Jim S.

I had heard, unofficially but from someone in a position to know, that it would've been open weeks ago except the fire inspector didn't like the size of one of the walkways.

Not to slight Knoebels in any way, but I think some of you are mis-understanding the "special" pricing. It's almost certainly because of the short days, not the lack of rides. When they're not open 10 hours, the price list has almost always said "special". (And don't forget that you can use tickets any day.)

Let's not sugar-coat it: Dorney's food service sucks, or at least it always has when I've been there. More than a few of the staff are incompetent, and the ones who are competent are slow (though in light of what they have to work with, it may not be all their fault.) The scary part comes when you consider that with Pennsylvania's high unemployment rate, that's still the best they could get to work there!

When I was there a few years ago, I thought the entrance was very hard to find, and the map was crap. That's FAR from the most obvious thing I've ever heard anybody ask.

I'm going to guess that the layout is the major part of it. The turns are pretty sharp -- as a matter of fact, the part after the second lift is 1 1/2 figure-8s stacked on top of one another.

Muse, "Knights of Cydonia": Come ride with me through the veins of history I'll show you where God falls asleep on the job And how can we win when fools can be King Don't waste your time or time will waste you

Thunderhawk at Dorney Park. Violent ejector airtime FTW!

While I agree that Lakemont might be hard to spend a full day at (even endless re-rides on Skyliner, which they allowed last time I was there, will get old after a while, and don't forget that Leap The Dips is an upcharge now, and also that you need at least three adults to load the car, or at least you used to), DelGrosso's doesn't offer much to adults except the food. And the spinning mouse of course. (If you're into waterparks, it might be a different story. I don't know much about DelGrosso's waterpark, because I don't do waterparks.)

I don't use Photoshop, but the ONLY problem I've ever had with Windows 7, having had it since it came out, is that recent versions of Firefox get into a "(Not Responding)" mode for a few seconds once in a while. I don't know what that's about, but I'm guessing it's a Firefox issue rather than a Windows issue. I'm running Home Premium 32-bit on a 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM and assorted fixed and removable disks.

At Lakemont Park, there's a tombstone in the infield of Skyliner. A former maintenance manager's dog is buried there.

I don't think Knoebels can be blamed for Flying Turns not opening. I'm sure that, within reason, if Dick could get away with letting the train haul ass down the track, bouncing from side to side without regard for lateral acceleration limits or center of gravity maintenance, he would. Not that he runs an unsafe park, don't get me wrong, I'd never suggest that, but that he likes his thrill rides to be authentically thrilling. Anyone who's ever rode his bumper cars or his flyers with a group of experienced enthusiasts can attest to that! Legal issues aside, I keep hearing from secondhand sources that there's another issue (although probably related to the lateral acceleration): the wheels beat the hell out of the track, and if they try to remedy that, the track beats the hell out of the wheels. Knoebels has no quarrel with staying on top of maintenance, but on the other hand, I don't think that means that they want to have a ride that's a maintenance nightmare either. There's this little thing called a Vekoma corkscrew that used to sit where Flying Turns does, and I've heard nothing but bad stories about that. As to the price of the Black Diamond: it's already listed as $2, and I've seen nothing that says it's not included in the POP plans, although this early in the game it's hard to say whether that's true or just an oversight. The rate page no longer lists a price for Flying Turns for this year, although the POP part of the page still says that Flying Turns isn't included.

I can't imagine Kick Boodie running in the current legal climate. I don't think even Knoebels would attempt it (especially after putting a stop to the PPP hand-slapping tradition this year.)

That's not really a good thing, in my opinion. I thought the new trains were supposed to arrive this winter -- what happened to that? On the other hand, Black Diamond is listed at $2, so it must be progressing as expected!

