natatomic

You know, it must just be me, but I didn't think it was all that special. I mean, it was fun and not at all painful, but it just never struck me as being particularly memorable. Are people going to yell at me now?

^ You left out the fact that I was the one who correctly identified it as being a roller coaster. That was half the puzzle right there! Come on now - give credit where credit is due.

robbalvey wrote: Who said the page had to be in English? No one, but the only other language I speak besides English is Southern English. AHHH! THIS SITE IS GOING CRAZY! (hahaha...three edits in about 8 seconds. That's some sort of record, right?)

All the words I try just result in non-English pages, aber Ich spreche Deutsch nicht!

I'm just spitballing here, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was a roller coaster, Robb. Perhaps one of the wood variety.

^^You know the kid who got his head knocked off at SFoG? Those were a few of his favorite things. No, it was, I just didn't get a full photo of it. And I guess I forgot to mention it too. Whoops! I liked it well enough, though.

I was at SFGAm a week and a half ago, and I had this TR 90% complete a few days back, but when I stepped away from my computer for about 30 minutes, my computer decided to "install updates" and restart itself without my permission. YES, WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. And my computer asks for my permission just to ask for my permission before it opens programs that I asked it to open in the first place. So, yeah, I lost my entire nearly-completed TR. All my time and efforts, wasted. Moral of the story: VISTA. MUST. DIE. Really, though you're lucky that I decided to do it all over again, because it almost didn't happen. But it was either this or watching a Reba marathon. Haha, I swear I just typed "marathong." ANYWAY! First of all, this trip to Six Flags was just one stop during a much larger trip with my mom to visit friends and family. That's right, we thought it smartest to wait until gas was AS EXPENSIVE AS POSSIBLE before taking this 2,300 mile trip. Still, I hope you're impressed with this exhaustively long trip, because DANG YOU SHOULD BE. So, I went to SFGAm with my mom, my aunt, my cousin, and her 9 year old daughter (yes! I didn't have to steal a kid for the kiddie coaster!), and we conquered the park armed with nothing but a regular Q-bot and the power of estrogen. Honestly, the most vivid memory I have of the park was the RIDICULOUS HEAT. I even went on not one, but TWO water rides voluntarily. Seriously, it was just unbearably hot, there was no breeze, it was so humid I almost drowned with every inhaled breath, and apparently it is against Six Flags' religion to shade more than a square inch of their property in any given spot. Not even the breath of Satan has ever reached that level of heat. But aside from that, I was pretty impressed with the park, considering that's it's, you know, a Six Flags. Like I said, we got a regular Q-bot, which worked perfectly with the smaller weekday crowd. The longest wait was for Ragin' Cajun (about 25 minutes), which is understandable considering wild mice's typical awful capacity. And speaking of wild mice, The Dark Knight is OK, and that's about all I have to say about it. We used the Q-bot for it, so our wait was only about 5 minutes, but had I waited a single minute longer (the regular wait was 2 hours), I'd have changed my "OK" rating to "one step above a Hoveround in a dark mobile home." I loved Raging Bull, and as awesome as it was, I can only imagine how much better is was pre-trims. I had heard that Batman hadn't aged well, so I was expecting a head-banger, but I didn't think it was too bad at all, and I'm a delicate flower when it comes to my precious cranium! But speaking of rough coasters, I thought I was going to DIE on Iron Wolf. Vekoma makes smoother rides that that. Never again, folks. Never again. Oh, and following that train of thought (haha...train), American Eagle started off awesome, but then we hit the first helix, which 1) killed the pacing and 2) was SO rough during the second half that my brain literally got knocked loose, fell out my left ear, and plummeted to the ground below. Luckily, when the ride-op went to grab it for me, he came back with his head still on his shoulders. Must not have had any PMW on his mind. That stuff is dangerous, people. And there's my TR. Now, let me press submit before I somehow lose it again. I'll end this TR with a picture of my sunburned feet. Yup, that's all after one day. And ignore my 4-week old, chipping toe-nail polish. I'm really lazy at being a girl. Six Flags, look me in the eye and tell me you don't have a marigold addiction. Oh, and the Whizzer. Or what I like to call the Spiral Lift Hill to Heaven. Annnnd Superman. Forget through the trees, I prefer the through the fence shots. Okay, okay, okay. Back to serious. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. But who cares about this wild mouse? Let's check out the newest addition to the park - The Dark Knight: Indeed, this wild mouse is called Picnic: The Ride Oh, I almost forgot all about the Q-bot! Ew, that rhyme was totally unintentional. I like to get close-up and personal with Intamin V^2. Also known as V x V, V(V), and I + III + V + VII + IX. Sorry, that last one was a terrible mathematical/Roman Numeral joke. I think that all these B&M clones should have their names changed from BTR to PMW. Who's with me? Man, it's only a matter of time before those bars beneath the seats take off someone's head. Oh, wait... I don't have a caption for this photo, so I gotta ask this instead: Anyone else still singing "Every Rose Has Its Thorns," or is it just me? The screams from those poor souls haunt me to this day. Who needs water-boarding when you can just use this to torture all those dang terr'rists? God help me. But we left the park by way of driving underneath AE, so I was able to snap this jazzy shot. That's right, I said it: JAZZY. This is pretty much the best picture I have of American Eagle. But it's an even better picture of the world's first pregnant man there in the red. Wanna know a secret? Drop towers give me the heebie jeebies. The mists weren't even on. Not so cool now, eh Six Flags? They have that bucket thing there to catch the people that fall out. Or the vomit of those who had too much cotton candy before the ride. Or sometimes both. I know I just used this joke in my BGE trip report, but I gotta say it again: Total. Support. ORGY. While the girl on the front right is holding *on* for dear life. The guy in the back is just LOVING LIFE. Though I hear this here coaster is pretty good, too. But let's get to the thing that everyone comes to SFGA for: The Waterin' Hole! The fence in the picture kind of ruins it, but hey, every rose has its thorns. Not that you could call this coaster a "rose." Goll, no. More like a cactus or something. Yeah, and every cactus has its thorn-like things too. Typical Arrow pain, but still rather easy on the eyes. Don't be fooled by this towering coaster. Those trees are only about 4 feet tall. Luckily, this SF isn't too bad. Seems to me that Six Flags tries to make their entry gates all neat and nicely decorated, but that's pretty much as far as their efforts get. Six times the flags. Six times the patriotism.

