Match Made On Timber - CONGRATS SUE AND RICH!

[WadeJ]

Our friends Sue and Rich (who happen to share my similar fondness of RT) were married June 10th on Boulder Dash and made the paper!

From courant.com (article pasted as well just in case the link becomes unavailable)
http://www.courant.com/news/local/hc-coaster0611.artjun11,0,2497387.story

Match Made On Timber

Thousands Of Rides Lead To Love, A Proposal And A Roller Coaster Wedding For One Pennsylvania Couple

By RUTHIE ACKERMAN
Courant Staff Writer

June 11 2006

BRISTOL -- Sue Barry and Rich Yekel finally took the plunge.

After dating for 15 years and riding the Boulder Dash roller coaster at Lake Compounce Family Theme Park more than 1,750 times, they said "I do" Saturday and then took another ride to celebrate.

The ceremony took place in front of Boulder Dash's operator's booth so all of the family, even those who didn't want to ride the wooden roller coaster, could be there. Right before the couple was pronounced man and wife, they stepped onto the coaster, where the pastor finished the ceremony. The newlyweds, who are from Allentown, Pa., then rode the coaster several times with family and friends.

The pastor, the Rev. Cliff Herring, has performed over 75 coaster weddings and even says he was in the Guinness Book of World Records in 1999-2000 for marrying 144 couples on a freefall ride. When asked why he thinks couples would want to get married on a coaster, Herring said, "For them it's almost normal."

Herring and the happy couple are members of ACE, American Coaster Enthusiasts.

Surprisingly, Barry, 32, and Yekel, 41, didn't meet on a roller coaster, but at a grocery store where she worked in New Jersey. On their first date they went roller skating; on their second date they went to the beach. Their third date was a visit to Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, where they rode a wooden roller coaster called Rolling Thunder for the first time. Since then they've ridden it more than 4,000 times.

Barry had only been on three coasters before meeting Yekel. Now they read books about roller coasters and spend all of their vacation time searching for the ultimate roller coaster experience. Yekel even proposed in front of their favorite steel coaster, Montu, in Busch Gardens, Fla.

They have been on 675 different coasters in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain and have been on at least one coaster in 44 of the 50 states. The final frontier is Germany, where Barry says she'd still like to go to ride coasters.

Barry's family thinks she's crazy, but she says, "There are a lot of others as well so we're not the only ones."

Sandy Barry, Sue's sister and the maid of honor, and Romulus LoCollo, the best man, took a rehearsal ride on Friday. They were in the third car together, but neither was much comfort for the other. Sandy screamed `Help me' as the coaster barreled down the side of the mountain and dropped 115 feet. LoCollo kept his eyes shut. Barry said she and Yekel were afraid to let them do a test run for fear they would refuse to go on the roller coaster at the actual ceremony.

In a phone conversation with LoCollo before the wedding he confirmed that fear, saying he wished he hadn't gone on the ride. "I'm just trying to make the best of it," LoCollo said.

LoCollo and Sandy Barry had to ride the roller coaster at least four more times Saturday, Yekel said, once at the ceremony and three more times for photographs.

Yekel had no sympathy for LoCollo. "In order to accept being best man he had to agree to it," Yekel said.

The couple's honeymoon destination is a cabin in the Smoky Mountains in Tennessee. But the trip to the cabin will include a few coaster stops at Holiday World in Indiana, Beech Bend in Kentucky and Dollywood in Tennessee. The Voyage in Santa Claus, Ind., and Kentucky Rumbler in Louisville, Ky., will be new rides for the newlyweds. They have ridden on Thunderhead in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., more than 20 times.

"Thunderhead was actually voted better than Boulder Dash in the Amusement Today poll, but we don't agree with that," Barry said. "We still think Boulder Dash is No. 1."

Courant Staff Photographer Cloe Poisson contributed to the story.
Copyright 2006, Hartford Courant

CONGRATS GUYS and enjoy the honeymoon!

[overlord]

What an awesome way to be married! Congrats on the eloping! Enjoy your marriage!

I wonder if I could do that with El Toro....

[darkridedan]

Cool article Wade.

I took a few pictures that day. I didn't want to prevent the family from getting  good shots so I stood in the back:

http://www.darkridedan.smugmug.com/gallery/1571091

[ChuckR]

Thats awesome! Congrats Sue and Rich!

[PcMan]

Yep that's Rev. Cliff Herring doing the Honors again

[GADVwow]

Congrats, indeed.

(And I must admit I was a wee bit surprised that Rolling Thunder wasn't a guest of honor!)

[Cyclonic]

I was as well.  I remember Coaster Celebration last year when Rich and Sue were the only two taking up rides on RT during ERT.  Nice to see they finally tied the knot.  Thanks for the pictures Dan.

Many congrats to Rich and Sue, here is to many more years of coastering together!

[overlord]

Did they have a sign on the back of the train that said just married?

[darkridedan]

Congrats, indeed.

(And I must admit I was a wee bit surprised that Rolling Thunder wasn't a guest of honor!)

I represented Rolling Thunder.  

I wish I thought to wear an RT t-shirt or pin before now.   

[coastermom]

Congratulations !!! I wish you as much happiness and joy as me and my hubby have now with 3 kids and 14 years of Marriage . 

Now go enjoy that honeymoon and make some more coaster fans !!!