Coast 2 Coasters - A Father's Day Special

“The days are long, but the time is short.” A friend told me this when my children were toddlers, and that truth stayed with me. So, when my children could drive, I was determined to take life-changing road trips with them. Traditional societies developed rites of passage over eons. America is culturally young, and we have precious few of these. But we have a car culture, and our road trips are rides of passage.

Photo: Robert Moran. View full-sized image.

In 2021 I drove across America with my son, attending baseball games every night. That was his passion. But my daughter, Ruth, is our family daredevil and polymath. She needed a different ride of passage. One of her passions is roller coasters. It was obvious. Our 2022 father-daughter road trip would focus on coasters. Coast 2 Coasters was born and took us from one amusement park to another as we drove from LA back to DC. The drive was long, but the time was short.

Photo: Robert Moran. View full-sized image.

My daughter wanted to ride mega coasters. But I wanted a time machine that would slow my waning days with her. I wanted more time to enjoy my daughter the creator, maker, artist, roller -skater and coaster enthusiast. The joy was in seeing and hearing her passion for coasters like Time Traveler, Steel Vengeance (Steve), West Coast Racers, Outlaw Run, and Diamondback. Ruth’s categorical knowledge of the manufacturers, her analysis of the theming and color theory of each coaster, and her thoughts on park design were inspiring. It is deeply gratifying to learn from your children.

Photo: Robert Moran. View full-sized image.

Road trips are both destination and journey. We had many destinations – Santa Monica Pier, Disneyland, Knott’s Berry Farm, Six Flags Magic Mountain, AdventureDome, Elitch Gardens, Silver Dollar City, Kings Island, and Cedar Point. But the journey is often where the memories are made. In our case, it was watching my daughter build confidence behind the wheel on a very long drive, an impromptu stop at a roadside fruit stand selling cocos frescos near the California-Nevada border, stumbling across the self-proclaimed “World’s Largest Fork” in Springfield, Missouri, discovering the ghost town in Silver Reef, Utah, a late night drive to Swigg in Salt Lake City, and Ruth’s “adventurer hat” – a leather cowboy hat.

The hat was a wonderful puzzle to me. Ruth is already an adventurer. She didn’t need the hat. Was it emblematic of the trip? Was it a memento mori? Whatever it was, I will always remember her smiling with me in front of state welcome signs wearing it.

The journey also gifts us time and space to think. For me the coaster became a metaphor for life. The joy, anticipation, surprise, terror, elation, and even discomfort are all a part of the ride. And the ultimate metaphor for me was The Beast. Ruth and I rode The Beast many, many times over two days at Kings Island. Our first night at the park, we rode it as the sun set over rolling green hills. I have ridden The Beast with all the fake bravado of an insecure boy in the 1980s. I have ridden The Beast under the spell of transitory teenage love. And I rode it again with my daughter on the 50th anniversary of the park, hoping I could slow time, and enjoy her coming of age. One ride. Different perspectives. The roller coaster of life. The days are long, but the time is short.

— Robert Moran