were built in gardens and palaces in St. Petersburg. They called these coasters, Katanalya,
00:20:14
Speaker
Gorka or sliding mountain in Russian. Some of them were built up to heights of 70 to 80 feet with 50 degree drops and they would reinforce them with wood supports. The slides became super popular with the Russian upper class. It was almost exclusively just to the wealth
00:20:30
Speaker
for a very long time. Catherine the Great of Russia, she actually loved these slides so much that she started to construct a summer version at one of her estates in 1784 that relied on wheeled carts instead of sleds to move along groove tracks. And that's when we first started seeing roller coasters be built.
00:20:52
Speaker
almost 300 years ago. After defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, the Russians began to occupy France. During that time, Russian soldiers introduced this summer version of the ice slide to the French, and in 1817, a French baker by the name of Nicolas Beaujean opened the Parc Beaujean, which was France's first amusement park, and their most famous attraction was the
00:21:19
Speaker
aerial strolls, which was a ride where they would pull the carts back to the top of a tower and then release them down a winding track. Now the roller coaster origins in the United States, they began in the 1850s in Pennsylvania with a little bit of an unconventional method.
00:21:35
Speaker
when a mining company built the Mach Chunk Gravity Railroad. It was a brakeman controlled railroad cart on 8.7 miles of downhill track, and it was used to deliver coal. By 1872, it had become known as the Gravity Road, and they actually were selling tickets to ride down this road from thrill seekers that had heard about the drop and just wanted to ride in the cart. It was not built for amusement in any way. It was to take coal
00:22:03
Speaker
down and out of the mines. And yeah, people just said, I want to jump on that thing and ride it. So it got word of it. And then other railroad companies started building similar tracks just to provide amusement on, you know, kind of slow days. Using this idea as a basis of design, LaMarcus Adna Thompson began to work on the gravity switchback railway. It opened in Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York in 1884. And that is pretty much widely regarded as the first
00:22:31
Speaker
true roller coaster in the United States of America. And that brings us to America's favorite roller coaster park. We're just talking about it. Cedar Point in 1870, located in Sandusky, Ohio, opened up as a sunbathing beach for vacationers. If people started to come, they did picnics, they built wood.
00:22:48
Speaker
planks decks boardwalks all that kind of stuff for people to hang out at in 1892 the park's first roller coaster the switch back railway open it stood at an amazing 25 feet tall and reach unbelievable speeds of 10 miles per hour so today Cedar Point is home to 16 roller coasters and it is broken
00:23:09
Speaker
pretty good amount of world records with those coasters and in 1964 the Blue Streak opened and that is the oldest standing roller coaster at Cedar Point today. Definitely a lot of history in there I didn't know. I knew that you know roller coasters kind of went back to you know like you said winter almost like a bobsled type deal set up but I was not aware of the Cedar Point history and the early roller coaster history here in America so some fun facts learned for sure today.

Favorite Roller Coasters

00:23:39
Speaker
What would you say is your all time favorite roller coaster, any park? It is one at Cedar Point, the Millennium Force. I think kind of just maybe people don't agree with this, but kind of as I was talking to earlier, I feel like I don't need to go upside down as much anymore. And the Millennium Force, if you've been on it, you know, basically right from the top, you just start climbing up and up and up and up. And that view from the top, I think it's over 300 feet tall. I feel like that was an important landmark.
00:24:06
Speaker
that it had to reach and then you just start down on a ride and the views are incredible. It's so smooth, so fun. I feel like that's a ride I could go on four, five, six times in a row if there were no lines and just feel no repercussions on my body whatsoever. You are not wrong. I love that ride.
00:24:23
Speaker
I agree. It's probably either my favorite or maybe it's definitely top two best rides I've ever been on and you are correct. It is over 300 feet tall. It was the first roller coaster in the world to ever break 300 feet. It travels 93 miles per hour. Yeah. You get going right when you start coming down that big hill.
00:24:41
Speaker
Pretty awesome, it moves up slow, it's got the good suspense. That one's up there for me. The other couple for me are at Universal. I mean, Kings Island does have some amazing coasters and I haven't been on the Orion yet, which is one of seven giga coasters in the world over a mile a track. It's like the Millennium Force but on steroids, but I haven't been on it yet that opened a few years ago.
00:25:00
Speaker
So I'm sure that one will get on the list whenever I get down there to ride it. But for right now, I loved the Hulk. The very first time that I rode that it was the first time that I'd been on a coaster where it just, you know, the ones where you completely stationed and then it just launches you. So I had actually written that before I ever rode the top thrill dragster. So it shoots you at like 65 miles per hour. You get to like 65, 70 and you know, less than a second. And then the other one is Hagrid's motorbike ride.
