Latest / The Dry Line Podcast / How is Frontier City Now? An Adult Man Ranks Roller Coasters, Analyzes the Beer Selection, and Finds the Best Bar in the Park

Transcript

How is Frontier City Now? An Adult Man Ranks Roller Coasters, Analyzes the Beer Selection, and Finds the Best Bar in the Park · The Dry Line Podcast

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Dry Line Podcast,
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: OKC's home for thoughtful analysis on its mercurial weather,
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: sacred sports,
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: and damn fine people,
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: hosted by me, The Dry Line's Editor-in-Chief, Ryan Fightmaster.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: In our home,
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: we recently celebrated an important birthday,
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: one of those milestone birthdays,
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: one of those days that pretty much means you're an adult and there's no going back.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: I won't say the specific age involved here, that would be unbecoming of me.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: I won't even say whose birthday it was.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: All I can tell you is that it wasn't my newborn son's 30th birthday, nor was it mine.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, that's it.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: All I will say.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: And because of this landmark day,
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: and the fact that my wife and I's life has devolved into one long conversation with
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: About how to improve our newborn's gassiness,
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: we decided the time was ripe to get some Dippin' Dots in our hands and on our faces.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, actually, we didn't get any Dippin' Dots, just Modellos.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: But still,
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: we had something cold in our hands on a summer night
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: at everyone's favorite Oklahoma City theme park, Frontier City.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, man.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: It had been like 25 years since I'd gone to Frontier City, so...
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was very curious when we went last week and I had a few questions.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like, had Frontier City held up?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Were people still going to Frontier City?
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Were there any new rides?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Which is better, the Silver Bullet or the Wildcat?
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: Was the park still cool?
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Was Frontier City ever cool?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: Will Frontier City stay in business?
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Ugh, man.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of questions.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of pressure on Frontier City, by the way.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I found those answers to all those questions and more in my 2500 word essay
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: that we published this week on Substack linked in the show notes.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly,
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: that was a really,
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: really fun episode essay to write because I love Frontier City as a kid
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: and it was really cool going back.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was just awesome.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I put a ton of photos in of the grounds in case you're curious.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day,
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: Really, the question at hand was, is Frontier City as epic as I remember it being?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer, spoiler here right off the top, is no.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: It is not as epic as I remember it being.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: But the reasons are not what you think.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: I did not want this to be true, either,
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: because going in,
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was worried That the park would be run down and dirty
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: without any reinvestment in years from its parent company, Six Flags.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was mentally prepared to be disappointed.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: But immediately, as soon as I stepped into the park and into the gift shop, I was relieved.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Frontier City was sparkling clean.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing was falling apart.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: All the rides were operating.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Everything was newly painted.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: There were even new rides.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: Everywhere.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: We'll get to those in a second in a full breakdown of Frontier City's rides.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: There's even a Peninsula Bar now in the Log Ride Lagoon at the spot where
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: the Log Ride hits the water.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: Again, more on that in a second.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: They even had this kick-ass Red Dirt Country band playing from noon to four,
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: something they have almost every Saturday and will have for the rest of the season.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Gun and Stunt Show still runs twice a day, every day, in the flower beds.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I'm an adult now, 37 years old.
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  SPEAKER_00: This is what I cared about the most.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Flower beds,
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  SPEAKER_00: full of flowers, trees, tall, mature, native,
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  SPEAKER_00: sycamores, pines, catalpas, oaks, everything you can imagine in an Oklahoma forest.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, I was shocked at how nice the park still is.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I actually think it's nicer now.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's actually a more fun experience than it was whenever I was a kid.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Which is not what I expected.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I really expected it to be dilapidated, worn down, no investment.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: But I wasn't.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was actually really cool on the inside.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: So, why isn't Frontier City as epic then as it used to be whenever I was a kid?
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that would be because hardly anyone was on the grounds.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the weather was perfect.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: The high was 87%.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, come on.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: It was a perfect, cloudless Oklahoma summer night to be at the park.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And there just weren't very many people there.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I wasn't on the rides,
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: having myself a great time with my wife,
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't help but just feel like a little bit sad.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of felt like COVID.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: When you expect a thing that you've done your entire life to feel the same way
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: that it felt for your entire life, and it just doesn't, couldn't, wouldn't.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: I heard the economist,
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: Noah Smith, say this the other day about the internet, and I think it applies here.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_00: He said that when the internet first arrived, it was a nice escape from reality.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now he points out that reality is how we escape the internet.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd say, based on what I saw at Frontier City, we are not escaping reality.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Very well.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: But before I go into those specifics about the rides and the new amenities
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  SPEAKER_00: and whatever, let me say this.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: Please go to Frontier City.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: You won't regret it.