What's wrong with having a scale to weigh riders before they ride? Dollywood has been doing it for as long as I can remember on Slidewinder.

EPCOT. Seriously, if they'd let me, I'd LIVE there. I'd sleep either on the seats of Soarin' or in the planetarium of Spaceship Earth (pre-Judi Dench, though. Not that there's really any difference in that room from the pre-2007 refurb to the post-2007 refurb, it's just the principle of the thing). And I'd take my baths in the lagoon. Or maybe the Fountain of Nations. One of the two. But, I DO have to give props to IOA for Spider-Man. Sure, he's my favorite superhero, so perhaps I have a slight bias, but that ride is SUPERB. Yeah, IOA is definitely a close second on my list. VERY close.

I don't care if the fence is 3 INCHES tall, it still implies "STAY THE HECK OUT." Not "Hey, see if you can jump this fence," or "This fence is only here as a suggestion," or "This fence applies to everyone but YOU." Employ or guest, the boundaries a fence provides are in place for the safety of all.

See, now this is the kind of sign that Six Flags needs on its fences. It's both graphic AND specific! They'd just have to change the wording to, "Climb these and DIE."

^Ooo, really? A fan club? That's pretty exciting, but I gotta say that I won't consider myself a success until I have at least one obsessive stalker. That's when I'll know I hit the big time here on this here intrawebs. Still, thank you for the well wishes. P.S. I do love me some chacos.

^ The guy was seventeen years old. Do you think the parents were going to put him on a leash or something? Sure he wasn't "legally" an adult, but it's not like if he had just had his 18th birthday the day before, the magic Grown-Up Fairy would grant him common sense and maturity. Neither the church nor his parents were responsible for the [dumb] decision he made. He was old enough to know 1) how to read the warning signs 2) not to jump fences because (duh) they are there to KEEP PEOPLE OUT and 3) right from wrong. At 17 years old, as long as you are mentally competent, the only one responsible for you IS YOU.

^Of course not! I'm a good ol' corn-fed Swedish girl. No, I weigh 29 pounds now.

Aw, don't worry. I'll date pasty, skinny enthusiasts, too. I don't discriminate.

