downunder

^^^I'll distract Robb while Foghorn sneaks up with that infamous 4 by 2. Ah, Foghorn's random bashings on the the dog with that plank are a fond childhood memory. What about "TRP" from the midwest trip, what an acronym challenged fellow.

Great photos, I love the look on that guys face, the one with the afro, you'd think he was just about to be thrown into a pit of cobras (or maybe diamondbacks)

Finally a reason to go to Disneyland. A couple of girls managed to flash on Son of Beast on our train and got on the monitor, very impressive, though I'm surpised they both didn't have black eyes.

What was Boulder Dash like? Have they added the trims that we have been dreading? I rode Dash for the first time last and it was sensational.

I was reading an article about an invasion of bird eating spiders up north. Scary, they might come inside and climb up on your pillow while you are asleep, and mistake your face for a bird. Oh and our bikie gangs are having a war at the moment in Sydney, they beat a man to death in front of everybody at Sydney airport inside the terminal.

^I totally count relocations, I've got several doubles but I will get a triple this year - a Vekoma Boomerang ridden in Brisbane, Sydney, and in 2009, Alabama.

I think Jeff Johnson credit counting method may help you - you'll go from 30 credits to 30,000 in a matter of seconds. Hopefully one day the great man will articulate in full his credit counting method - once mathematicians have created a large enough number to arrive at the JJ credit count.

Is this just a cynical ploy so that Oparah can have all the fried chicken to her self?

I just count whatever is on coastercounter.com which means I miss a few local carnie coasters but that's my way of doing it, I like that method because it kind of validates my coaster count. I really like the coaster fanatics counter but it misses some international coasters that coastercounter has.

Elissa, I wondering if KT was big enough yet for the Taxi Jam credit, I had visions of her grinning from ear to ear with two fistfuls of dollars from rabid credit whores.

Awesome Eric, I'm so happy for you and Candace. I believe this may also be the first baby conceived on a TPR trip (I hope that's not too much information). BTW, I may need Dylan in July for a coaster credit at Carowinds, thanks in advance. Congratulations.

I only compare methods of torture to Vekoma Flyers.

Nice photos Adam, how does Manta compare to other flyers (I'm not sure if you've been on Tatsu which I would rate the best flyer)?

Hey Eric, can I congratulate Candace and yourself yet? I had April down as the hatching date. Thanks to Richard, that was really awesome of him.

^ & ^^ Thanks, I didn't even plan on doing a trip report at all, Adam wanted a couple of videos I had, so I thought I would put them in a report, and I thought after that, I may as well finish what I started. It wound up being a fun way to relive and reflect on the trip. I might do some retro stuff that's interesting, like SFMM 1994 or La Ronde 2005 for example or see if I've got some funny park photos. Also my one experience with anything that vaguely resemebles an amusement park since the trip will be covered, very sad. I'm up for the Randi for Scandi tour, it rhymes at least. I have only a vague idea what it's going to be like over there.

I found an OK POV on this site, I don't know the webmaster or if they are involved with TPR: http://www.wonderlandhistory.net/video/bushbeast1.html Otherwise I can post up a notice with the TPR link on parkz.com.au and see if anyone can help you out.

Knoebels Part 2 - The Final Chapter of the Emo/East Coast Tour We wandered Knoebels discovering all kinds of cool things. Then we had a side trip to the GCI factory. Followed by a magnificent ERT session on Phoenix, which was preceded by us blowing all our remaining tickets riding Phoenix. Thanks Knoebels for an excellent day and night. This concludes my TPR 2008 trip. Coming up, the 2009 Randi for Scandi tour and some other retro stuff from my archives. At the end of a magical final night I found a leprechaun on the bus. But it was a jersey leprechaun, when you catch him, no pot of gold - you get a crock of s**t, and a broken nose. BTW, the tour was amazing, thankyou R & E. Believe the hype, Phoenix is the king of coasters. If Phoenix was a girl, it would get loads of love. Now this model gets some serious wood like the Elle MacPherson of coasters. Spinal Tap managed to get billing over the puppet show at Knoebels, now that's respect. Not sure about Tap's new new direction though. The bumper cars had metal bumpers, the metallic clash was both ear watering and exhilerating. Knoebels bumper cars are a violent work of art. The GCI guys seemed to have an exemption from this rule. It was like a couple of rams coming together, followed by airtime on bumper cars - righteous. We weren't allowed to take in camera's, even hidden in our trousers, they checked. But there wasn't much to see, just a bunch of wood and ball bearings. Parks had already announced coasters and they didn't know they were building them, "Prowler, what's that?" Ahhh, I get it. The guys who put wood to good use. GCI, what's that. Goal Creation Institute (was evil Anthony Robbins lurking around). Girl Crazy and Insatiable (GCI should be on my letterbox). King Alvey about to conduct a snapping masterclass on the flyers. Flying Turns taunted us, I would have signed a waiver, or offered my body to any hot females in the Knoebels clan for a ride. Another time Flying Turns, you can count on that. TPR staged a sit in hoping they could get Dick to come and get it going. No luck. My horoscope said denim shorts are coming back in. Matt is about to kiss Flying Turns, he was talking all Barry White, I'm glad there wasn't any knotholes. Who let him out, dear Lord, who let him out! Gotta love all the dedicated photophiles who lugged monster SLR's around to do decent trip reports. My camera would make Keira Knightley look ugly. There's nothing quite like the master coaster pornographer when he's got the big one out, they queue up, even for a bit part. "Okay it's a one BJ for admission, any takers?" The boys at the front "me, me, me, no me". It counts as a credit right? They would have been playing "You Shook Me All Night Long" if they had been around at Phoenix ERT. There were bite marks in some of the boats because the ACErs had mistaken the ride for being giant donuts in a pool of lard. The last time I saw that cue card I wasn't riding any sort of amusement park ride. The Hells Angels were big Phoenix fans, they are scary people but Tony scared them away. Phoenix hides in the bushes like a forest nymph offering the ultimate in coaster pleasure. Excuse me, I need a half hour break from doing this trip report. Twister from above, there's nothing quite like the sight of a big woodie even if the ride is not quite as good. The Falling Star was cranking like a wild bull on Red Bull and Angel Dust.

