Texas/Midwest 2013 Tour Mini-Updates!

I will post more later, but OMFG, our Maverick ERT was easily in our "Top ten BEST TPR ERT sessions, EVAR!"

My my, what a scary little crowd you are.

And congrats on an awesome ERT session!

Thanks for all the updates. I look forward to a future trip with TPR. I didn't know you could pack so much into a trip.

"Maveshark" would be the GREATEST RIDE OF ALL TIME!

That guy (operator) right in the middle i remember from my trip in June! He was crazy...best part about CP is how enthused the operators are, and the Intamin awesomeness

Maveshark will be the greatest ride of all time the year it's built. And then the following year some park will build Mavesharknado and IT will be the greatest ride ever and anywhere.

That guy (operator) right in the middle i remember from my trip in June! He was crazy...best part about CP is how enthused the operators are, and the Intamin awesomeness

I recognize him too! Haha, he was crazy when I was there, and same with one of the ops on Gemini.

Looks like it has been an awesome trip!! I have loved all the twitter/facebook updates!!

Sounds like Hades is getting progressively worse. It was rough when it opened this year, I was hoping they would fix the problem spots as the season progressed. Cyclops is still king there anyway

It was nice meeting some of you today.

I did hear the re tracking was on the inversion only...seems like they should eventually re-track the entire ride

They said they were going to re-track 90% of the ride. IMO replacing just the top running board of the stack doesn't count as re-tracking the ride. Parks do that all the time when they detect failure in the top running board. Trust me when I say this, replacing the top running board does not help smooth the coaster out. HW does this a lot in the off-season with the Voyage. Law of the universe: things are going to move. The whole stack of wood needs to be replaced and the ledgers have to be re-adjusted. Maybe instead of adding the inversion, Mt. Olympus should of purchased the trains and used the money they spent on the inversion to re-track the whole ride top to bottom.

But then again, whats gonna get more people into the park, re-tracking the ride or adding an inversion to a wooden roller coaster? I'll say the inversion.

^ I have to say that just by judging how good Outlaw Run was I'd say topper track may be the way to go in the future for Hades. Though the proof will be in how well a coaster with topper track like outlaw run ages. (And evidence suggests that even topper track cannot repair all of the damage PTC trains do which is what I heard from a few people on the trip). So far Silver Dollar City's matinence said that they have inspected the ride every morning and not one bolt has has needed retightening.

RMC so far seems to have a reputation of really solid build quality on their work.

The big issue with PTC trains seems to be the way they maneuver through banked turns. Was the basic design of a PTC coaster train ever changed after the 80s when designers like Curtis Summers and then the CCI gang made rides with faster speeds through their banked curve segments? That seems to be the biggest maintenance headache for most parks with wooden coasters that have more dynamic layouts than the out and back designs of previous generations. Even Herb Schmeck's designs appear to me to not have the lateral stresses modern wooden twisters go through. I would say either topper track or iron horse most if not ALL Summers/Dinn and CCI twisters or use newer trains that have tighter wheel assemblies like GCI's Millennium Flyers, GG's Timberliners, or RMC's train (they need to come up with a cool name) to save maintenance costs. I'd like to see what a total retracking of the Voyage PLUS Timberliner trains does for both smoothness and maintenance problems.

I have a very sneaking suspicion TPR saw me (or I saw them) at Cedar Point for thr past three days. I was in my homemade t-shirt with various B&M and Intamin coasters on it. Don't attempt to post a picture of me though..

. . . or RMC's train (they need to come up with a cool name)

I believe the winning name for the 'name the train' contest RMC hosted on facebook was "Gen 1", and plan on changing the numerical value as new editions of the train are made (ie. Gen 2, Gen 3, etc),

Really? For a company with such inspiration in their designs, that name is leaving me scratching my head.

Thanks for giving my crew such an amazing experience at Maverick Thursday night. It will go down as one of if not my favorite memory as a ride host.

Thanks for giving my crew such an amazing experience at Maverick Thursday night. It will go down as one of if not my favorite memory as a ride host.

Thanks to you and the MaveShark crew for working late to give us the amazing ERT. I will never forget it.

Ok, so lets get another mini-update done - Six Flags Great America!

TPR's day at SFGAm started out with some ERT on Raging Bull!