^Thank you very much! ^^I do miss not having to hassle with the lockers (the time consumption, the money, the doors slamming on my arms because they're on springs), but I just love photo results I get!

You've got some beautiful photos. Nice TR!

^Why thank you! But no. No, they don't. No, I don't mind at all. The size of my camera is definitely a downside. With my point-and-shoot camera, I could just stick it in my pocket; but at most parks, I have to buy a frikin locker for my DSL every time I want to ride something. Like that camera didn't cost me enough money already.

No joke this time around. Here it is, folks - Day 2: Busch Gardens Europe. First of all, considering that it was a weekend in June, I was shocked at the crowds. Or rather, lack thereof. Coming in at a whopping TWENTY MINUTES, Big Bad Wolf had the longest wait of the day (this does not include the front rows for either Alpengeist or Apollo's Chariot, however, which had their usual 4 1/2 year wait - I've got my seats reserved for 2012), but we definitely walked on the 2nd and 3rd rows of Griffon a time or two (I even saw some trains with empty rows in the back all together). In all, we got 6 rides on Griffon, 3 on Apollo's Chariot (if I could, I would marry the back row of that coaster), 2 on Big Bad Wolf, and a partridge in a pear tree. We also got one on Alpengeist and Loch Ness, of course, as well as DarKastle. The people I was with even convinced me to go on Roman Rapids, but only because I got a plastic bag from one of the shops to cover my precious, precious hair (I'd have taken a picture, except my camera was locked safely in a very dry locker, far away from the very wet ride, and I must say, I was insanely jealous). Plus, I gave them all dirty looks the entire time and spit on them* when they weren't looking, and that got me through it. Coping mechanisms, people. Coping mechanisms. *This part may or may not be true. The rides did shut down twice due to thunderstorms (though the rain stayed away (and by the way, have you noticed that I use parentheses a lot? (No really, I'm obsessed or something))), but they were back up within a half hour each time. If this impacted the crowds any, I really don't know, because like I said, there really wasn't much of a crowd to speak of as it was. By the way, when I first rode SheiKra at BGA, I thought it was fun, but kind of a one trick pony of a coaster. It was a goodride, but that was about all I had to say about it. For whatever reason, though, I thought Griffon was AWESOME. I know they added they whole floorless aspect to it, as well as the extra immelman, and maybe those had something to do with it, but honestly, I think it was those extra five feet of height. Sometimes it's the little things... Now, on to the photos: And one last photo of Griffon to round it off. Thanks for reading everyone! Too bad a train didn't go by right then. Here are some shots I took from the skyride. And don't be fooled by the close proximity of the coasters in this shot. The entrances are literally MILES apart from each other. You actually even cross a couple of different time zones during your trek from one coaster to the other. By the way, you really have to be in shape to do this park. Or at least really determined. ...but, jeez, it's no Spider-Man Pretty good ride... For it being my favorite coaster, it's the one I have the least photos of. Well, except Big Bad Wolf. I don't have any of that. Busch just doesn't make it easy to photograph those two. BEST. COASTER. EVER. I don't know if anyone else does, but dang, I think this shot is awesome. Seriously. Go me. Man, no one ever thinks to take photos of this part of the coaster. Wait, I never heard of the "it's a dragon" theory for Nessie. Dinosaur or seal-thing maybe, but that little blurry round head in the photos I've seen looks nothing like a dragon. If you look hard enough but don't really think about it, it kind of looks like little aliens sitting on top of the cobra roll Wow, it's like...an orgy of support beams in there. Ooo...it looks like one of those Chinese fans. I suppose ol' Alpy could use some rapid fire love, too. As part of his payment, the Alps spirit is allowed to eat one train-load per day. Hence, the empty train you see here. What, did you think it was when they were cycling-out the ride for the thunderstorms or something? Psh, no. ALPENGEIIIIIIIST!!!!!! (You couldn't hear me, but I just said it with a really awesome monster growl. Awesome for a girl, at least. I still probably sounded like a yappy chihuahua.) How perfect of a photo is this to serve as a segue into the next coaster? And despite the nets, I really like this shot. From this angle, you'd think the first drop was only 8 feet tall. The one guy likes to ride Crucifix style I promise I know how to take pictures of other coasters. We'll get to them soon, I swear. Looks like they do indeed force the No Prostheses rule judging by the guy on the right. You'd think that with the thousands of shots I got of this coaster, I'd have a better shot of the train hanging over the edge, but nope, this was the best I could do. I dunno, something about the angles in this photo...I just really like it. Rapid fire! I don't have a video camera, but here's the next best thing: Oh, I forgot this photo. How often do you get to see the underside of a coaster train? There is only one person on this train who will ever be allowed to party with me. Guess which one it is. These people agree. The curves of a B&M coaster are more beautiful than my own curves, and let me just tell you - that's is saying a lot. Seriously. A LOT. I'm pretty hot. We headed to Griffon first, and we had to walk through about eleven countries to get there, which is weird since there's only like five or six in the actual park. By the time we got there, I lost ten pounds.