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  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you pay,
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: which isn't much,
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: honestly,
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: way less than I thought,
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: especially if you buy a season pass because then that season pass lets you buy up
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: to six other tickets at $17 a pop.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: I swear it's cheaper than it was whenever I was in middle school.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really affordable to go and The food and the drinks are expensive,
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_00: obviously, but it's really not that bad to get in.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I want this park to stick around.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: I want Frontier City to succeed.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want it to get better.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: I want them to keep putting in new rides.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I want my kid to spend some summers at this park with a season pass.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, before we get into the breakdown, let's all go to Frontier City.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's my message.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Just get there.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's worth it.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: Enough of the existential tech sadness shit and back to why Frontier City is still badass.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm even ranting to the roller coasters, by the way.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: That's coming up here in a second.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_00: But first, can you tell I've listened to Gabe a lot?
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: This gift shop.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: At Frontier City, I swear.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, all right.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So you get through security where my wife and I successfully smuggled in snacks
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: and various other refreshments in the hidden compartment of our son's stroller.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're forced directly into the gift shop.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: You cannot avoid going into the gift shop.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: And let me go on the record here saying this.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: The Frontier City gift shop is so badass.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a legitimate log cabin.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's huge in there.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's also...
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  SPEAKER_00: Air-conditioned, so it's like this reprieve right before you go in.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: It is so nice in there.
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  SPEAKER_00: The merch is legit.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: I almost bought a crew deck sweatshirt, but they didn't have my size.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's only youth sizes, unfortunately.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: Also, whoever was behind sticking the entrance to the Diamondback,
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: a roller coaster,
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  SPEAKER_00: off to the side of the gift shop in the most low-key way possible,
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  SPEAKER_00: Deserves some kind of architectural award.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: That was pure artistry.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: I used to think that it was so cool when you showed up to Frontier City
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  SPEAKER_00: that steps inside the park, you could just go ride a roller coaster.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Get the adrenaline into the veins early.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: Set the tone for the day's intentions,
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  SPEAKER_00: which is always to rip as many rides as humanly possible
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  SPEAKER_00: before grandma says it's time to go home.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell I was reliving my childhood on this day?
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  SPEAKER_00: That was my intention too,
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  SPEAKER_00: by the way, was to ride as many rides as humanly possible, or so I thought.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_00: Because leaving the gift shop, we arrived at an important fork in the road.
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  SPEAKER_00: A fork in the road where, as a kid, I used to bargain away my freedom.
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  SPEAKER_00: It was the choice between going left into Timber Town,
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  SPEAKER_00: the lame kid's side of the park with the lame rides,
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  SPEAKER_00: or going right Into the real park.
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  SPEAKER_00: With the real rides.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: So many times.
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  SPEAKER_00: Across my childhood.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: I can remember begging my grandma to let me ride the real rides first.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'll clean the pool.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'll water the flowers.
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  SPEAKER_00: Whatever you want.
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  SPEAKER_00: I'll do it forever.
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  SPEAKER_00: Just let me go ride some good rides.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: But so many times.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: She made me go directly into Timber Town with my little cousins.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it felt like such a waste of time.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Riding the Wild Kitty.
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  SPEAKER_00: All that stuff.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: That time could have been spent on the Silver Bullet.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: But...
