Almost every summer of my life, I went to Kings Island. Sometimes it was with the youth group at church, but most always, it was with my parents. They loved taking my sister and me for an exciting day of fun.

Here I am on one of the children’s rides. This may have been my first visit:

My mom was always afraid of riding the roller coasters, so she would find the exit to the ride and wait for us there. After we rode the coasters for a while, she had her fun by watching the shows and going through the shops. Not me and my dad though; we had a blast on those roller coasters!

My dad and I would sit shoulder to shoulder in the roller coaster. When the coaster began to move, my heart would start drumming. As the car crept further and further up the gigantic first hill, I would think, “there’s no backing out now.” The car would creep over the top of the hill and just as I got a peek at the very bottom; it would jerk the entire coaster downhill at full force. I’m sure the look on my face was fierce.

Back then, there was a stand-up coaster called the King Cobra. That coaster turned the rider upside down and inside out and all the while, you were sitting on what looked like a bicycle seat.

The Racers are still there. These are side-by-side wooden roller coasters; one is red and the other blue; one goes forward while the other goes backward and they race. I only rode the backwards Racer once. That was an experience let me tell you!

It took me years before I would ride The Beast, but once I did, I was hooked. At one time, The Beast was one of the longest wooden roller coasters in the world. You ride up and down enormous hills, through tunnels, and twists and then right in the middle of the ride – it stops! You’re sitting there freaking out thinking another car is going to come crashing into yours at any minute. This is all planned of course, but you don’t know that when you’re riding it for the first time and it scares the heck out of you.

Besides the rides, the food was always great. They had anything on earth you’d want to eat. I preferred either the pizza or the foot-long hotdogs topped with sauerkraut, onions, and mustard. Yummy!

I don’t know about now, but the shows used to be awesome too. You could hear singing and watch incredible dancers with lots of costume changes (which I love – it’s all about the costumes!). I think I pouted about watching shows rather than riding rides all day, but once I was there, I was enthralled.

My parents had this souvenir cup made with my picture:

Do you remember The Brady Bunch visiting Kings Island? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcnaOI57kuE

I have three videos of Kings Island on my YouTube channel. This is the oldest one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY2KwsCCT8M