Not to mention the whole "P***y, Weed, Money" theme he had going. Not that this makes him any more deserving to die, but given that the media kept emphasizing the fact that he was with a "church group," there's just a definite disconnect there between the boy the media describes and the boy as described by himself on his myspace.

My first "real" coaster was the Incredible Hulk at IOA in all it's launching and 6-inversion glory (before that, I'd never been on anything more thrilling than Space Mountain). Well, I survived, and an enthusiast was born. So, I say go for Xcelerator. Obviously it's doesn't have the inversions, but it's got the intense launch, and if his pants are still dry after that, he should be fine on everything else.

Ok, this isn't really all that bad, but I can't help but roll my eyes a bit whenever I hear people refer to coasters by their colors. Example (but only loosely based on conversations I've actually heard): "I wanna go back to the blue one!" "Ugh, not the blue one. We haven't even done the yellow one yet!" "What about the red one? It has, like, 12 loops and I hear a whole train flew off last year! Twice! Let's do that next!"

Here it is everyone, the BGE portion of the TR. . . . . . Haha, no. Just kidding. Not yet, but that was a good joke, wasn't it? Yeah, I know I said I'd have the pictures up by, um, yesterday, but wouldn't you know that ONE MILLION PHOTOS is a lot to go through. Plus, I was busy with lots of other things, and I just got behind. Anyway, this might be a pointless reply to my own TR, but I'm just letting you all know that I didn't forget. I'll get this TR finished ASAP.

Thanks to everyone for the awesome comments so far. My heart is all a pitter patter from the positive feedback. You know, I think I've only ridden Dominator in the front half of the train, so I couldn't tell you. Having said that, I thought it had a noticeable case of the B&M rattle even in the front row (which I felt when I rode it at GL last year as well). I dunno, maybe I'm just a delicate flower, but I've definitely been on smoother B&Ms.