And then we rode the parks newest coaster, X-Flight!

Our awesome day at Six Flags Great America was made even better by Flash Pass!

We were given a backstage tour and got to see lots of "ride stuff" and quite a few unique photo ops of the parks attractions.

Yay for backstage tours!

"Check out my balls!"

Current wait 60 minutes? Not for us!

KidTums got on her first 4-looping coaster!

That is Viper going totally backwards!

TPDave's interpretation of "Having a Six Flags Day!"

Since TPR is into a lot more than just roller coasters, we had Flowrider ERT after the park closed!

Night ERT was great! The park brought in lights and a DJ and we has "Disco Viper!"

Our night comes to an end, and it was an awesome visit to Great America!

TPDave has the right idea, a Six Pints Day makes a Six Flags Day even better, though SFOT would have required a whole lot more pints than SFGAm did to be really enjoyable. Good thing you guys came up with that awesome contingency plan that day

And the Texas/Mid-West trip comes to a close with a 3-day finale at Cedar Point!

We have arrived at the final park of the tour, Cedar Point!

And within a few hours we were on a backstage tour of Millennium Force!

Coaster geeks doing what they do best!

Our first ERT session on Maverick is about to begin.

The Maverick... I mean Maveshark crew was freakin' AMAZING!!!

This was easily in our top ten most amazing, energetic ERT sessions ever!

The next morning we were allowed to get VERY up close with Gatekeeper during a backstage tour!

Love the "plinko" game to try to win front of the line passes!

KidTums helped many TPR members get that elusive Jr. Gemini credit!

Gotta love the classics!

I wonder if Kings Island's new Banshee will be as intense as Raptor?

Keyholing across the front entrance of Cedar Point!

To ride or not to ride... That is the question!

The final ERT of the tour will be on Millennium Force!

We are going to add some Illuminocity to Millennium Force in our own special way!

Time to "glow up"" Millennium Force!

It was an amazing final ERT session!

Strange things are happening on Millennium Force tonight!

The red lights in the MF station makes everyone look like a Toaster Strudel!

What an AWESOME way to end the trip!

As a nice bonus, the mechanics were working on Top Thrill Dragster as we were leaving the park, so we all got a peek inside the hydraulic room!

And like epic trips to Cedar Point, they always end at Friday's!

What an AMAZING end to an awesome trip! Thank you to everyone at Cedar Point for the perfect finale to our Texas/Mid-West Tour!

I really enjoyed my time at Cedar point. The ERT was phenomenal on both Maverick and Millenium Force. Thanks to all the ride ops there that made both nights so amazing!

I also have to say that after the Dells Mean Streak was rather kind in comparison. I rode it twice in the front and both times had a relatively smooth if forceless ride. I can now see that while it's layout isn't the best it could be a fun wooden coaster if only they took off the PTCs added some topper track and let the new trains run at full speed.

Thanks for giving my crew such an amazing experience at Maverick Thursday night. It will go down as one of if not my favorite memory as a ride host.

Kyle, you and your crew were awesome! Thanks for putting on a great hour for us.

That's awesome that SFGAm setup the lights and DJ at Viper. Really nice touch.

Sounds like another amazing summer TPR trip! Great updates and what a way to end it with two seriously awesome ERT sessions. It sounds like they even 'almost' rivaled the Knoebles '08 Phoenix closer!

Always interesting to hear how Voyage is running in comparison to Hades and other coasters, even it wasn't on the trip. It sounds like not much as changed

Couldn't agree more that St. Louis has a great little park. I think it even has a very underrated woodie in The Boss. Next up on the bucket list is without a doubt Outlaw Run. The fact that it has bumped El Toro and Boulder Dash from number one spots on a lot of people's lists means that Yakov and Branson will get another visit soon......very soon I hope! Oh yah, City Museum still looks terrifying and makes any "Challenge Park" look like Chuck E Cheese. Did they add anything new or change anything up since the last visit?

So happy to hear that everyone had such a great time on the trip, despite the obstacles. One of the best reasons for TPR trips is that Robb and Elissa are really your honest to goodness hard core advocates of fun. No matter what life, nature, uncooperative people or anything beyond our control throws at a trip, you can bet you'll always get the best end of the deal and more often than not, even better.