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...I'll take "Wild Predictions That Never Happened" for $500, Alex! Anyway, now that I've planted my foot firmly in my mouth, here's a TR from this past weekend. I finally got to Adventureland after living in the cornfields for nearly a year! Funnily enough, it's probably the last time I'll be at Adventureland because we're gonna be moving away in a few months again. I think this time will be the last move for a while, though, so hooray for that. Working in live entertainment has it's own set of problems, kids, one of the big ones being a fluid state of residence. We went this past Sunday and it ended up being a very empty day at the park. We arrived shortly after opening and meandered our way around. There were maybe 25 cars in the parking lot so we weren't on a mission to get any rides before the massive central Iowa crowds showed up. Their Space Shot was a cute little guy. I saw it was 200 feet but I'm willing to doubt those claims. The launch up the tower was fun but there was zero airtime at the top so it's more a fast-paced observation tower. With how flat Iowa is, though, I'm fairly certain I was able to see the geodesic Desert Dome at the Omaha Zoo in the distance (and I'm waiting on new, better lenses for my glasses). Monster is a very fun coaster with a few genuine "omg I'm gonna die" moments. Gerstlauer is pretty well-versed in those moments, though. Karnan is my #1 and it won't be dethroned anytime soon, but there were times on Monster that I felt the same fear of god overtake my brain. The first drop is KILLER, every inversion has sustained hangtime, every twist and hill has airtime, and there's an absolutely wild sharp kick to the right towards the end of the ride that attempts to buck every passenger out of the vehicle and throw them into the pink candystriper building across the midway. This ride alone is worth the trip to the park. Maximum one-train wait, I lost count how many times I got on. Tornado is the classic woodie and it's a fun, if basic, one. I rode in the back and it had the classic wood rumble, nothing too rough but it lets you know who's in charge. A few nice pops of airtime, too! It was great to see old school PTC buzz bar trains again! Dragon Slayer is an S&S 4D Free Fly and this is either on-par with Fiesta Texas or even crazier. I only rode it twice (single-car operation) and both were on the "Wilder" side and holy hell it lived up to that claim. I was flipping like a madman the entire time, scored a complete face-down moment on the first raven turn(?), got a quadruple-flip from the magnets right before the second raven turn(?), and then got flipped back the other direction at least twice for the final raven turn. I love these rides, they're mental. Outlaw was crap. Short, rough as hell, zero airtime, hardly any laterals, but it uses buzz bar trains, too, so at least there's that! Phoenix is a standard cookie-cutter spinning coaster and I'm curious if it was originally planned as an indoor coaster. The entire ride is 100% black except for the vehicles. Cute enough but hardly any spinning. The Underground is officially my son's first ever coaster! He's not even 17 months old (that'll be in two days) and he's ridden a wooden coaster! Granted it's maybe a maximum of 5mph and has a drop of about six feet but still! It felt like a lower-budget answer to Fire In The Hole but it still made all of us smile throughout because it's such a goofy little ride. A handful of the flats were already out of commission for the season like the pirate ship, tea cups, paratrooper, etc, but it wasn't anything to ruin the day. All told, we spent about 4-5 hours at the park at a VERY leisurely pace and managed to get on everything we wanted to with practically zero waits all day. Oh, also, the train needs some serious oil or something, especially in the tunnel. The squeaking in there was ridiculous. Judging by the people behind us, though, I may be overreacting.

Yes. It can vaguely be seen in these images from 1997: Yellow is Zulu, blue is where Zinger was, orange rectangle with arrow is the entrance. Compared to today (Zulu at the very top of the image): Boomerang can be seen in the background in the last image. Timber Wolf is nothing special overall, but it is at least enjoyable now and has a good amount of airtime. There was even more fresh track on it this year than last, got to give credit where credit is due. They are doing a heck of a job maintaining TW.

I'm going to buy an old lap bar for $6,000 so I can keep a piece of trash in my room.

I'm not so sure about the Q-bot, but the watches are available. You must put down a credit card deposit (transaction) to get the watch. When you return it, they will issue you a credit transaction.

pleasantly surprised to see this thread come roaring back. y'all always have such a great time, and i love following along!

I believe at most parks the Q-Bot wristband/watch is still an option.

Anyone heard anything about the carousel?

Welcome back. Seems like there are several active members who took a break, but are thankfully now returning.

If you really want to get into the weird Pennsyltucky stuff, take a small detour through Centralia. An underground mine has been burning since the 60s, causing the whole town to evacuate and be torn down except for like 8 people who refused to leave and still live there. You might even see smoke venting out of the ground in some areas. Back in the Mapquest days in like 2004, we drove from Knoebels to Hershey at night and it sent us down I think Route 125 which is a windy ass mountain road full of hairpin turns and, back then, absolutely no cell service. I refused to drive near Knoebels at night for a while after that lol, it was rather terrifying. And I'm someone who spends a good deal of time in Vermont.

It's tough to predict Fright Fest crowds this year. Every day of the season so far has been empty, but Fright Fest has historically been the busiest time of the year by far. I feel like it could be really anywhere from every single ride being a walk-on to every major coaster having triple digit wait times. Everything about this season is unprecedented. That said, just go to Knoebels. It's closer and better and El Toro is closed anyway.

I think we all agree Magic Mountain needs another Coaster, actually maybe 3 more.

I can't remember. That person is no longer with us, tragically.