These Iowans rode a roller coaster 1,000 times this summer and became small town 'legends'
Tom and Margaret Wuggazer were seated in a cherry red roller coaster car, holding up a white sign.
"1000th Ride," the lettering read at Arnold's Park Amusement Park in northwest Iowa.
"Tom and Margaret, in riding our newly refurbished The Legend rollercoaster, have now become legends in our community and have earned a soft spot in all our hearts," park CEO Jon Pausley told the Register.
The Wuggazers are local lore on the chain of five glacial lakes for their legendary summer hobby as the Iowa Great Lakes' resident thrill seekers. The couple celebrated their 1,000th ride on Sept. 3.
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'It keeps us out of trouble:' Okoboji couple rides The Legend 600+ times in 2022
"We used to vacation up here with our individual families when we were little kids. When we were in Kansas, we started going up to family camp at Camp Okoboji and we did that pretty much every year," Tom Wuggazer said.
The Wuggazers met as students at Iowa State University in the late 1960s. She was a freshman; he was a sophomore, and they were both studying in the basement of Memorial Lutheran Church near ISU's campus.
The Iowa natives later married and moved to Lyons, Kansas where they raised their three sons. In 2008, they bought a house at the Iowa Great Lakes while still living in Kansas.
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After buying the home in Iowa, the couple packed piles of stuff from Kansas in their van and dropped a little off each year. In 2015, Tom retired as a process engineer at an oil refinery. Then, they unpacked the last moving boxes after 41 years living in Kansas. A year later, they started riding attractions at Arnolds Park Amusement Park.
In 2022, the couple started counting their rides after two international students from Jamaica started asking if they had reached 100 rides. Throughout last year's season, they recorded more than 600 rides.
"Since we're retired, it keeps us out of trouble. It's just something to do," Tom Wuggazer joked.
Okoboji couples rides 400 more times than last season at Arnolds Park
This year, the duo's count reset to zero when they started riding after the park's season started in May. The Legend underwent a six-year-long restoration project with fresh paint, new concrete and a refurbished main section near the coaster's first uphill climb. The Wuggazers visits to the park are a chance for fresh air and a fun break for the retirees.
"This is such a gentle ride, it's just fun," Margaret Wuggazer said.
Their frequent treks to the park feel like globetrotting in small town Iowa because the amusement park hosts more than 100 international students who work at the park each year. This year, the park even constructed a new three-story dormitory to host the student workers.
"They bring in people from all over the world and we feel like we get to go visit the world just by staying here at home and going to talk to them," she said.
On the third day of September, the couple hit their 1,000th ride on The Legend for this season. They were presented with the paper sign and posed for photos with Pausley.
The sun has set on summer. In the park's offseason, Tom will go back to golfing. The Wuggazers attend church services on autumn Sunday mornings. They remodel dorm cabins together at Camp Okoboji, a religious retreat.
Each Christmas, they purchase season passes for one another.
"Christmas shopping is no big deal for us," Margaret Wuggazer said with a laugh.
The leaves, and snowflakes, will soon fall. The Wuggazers have already started counting down until they can fall again, too.
Jay Stahl is an entertainment reporter at The Des Moines Register. Follow him on Instagram or reach out at jstahl@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa couple rode Arnolds Park roller coaster 1,000 times this summer
