Rick Mathews has spent most recent weekends driving thousands of miles. Sometimes he flies somewhere and then drives. Sometimes he has several flights in a weekend between all that driving. This was what was required during the home stretch of his years-long quest to ride every roller coaster in the United States. On Sunday, Mathews hit his goal. His ride on a kiddie coaster at Yesterland Farm in Canton, Texas, was No. 1,091. Mathews has now been on every roller coaster in the country that allows adult riders.
His ride on the Road Trip Roller Coaster was not supposed to be where he finished his mission, but plans change on a journey of this size and scale. Mathews wanted to end in Texas, where his project began; he did, but not the way he’d planned it. Austin’s Circuit of the Americas is building an amusement park adjacent to the race track, and unexpectedly announced that a roller coaster in that park, Circuit Breaker, would open for ticket holders during the F1 race last weekend. So Mathews’ flight to Dallas was followed by a three-hour drive to Austin. He bought an F1 ticket, rode Circuit Breaker, then drove back up. The limited operating hours of Yesterland Farm meant he’d have to save his last ride for Sunday. Road Trip Roller Coaster would be the final one.