00:25:25
Speaker
at universal. That one's awesome. You either get to sit on Hagrid's motorbike or like in the chair car. Those are the seats. So it's not like regular roller coaster seats. And then they use like magnet plates and everything. So when you're riding on the track, it doesn't actually have to bring you up a hill or anything and then just let momentum carry you. You actually hit points where, you know, you start to slow down and then you hit that magnet plate and it like launches you forward. So that's a pretty awesome ride.
00:25:49
Speaker
My one trip to Harry Potter World, I don't believe that was built yet. I think I was there like the first or second year before it expanded and became where it is today. This one just opened and it actually replaced the Dueling Dragons rights, which were also two very awesome rights. All right, but Jacob, that's going to get us into this draft. We are going to draft our favorite roller coasters from Cedar Point. Would you like to go first and take the Millennium Force or do you want me to go first and take the Millennium Force?
00:26:17
Speaker
I mean, I'll go first and take the Millennium Force. I mean, I feel like I win automatically, but I feel like we've covered that pretty adequately, and that was going to be my 1-1. So yeah, I'll take it and let you go 2-3 to see if you can see how quickly we deviate from there.
00:26:32
Speaker
You know, I'm going to take it. It's, it's not even technically roller coaster anymore, but the new ones coming out this year, top thrill dragster going to be top thrill dragster two at the time. This was the first roller coaster over 400 feet at 420 and it was traveling at 120 miles per hour.
00:26:50
Speaker
You've never ridden anything like this. It launches you up 400 feet from a dead stop. You get to 120 in like the blink of an eye. You ride up too high and you open your mouth. Sometimes you get bugs in it. It's over in 13 seconds, but it easily causes the most adrenaline and excitement in 13 seconds than you're going to find at any other amusement park in the country or maybe the world. I mean, I think there's a couple other roller coasters now that are like top thrill.
00:27:15
Speaker
at the time riding that and getting, getting on it. You know, I don't even think I rode it until I was a freshman in high school. That was the first time that I ever went to Cedar Point was when I was a freshman in high school. We had always only gone to Kings Island and it was a long time coming for me looking forward to ride that. And that was an awesome ride. Yeah. Plus, you know, it was always fun. If it was super windy, you might not make it.
00:27:34
Speaker
might get stuck at the top and free fall back and they might have to shut down the ride for 20 minutes. Oh yeah a lot of excitement there with the dragster and if you're a thrill seeker that's what it's all about. I think for my next one I'm gonna make a slight pivot on my actual list because this one was much better when I was younger and it's kind of fallen now as I've gotten older but I'm gonna take the maverick with my number two pick.
00:27:54
Speaker
sitting on the front row of this roller coaster. You know, your legs are dangling down, which I love. And then you dip over the top and it's a 95 degree drop. Like it is almost straight down, which is just absolutely crazy. It's got a lot of whips and turns and spins and flips and dips and it's got a lot of speed to it. It's it's older and it's still one of the most popular at the park. The reason why it's drops down my list, the older that it gets is it just really, really beats up your neck.
00:28:23
Speaker
Maverick would have been my next pick. So I love it there. I love when you kind of go like underground into the mine area. I guess that's what that's supposed to be and pause for a second. Very cool. But my next pick, I don't know if this is a popular one to a lot of people, but I'm gonna go with a Gatekeeper. I just think it's so cool that you are basically sitting off of the track.
00:28:45
Speaker
So you kind of pick like, you know, I'm on the left side or the right side. Some stats about this, you reach a top speed of 67 miles per hour. You know, there's some cool little things on the track where, you know, you basically feel like you're flying through different obstacles, which just gives a really cool visual effect. I've never been on a roller coaster like that anywhere else. You know, there's probably one somewhere in the US, but just the design of that, that was very cool when I got on that the first time.
00:29:12
Speaker
That was actually the one that I passed up to take the Maverick. So we're right there. I think it's a top three ride for me. Yeah. It has, it has the highest inversion at the park. So, you know, you, you go upside down at 170 feet in the air and then you spin and kind of corkscrew through the double keyholes. And when you're on it, it definitely feels like it's a lot faster than 67 miles per hour, but it's, it's definitely a really good solid ride.
00:29:35
Speaker
And then I'm gonna go with a little bit of a throwback with my next pick. It's not the blue streak was the one you were given the history lesson on earlier, correct? Yes. Yeah. So I'm gonna go with another older roller coaster. I'm gonna go with the Gemini. So what's really cool about this is it is a
00:29:51
Speaker
race where there are two cars going simultaneously and you basically are just traveling right next to each other for almost the entire ride. I like that it's pretty long. Cedar Point's website clocks in at like 2 minutes and 40 seconds. So anytime you get that kind of bang for your buck is cool.
