Jds03

I head a strange one today... Before getting on Nitro an eleven year old white kid come up to the entrance and shouts: “ NO LINE!!!! OOOOHHH YEAH!!!!! ALL THE LADIES LIKE ME!!! ALL THE LADIES LIKE ME!!!”

Jeez... I ignore this topic for a day, and suddenly a giga coaster is nearly confirmed.

Ok, so I haven’t gotten as many done as I promised, but in case you caught some of the drama in my White City/ Willow Grove PTR, I'm having some trouble concentrating, and just getting strips done period. I have a bunch that I half finished, so I should be able to get those done quick over the next few days. Now, I have five strips until I can mail the packages. The problem with these is that I need them to show certain characters or interactions between different characters that I haven’t shown yet. For instance the following two strips were meant to show Peter and Hunter interacting with their teachers. I have most of the 5 strips planned out except for one which I’m having a great deal of trouble writing, since it involves Hunter’s actual mom, not Janet (Aunt Janet). Well, enough talking, this is what you really care about: Hunter's Tweety Bird question is something that's always boggled my mind.

Talking poo is where I draw the line.

Good Job. How are you going to stop the chain from sticking out?

Yay!

Does that mean inverted top hats don't count?

^ I honestly can't believe I'm seeing that correctly.

I guess I'll give it a shot.

No, you cannot has cheezebuhgur!

^&^^^ wow, I can't believe I almost ran into two TPR members yesterday! Did either of you guys see me? I was wearing a black Lightning Racers t-shirt and jeans and had a cannon camcorder around my neck which I was taking pictures with. That's actually pretty cool. I always noticed there was something different about my bus, but I sort of just accepted it. I think our district has something with one of a kind school busses since next year we’re supposedly getting the nation's first electric powered school bus.

Oh wow, It's like the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn all over again.

Part 2! So as I was saying before, as soon as I got home my family members decided they wanted to go to the mall, which totally smashed my plans of finishing any cartoons today. (Actually, making this trip report did.) I'm so stupid. So anyway, it's really cool because the mall we went to is located on the former site of Willow Grove Park! So I decided to continue my TR of closed amusement parks. RAWR!!! I'M A GIANT KOI FISH!!! GIMME SOME CANDY!!!! (Oh and thanks for reading) RAWR!!!!!!! This is the bootleg nemo. Look! It's the bubble fish! I like this guy hidding behind the rocks. He's cool. Also if you touch the spikes on his back, you die. This fish is really cool, but he cost 70 freakin' dollars! Actuly, I found allot of Nemos. I found Nemo. Yay!!! Fishies!!! This is why I came. I wanted to buy a salt water fish! This mall looks huge from the back. Try to imagine what was here before a four story parking grage. ok, so I guess it's a "Park Mall"? The mall...er...park has these murals printed in random places. This one was on the side of an escelator. Can somebody please tell me what this is? There's a close up of one of the figures. It's actualy really tall. See? It dangles above the fountain. I think this display holds the actual parts to the original carousel, and the operating carousel is fake. But again, if I'm wrong please don't kill me. Ok now I'm going to walk around the "Park" some more. "Mountain Scenic Railway"... Wait... Why is that so familiar to me? The electric fountain was some sort of centerpeice for this place. Here's an airal shot of the park. The tables in the food court are really cool! They're coverd in all sorts of memorabilia. Yep, three floors of theme park. not mall... park. I *think* this was part of the original park, but don't kill me if it actuly isn't. This supposed "park" also has a three story subterranean shopping complex. So, is this a Carosel or a Merry-go-round? GASP!!!! A ride!!! I guess that means that this is technically still a theme park! See, this sign clearly indicates that it is still a park! Here you can order desserts with more calories than a 20 oz steak! Now it's a massive shopping complex. They still call it "Willow Grove Park" although it's not really a park anymore.

