natatomic

^Yes, I recognize her taste. And, okay, I actually did kinda like those sunglasses, but that caption just worked so perfectly.

Dang, out of 52 people, we had what? 8 girls? I can't believe that a 15% female population rate counts as "more." Does ACE not have girls any at all?

I want to marry this thread.

^Haha, I only got a quick glance of the brochure, so I didn't even make the connection.

Day 2a: Darien Lake Sorry, for the wait everyone, but I am notorious for taking forever to get my trip reports up and completed. Darien Lake seems to be about your average park - it's enjoyable, but not particularly noteworthy. Still, ERT on Ride of Steel was incredible, though I almost got a black eye on Predator when my own boobs nearly hit me in the face. MotoCoaster got a unanimous rating of "cute" from the group, and that's all we really had to say about it. If only it were longer, maybe then it would have bumped up our opinion to "precious." Boomerang wasn't terrible; I've been on worse, and all I really wanted was the credit anyway. Mind Eraser, however, was by far the worst SLCs I've ever been on, and it's definitely in my top three on my list of Rides That Make Me Cry Out for Mommy. Not everyone agrees with me on how terrible things things really are, but I think I'm at the perfect height (5'4 1/2") for my head to receive the optimal amount of banging against the OTSRs. And Viper...well, it was a standard Arrow looper, another type of coaster that I generally ride just to get the credit. I tend to black out and bang my head a lot on most Arrows, so I usually have to give myself a "You can do it, Natalie!" pep talk just to get myself in line. And I did do it, but I wouldn't say I was happy about it. One last thing, before the photos: I was with a group of people who decided to use our Exit Passes on RoS TEN MINUTES before the bus was scheduled to leave. We DID make it, but just barely, maybe with 3 seconds to spare, and there is nothing in the world more terrifying than finding out just how out of shape you really are when your speed (or lack there of) is the sole determining factor in whether or not you have free transportation to the next park or not. But that final ride we got on Ride of Steel? By far the best one of the day, so it was TOTALLY WORTH IT. And a SBNO stand up across the street to bring this portion of the TR to a close. I hope to have the Martin's Fantasy Island up before Christmas. Wish me luck! One last trip on Ride of Steel, you say? With 10 minutes until the bus leaves? BRILLIANT! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Like Erik! Thanks Erik! I'm not a big fan of water rides, yet somehow they managed to drag me on almost every single one during this trip. Still, I had a strategy. I draped a T-shirt over my head and ducked behind someone much taller than me. Neil decided to mark his territory right there in front of all of us. Jake's all, "Eugh...have you seen those glasses Robbie's wearing behind me?" Mmmk, last one I don't have any good captions for these, so I'll just let the photos do the talking. There are great photo ops of RoS to be found beyond the lunch pavilions here. And Lunch ERT. Forget coasters, let's get some Beer ERT. Evidently, part of the lift hill is in Canada. But even though they're not my favorite coasters, I still appreciate them for their photogenicality, which isn't even a word. It had been closed for the first few hours of our visit, but they eventually got it up and running. Yay? You know, I really don't care for Arrow loopers. At all. But coincidentally, I ended up riding this one with Arrowfanman, and for a moment, it was like we were the Odd Couple of roller coasters. Robbie playing with both sets of his balls. FASCINATION! And there's me sitting next to my "special" buddy. (Just to be clear, I mean "special" as in "takes the short bus" not "special" as in "boyfriend." If you saw his scary, scary puppet show on the bus, you'd understand why I so desperately want to make that distinction.) I had the PERFECT caption for this picture, but then I rode the coaster, and it was like...the caption had been erased from my mind or something. Weird. He looks like a pleading puppy, right before you throw it in the incinerator. Oh good. An SUghC. Called Mind Eraser. How fitting. Robb's opinion? "Vekoma: Tastes like chicken." The coaster wasn't moving in this shot, Vekoma trains are just that blurry. Luckily for me, this one wasn't too bad. Ugh, after "SLC," these are the 3 most terrifying syllables I could ever hear. Most people had a good time on MotoCoaster, but it looks like Hanno actually found Jesus on it. If that's not a face of born-again redemption and faith, I don't know what is. Ah, there's some smiles! And even a right-turn hand signal to let us know that they are about to - get this - TURN TO THE RIGHT to return to the station. Hmmm....I don't see any signs of thrill or disbelief on their faces... After ERT, most of us made a mad dash for MotoCoaster. Like the middle children in families, the middle seats are always the neglected ones during ERT. Neil pointing at the only two teeth that Alabama kid has. My hair only had about a minute left to look this pretty after this photo was taken. Then it got all windblown and coasterfied. The sacrifices I make for this hobby, you know? I don't know what any of this stuff does, but I bet one would look good on my fireplace mantle. I think Southern Living would approve, don't you? Since it's right next to Ride of Steel, I think they should change Predator's name to Ride of Wood. It's only appropriate. Can you blame us, though? Let's see...boob-bouncing woodie, or Intamin smoothy? It's a no-brainer for the girls, anyway. Everyone awkwardly avoids eye contact with Predator during the first part of ERT. Looks like Darien Lake has some separation anxiety issues, as seen in its desperate plea of a banner. The two extra exclamation points do nothing to mask the parks insecurities. Anyone care to donate some Xanax? Group photo POV! Judging by the direction everyone is facing, I missed something spectacular happening to the right as I was facing left to take this shot. If parks didn't blazon their names across their entry gates, would people REALLY not know where they were at? "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS ISN'T DISNEY WORLD?"

