roasted_marshmallow

Put me down for the triple down in the tunnel on the Voyage. Makes me drop my arms for fear they'll be ripped off...

Where is El Toro? My top 3, since I've only been on about 15 total coasters... 1) Voyage 2) Hades 3) Tremors, I think... might be Raven which was too short, or Legend. That group is pretty tight. Man, it's really a shame all the good coasters are way out East. Stupid Canada. That's why we're totally building the best coaster ever in Sundre, Alberta. Bonus points to whomever can find it on a map.

That was us! And yes, we skipped Avalanche... we're noobs! Where was that? I think we'll end up in Wisconsin again sometime.

Wow, I feel much luckier now. I have a mild heart murmur... before my next trip I'm certainly going to ask the Doc if it's wise to ride. There were rides that I didn't ride, (Face/Off, Top Gun, etc) but I really should be more careful next time. My sincerest condolances to the child's family.

Well, I came here a while ago to ask questions about good parks to hit and I got some great advice from a lot of you, so I thought I'd update you all on the trip. The trip ended up being a whirlwind of 4 parks in 9 days... which doesn't sound like a lot but when you are driving from Calgary, it is. First stop was Silverwood in Idaho with Timber Terror and Tremors. It was an excellent warm up and we really enjoyed both rides. I must say that I'm a big wuss because throughout the whole trip I was petrified at every coaster... I enjoyed them all (except one) but that didn't seem to matter. Anyways, the 8 hour drive to Athol from Calgary was totally worth it, and it would make an excellent weekend trip in the future. It was a great warm-up and of all the coasters we did ride, Tremors still ranks fairly high. Then it was a two and a half day ride to Holiday World in Indiana. This is the one I was most excited about and it was totally worth it. Not only did I think the best ride was The Voyage, but it was the best run park as well. Friendly staff to take your bags, we ate dinner there for under $10 total, and FREE DRINKS! I must say that after $4 bottles of water, that's a blessing. Especially considering is was about 100 degrees with 90% humidity and I had a cold. I really wish now that we had more time to spend at Holiday World, but alas, time was ticking. If I only knew what we had when we had it! The best 1-2-3 of the trip, coaster-wise with Raven, Legend and The Voyage. Just fantastic. The Voyage is ridiculous. After that it was a short drive to PKI... We spent a day in the hotel so I could rest, being sick and all, and I definitely needed it. I still wasn't prepared for another day of 100 degree weather with 90% humidity, but we had to brave the Beast and Son of Beast. Now, I must say that Beast was fun. It was definitely a retro-ride. I thoroughly enjoyed it just for it's history. We rode it once at the front, and once at the back, and the back hurt more than the front. Way too many breaks on it, but I think right before that last set of turns its needed. Then we went on Racer, another retro-ride, but not nearly as fun. Finally we braved Son of Beast. Man do I wish I had those 5 minutes of my life back. I was bruising instantaneously after getting off that ride. I was in too much pain to enjoy it at all, and frankly, I don't think I'll ever go back to PKI. The park itself wasnt' bad except for being expensive, but I didn't enjoy the coasters as much as I should have. However, as my sister pointed out, you have to know just how bad a ride can be to appreciate how good they can be too. That's the point in time when I missed Holiday World the most. I still miss it. The Son of Beast is a Son of a Biscuit... After that we went to Mt. Olympus in Wisconsin Dells. There aren't enough 'adult' rides there to make it much fun. I was still in pain from the previous day and may have been unable to truly enjoy Hades, although it was the second best ride we were on, IMO. The others there are nothing to write home about anyways. Cyclops was getting worked on although it was still open. The park itself was great except for the lack of adult rides, and I would definitely visit it again, if simply because I'm in the city checking out the other cool stuff there. Anyways, by far Holiday World was the best park, with the best coaster, although my sister think Hades was better. I think she just appreciated Hades more after being on SoB. I know I'll go back to Holiday World for sure, because all three coasters there were excellent. In a couple years we'll do it again and tour parks in California. It really is a shame there aren't any good parks closer to us in Calgary. Such a shame in fact that we're thinking about making our own... we have the land for it, but no money to build a coaster. I think the perfect coaster would have a similar start to Hades, and the rest of The Voyage. But we're noobs when it comes to coasters, so I'm sure after we ride a couple more we'll have more ideas about what the perfect coaster would be like. However, it's late here, so my spelling is probably horrible and I should get to bed. I will however add pictures soon, but I think they need to be resized first before I do that. Thanks for all your advice everyone! We had a blast on our first ever coaster trip increasing our coaster count from 3 to 17 in one week!

Wowzers... 52 pages of people introducing themselves... I'm afraid I haven't read them all, but I'm sure I'll get to know the regulars as time goes on. My name is Heather and I live in Calgary, Alberta. 25 years old, just got my degree in political science... I suppose I should have counted the number of coasters I've been on, but I think it's a lame total (I'll guess 3 or 4). My sister and I are celebrating my grad by going on a wooden coaster tour to some of the parks in the US shortly. I came here for info, and it looks like I've found the right place! That's all for now I guess....