ernierocker

Why are we derailing this thread by arguing with a guy whose main argument has been formed based off a park he has never been to?!? This is like arguing about how good/bad the Godfather II sequel with someone who hasn't seen the movie. It isn't going to get you anywhere.

Enjoyed the TR Brent! I am honored to share the Procreation Special Award.

That is what I assumed about SDC. Dollywood seems to attract more guests that are interested in the shows and crafts first, and then rides second. That's why you can park in one of the outer sections of the parking lot, and still only wait 15 minutes or less on all the rides. Because of this, Dollywood can offer their system at a very affordable price. It also seems that the majority of people purchasing the Qbots are using them primarily for the shows.

I am actually surprised that they didn't go with the same or similar Qbot system that Dollywood uses (and now Six Flags). Having never been to SDC though, I am not sure how the dynamic of the park works, so it may just not fit with that specific park. This seems to be a lot more similar to what BGW uses.

*Goes and dusts off his Wayne's World 2 VHS tape. *Then remembers he hasn't had a working VCR in two years. Doh! The Nuggets-Lakers series seems much more attractive to me than the Magic-Cavs. Unfortunately, living in the Eastern Time Zone will make it nearly impossible for me to watch much of the western finals. Games starting at 10:30 at night is just a little too late for me.

Glad I could help! I agree, the park wasn't really that crowded. I think before Hersheypark, we maybe waited on only a handful of rides for more than 20 minutes and that was after eight straight days with some being multiple park days!. And most of those waits were probably at Rye's Playland. With ERT, Gold Q-bots, other queue-skipping systems, and awesome trip planning, I just was spoiled with not waiting in lines and completely dominating parks. So, it was a little bit of shock actually waiting an hour for Great Bear and a few others. We avoided Storm Runner and Fahrenheit for the rest of the day, as we had our feel during ERT. I am hoping to have Dorney Park up tonight.

More Hershey Park! To get from one side of the park to the other, you have to pass through the new Boardwalk section. Thanks for reading! Only two more updates to go! As a result, Dylan was not conceived on it, although that would of been pretty kick a$$. LOL, at all the strollers next to the Kissing Tower. No Kissing Tower today. Candace was feeling ill, so we passed. We did get on SuperDooperLooperAliceCooper later that evening. Everywhere you look there is roller coaster track. This is the roller coaster tycoon portion of the park. Come to think of it, all of the roller coaster tycoon parks had one-train operations too. What a coincidence! Comet was an interesting, old ride. I liked it. This is what you do when the park is crowded and running a lot of one-train operations. Yeah, that doesn't look promising. We will have to come back to this one later. Let's check out Revolution East while we are over here. Wait, what is that I see? The best part of the ride was the unique layout for a B&M invert. Although, I didn't enjoy the one-hour line. (I know a one-hour line is not THAT long, but we were extremely spoiled with lack of lines on this trip) If you think the answer to that question should be no, than you might be a redneck. I know what you are asking yourselves. Could this ride be cooler than those awesome ducks? And finally, the action shot! We now return you to our regularly scheduled trip report. Here is a rare shot of a duck's butt, also known as the money shot! We now take a break in the trip report to bring you this...ducks! I know it is like visiting the Parthenon in Nashville, TN instead of the real thing in Greece, but here is some monorail action for you anyways, Beemerboy. I don't know why I feel compelled to post a picture of every boomerang on the trip. Probably, the same reason why I posted a picture of every pirate ship named "Sea Serpent". No Arrow action for us today. Did we really miss that much? Sadly, the recent expansion of the Boardwalk meant the death of the park's rapid ride. We were actually there on the last day of operation. Somewhere, Rapidsnerd is weeping. Who ever came up with the idea to dump a huge bucket of water on children is probably very rich right now. It looked pretty cool, but we weren't in the mood for water parks today.