^^Besides, look at how many people threatened to move to Canada if GWB won the election. BOTH times, nonetheless. And how many people actually stuck to that threat? Anyway, if you really do move to Canada, get back to me on how their "free" health care works out for you.

While I agree that the SeaBreeze one was better, neither of them spun down the first hill. The spinning doesn't start until about 1/5 of the way or so through the ride.

Well, you can have expensive, mediocre food at just about every other amusement park in the country if you prefer.

I like how you can totally tell that I have my name tag stuffed in my bra.

While McCain sometimes seems to be merely a liberal in conservative's clothing, he's the lesser of two evils in my eyes. Still not yet sure if I'll vote for him this fall, but I don't like the idea of just throwing my vote away to a third party either. But as for Obama, beyond his uber-liberal voting record, he just throws around feel-good words like "hope" and "change," using nothing but emotional appeal and charisma to warm the mindless, bleeding hearts of a America. Seriously, Mr. B.O., I'm too smart to be swayed by substance-lacking rhetoric.

I've not been to SDC yet, but Dollywood used to be my home park, and Blazing Fury (which was inspired by Fire in the Hole, and very similar in layout, I believe) is one of my favorite rides of all time! Not that it's the most thrilling or most realistically themed...there's just something about it that I love. I think those two coasters have more of a cult following rather than a following of adrenaline junkies. If you ever ride it again, ride it with a more fun and campy mindset, instead of hoping for a typical coaster thrill.

I'll just skip my meds so I can spend the day on an emotional roller coaster.

Yes, apparently my PDA with a coaster support is taboo in Canada, but JEEZ, CW - B&M IS LOVE.

Film...wow, it's like I'm looking at the photos of an Amish man. Anyway, great TR, and I applaud your dedication to all things old school.

Duuuuude, so are you actually an Imagineer? You must be about eight different kinds of smart to land that kinda job!

It's official, I'm hooked on TPR trips. I realize that there have already been about 87 TRs started for this trip already (and how weird is that, since there were actually only about 50 of us there?), so I won't go into too much detail here in the actual report for now. I think that's pretty much been done. But let me be another to say how INCREDIBLY AWESOME the TPR trips truly are. I tend to favor Disney/Universal/Busch parks, with their intense levels of theming/ambiance/technology/general awesomeness/etc., so I wasn't sure if I'd find these smaller parks as enjoyable, but - oh my gosh - NEVER in my life have I underestimated something SO MUCH. My eyes have been opened to a whole new world of amusement parks thanks to R&E, and I'm already looking into selling my eggs so that I can afford another TPR trip for next year. You read that right. And it'd be totally worth it. Day 1: Seabreeze Day 2: Darien Lake Day 2: Martin's Fantasy Island Day 3: Canada's Wonderland Day 4: Marineland & Waldameer Day 5: Idlewild Day 5: Lakemont Park Day 5: DelGrosso's But yes, here are the photos for Day 1: Seabreeze. A charming park, as are most parks that size, as I came to learn. Enjoy. And there you go - Seabreeze and the start of the B/RF trip. Darien Lake up next, but knowing me, it's gonna take a while. televisedconfession took the remaining photos in this TR. He didn't want to ride the Himalaya, so I let him play with my camera while those of us who weren't little sissy girls went for a ride. Oooo...nighttime, slow-shutter magic! Two TPR credit whores in this photo, and only one got a fun kid. I can't say much though, my stolen child didn't hold his arms up either. I dunno...I liked this photo... Screamin' Eagle. [/caption] Don't be fooled by this log flume's short stature - this was one of the most intense drops I've ever been on, flume-wise. Hah... "flume-wise." That's a word I need to start incorporating into everyday conversation. Okay, I'm probably not giving this coaster the credit it deserves. It is fun. Exhilarating? No, but fun? Sure. Yes, you know what kind of shot this is. I don't think construction gets much more slapdash than this. Seriously, did these people never hear of a level? If you just glance at it quickly and don't think too much about it, it kind of looks like a real ghetto Expedition Everest. But, really...don't think about it. It just won't work that way. See? Cute. I'd like to gut one of these cars and convert it into a crib for my future children. This ride was cute. Note the lack of other adjectives. Man, I loved going down backwards. Yeaaaah, your mom liked going down backwards last night. (that was for you, Neil) I think life would be a lot more exciting if actual cars spun like this. Honestly, these coasters put spinning wild mice to shame. My first spinning Maurer Söhne, and it did not disappoint. That girl in the middle seems rather petrified, but come on lady! YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT FEAR IS. As well as this weirdo. I finally got to meet the women of Tums. Here's a first for one of my trip reports - a photo of people who were actually on the trip! And even more rare - a photo of ME on the trip! Man, what a time to be alive. Ooo, I'd like to pull that ride-op's lever. Oh, that's the name of this ride? For serious? Wow, talk about coincidence. I didn't take a picture of the entrance of the park apparently, so let's just jump right into it with a coaster shot. Yes, jump, perhaps as a Jack Rabbit would.

