I drug Simon to Cedar Point this weekend. Here are some tips for next time:

• Buy a fast lane pass when you buy your tickets online so you don't have to run around the park hunting for an outlet that's not sold out (we did this, while carrying 8$ Oktoberfest, which made the experience all the more amusing. After leaving the line for Maverick (which is a totally sweet ride), finding a sold-out shop, running to another one, calling my friend who was buying beer, running back to fetch him, walking back, finding a new best friend to buy a set of 4 so we could get a discount, buying the passes from him, and walking back, we still got to the front of the line a few minutes quicker than we think we would have had we not gone and bought the fast lane passes).
• Eat good before you show up so you don't need to shell out for gross, overpriced park food.
• Wear cargo pants and carry little enough that you can fit it all in them so you don't have to fool with bins and lockers. It might be worthwhile to not wear your sunglasses.
• Raptor and Mantis just box your ears. We thought it'd be a good idea to have fast alternative lines for these rides where you just get punched in the side of the head instead of riding the train. it'd have pretty much the same effect.
• The wooden ones gave me a headache, except for Blue Streak, which is kind of like the Eagle at Great America, but I think I like the Eagle better.
• Everything feels different at night, so go on your favorite rides before and after sunset. The minecart ride was nice to take right at dusk.
• In my opinion, the tollways in Illinois are kind of bullcrap (it didn't help that they were all under construction when we passed through), but the Indiana one was pretty nice, especially if you like going fast. The Ohio Turnpike was a less-recently-paved version of the Indiana one.

I thought of a lot of funny things while we were driving on the tollway. Like, wouldn't it be great if you took the 'trollway' instead of the tollway, and it wasn't like the Mt. Horeb one, but the entire highway was trolling you? It'd have signs saying you were going to Wisconsin, but then after driving several hundred miles it'd say "Lol u got trolled ur in Missouri." And there could be a special lane at the ticket booth for people who don't want to pay. It would automatically key your car as you went by, and then it'd be readily apparent who the cheapskates and people who don't care about their cars were.

We made it back to Madison from our hotel in Toledo in 6 hours, which I think counts as 'making pretty good time'.