So its already close to three months that Jerome (and partially Seraina) are in the U.S.. Seraina had to travel back and is in Switzerland right now sorting out her Visa, so there wont be much content from her side in this post. What has happened since?
Well, we forgot to mention in the last post that I have successfully passed my driving exam and now own a U.S. driving license (yes, this is required, you actually have to pass another driving exam). The exam itself took about 10mins, and I passed without flaw. I was very nervous, but am now super proud that I made it first try :). Some details about the whole process:
- If the area you are living in has a lot of traffic (like, for example, in a town), the exam takes place in an enclosed area. This means that you do not actually drive on public roads on exam day.
- You have to show that you are able to park your car. People show up with huge trucks to do the driving exam. No, the parking spots are not made bigger if you have a huge vehicle (why would you do that???).
- Passing the exam does not mean you get a license, it only allows you to start with the overall paperwork. Jerome got lucky, because he had is exam appointment at 13:00, which meant that he had his exam by 14:00, which also meant that he could get into a virtual line for the same day to be able to “apply” for his license. He was the last one that was able to get his paperwork done on that day at that exam center.
With that out of the way, all paperwork that was required is now done.
What else? I took delivery of my next Tesla (yes, I made that mistake again). Yes, the trunk did not close properly on delivery day (what was somehow fixed but still is not perfect) and the windscreen wiper only disintegrated once, it is now completely unusable. It is not mounted properly and crashes into the front hood every time it is used. Now the wipers are completely scratched and the hood is scuffed. But other then that, I is super happy about the purchase :)!
Besides that, we also did some sightseeing:
- While Seraina was still here, we visited Stone Arch Bridge Festival – a display of arts and local produce. Jerome bought to pictures to be able to take home as a reminder of our stay in Minneapolis.
- We visited Valleyfair (see more nerd news below), an amusement park in Minneapolis.
On the exented weekend of the 4th of July, I took the chance and traveled to Duluth. I took a ride on a mountain coaster and also hiked at the sea front on a very longe dune. The only way to get there is over a steel bridge that is raisable, which was very impressive. Strange for us: The skilift starts at see level. Which means that in Duluth you have both beaches and a ski resort at the same overall see level. Very strange for us :).
Minneapolis at night
Other than that, I had to travel again, I flew back to Raleigh (where I was already in December and April). This time, I had to give trainings 4 working days in a row with a weekend in between. On Friday, I had the chance to go out with some friends to an amazing Indian restaurant (the Tikka Masala was incredible!) and to a arts display later that night. The weekend I used to travel to Richmond and to see Kings Dominion. On Sunday, the weather forecast was very bad, and I stayed at the hotel in Raleigh – which was a good decision as the storm that came in was very intense.
An arcade bar in Raleigh 
Richmond from afar
I am sitting in my hotel room right now in a city I am not going to mention (so that you have to come back to read further), however, rest assured that the pictures I have taken today on its own are worth to return to read more. If you are interested in rollercoaster talk, continue reading, else we will see each other in a couple of weeks! 🙂
Nerdtalk.
Valleyfair is the local amusement park to Minneapolis, therefore I was to hopefully like it. Well, it has seen better days to be honest. It is clear that the chain that runs Valleyfair (which is called Cedar Fair, the name of Cedar Fair stems from the first two parks owned, being Cedar Point and Valleyfair!) is currently neglecting the park, there have been no new major rides in the last couple of years. They have two flagship rides, being Wild Thing (the name is wilder than it actually is), a Morgan steel coaster and Renegade, a GCI wooden coaster. While the latter is actually kinda fun but a little bit slow for my taste, Wild Thing is sadly not that special. It looks huge and runs smoothly, but is just kind of uneventful. Some money was invested in some flat rides, the park now operates an extreme swing from S&S (air powered), which was big fun.
All in all, sadly not that great of a park, but still worth a visit. Operations were good and the food, too.
Kings Dominion was the second park I was able to visit, and boy oh boy, there were some nice rides there. Standout coasters are Intimidator 305 and Twisted Timbers. The park however also offers other very nice rides, but the mentioned coasters belong to the Top 20 coasters on this planet.
Intimidator was the most intense coaster I have ever been on, and set the bar to a new highpoint for thrill-based rides. The g-forces are that extreme that you gray out during the ride at least once (all your blood goes into your legs). A coaster that you wont ride twice in a row :D. Amazing what Intamin was able to build there.
Twisted Timbers was my first coaster I rode from Rocky Mountain Construction (RMC). A very smooth ride. RMC basically recycles old wooden coasters – they reuse the wooden supports and use a T beam steel track on top of it, which allows the coaster to even perform extreme inversions. The ride feeling was also amazing.
The overall lineup in this park is really nice, so if you have the chance, go and visit! What I have to say though: Operations were frustratingly slow.
Intimidator 305 
Twisted Timber
- Kings Dominion, 8/11
- Carowinds, Charlotte, 7.5/11
- Six Flags St. Louis, St. Louis, 6/11
- Valleyfair! 5/11
- Nickelodeon Universe, Minneapolis, 3/11