^Oh, man...Waldameer ERT. I'm looking forward to those photos more than any others, I think.

Aqua trax.

I'm loving your TRs so far. But, jeez, where in the world was I at Martin's Fantasy Island, because I didn't see ANY of those giants. And they're GIANTS.

That's actually not a bad idea. I can see it now: "Natatomic approved!" But drop tower and stand-ups aren't much of a problem for girls. Or, at least, not my girls, though I'd imagine I could speak for most women on this topic. No, it's mainly woodies that get my boobs a bouncin'. That's what she said.

In defense of my self-fulfilled boob-credit as seen in the picture, I noticed while doing laundry today that the elastic in the strap of my FAVORITE BRA - yes, the one I was wearing on Predator - had broken. If that's not t!t jiggling, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS. -Natalie "Darien Lake owes my girls a new home" Visage

I rode TTD in 2007, and they initially asked me to remove my glasses, but once I pointed out my strap, they allowed me to keep them on. Then I just got back from SFGAdv two days ago and rode both El Toro and KK without ANYONE saying anything about my glasses, and I even have long hair which HIDES the strap, so there wasn't any way the ride ops knew for sure that I was wearing one. *shrugs*

^I tend to have that affect on men. 1. Canon Rebel XT 2. & 3. Look at amazon.com. That's where I got mine. I've never taken a photography class before, so when I first got this camera I just had to kind of figure things out as I went along. I still don't know what all those letters stand for on the dial, though (I usually just make up my own terms because - pshhh - owner's manual? That's for sissies.) But if a novice like me can learn to operate one of these fancy cameras on her own, so can anyone.

Oh man, if I weren't so busy slapping my forehead with my open palm, I'd laugh at that! Anyway, just for kicks and giggles here are some photos from our day-trip to downtown Chicago. And forgive me, but I had to include this. My aunt and uncle (who live outside Chicago, so it KINDA fits in with this TR) own a horse and carriage business, so when I saw one of their Cinderella coaches, I just HAD to have my picture taken in it. Awwww, aren't I cute? Okay, that's all I got. Thanks for reading! Oh, and speaking of really big things, here's Sears Tower. Gotta have a picture of that in a Chicago trip report. See? And not only is it a Ferris Wheel, it's actually a Pretty Big Ferris Wheel. Navy Pier! They have a Ferris Wheel! And and Merry-Go-Round! That's enough for a amusement park, so this portion of my TR is TOTALLY LEGIT! INSIDE THE BEAN! No, that's not an illusion brought on by the curvature of the reflective surface. Those are truly some Solid Birthing Hips. I swear to you, I showed these picture to my grandmother and she said, "Did they build those buildings like that?" Bless her heart. It's literally a giant, reflective bean. I don't even have to try to make it funny. My mom, one of my thousand cousins, and me. Look at those hot, pasty legs. Here in Millennium Park, they've got these weird brick wall/water fountain/TV hybrid things that they use to make you think giant people are spitting on you. It could be worse though - those giant faces could be sneezing. Not your typical ugly, big-city downtown. It's more like a garden with a side of metropolis.

Wood = Gwazi Steel = Iron Wolf While I don't enjoy rough wooden coasters, I can at least grin and bear the back pain for the duration of the ride. Same goes for the excessive boob jiggling, though I usually end up holding my chest about halfway through the ride. Don't want to knock my own eye out or anything. (Note to self: wear sports bra at all future amusement parks). But rough steel coasters? Head banging is NOT a tolerable sensation for me. I don't like feeling my brain swirling around my head like the fake snow inside a snow globe. It's creepy, really. Painful, YES, but still...very creepy.