My Background as a Roller Coaster Enthusiast, Why I Run the Poll

   As a teenager growing up in Minnesota in the late 1970's, I looked 
forward to the summer months for the usual reasons (no school....) 
and for a less usual one. Namely, traveling across the midwest with 
my dad and my brother Dan riding roller coasters. There were new 
roller coasters being built (The Beast, Adventureland's Tornado, 
The Screamin' Eagle, High Roller...) and we rode and enjoyed 
them all. 

   Girls, sports, and jobs soon replaced these yearly extended coaster 
treks, but the fond memories lingered. After graduating from the University 
of Wisconsin in the spring of 1989, Dan suggested that we take another 
trek, 10 years after our last. 

   I was busy with my new job, working long hours in the lab, 
but was still considering taking time out to renew our treks when Dan 
died that July.

   Several years later, in 1993, I decided that I would like to take up 
the hobby again.   I wanted to have a way of knowing which were the best 
wooden roller coasters in the world.  That is why I created this poll.