coasterbear30

Since we had such a blast last year at Thrills in the Hills, Scott (coasterfreak80) and I decided that we were definitely going again in 2009. Don't miss the onride photos at the end of this report! Must see! We drove up early on Friday morning and got several rides in before registration at 4PM. After a brief reception at Lumber Camp, we began our 90 minutes of ERT on Thunderhead, Timber Tower and Mystery Mine. The weather held out for us this year and we weren't stuck inside riding Blazing Fury. Saturday morning, we arrived early to participate in the walk-back tour on Thunderhead. We did both tours for Mystery Mine and Thunderhead last year so we only did the Thunderhead tour this year since it was our favorite. After the pre-op tour, we had ERT on Tennessee Tornado until the park opened. We were provided with special seating at the new show Sha-Kon-O-Hey! and then had a group photo up on the stage for the show. We were then treated to an always amazing lunch and coaster auction for the Roller Coaster Museum. After the auction, we rode the train for the first time. Just a forewarning, ash in your eyes is not fun! The ride itself was nice but the ash in our eyes and our clothes was not. With 6 hours of free-time in the park, we decided to hit all the water rides this year. Slidewinder was great and the flume and rapids were both pretty impressive. We then had after hours ERT on Thunderhead, Mystery Mine and Tennessee Tornado. We would like to thank Dollywood for the great gifts we received during this event: food, drinks, mugs, shirts, pins, patches, free onride photo for every coaster and the best customer service ever! For anyone who has not been to Dollywood or participated in this event, we strongly recommend that you check it out! Enjoy the photos!

Eric, How can you say Goliath is not a hyper? It is 200 feet tall. Is it just because it only drops 175 at the most? How are hypers defined if that is your qualification for it not being one?

Yeah, they always have good food. Wow, you got some really great shots. I didn't get as many as last year but there were still some great ones. Hopefully we will do a TR next week.

Hey, thanks for responding. I saw you guys. You were sitting behind us at the table for lunch and the auction. You guys got some really cool stuff at the auction. I was jealous. Hope you guys had fun and we will be doing another trip report soon!

This thread needs to turn into a gay roller coaster dating thread...Any single guys looking? LOL

Wow, I am blown away at all the support on this site! Congrats you guys. You look so cute together. Now if only I could find a hot man to marry in a theme park I would be in heaven! LOL

Hey Beemerboy, you didn't happen to be at SFOG this past Sunday with a TPR shirt on did you?

Just wondering if any other TPR members are going to be at Thrills in the Hills at DW May 22-24th. Me and Scott (Coasterfreak80) will be there and it would be cool to meet other members of TPR. We went last year and it was awesome. Good ERT and exclusive tours.

Thanks for posting pics in B & W. I LOVE B & W pics. They are my favorite type of pictures, drawings, paintings and tattoos! I also really like sepiatone pics too. Color is good but not as much as B & W. The color pics you did throw in there were great juxtaposed to the B & W ones!

OMG! Just watched this for the first time and in some ways I can kind of understand because I am gay and that was once looked on as really weird and not natural but at the same time it is a piece of metal...not a person. So strange but whatever floats your boat!

Here are some I took...

SFOG is my home park and I go at least 10-20 times a year. With Goliath being my #1 baby I go to ride her as much as possible. I also tend to go to Dollywood at least 3-4 times since it is only 3 hours away. And occasionally Lake Winnie since it's only an hour and a half.

A friend of mine that used to live in NO sent me these pics. I know they were probably right after the park got hit but I thought I would share them.

I have pics of several of these....Here you go..... I know you had Roadrunner Express (SFDK) on your list before so I included it. I also included pics of the Southern Star inverting ship and the Taxi Jam coaster at Carowinds just in case you needed those. I have lots of other pics if you need others from those parks. I also have pics from BGA, BGE, CGA, KD, SWO, DW, IOA etc...

Me and my buddy went on Saturday for opening day and it was more crowded than last year for sure. The longest wait was only about 15 minutes all day though. Ninja and Superman were closed that day too. I still thought that the employees and such didn't have it together. The only crew that was fun was the Goliath crew. They were shouting and having fun.

^Too funny...yeah there is a standardized test and I administer it! LOL^

Are you sure you aren't gay? LOL Well that looks better than our day at SFOG! Me and my friends drove out there (thank God its close to my house) and we get there and there are parking poles/blockades in front of the entrance to the parking lot. We stop and ask an employee what the deal was and she said "they aren't opening today because of the weather. They didn't even bother to tell us until we showed up for work." It wasn't even raining! Way to go! In true SF fashion...Oh well there is always this Saturday! And it is going to be nice!

OK, I hate to have to ask this through here but I have to know. There was a thread a while ago that had aerial shots of all of the current GCI coasters. Does anyone know what thread that was? I have searched and searched and cannot find it. They were awesome pictures.

There were about 110-120 people there for the event. I felt sorry for the people that didn't have the MM credit and didn't get to ride that day because it was so cold.

Hey there. I recently purchased some coaster videos as I had to since my place got broken into and all my previous TPR videos got stolen! I bought Coasters in the Raw 2, Expedition 10 (midwest), America's Theme Parks and re-bought Coasters in the Raw 1. I thought Coasters in the Raw 2 was really freaking good. Almost all of the steel coasters were things I wanted to see and although I could have done without some of the woodies, they were still good too. This is a video to have and I think that this one was better than Raw 1. Go buy it now! Expedition 10 was one that I also enjoyed, but am coming to the same view as some other people that have posted here. If I hear one more Britney or dance song I am gonna kill myself. I love the off coaster footage, the antics and everything else but sometimes the music is just too much. There is always the mute button! As far as America's theme parks DVD, to be honest, I wasn't impressed. It was ok but I wouldn't buy it again. I used to have Expeditions 1-7 (before they got stolen) and have always enjoyed TPR videos. Thanks Robb for making these videos for us to enjoy in the off season.

^Have you ridden Goliath at SFOG?^

^^I totally agree that B & M floater air is amazing. I never get tired of it. The feeling of floating over those hills at that height is just amazing. SFOG is my home park and I never get sick of riding Goliath. The airtime is just amazing. Then again I am a B & M hyper fan boy. The only ejector (or adrupt air) I get is over the last few bunny hills where you feel yourself heavily relying on the restraint to keep you in your seat. BTW, 100th post credit done!

I know that Afterburn (Top Gun) at Carowinds has it.

My vote is for BGA. I mean how can you beat the combo powerhouse of Kumba, Montu and Sheikra? They are all top 10 amazing coasters! However Apollo's Chariot, Alpengeist and BBW were all lacking in their departments. Kumba and Montu hopped into my top 5 after just one ride while Alpie and AC didn't even make my top 10!

I know for me it would be great to see coasters that have been lost at my home park (SFOG.) I know that it is a standard launched looper but I would love to see Viper and Z Force (which you are going to include as Flashback.) I also don't know if this would count, but I would love to see the original Rattler in Texas. I know that it is not out of commission but it might as well be with the way they neutered it. Just a suggestion/wish!