The "New Wildcat Roller Coaster At Hersheypark" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Just finished reading a story in my local daily newspaper about Hesheypark and its revamped Wildcat's Revenge roller coaster.  The Wildcat roller coaster was, and still is, my favorite ride at Hersheypark in nearby Hershey, Pennsylvania.  I can still remember my very first ride on the rollercoaster known as The Wildcat.  It was sometime in the early 1950s.  How could anyone forget their very first ride on The Wildcat!  If I remember correctly, it cost about 75 cents for each time you rode the coaster.  After the ride, you had to depart the coaster and if you wanted to take another ride, you got back in line with everyone else for your next ride.  Well, today a day-long ticket for someone my age costs $42.95 for the entire day.  That cost will allow me to ride all the rides in the park that are meant for someone my age.  I could ride the coaster all day long if I could stand it!  This year "The Wildcat" is all new.  The wooden skeleton of what was once "The Wildcat" is still there, but a hulky mass of red-and-black metal now adores more than 3,000 feet of its track.  An immediate joy about the new Wildcat is from the moment the ride takes off, it almost instantly jolts off instead of giving you a few seconds to ponder the next minute and a half of your life.  The ride is remarkably smooth and there is only one part of the ride that makes you hold your breath and that is the 140-foot drop.  For as loud as the climb is, the descent is almost terrifyingly silent.  It feels like a big fall, almost untethered from the track itself.  It's all part of the experience, but each ride provokes  similar sense giddy dread.  The Wildcat is said to have the world's largest underlap, but I must admit, I haven't been on the new ride as of yet.  Time will tell if the new-and-improved Wildcat will be received as warmly as its wooden forebears. I guess I will give it a try if and when I arrive at Hersheypark.  It has to be pretty good to top the old wooden coaster that shook you all over by the time you reached the end of the ride.  The photos of the coaster that were in my local paper make it look like a neat ride, but I'll have to give it a try before I can believe someone else.  And, I'll have to take a trip in a front seat and one in the back before I can really give my opinion of the new coaster.  I'll let you know if and when I take a ride on the new coaster at Hersheypark.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.