VegasCoaster

There are certain screams that are so annoying I want to punch people in the face. However, 99% of the time it is perfectly fine. I think a ride where everyone was perfectly silent would be really weird. It almost seems like it adds to the intensity of the experience a bit.

I haven't been on Evel Knievil, but last year the boss was running pretty horribly and Screamin Eagle was pretty good. Either way I'm still guessing if all of SFStL's woodies are running well they still won't hold a candle to Holiday World's.

7/20 Most of the famous ones I got right, but I haven't heard of half of the enthusiasts that were quoted. The actual Robb quote was a giveaway though I thought.

From the topic, I thought you had been working on some ultra cool new drop tower in RCT 2 for a year. Aside from the initial let down, the park looks really good and the surrounding area is a nice touch. Keep plugging away at it!

Just got back from seeing Reel Big Fish and the English Beat at La Zona Rosa in Austin. The English Beat played a good set but some of their newer songs didn't seem to excite the crowd a whole lot. However, their older stuff and their hits like "Save it for Later" and "Mirror in the Bathroom" got everyone going pretty well. They seemed to have good interactions with the crowd in between songs like dedicating "Can't get used to losing you" to his liver and requesting that all the girls continue to drink throughout the night. Reel Big Fish played a lot of their older stuff which was great since you don't hear that live too often. They played some of the stuff off of their new album which is all covers and they had the typical RBF banter and humor in between the songs. I have a habit of getting beer spilled on me at some point and time during every RBF show I've been too, and this time someone threw beer into the crowd, which hit me square in the eye, so that was fun. They played a great show as usual and mixed up the shtick from the last few times I've seen them, which was great.

Not that I went to Kemah with TPR, but I went a week or two before hand and thought that Boardwalk Bullet was fine. It rained for 5 minutes or so right before I got on and it was a pretty hot day, but it seemed fine. It threw you around quite a bit don't get me wrong, but it was definitely tolerable. No where near Psyclone or Son of Beast in my opinion, but then again with wood a lot can change.

Oh really guy entering the car from the unloading platform, I'm on that tv show that no one knows about!! Sweet! Those gigantic black boxes on the front of the train totally fooled me. What do you mean we just rode that part of Boomerang. It doesn't go upside down 18 times? I also love the mistakes the production crew make in the show. There have been several times the graphics have been for the wrong amount or have had spelling errors. While it is a blatant rip off of cash cab, I would love to go on it, especially with the opportunity to get paid to shove some fast food down my mouth and then be given the opportunity to...wait for it...double or halve my money. Oooooo.... I would need to brush up on the stuff I used to know or should have known when I was a kid such as names and backgrounds of superheros. I also like Lets attempt to legitimize blowing sh!t up on TV with Andrew W.K..

And for those that enjoy Hulu: Supercoasters

I hate that I had to start working last week. This looked like it would have been a ton of fun but work strikes again. Enjoy the rest of the trip!

That statue / monument thing for Christopher Columbus is one of the most phallic things I've ever seen.

Damnit. Now I'm starving and I don't have a 10' skillet to cook things on. Seeing as how I loved SDC, I need to get to Dollywood, it looks like a blast.

Nothing too bad, but a true one. Shortly after my birthday my room mates and I moved out of our old apartment to avoid one of the other room mates. He had started stealing stuff from one of our room mates and apparently was peeing on people's bathmats for no reason. My girlfriend decided to buy me two TPR DVD's and didn't know that I had moved, and now my old room mate "claims" to never have seen them so nobody knows where they are. FML.

Even though I threw up in my mouth a bit, I have to vote #8, it just made me laugh too hard. If not #8, then I vote for the threesome, but can't remember which one that is.

Chain: CPK .Admittedly not traditional pizza, but delicious nonetheless. Local: Metro Pizza in Las Vegas. If I had been able to go to Grimaldi's in Brooklyn the day I was in NYC, my answer might be different, but I couldn't stand in line an hour and a half for lunch.

Wow, thanks for the extremely informative PTR. I almost feel like I learned some stuff while reading all of that. Looks like a cool museum that I might have to check out if I'm in the DC area sometime.

This is something I have often thought, about and is a very intriguing topic and quite a good discussion. I've always looked at LSMs as quite inefficient, since my first experience with them was S:TE and it has all those little sheds just to house everything to make that launch possible. I would agree with most everything said about the LIM and LSM, but would it be possible that the old school flywheel and weight drop launch methods could be close? I know they won't generate the numbers that LIM and LSM are capable of, but if you designed the flywheel correctly it shouldn't take that much energy to get a decent launch. I'm not sure how the weight drop method works, but it would seem like all you would need would be enough energy to lift the weight up, and then try and minimize the losses in pulleys etc.

Good! The Phoenix location was so loud you couldn't hear the people next to you. While I do like the food there and I'm always good for a little tongue in cheek humor, it was a pretty bad restaurant overall.

I've been on three and will be on four as soon as I can find the time to drive up to the Dallas area.

I loved Tivoli Gardens when I got to go there. I was actually with a band that was in a exchange program so we got to play there, which was pretty cool. I like Bakken's Rutschebanen a little better than Tivoli Garden's, but both are totally WTF rides since there is a surprisingly large amount of airtime, and no upstops. Looks like there have been a ton of great additions since I've been there.

All that candy looks delicious. Ah to not be a starving college student. Might be able to catch the TPR party in Texas, but thats still up in the air at the moment. Looks like a blast and can't wait to see more. Oh, and nice jersey non-German Tom.

14/20 since I don't know the old East Coast parks too well and mixed up some of the Ohio ones.

So much for what happens in Vegas staying in Vegas. Sounds like a great time at the Strat. I don't actually find X-Scream to be that thrilling despite its precarious location, but the the Big Shot and Insanity are great. I'm surprised they let your hot friends ride with sandals on, last time they practically did a cavity search to make sure nothing would fly off the ride.

The Skatalites at Auditorium Shores here in lovely Austin, TX. Great show. Pretty much like seeing a jazz concert but it was all ska.

How does one retrack a steel coaster? Do they physically replace the track and redesign some of the supports or can they get away with welding plates to the existing structure to retrofit it so it can handle the forces?

Probably because so few of us will be able to go over and ride it. I'm sure if the ridership was there they would do everything they could, but I don't see a bunch of coaster enthusiasts in a country far away carrying a whole lot of weight in their decisions.