While the baby is taking a nap, I think it is a good time to finally update this thing again. At the rate I am going I think Dylan will be old enough to finish this for me! Day 9-Hershey Park Hershey Park was one of the longest days on the trip. I think we were at the park at 7 in the morning and didn't leave till midnight. Also, at this point we were starting to wear down from the lack of sleep and Candace was starting to feel pretty sick and didn't feel like riding much in the afternoon. Because of this, I really hope we can make it back to the park. It seemed like it was a really great place, but we just weren't in the right mind frame to fully enjoy it. One thing that I noticed about TPR trips is that no matter how tired you feel, you always seem to hit second, third, and fourth winds. It is kind of like a marathon. Most of the day, I was in a daze and just couldn't really get into the spirit. But, that all changed when our Lightning Racer ERT began. I got this shot of adrenaline that made me forget all about how tired I was and it was one of my favorite moments on the trip. Nothing beats being the only group in the park and just racing each other over and over. It is moments like these that put TPR trips WAY above any vacation you will ever go on. Enough rambling, on to the pictures. The main reason for only riding Wildcat once was because I never left this station during our entire evening ERT session! Although it wasn't really rough, it just didn't seem to be very intense. We ended up only riding once and skipping this one that night during ERT. I had been warned that Wildcat was very rough, so I was expecting the worse. Speaking of Wildcat, how is the first GCI coaster ever built running these days? This is where cool people eat dinner. Except this one has a phenomenal tidal wave that not only soaks the observation bridge but also soaks the adjacent walking path. Is it mean that we entertained ourselves while watching unsuspecting pedestrians wander into the "wet zone" at the wrong time? Looks like a normal Shoot the Chutes ride right? This is me being a wuss and STILL getting absolutely soaked! As you can see in the picture, the line gets very long and the capacity on this thing is terrible! (I think I just heard Fuji Q is looking to add one now) Here is what you do if you want your Roller Soaker credit and do not want to wait in a 2-hour line. Wait for it to open first thing in the morning! After ERT, we headed here. I really need to get back to the park and ride this one again. Unfortunately, the line was too long throughout the day to give it another shot. Fahrenheit seemed to be running a little jerky for being such a new ride. It probably just needed to warm up some, but I thought it was just an okay ride. Such a beautiful mess of track! I bet you didn't know that Fahrenheit has a 90 degree lift did you? Here is slightly crooked picture to prove it. What this picture was supposed to demonstrate was that the station was empty. After several awesome rides, we headed over to Fahrenheit. Or it could be the fact that Storm Runner actually has ride elements that aren't just there to break records. It could be that the launch seemed more intense than Kingda Ka. I LOVED Storm Runner. I can see now why a lot of you guys prefer this and Xcelerator over Kingda Ka. Morning ERT was split between Fahrenheit and Storm Runner. Since, nearly everyone headed to the former, we chose to ride this one first. A photographer's dream weather conditions. Time to start our long day at Hershey Park!

I believe it was last season, but with how long they made us wait before finally revealing who he is, it seemed like three or four seasons ago. The identity of Jacob's enemy being the smoke monster makes perfect sense. It plays into the "darkness vs. light" theme that the show has going. If you noticed Jacob was wearing light clothing and his enemy was wearing dark clothing in that first scene. Plus, it has been pretty clear that the smoke monster can take the form of all the dead characters on the show and it was some of these dead characters that specifically steered Locke and Ben towards this confrontation with Jacob. Christian Shepard told Locke that he would have to leave the island in order to bring the Oceanic Six back and that he would have to die in order to do it. Alex then appears to Ben and tells him he has to do everything Locke says. It seems the smoke monster was helping cause this loophole to happen by manifesting itself to Locke and Ben. So, it would make sense if the smoke monster was in fact Jacob's enemy. Oh, and I also read something about Dr. Chang. We just witnessed last week how he loses his arm. If you don't remember, in some of the Dharma videos, he would have a prosthetic arm. Well, when he gets his arm crushed after the "incident", that is when he loses his arm. Hmm, the producers may not just be making this stuff after all.

