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THRILL RIDES TO
TRY THIS COMING SUMMER
Copyright 2004 www.tombraiderchronicles.com
[ July 10th 2004 ]
Like
a sandy beach and a triple-scoop ice cream cone,
the amusement park thrill ride makes for a nostalgia-laden,
icon of summertime. What is the appeal of these
daunting, fearsome-looking contraptions designed
specifically for one purpose, to scare the crap
out of us? Psychiatrists no doubt have their theories,
but perhaps the allure is simply placing oneself
in harm's way -- be it real or imagined -- knowing,
deep down, that everything is going to turn out
all right.
The good
news for amusement park aficionados is we are
living in a golden age of thrill rides. The roller-coaster
cars are faster, the tracks they traverse upon
soar ever higher, ever steeper. Meanwhile, the
so-called "dark rides" (indoor rides) now embrace
the same cutting-edge technology and special effects
that movies employ. Just as we will sit in a theatre
and believe that a man can fly (or swing from
skyscraper to skyscraper on a line of webbing),
these sensory rides make us believe that we are
being, say, swarmed by carnivorous insects or
swallowed whole by a fearsome poltergeist.
The even
better news is that competition for your entertainment
dollar is fierce, meaning that most amusement
parks tend to introduce at least one major attraction
every season. In Toronto, Paramount Canada's Wonderland
recently unveiled its Lara Croft Tomb Raider,
billed as "Canada's only flying roller coaster."
Follow the below hyperlink for a run-down of what
America has to offer this summer.
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