00:30:08
Speaker
Coaster has been around since 1978 and again it's just something else that you know never been to an amusement park where again you kind of look over and it's like oh god there's somebody else you know doing this right here with me so again an older choice you know a wooden combo with some steel but uh yeah I'm gonna gonna give some nostalgia for Gemini with my third pick.
00:30:29
Speaker
that is a good pick that's another rough one it'll beat the crap out of you but it is fun to do the racing with each other i don't know if if they both actually finish at the same time or what it is but it just it actually feels like you're racing the other car yeah for my next pick jacob i am going to take
00:30:46
Speaker
The Raptor. To me, I thought the Raptor was actually a newer coaster. It actually opened in 1994, six years before the Millennium Force. So to me, it still runs really smooth. Like it is a newer coaster. I love coasters where my feet dangle because it just makes you feel like you're flying. I just, it's pure fun. It's got good turns, good twists, doesn't beat up your neck or anything. It's just a well-built, well-designed ride. Good choice. Good choice.
00:31:11
Speaker
My next pick after that is the steel vengeance slash mean streak. So, you know, in 1991, this ride was the mean streak and it was an absolute beast. It was the millennium force before the millennium force, even riding it when you're older, like you could still tell like this is pretty close to what I just rode, but it was an all wood coaster. You know, some people really love wood coasters. I like the mean streak.
00:31:37
Speaker
It had to be refurbished a ton, redone a lot. They finally shut it down in 2016, but they refurbished it in 2018 and honestly just made it a better ride. Whereas when it was wood, it wasn't as smooth. So they made it the first ever hybrid coaster where the structural portion was made of wood, but the actual tracks that the car ran on were steel. So it took this ride that was already big and bad and it actually made it
00:32:03
Speaker
even faster. So to me, it's just a great ride. It's something that's really cool. While I was looking up stuff about the mean streak, I actually found out that it was so intense on the wood structure itself that at the end of every season, they would have to replace the entire track. All of the planks under the wood track every year in mean streak actually had its entire own carpentry staff just to fix and repair items and get it ready between the years.
00:32:30
Speaker
That is crazy. I've always joked. I was like, did non-rides with people who were a little uneasy and they're like, I think that bolt's loose. I'm just seeing if I can give them a last minute panic attack before the ride goes. But yeah, if I knew that, I don't know if I would be as keen to get on it. But yeah, I don't know if I've ever been on Steel Vengeance.
00:32:48
Speaker
Technically, if you've been on Main Street, you've been on Steel Vengeance. But yeah, I rode it one time and it was like a three hour and 15 minute wait. And I was like, we're really waiting three hours and 15 minutes for a ride that opened 30 years ago. People just love it, man. People now have re-put Steel Vengeance up as like the number one ride at the park.
00:33:06
Speaker
My next pick, I'm going to go with the Valraven. I love dive roller coasters. I feel like there are a few in the US. I think the first one I went on was actually Busch Gardens. I can't remember if it was the Virginia or Florida Park, but you don't know what a dive coaster is basically. You kind of get elevated up.
00:33:25
Speaker
you think you're gonna you know drop but you just kind of hang up there for a second you pause and then you plummet and then you go on down really cool that one just because again you're kind of looking out at looking out at Lake Erie um so pretty good scenery there while you're paused up there for three or five seconds I feel like that one doesn't beat you up too much get pretty fast here it says you reach 75 miles per hour according to the Cedar Point website so
00:33:50
Speaker
Most I'm gonna pick there I feel like decent value here getting that in the in the fourth round and then for my last pick this is tough this kind of goes against everything that I've said so far but I'm gonna pick the corkscrew because that ride I've never been on a roller coaster where you're just upside down that often
00:34:10
Speaker
like just constantly getting thrown around one way or the other again it's pretty simple but the bang for your buck you get on that and then give that some respect and love and use that for my last pick yeah the corkscrew is not bad it's just a super short ride but it is fun
00:34:25
Speaker
I'm right there with you on the Valraven though. That is a fantastic ride. I feel like it doesn't get enough love at the park. Part of it, I think is that it really is two different feelings than if you're in the front row versus any other row. Like when you're in the very front, you have to go through a different line, wait like an extra 40 minutes, but being on the front in that drop is kind of like close experience to looking at a plane before you skydive, just not as high up. So the drop is like crazier when you're in the front row, but that is a good ride.
00:34:54
Speaker
All right. My last pick, Jacob, I'm taking another refurbished one here. I'm going to take the ROGERU, formally the Mantis. Right now, I think that the ROGERU is, it's a good ride to just go on. You have fun. If the line isn't too long, then you're like, that was a really good ride. If it is a super long line, you might get disappointed with the end result, but it's definitely become a lot smoother. The thrill is out of it now that it's not the Mantis.