^I'm pretty positive that Adam and Eve are Desmond and Penny. Edit: Just to back my statement, I'll offer my reasoning. Adam and Eve were found with a black and white stone in their possession. In the episode where Desmond flashes back in the time, we see him at Penny's flat and there are identical black and white stones located on a table. It was right around the time of this episode, that the producers said in a interview that the identity of Adam and Eve were not what was a mystery. It was how they got there that is a mystery. Now, that we know that that the show's characters are capable of skipping through time, it is feasible that Desmond and Penny will get trapped in a time skip next season. Check out this link which talks about this theory. thelostelders.blogspot.com/2008/01/who-are-adam-and-eve.html

^ I also think that was taken when we passed back through Philly on the way to Allentown. That angle of downtown looks like it is from the New Jersey side. Love seeing these updates! Wish we could do another trip this year, but having the first "TPR trip Baby" has gotten us tied up this summer. These updates may motivate to actually finish my TR.

Yeah, I must give props to the Nuggets. Although, I didn't feel confident that the Mavericks were going to win the series, I didn't see them getting blitzed like that. You would figure a team would eventually cool off.

^^ Actually, I thought that very same thing about Esau. The only reason I didn't think it was possible was that I could of swore the producers said this show does not have anything to the bible. Then again, they also said the show is not about time travel. ^I believe that is the smoke monster, but anything is possible with this show. Maybe, he is the smoke monster?!? Whomever this mystery character is, they now appear to have control of the island. And I am actually a little relieved the final season is upon us. Having watched the show from the first episode on, I can't take much more of the dragging out.

Now, there is another mystery character that we get to theorize the identity of for the next several months.

Thanks for all the congrats guys! Elissa, I hope Dylan has the same love for amusement parks as Kristen has shared with her parents. Maybe, we can do a family TPR trip one of these days. (Already planning a Disney World trip next October ) Here are a couple more pictures. We are slacking on getting pictures and video up on the web. Having a newborn is tough! Who knew?!? Future boxer? Sadly, he has lost a lot of this baby fat already. Hungry baby boy?

To be fair, there was standing water on the track. If you added some fake wind, it could of been like "hurricane-themed" miniature remote operated monster trucks. Great TR!

I got bum info as a kid. I stand corrected.

I may be tired from lack of sleep lately, but isn't Mt. LeConte the highest point in the Smokey Mountains? Despite that, love this report. I really have been meaning to venture up to Newfound Gap and Clingman's Dome. Maybe, this will motivate me in the near future.

Hmm, my sister-in law lives an hour north of Charlotte. Unfortunately, I don't foresee him making the height requirements by July. Scott, the plan was working perfectly until Candace actually set eyes on Dylan and decided she is never leaving him.

After a long and rough pregnancy, my son Dylan Cole Wilson was born at 2:59 yesterday afternoon. He is 8 lbs 10 oz. and 20.5 in. long. Candace and baby are doing well today. We are already looking forward to getting all those kiddie credits now! Oh, and all the cute baby stuff will be cool too. Here are some pictures. After his first bath. The redness was from some bruising and has pretty much faded today.

Hey Eric, can I congratulate Candace and yourself yet? I had April down as the hatching date. Not quite yet! We are literally day by day right now. She is three days past her due date. Thanks for asking, I'll have to make a thread to let you guys know when it happens.

The hotel bar next door was a great time! There is nothing like napping all day, then having a few drinks before walking across the street for evening ERT. It was also REALLY nice for Richard to pay our tab that night!

This golf course is also right next door to the Nascar Speedpark which I believe the TPR Deep South trip will be paying a visit to. Great thread so far! Although, it could use some shots of Ninja weapon stores.

It will be a joke if Rondo is not suspended now. I am pretty proud of my Mavs so far. I am realistic though and realize that they will be playing this next series for the right to lose to the Lakers in the conference championship. But like someone said, the Lakers have been playing down to their competition, so you never know.

I always end up watching this show every year but I prefer Top Chef over it. It's like the bottom chef on Top Chef could beat the winner of Hell's Kitchen. I do understand that Hell's Kitchen is probably going for that and I am sure that the pressure he puts on them has a lot to do with their screw-ups. I find myself going to every episode hoping that they don't screw this service up. I think that has happened about three times in the show's history. The show is also famous (or infamous) for finding the most mentally unstable people I have ever seen on TV! (i.e. the dude that kept crying and randomly passes out in season 1)