roller coaster- Many people have adopted new hobbies to help cope with spending more time at home during the pandemic, but few have taken it to the level of a California family, who built a 400-foot roller coaster in their parents’ backyard.
The following written content by Lauren M. Johnson and Jeffrey Kopp via CNN
(CNN)Many people have adopted new hobbies to help cope with spending more time at home during the pandemic, but few have taken it to the level of a California family, who built a 400-foot roller coaster in their parents’ backyard.
Since their favorite theme park was closed due to Covid-19, Sean LaRochelle, a graduate student pursuing his master’s in architecture at Clemson University, decided to bring a little bit of Disneyland right into their backyard.
LaRochelle, his wife and their three children were quarantining with his parents and his siblings at their home in California’s Napa Valley when he decided on a whim to try and build a coaster.
The track ended up being 400 feet long.
“I went up to my dad and I was like, I think we’re going to build a roller coaster in the backyard. And he’s like, “Oh yeah, that’s fine. No worries.” I don’t think he realized how big it was going to be, but he was super supportive,” LaRochelle told CNN.
30 friends helped bring the vision to life
The coaster ended up being approximately 400 feet in length. Only one rider goes at a time, but it takes 50 seconds to ride from start to finish.
The coaster, inspired by the Matterhorn ride at Disneyland, took four months to build.
LaRochelle utilized the talents of 30 friends to not only create the roller coaster itself, but to bring it to life. It is based on the Matterhorn, a roller coaster at Disneyland in Anaheim.
The Matterhorn simulates an Alpine sled hurtling down a mountain while trying to avoid a yeti trying to capture the sled. The ride is named after the 14,692-foot peak in the Alps near the border of Italy and Switzerland. Read more from CNN.
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