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Today, or I guess last week, it was different.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: I was so excited to take my son into Timbertown,
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: knowing full well that he was asleep and in a milk coma
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: and would not understand anything that was happening.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll say Timbertown, it was all right.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Not worse than I remember.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Not better, either.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe one new ride,
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: like a mini Tilt-A-Whirl thing, but still, it's a cool place for little kids.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: I can envision a future whenever my son can actually be cognizant of
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: where he is down the road,
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: where we have a great time in Timber Town and ride all the rides.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: It could be a great time.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll say this.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you all remember this,
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: that jungle gym thing where you can shoot the foam balls at each other.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: That is somehow still around.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: Kids were still fighting on it, shooting each other, pushing each other down the slides, crying.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Made me really happy inside, seeing all that.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, gosh.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, Timber Town.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_00: Still got it.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: Still a place that I would not want to be when I'm 12 years old.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: To the roller coasters.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: The entire point of going to Frontier City.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_00: I assume most of you,
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: like me,
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: remember vividly these rides,
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: so I'm not going to go into extreme detail,
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: but I thought it was important we rank these rides,
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: as me and my cousins still do when we see each other,
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: and we'll probably do forever whenever we see each other.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: We got five things that I count as roller coasters inside Frontier City.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to start from the bottom and then go all the way up to the top of the list.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: So number five is the newest roller coaster in the park, the Steel Lasso.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was excited to ride this ride.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: I have driven past it hundreds of times in the past few years on I-35.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's a suspended coaster.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, like your feet are hanging down below.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: They're not entrapped in a compartment.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And there's some inversions, some drops.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to say it, this ride kind of sucks.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: I think it looks really cool,
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: but then you ride it and it feels short and lame,
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: like an extension of Timber Town or something.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's just 10 seconds of not that fast and not that fun.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: Pretty disappointing.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that is why it's number five on the list.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, moving on.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Number four is the log ride.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I know there's an actual name for this ride.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what it is because to me, this ride will always be called the Log Ride.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: I also know the Log Ride is not a roller coaster, but these are my rankings and so sue me.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: And to me, it feels like a roller coaster and always has felt like a roller coaster.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And the actual drop into the water is way better than anything.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: On the steel lasso.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: I believe in that firmly.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: Also mad respect to Frontier City for keeping those dark mildewy caverns at
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: the beginning of the ride the exact same for 30 years, maybe longer.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know, remember that skeleton miner guy that's in a wheelbarrow?
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Still there, still dusty, still really creepy.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah,
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean the log ride,
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: there's something inside this ride Something about it I just really love.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: When you get to the end, you're appropriately wet.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, hold on.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: I got to say it.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: The water,
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what this water is,
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: but I've never felt water on my body like the water from the log ride.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of slimy, smells weird, but it's best not to ask any questions.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, when you get to the end of the log ride, you're getting off this ride.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Again, without a seatbelt, I don't know how that's possible.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: You can ride this ride without a seatbelt.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Have kids been vaulted out of the log ride into the lagoon when they hit the water?
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like that's definitely possible.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Again, no seatbelt.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: I love this ride.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: I would do it all the time.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a complete ride.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And if I were allowed to today, I would do it like six, seven times before the end of the day.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: Easy.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, the Diamondback.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't actually ride the Diamondback on this trip.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Meant to, but we ran out of time.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: I've also ridden this ride so many times in my life,
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: hundreds probably,
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: because the Diamondback always had the shortest line when I'd be in the park as
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: a kid.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the ride really doesn't look like it's changed at all.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's a rollercoaster.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: Rollercoasters don't really change.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: But I will say this about the Diamondback.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: It has an excellent burst right off the block, has some steep drops, then that one loop.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: Then you do everything in reverse.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: The anticipation when you're sitting down at the end of the track,
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: waiting for it to start and go backwards...
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_00: Butterflies.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Getting the butterflies float now.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: All right, got some goosebumps.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: It's a really, really fun roller coaster.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Incomplete roller coaster,
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: I will say,
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: but a perfect start and primer for everything else that's going to happen in
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: the park.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And we've already talked about it.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: The way they built that into the gift shop, so cool.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, the Silver Bullet.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: This was hard because I love this ride so much, so, so much.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's pretty much the opposite of the steel lasso experience.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: You don't expect much of it.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: It was built in 86 and it really doesn't look like much.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: The roller coaster seems to be stacked on top of itself in a really small space.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: But God, this ride is awesome.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: The first drop, it's still so good.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Then that inverted loop, then you go indoors through a tunnel while you're pulling some Gs.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing roller coaster.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I forgot how awesome this ride is.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_00: I love this ride.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's short and it's complete and it punches way up above its weight class.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: My wife had also never been to Frontier City.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: She rode this, the Silver Bullet, and she loved it.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, I don't know.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's a great ride.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Great ride.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: Still got it.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: But number one is and will always be the Wildcat.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Ever since I was a kid, I'd wanted to ride the Wildcat at night.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'd only ridden it during the day,
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: the only time I could go with my grandma and aunt during summer breaks,
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: and I just knew that there was something to find on this ride after
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: the sun had gone down.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: Something in its views of our OKC, something in the trees, I don't know, just something.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: So, as the park was about to close,
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: we had 20 minutes left,
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I desperately asked my wife if she'd be down to ride it with me.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_00: We'd ridden it earlier in the day,
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: and it was great, yes,
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: as always,
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: but my vision The Wildcat ride at night had only grown stronger after that,
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: and thankfully, she was down.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: So we pushed our son's bedtime even further back into the night,
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: sacrificed more sleep cycles, and wow, it's totally worth it.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Wildcat is an awesome, awesome, awesome ride.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: The price of the season pass itself is worth the Wildcat.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: The views were insane up there.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: The sun had set like probably 30 minutes before.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: The moon was hanging right above the wooden tracks.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: It was like...