Ed mate, I used to think you were mad having Phoenix ahead of coasters like Expedition GeForce and SROS @ SFNE (I'll never accept Bizarro as the name, it sucks) as your number one coaster. But now I totally understand, Phoenix is like holding onto the wheel of an airplane when it's taking off, I must have ridden that beauty 30 times, mostly at night.

Yay, find Neverland at Beech Bend! As far as innuendo goes, I think it has just become part of the comedy lexicon to take the piss out of Michael. Seriously, I think he hangs out with kids in a way that look inappropriate - it's sad to see a human being in the shape he's in.

Oh come on, I love going totally Australian on this forum, it confuses the Americans. Eat ecstacy, eat ecstacy, eat ecstacy - I can't get it out of my head now. Last day of the Easter show, nah I won't bother, the credits aren't on coaster counter so I can't count them.

You never watched Summer Heights High? It's a song from there, and not supposed to be serious. What a classic, I've never watched Summer Heights High so I thought that was fair dinkum song you'd be hearing at raves - I don't go to raves either.

Great pictures, I went to KI two years too early. I'll be interested to see how people think it compares to Behemoth.

Nice report, I went in 2007 but not since, I'm not that into flats, and after doing a lot of the US parks it just doesn't satisfy. I wonder if the bouncy bouncy was there this year. That song on your video is outrageous, "eat ecstacy, eat ecstacy!" no wonder youth is going astray, it's ok I got it, powerful anti-drug statement.

High speed wasn't bad for a kiddie, going over those bunny hops was like riding a bucking bronco. High Speed also follows an inadverdent tradition of inauspicious milestone coasters, for the record: 100th - Woody Woodypeckers Nuthouse Coaster - Universal Orlando 200th - Teddy Bear - Stricker's Grove 300th - High Speed Thrill Coaster - Knoebels I wonder what will be 400, some soy bio-diesal powered dragon wagon? Only one more report to go for the tour....

Knoebels This is a great old school park hidden in the woods, and it was such a great place to have fun - the park that time forgot. There's 3 coasters: Twister: an ok woodie, fun but nothing spectacular. High Speed Thrill Coaster: a kiddie coaster with spine snapping bunny hops. Phoenix: to my surprise incredible. Think the last drop in the back row on Cyclops for most of the ride. I was sceptical but was blown away, ridiculous air time, a near death experience of a coaster. Down we go, and what will we find on the way down? To be continued... The end of the line, I had my skis at the ready to jump off, the loudspeaker advised me I was a f***wit. Oh wow, Kumar seemed to have ditched Harold for a day to be with known Harrison Ford associate, Ms McDonough. Time for a ride a ride into the forest what will we find? Yay, a TPR take over, except ERT stood for Excruciating Ride Time in this instance. They keep running "speed" until you have to crawl out of the train. After four laps I was begging for mercy but I got none. The specteral hand of the knoebels phantom seems to have taken a liking to Candace's right one. As we wait for the amphetamine coaster, another boats crashes it's way through knoebels canal. Sadly my 300th coaster due to a miscalculation on coaster counter (I ticked a box by accident). Whoever named this coaster was high on speed and irony. Time for a boat ride, these were like side friction boats they just grinded their way through the concrete canals. I love the old school feel of this place, I felt like Marty McFly except for the making out with his mom bit, or anyone else's mom for that matter. Environmental as anything Jason had some interesting ideas about water recycling. Soldier statue: "Thank f*** Terrance isn't on the TPR tour". Knoebels is like going on a hike in the woods and finding rides, though I have to admit I walked ten miles through the forest looking for Phoenix. The TPR Panthers were strangely absent at this ride. I think they didn't want you play with it so I got someone to set the Go Fish seat on fire as a diversion and then I played with it. From all the hairy palms and poor eyesight on the TPR tour, this advice had not been heeded. The scary thing is I could see Tony trying to buy this and store it as a carry on the plane. Though on American airlines it probably wasn't the smallest thing someone has tried shoving in the overhead compartments. Bears are us, every variety of bear reproduced in wood. If you can name a species we haven't carved we'll give you a complimentary life size carving of Robb Alvey. It's nice to find something like Knoebels hiding in the woods, better than finding a hungry bear, or worse still - a horny bear. Knoebels was like an odd shop for wood crafts from the magestic freedom tree to the downright diabolical. I believe Jeff Johnson planted this tree, and he counted that as a credit, I think because it was wood that could potentially be turned into a coaster. Lucky Tarts was especially popular with the Lightning bus but no lucky Lightning bus members. The Haunted House looks very non-descript but it was an adventure inside, there's a sexual metaphor there somewhere but I'll exercise restraint. Don't let the photo fool you, she was a bubbly sagitarius. Knoebels employee of the year, though looking forward to returning to Bratislava. Twister was probably an acquired taste like moonshine. More for the lateral lovers. We opened our account with ERT on twister, as usual Josh in the front row seems to know where the camera is.