00:35:19
Speaker
where the Mantis was a standing ride. Like you stood vertical on the ride, which I don't think I've ever been on another ride where you actually stand up while you ride it, but it's definitely painful, especially if you were a guy and it was, you know, the potential to knock around your testicles a bit, but still those, those are two great rides.
00:35:35
Speaker
Yeah, I was going to pick the Mantis. They were the last pick, but you know what the rebrand too, you know, I felt a little dirty doing that, but yeah, some, some fond memories of that ride going to puberty. Jay, have you got any honorable mentions?

Honorable Mentions

00:35:48
Speaker
Anything that we missed?
00:35:49
Speaker
I think we got all of the iconic coasters in my mind. I mean, again, you shouted out the Blue Streak in the history lesson. I think we'd have to pay homage to that if you didn't. But the Iron Dragon, I remember having some fun on that one. We picked 10 great coasters that, you know, most amusement parks would be jealous that they had three of. So we're, you know, even scraping the barrel there, you're still finding some gold.
00:36:14
Speaker
My last shout out, even though I think it's arguably one of the top two most painful rides at the park, we'll shout out Magnum XL, first roller coaster in the world, I believe ever over 200 feet. So that was another record breaker there in the eighties. And then I'm going to personally shout out one that isn't actually at Cedar Point, but it is a Cedar Fair product.
00:36:31
Speaker
And I'm going to shout out the beast junior said we went Kings Island every single year when I was a kid. And I've loved roller coasters ever since I was big enough to ride on any of them. And I, to this day, the beast junior is for sure the ride that I rode the most in my life. Plenty of photos of me and my dad on that thing. So I'm going to take beast junior as an honorable mention as well. Yeah. I mean, if we're shouting out, uh, rides like that, like space mountain.
00:36:57
Speaker
went to Disney World several times as a kid. That was just very, very cool, even though it is just in one little small building. And then if you look at it with the lights on, it's pretty wild. A lot of fond memories of that one. Never been to Disneyland. It's on the list. Hope to get there one day at this point. Probably just wait till I have kids of my own and they're old enough to go. Very fair.
00:37:16
Speaker
Alright, Jacob, it is time for our last segment.

Book Club Recommendation

00:37:19
Speaker
We didn't have this segment the first time that you were around. You missed out the opportunity to share with the people for Afternoon Delights Book Club. You know, Joey hit home that you're a genius, you're a very intelligent man. Why don't you let the people know your all-time favorite book, book you read recently, or just something that you think everybody should read that you want to recommend.
00:37:37
Speaker
Yeah, so I will shout out a series. I am on book number five, and what's nice about this is it's also a TV show. So if you're not a reader, you can watch the TV show. There are quite a few variances, but the TV show is Slow Horses on Apple TV+. Stars Gary Oldman, who is just fantastic in the role.
00:37:59
Speaker
premise of the books and the show is that these agents belong to what's called Slough House and it's basically the outcast of the British intelligence services. So if you screwed up you get sent to Slough House. The books are just probably the
00:38:16
Speaker
very funny for like spy fiction. The author is great. Jackson Lamb is the character Gary Oldman plays. It's one of those deals where I started the show before I read the books. The first three seasons each kind of mirror each of the books. I think there's like eight books total out so thankfully we shouldn't run into a game of their own situation where the showrunners really don't know what's what's going on but that's something I'm currently reading that I would highly recommend to people.
00:38:43
Speaker
All right, it's on the list. People get out there and give it a try. All right, Jacob, how are you feeling about this episode? You think you got a chance to unseat Joey? I mean, I do it for the love of the game, the camaraderie, way to spend time with a good friend here talking about some things we both love. So, you know, obviously I hope I get the lessons, but if I don't, I'm not going to lose sleep.
00:39:03
Speaker
That's fair enough, Jacob. You get it. You're what afternoon delights is about. It's just about having a good time, trying to bring a little bit more joy to this world. Amen, brother. Thank you for coming on again. You've had the chance to see the podcast grow. You didn't have to be the guinea pig this time. I think you did a much better job, you and me both, coming through on this one. I want to thank you for being such a wonderful guest. Of course. I hope I come back sooner rather than later.
00:39:28
Speaker
Thank you out there to everybody listening and taking your time. Let us know what is your favorite amusement park, your favorite ride, your favorite ballgame food. Get those chats going. Just spread the word around, do what you do. We thank you for listening. We love you for listening. I'm your host, Matt Latimer, and I'm just reminding you that it's a good day to have a good day.
00:39:53
Speaker
I'll be to St. Goodnight I hate to go and live this pretty side So long, farewell, I'll be to St. Andrew I do, I do, to you Andrew, Andrew