Last year at Phoenix Phall Phunfest, someone brought their pet skunk with them. (No, it didn't ride Phoenix.) Knoebels allows pets in the park, but usually it's just dogs. This was the same year that a group of guys entered the costume parade all dressed like Dick Knoebel. Best non-Knoebels moment: A few years ago on Phantom's Revenge, someone found a baggie of weed that a previous rider had lost on the train.

Is anyone here personally familiar with the park? In doing research on it after seeing the show advertised, I found a website done by someone with quite a different story: www.bushkillpark.org This could be the product of someone with a grudge, or it could be the truth. Which one, is what I'd like to know.

Well, the Haunted House is never included either (except at Halloween.) Besides the obvious capacity issue, it keeps bored kids from going in and busting up the props.

The infamous Centralia Mine Fire, burning since the 1960s, has settled down quite a bit under Centralia proper, although not before almost everybody was kicked out of town. If you go just west of town, past the Russian Orthodox cemetery, you can find a hillside with large unburned coal boulders exposed. Scattered throughout this hillside are some cracks still venting steam and smoke: and some areas showing sulfurous and metallic mineral deposits left where the fire used to burn: Traveling just south of Centralia, towards the towns of Byrneville and Ashland (you can't make this stuff up -- they were there before the fire started) you'll find where Route 61 was diverted around a major outbreak of the fire in the late 1980s. Looks perfectly normal, doesn't it? "Route 61 THROUGH THE TREES!" Oops, sorry, that should've been "TREES THROUGH ROUTE 61!" As you go further south on the abandoned road, the warping and cracking becomes obvious: until you come to this: me, sporting a Knoebels PPP shirt, standing atop road damage so severe that it shows up on aerial maps of the region But that's not what I came here to talk about. Amidst all this destruction, people have brought their creative skills to the scene, using the road as a huge graffiti canvas: warning for humans snail Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn! giant spider angelfish robot There's lots more, but some bozo has defaced a lot of them.

Snapping the Flyers is a popular PPP activity, but this guy took it too far. Taylor Swift played Knoebels when she was younger, but I didn't know the Grateful Dead were there. Phoenix was phlying, Twister was twisting, everything was decorated for Halloween, but as usual, the real reason for going to PPP is the people. The costume parade was led off the the Knoebels Cars. The maintenance department recycles old ride vehicles into toys for the family. Even the dogs got into the spirit of the costume parade. This time, the dog WAS the costume -- it's Daniel Boone and a bear! Ghost in chains. Ghost wedding couple. These guys had heard that Knoebels was hiring for next year already. Coastin' Steve as the Coaster Escape Artist. (This is actually one of his LESS-controversial costumes.) Escaped mental patient. DAFE's version of a ride graveyard.

Maybe they're going to be similar to the old trains. The old cars aren't the best-looking things I've ever seen, maybe they weren't worth fixing.

Dick said that they're going to start building the decorations/stunts next week. He also said that they're building new trains, contradicting their previous claim that they were going to refurbish the old ones. Hopefully this goes better than Flying Turns, but he says it should be ready for opening day next year.

Dick said tonight that the new version of the trains is being fabricated. Of course, that's what he said this time last year too, and those didn't work out for some reason.

As far as I know, all the coasters that do a full spin (as opposed to inverting) do so freely, but I haven't been on any of them except Crazy Mice so I could be wrong. I never rode a Crazy Mouse manually unlocked. The one time that I was at a park that was known to be amenable to doing it on request (Steel Pier), I wasn't aware of it yet.

If by "spinning mouse" you mean the Crazy Mouse from Reverchon/Zamperla, it's only supposed to start spinning on the lower set of 180-degree turns. At some parks, you can get the operator to unlock it manually at the start of the ride though. Other spinning coasters, I have no idea, because I've never been on one.

Red dots on the spine of the track? I can't see anything in your picture. Do you mean the red chaser lights?

I don't think Knoebels has a camera policy. As far as I know, all objects taken on rides are at the operators' discretion, and I've seen plenty of cameras taken out before dispatch and not put away until the train is back in the station.