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: This blue,
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: hazy blue of the prairie was just hanging out over all of Oklahoma
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: in every direction.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Moon was up there.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: I held up my hands for every second,
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: just rammed the shit out of my ribs into the side of the cart,
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: got my brain smashed against my skull.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: All worth it.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: And my wife said,
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: at best,
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: afterward,
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: it's not as good of a roller coaster as the Silver Bullet,
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: but it's just a better ride.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: There's something about it that's just magical.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: I know that Boomtown Creamery has a higher quality ice cream than Brahms.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: I know this.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: I know it tastes better.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: But when it's 9 o'clock and I need ice cream, I know where to go.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: I know what to get.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: An orange sherbet freeze from Brahms.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_00: Ordinary, magical, perfect, forever.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: The Wildcat.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, a few other thoughts from Frontier City.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: There are several new rides in the park.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: One of them I have not seen before is the River Rapids ride,
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: which, again, I don't remember this as a kid.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: Please let me know if this has been around.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: I do not believe it was around, but it looked really cool.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: I will look forward to the day.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever someone in my family is willing to go ride this ride with me
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: and get absolutely drenched,
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_00: which nobody in my family,
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: including myself, was up for that whenever we were at the park.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: Swimsuit will be required to ride that ride.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: Also, no, I mentioned it earlier, but the grounds were just so well kept.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: The trees, they're huge.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: And as the sun started to set, it was just a really cool place to walk around.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: Again, my age is coming through clear as day in all these comments.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: The log ride,
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: as mentioned before,
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: with its peninsula bar extending into the lagoon right at the splash zone where
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: the log smashes into the water, is so cool and well done.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's got frozen drinks, beers, televisions.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Seems like a perfectly reasonable place to spend
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_00: a Saturday afternoon watching some football games in September.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, the food.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was pretty bare bones.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not seeing much investment or creativity going on here.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: But they did have, in one food bar area down by the Wildcat, some Indian tacos.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: They also have a spicy chicken sandwich that I was told was solid.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: They did have some funnel cakes too, Oreo funnel cakes.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: So overall, sufficient food selection.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Probably better than...
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: The food selection that they had as a kid, but still, I don't know.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: There could be some better food.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: Also, beers-wise,
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: I was curious what kind of local representation they might have
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: in their beer offerings, and they had absolutely no local representation.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're talking arena-esque quality beer options.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Light, Modelo, Corona, some beer called Garage.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I guess that's like this lime beer.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: Some Cutthroat cocktails, Mai Tai, a Mule.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: That was it.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I really wanted a Neon Sunshine or a Cowboy Cold or an F5.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: I would have taken any of those things, but they didn't have them.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: That is something I want to see improve.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's really my only qualm with Frontier City is the beer.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and lastly, last comment on Frontier City is shout out to the band Redland.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Out of Davenport, Oklahoma.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: They've been playing all summer on Saturday afternoons on the main stage every few weeks.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: And they're going to play for the rest of the year too.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: They are so good.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: They have an actual fiddler in the band.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: Amazing vocals.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: Just excellent.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: Red dirt music, sound.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: They were covering Jason Boland.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Really, really good.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the quality was pretty unbelievable.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Another shout out to Frontier City for the music that was in the grounds,
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: piping in through the speakers.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Got some Billy Currington going on, some Rodney Atkins.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Great vibes music.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: They know their audience.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: It was country and country only playing in Frontier City.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: Frontier City was not as epic as I remembered it.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I just think that was because there weren't many people there.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't understand why there weren't more people there.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's not Frontier City's fault.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: They have reinvested.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: They've kept it up.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely a better park than it was when I was a kid.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: It was absolutely not disappointing.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: I love Frontier City.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Still love Frontier City.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I will be back.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope you will too.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really looking to maximize my season pass here at Frontier City.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: Alright,
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: so if anybody has plans to hit up The park and need someone to join them at
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: the Log Ride Peninsula Bar?
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just a message away.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I'm saying.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this podcast,
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: please drop us a review wherever you're listening and please subscribe to both here
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: and on Substack so you never miss our writing about OKC's culture.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: And tell your friends about what we're doing over here at The Dry Line.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Send them this show and yeah,
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: get everybody involved in the place where Oklahoma City's culture finds
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: a truer understanding.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: Until the next time, you'll know where to find us at The Powerhouse.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Oklahoma where the wind comes sweeping down the plains.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Oh god.