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Crusaders<br />
possible in about a week. We’ve done this<br />
twice now and we call them ‘coaster<br />
crusades’ each time,” said Osborn.<br />
“While we were out visiting a specific<br />
park, we thought, why not ride as many<br />
coasters as we can while visiting the area?<br />
Hence, the start of the Coaster Crusade,”<br />
added Yelverton. “Zach and I have taken<br />
two Coaster Crusades. Our first trip, we<br />
visited Busch Gardens and Kings Dominion<br />
in Virginia and Carowinds in North Carolina<br />
(30 total roller coasters).” Osborn said,<br />
“We did the ‘Coaster Insider Tour’ at Busch<br />
Gardens, which gave us an excellent behindthe-scenes<br />
look at the upkeep and maintenance<br />
of the coasters there, as well as giving<br />
us the opportunity to ride coasters by<br />
ourselves before the park opened to the<br />
general public. Our second tour, we visited<br />
King’s Island in Cincinnati, Kentucky<br />
Kingdom in Louisville, Holiday World in<br />
Santa Clause, Indiana, and Dollywood in<br />
Pigeon Forge, Tennessee (28 roller<br />
coasters).”<br />
Recently, Yelverton and Osborn did<br />
a presentation to the ACCENT students at<br />
Eastside Elementary School. They showed<br />
pictures from their coaster crusades and<br />
discussed their favorite rides and roller<br />
coaster elements. The students were doing<br />
a study of roller coasters including theming,<br />
construction and the various elements<br />
found on roller coasters and the physics<br />
behind them. “We were honored to visit<br />
with the Eastside Elementary School<br />
students. We discussed the various types of<br />
coasters in existence such as steel, wooden<br />
and hybrid coasters. We also showed<br />
examples of different ride elements such as<br />
helix, vertical loop, corkscrew, etc. We then<br />
allowed students to ask questions from<br />
their individual research they had been<br />
doing in their classrooms,” said Yelverton.<br />
After the Q&A session, the students<br />
continued their study of roller coasters<br />
and had a competition where they designed<br />
their own roller coasters.<br />
Osborn’s favorite thing about riding<br />
roller coasters is “airtime”. “I love airtime<br />
more than anything else about roller<br />
coasters. These are moments of weightlessness<br />
caused by negative G-forces. You literally<br />
float out of your seat. What’s cooler than<br />
that? All of my favorite coasters heavily<br />
feature airtime,” he said.<br />
Hometown Clinton • 41
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