So today, after waking up and working on cartoons for about two hours, I decided I really needed a break or I was going to loose my mind. I've been working continuously on my cartoons for the past 3 days with not allot of success, sadly. So, today, rather than work further and go completely insane, I decided I was going to take a walk around my neighborhood to our township park, and work on cartoons when I feel ready instead of forcing it on myself. So your probably wondering what this has to do with theme parks, and I'm getting their don't worry. Cisco Park, otherwise known as Hillcrest Pond, is an outdoor public park in our township, which I grew up around going to, fishing, playing soccer and all that other cliché, blah whatever... Well the point is that one hundred years ago, It was allot more important that that. In the year 1909, it was in its third to last operating season as "White City Amusement park"! It even has a page on RCDB if you don't believe me: http://www.rcdb.com/pd1038.htm I thought this might be a cool trip report, since theirs actually allot more historic things hidden around the park than people care to acknowledge, and there's actually a big chunk of Amusement park history right in my backyard. I took a bunch of pictures to share: Also on a related note to come, after I got home from the park, my family decided they wanted to go to the mall, which is amazingly the former site of Willow Grove Park! (Actually, they still call it that, but it's really a mall now). So I decided to make a Photo TR their as well. (Wait for an update soon.) As I was walking home I passed by this house. HoHoHo, HaHaHa, IT'S JUNE!!!!! Oh yeah. Try to guess the reasoning behind this one too. Now tell me why this is called terminal ave. Ok, so first look down to the very end of this street. At least theirs still an operating concession stand today! This is the other side. This is where they store the cut lumber. You can't see it on the map to well, but it's a little building that says transfer on it. I think it was to transfer parts of the trains from the track which loops around to another track which runs down the street today. I'll give you a hint. These were train tracks. Also this building was connected to a covered carousel which greeted the guests as they entered the park from the train station (oh wait, I gave it away...) So this is where they cut the wood. Any Guesses as to what it may have been? So today this is Rittenhouse lumbermill. Part of this building used to be the powerhouse for the park. (see # 23) You can see it says it was built in 1732. Actuly, It's not going to be a lamp shop for much longer... This building is number 24 on the map. It was the Inn for people to stay over night when they visited. When I first moved here it was a restaurant. Now it's a lamp shop. This was and still is the boundaries for the park. This is my bus now! ( No, just kidding. I don't even take a bus now) This was my bus in elementary school. Our bus driver was awesome. His name was rick and he always gave us pencils as presents for holidays. Also one time he was drinking from a can while driving, and one kid asked "is that beer?" and he told them to shut up. My school now keeps it's bus grage here. This is the dam which creates the pond. It's the same one that was used by white city. Note the similarity to the stone wall shown earlier. This is one of the llamas. His name used to be Osama Bin Llama, but they changed it to Barak O'Llamma. I sometimes see him being walked around my neighborhood. This is an Emu. They are related to Ostriches. Also, I have absolutely no idea why the residents have them. I've even asked them personally, and they replied by saying they like having pets. This is an important house. It was first the house of Daniel Yeakle, who was a farmer who owned the land the park was built on. However as the park became more popular the house was occupied by the builder and owner of the park, Henry B. Auchy, who eventually became the owner of the Philadelphia Toboggan Company. Today, I know the people who live here. One of them is my Sunday school teacher. They actually own two lamas and a bunch of emus. I'm not kidding! See for yourself!!! V You can see it fading out better here. This is the trail from higher up. With all the trees I can understand why it might have been called "Forrest Coaster". I never realized it, because I thought it was for the school to practice track, however I always wondered why it just faded away into the bushes like that. Now this is the really cool part. As I was taking these pictures, I suddenly realized what this trail of gravel I had seen for the longest time was. It was the footprint of Toboggan/Forest Coaster! So this is the school's tennis courts, but it was the former location of the other coaster. I'm actually not completely sure what it's called because the sign says it was called "Toboggan" but RCDB say "Forest coaster". I'm not sure who to trust. I played pee-wee soccer here. One hundred years before that there was an operating roller coaster here. Actually two, the first one was struck by lightning and burned down in 1905 but they rebuilt it and added "mountain" to its name. This playground is sitting on the former grounds of the Mountain Scenic Railway's station building. This has absolutely no significance to anything. So I took a picture of it! Where I am standing while taking this picture used to be the island where the bandstand and the two "Human Roullette Wheels" were. Right next to the school is a baseball diamond. This is the former location of the casino. This is the school which was built on the grounds. I think that willow tree was here when White City operated. So this is the pond today. They added a fountain three years ago. This is the creek scene from a bridge. When the park was here, only a little bit of the creek was here and it bent around and re-connected to the pond. It was for people to ride boats through. Today they filled in part of the original stream and connected the other part to the "whirlpool" to create a natural flowing stream. This is importaint. It's one of the last remaining structures from White City that's left. Ok, so on to the pictures of what the park looks like today... in 2009. This is a map of the park. You can refer back to this with the other photos I have. It's a shame, there's not a single trace of the cassino left. Time Line. Here's a blurb on the park. So the park has this little sign to acknowledge the park's history. This is the park's sign. It doesn't have any of those fancy fountains, or LCD lights. This is the main gates! Well... Kind of...

Did you seriously take those pictures of the Time Machine? They were GREAT!

I was reading the book collection of them in Borders yesterday. There were some pretty funny ones. On of the worst went something like this:

Do you have a Delorean?

Very back. The sensation of having negative weightlessness looking directly 200 feet at the ground is what really puts WT above the rest of the Intiman impulses.

^ Oh wow, They're allot more round than I remembered.

I am now on a full scale charge to finish my syndicate package. I’ve been dealing with school crap for so long that I haven’t been able to even finish 8 dailies, which is all I need before I can send it in. Now that school is over and I took Friday and Saturday to rest, everyday until I finish those eight strips I’m spending solely on cartooning. I set my goal to be at a bare minimum one strip a day, so I should be finished in less than a week, seeing that it’s possible for me to get two or more done in a day. Since I got up on Sunday I’ve finished 3 strips and worked on countless others. here’s the three I’ve done: I’ll keep you guys updated all week, so they’ll be at least one strip a day for the next week or so. Check back often!

My brother just refered to Matisyahu as "Yankee Doddle"

Hershey park is the greatest park to overcome your fears! They have a perfect lineup to get used to coasters in steps. Start with Trail Blazer, then move to Roller Soaker (if there's no wait). Next to Comet, and Sooperdooperlooper. After that, take on Wild Cat and Lighting Racers. Then try Sidewinder (but don't get a bad impression from it, it's a boomerang after all)and move on to the Great Bear. Finally, do Storm Runner and Fahrenheit. Plus not to mention, Hershey has a world renowned ride safety reputation so it’s a perfect place to feel safe on rides. Believe me, you just have to take the steps, and always remember that coasters are not even remotely dangerous. I think like statistically you're somewhere around twenty times more likely to get killed in a car crash on the way to the park, than on a coaster, and just about 95% of coaster fatalities are also Darwin awards, because they were a result of someone doing something stupid on or around the ride. The RCT thing where the rides explode is just some stupid thing the game manufactures threw in, it never actually happens. In real life there are block sections and censors connected to computer monitoring systems that wouldn’t allow two trains on the same segment of track until the first train has cleared. The possibility for a head on collision is almost physically impossible on modern rides. There is nothing to be scared of on coasters. It’s all in your head. That’s what their designed to do!

Kingda Ka opening day was around 4 hours.

Jeez, you guys haven’t hit a single bad park yet! I get more jealous every update!

So it wasn't up to her last time?