Scaparri

"Come on Lois, these people took 24 dollars for the island of Manhattan. They have no idea what things are worth!"

"What Are Friends For" by Reel Big Fish

Yeah, nowadays, if you want to surprise enthusiasts, you have to keep your mouthshut and announce it before ground is even broken. That is pretty difficult though. Sometimes I really miss only being informed of an announcement date and being completely excited for that day to come to find out what is going to be built. I agree though that some parks are just too predictable nowadays. Especially Paramount. One or two parks will get an attraction, and you can guarantee the next couple years the other parks are going to get the same thing. At the same time though, they are catering to enthusiasts. And though they may be predictable, they are predictable for a reason...it was successful somewhere else.

When I first saw and rode the Whizzer, my imagination went wild. This is a really hard question. There are some coasters that I would classify as being better than sex, but then again, maybe my experiences just haven't been stellar.

Wow, those are massive footers/foundations. What on earth requires something like that?

Tough question. It actually comes down between two Ohio parks. LaRosa's at PKI (and throughout Cinci for that matter) is excellent, but I'm also a really big fan of Patio Pizza at CP. I like my pizza dripping with oil. Mmmmm...fattening goodness.

As DATman already mentioned, this often times has to do with weight... I was a ride op on Millennium Force this year and in May and early June, we couldn't send the trains without near full capacity because of the temperatures. Naturally, coasters run faster in the heat because cold temperatures cause friction. Friction decreases speed. Without the extra weight in the train, it will valley. We actually had a day where we came darn close to it. And no, we do not test empty trains. They use 150 lb water dummies that must be unloaded every morning before guests get on. If you want some nice stories, ask me about my water dummy experiences sometime. But yeah, it all has to do with temperature and momentum. MF actually runs over 10 seconds faster on a hot day than it does on a cold day.

Great pics! You rock man. I had been wondering what the skyline looked like now from the interstate and you just filled me in! This thing is really impressive. Can't wait to see it for myself in person.

Yeah I know. I was referring to some of the other coasters and stuff. Thanks though James. I get a bad feeling most of them are going to be scrapped though. Seeing how a lot of the rides have already traveled around a lot and/or their manufacturer doesn't exist anymore.

Yeah, I've done it before. I used to do it the other way though. When we neared the bottom, I jumped up and when I landed it was like jumping out of a tree. Kind of fun. It was always hard to get the timing right though. Too many elevators come to gentle stops as well.

I guess I'm just spoiled. I rode the Boss about a week after it opened and it was mindblowing. Fairly smooth, and extremely fast. When I went back in '02, it just didn't pack the same punch. Rougher, and seemed to lose a bit of it's edge. Maybe it was just me.

Cool! I know it's just an SLC but it'll still be a nice addition to the park in the public's eye. I'm looking forward to seeing where some of SFAWs other rides pop up. Hopefully we'll see quite a few of them spared.

Actually, to clarify that, we got three new coasters in 2000 when our park got flagged. Superman, Poison Ivy's Tangled Train, and Flashback (new to us). And we lost Black Widow and Little Rickies Little Twister at the end of the '99 season which was the last season the name Riverside was used. Yeah, I meant to say "received at least one brand new coaster" to emphasize how much they forked out. On the other hand though, it's not cheap to have these things disassembled and reconstructed elsewhere. -Scott "I'm not going to lie, I sort of miss having the Vampire instead of a less than stellar wild mouse" Parrish

Australia Domestic or import?

O.A.R. What's your favorite city?

"Get Away" by O.A.R.

Awesome photos Ian! I hope this thing is as good for you guys as it looks. The low diving turn thingy following the camel back just looks sick. Looking forward to your next update.

My favorite team, the Brewers, seems to trade or not resign every really good player they get. They traded Podsednik last year, they just traded Lyle Overbay to Toronto. I'm just waiting for them to trade Carlos Lee. -Scott "Will stand by Milwaukee no matter what though" Parrish

For the record, just to give an idea of how Premier got themselves in such a big hole, between the years of 1999 and 2001, every Premier park running under a Six Flags name received at least one brand new coaster. Here is the break down for ya'll: SFA- 5 SFAW- 1 SF Belgium- 2 SFDL- 1 SFEG- 1 SFFT- 3 SFGAdv- 4 SFGAm- 3 SF Holland- 4 SFKK- 1 SFMM- 3 SFMW- 5 SF Mexico- 2 SFNE- 2 SFWOA- 5 SFOG- 2 SFOT- 3 SFStL- 1 Yes, I have too much time on my hands, but it really shows how they got some of their gihugic debt. And just think, this doesn't include the enormous amounts of money they spent on flat rides and such. I think it was great to add a coaster to each park, but they went overboard at most of them. Seriously, what were they thinking.

I'm half-tempted not to ride some of the rides in Vegas in March because they are too damn expensive. Does that count? Seriously though, I don't think there are many rides that I wouldn't do at least once. The one that I would probably think about the longest would be the Kissimmee Skycoaster. I'd still probably do it at least once though.

Well, this is great news for this park. SFStL has been long overdue for a drop tower of some sort. Well, it's been long overdue for a lot of things. As Robb said, it's a nice looking park, but it really doesn't offer much. I love Freeze, but not enough to travel that far to ride it when it takes me a shorter time to get to PKI and just a little bit longer to get to SFGAm. Both of those two parks have a far better ride collection. If Boss was in the state it was opening year, then maybe, but it's not. St. Louis is a pretty good sized market. I've never really understood why more hasn't been done with this park.

Wow! That's an incredible year! 91 park visits including 58 different parks is just mindblowing to me. What are you in Derek? Pharmacy? Maybe I need to reconsider my major. I'm not sure what is more impressive, the fact that you hit a park 91 times or the fact that you hit a park 91 times with only 10 days of vacation time!

It's sad, but in a way, it's probably a good thing. As Erik said, he hasn't been in the greatest of shape for the last several years. I know he's had quite a battle with multiple sclerosis. Of course it's sad to see him go and nobody likes to see somebody die, but I like to think he's in a better place. He did some great stuff in his time though.

"Vinnie's Hooch" by Johnny Socko Ska-llelujah!!

I think that Mr. Six was cut a little short, but I also agree that you can only do so much with it. People can only handle a certain amount of Venga Boys. On top of that, Six Flags is a corporation that has a bigger debt than we nightmare about. I'm sure they could care less if a couple thousand (if that) enthusiasts want to see the old fogey dance around a little more. It's sad, and it's a nice try, but it's the truth. I hope no offense is taken.