This past weekend I drove up to Virginia with my neighbor, her husband, and her brother for a two-day, two-park excursion. I can't even begin to tell you how pleasantly surprised I was with how relatively short the lines were for it being a weekend in June - I don't know if it's due to my mad theme park skills where I just know how to hit the right rides at the right time, or if perhaps there's a bit of good in high gas prices after all. Let's just say it's my mad skills. Anyway, we decided to do KD first (many thanks to those who suggested this order), and headed straight to Volcano. We had about a 20 minute wait, but only because we all waited for the front row. Then we did Flight of Fear, Anaconda (each of which were walk-ons), and then Backlot Stunt Coaster, which took the ridiculous wait time of 10 minutes (that's worse than forever, you know?!) We headed back over to Avalanche which only had about 15 minutes until it opened, though once it did, it was only using one train, and about two dispatches in, there was a hold up when there was a child towards the front of the train with her mother who was apparently having a near panic attack about riding. The ride ops didn't want to send her crying, but the mother was saying, "It's my child, my responsibility, and I'll take her if I want to," kind of stuff, and they spent FIFTEEN MINUTES trying to decide what to do, much to the chagrin of the other THOUSAND PEOPLE IN LINE. There was a moment, though, when some of the people started chanting "Go Kayla! Go Kayla!" to encourage the poor thing, but the enthusiasm quickly diminished once we got past the 5 minute mark. Then people wanted to slap little Kayla. Eventually, they decided to just send the train, and as I predicted, Kayla came back smiling; but when they pulled back into station, that was the first time I actually got a good look at her, and I SWEAR she was 12 years old. I only saw the back of her mother's head when they were arguing about sending the train, and so I just assumed that she was probably 4 or something, given that this was Avalanche, the tamest coaster in the park second ONLY to Taxi Jam. If I had known how old this girl really was, I would have jumped the gates, crossed the train, and pressed the dispatch button myself. Time for that girl to grow some nards. You heard me, nards. Anyway, Rebel Yell, Hurler, and Grizzly were ALL work-ons, Ricochet was about a 10 minute wait, and we skipped Shockwave because we didn't have a death wish. And as hot as it was, we decided to skip the water rides because those queues looked packed. Totally fine by me! (Water + clothes = one really uncomfortable Natalie, ugh.) Finally we headed to Dominator, which had about a 45 minute wait, but again, this was mostly due to the fact that we (and just about everyone else) waited for the front row. When we rode it again later in another row, the wait was less than 15 minutes. The ride never had a full queue as far as I could tell, but when we went back to Volcano for another ride, the line extended just past the entrance (and yes, the entire queue was open), so we decided to skip it. Let that be a lesson to all of you: as soon as you get to the park, go to Volcano. Go directly to Volcano. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. And that was pretty much our day. By the way, I noticed that I didn't get photos of all the coasters this trip, but if you're really wanting to see pictures of the ones I skipped this time, you can take a look at a trip report that I did a couple weeks ago from when I was there the first time this year. On to the photos: Okay, that's the last photo. Stay tuned for the Busch Gardens part of the update probably some time tomorrow. Hopefully. No promises. Even though I think the yellow loop is dumb, I really like the new color scheme. I think the guy in the front row is about to fall out I like the way the clouds sort of follow the flow of the lift hill and drop in this shot. Does anyone else feel like there's a dirty joke that's yet to be made about interlocking corkscrews? No? Just me? I mean, I don't know what the joke is, I'm just saying...I think there's one there. First drop. Sorry these captions aren't too terribly exciting right now. Geek shot. Don't you just want to reach out and pet it? You're so close to the track you can almost smell the feet as they waft by. Notice the guy in the back. He's wearing socks. So either he wasn't using the smart part of his brain when he took off his sneakers, or he was wearing sandals. With socks. WITH. SOCKS. Yeah, yeah, I can't line up properly to take a straight picture tellmesomethingIdon'tknow. And now a whole slew of Dominator photos. The backside of Scooby Doo's Ghoster Coaster. I LOVE this little thing. After working on Splash Mountain, these log flumes seem like they're just one step above a cardboard box on a slip'n'slide. The only way I'd do one of these things would be if it were free. And I was drunk. Inside Grizzly's station. I think we were just about the only ones in line. I'm not a fan rough coasters, but I REALLY like this one. Mmmk, now I'm in Ricochet's queue. Looking up the mouse's skirt. I didn't take a picture of Rebel Yell, but here's a picture of Ricochet that I took from RY's queue. That's just as good, right? This coaster only deserves one word comments. Um, except this one. This comment has lots of words. Ugh. Hurler. What is this track even made of? Yarn? Rope? Those cheap aluminum blinds people insist on putting in their house? A mixture of all three? The Frenchman with his hands up and the American were with me. And we headed back to this, right as it opened. This was a brilliant move seeing as how it took a half hour due to a one train operation, terrible capacity as it is, and one twelve year old baby named Kayla. If we had waited to ride this later in the day, I'm sure it'd have been closer to an hour wait. Last time I was here, I stood directly above the track, positioned my lens through one of the fence links so that you wouldn't see it, and waited for train to come shooting out. Yeah, I didn't care so much this time. I gotta hand it to Paramount, this is some pretty impressive theming for a flat ride. Too bad Cedar Fair probably won't put that kind of effort into any future attractions. Unless of course they've got "Trash Can: The Ride" in the works. They'd nail that. Ugh, this awful thing. Not that I've ever ridden one, so I really have no idea, but I think it looks more like a torture device than an actual ride. Intamin track is just so...*pretty* That's right, I just used a girly word to describe a big ol' scary macho roller coaster. Sue me. I don't know what that little red and white thing is there down at the bottom toward the left, but it looks like Santa bending over to tie his shoe. First ride of the day, because the shiny new (ahem, "new") coaster in the front of the park won't lure me in like it does the GP. I'm on to Cedar Fair's dirty, dirty tricks. HaHA! To start these captions off with a bang, I really don't think it gets any more phallic than this.