rollin_n_coastin

Seriously, who needs Frommers and Michellin guides? Your TRs cover so much more! It's just amazing how innocent looking animals can mean put an end to us...

That is awesome! Congratulations!

Kerry & Jason in....A Virginian 4th of July! Day 1 - King's Dominion Day 2 - Virginia Beach Day 3 - Busch Gardens with Chuck, Dave & Ice Bat Day 4 - Water Country USA, Pulled Pork and such! Day 5 - Kings Dominion, day 2 TPR's Middle America: The C-Jay Perspective! Middle America Video - Random Clips Day 1 & 2 - Iowa & Adventureland Day 3 - Worlds of Fun, Lambert's & Branson Day 4 - Silver Dollar City Day 5 - St. Louis Downtown (Arch and City Museum) Day 6 - Six Flags St. Louis Day 7 - Holiday World Up Close and Personal Day 8 - Indiana Beach Ok, here we go! TPR's Middle America: The C-Jay Perspective I think after this trip, I only have the west coast left to check out in the USofA in terms of parks. What a ride it's been. Whoever is on Northeast or Road to Cedar Point is in for such a great time. Moving further toward the middle, we had TPR's Middle America 2010 trip. I lived in Italy during one of the hottest summers ever and I can say that the weather over this trip was a serious challenger. We all rose above and beyond to get used to sweat stains on shirts and streams of sweat from the person in front on the Voyage flying into your face. Six Flags St. Louis took the trophy for humidity and heat beyond belief. Iowa heat is even better when Leslie Hall sweats into your bowl of pretzels. Now, from first impressions you may think that it's hot in August in Middle America. You'd be correct. But, none of this matters because it only added to fun and craziness that made this one of the most memorable and amazing summers ever! Beyond the heat, there were the key ingredients of ERT, tons of help and flexibility with trip planning, amazing and friendly parks, fantastic company and some incredibly unique side trips to local attractions and food joints. City Museum and Lambert's anyone?? Here I am, almost eight months later, still smiling whenever I think about this trip. I hope these pics can do some justice and hope you enjoy! We'll start off with a patchwork of very random clips of the trip. Up now, Day 1 and 2 (Mall of America, Adventureland and Worlds of Fun! My only pic of Mall of America since I arrived late that day. Buca de Beppo first timer! You go sister... Don't let Laura fool you, she ate both plates. Family style service! Very much like home. At least we didn't have to fight over who would be saying grace before meals..... This is aunt Maria on our Florida vacation... A cannoli, a cannoli for Ben! Was dinner good? Don't lie! Now, who better to follow this than.... The queen of cool and crazy, the keeper gems and all that is beedazzled...Leslie Hall! If you read these, thank you for coming out to meet us! Mmm, now this is something that you can only get at motels in the middle of corn fields in Iowa. Or, if you order online! Awww, so wholesome. Before the arrest... So far, no one has been able to take Leslie into the motel! Except.... ...Jon! Congrats! Hey, that's enough of Leslie, pay attention to us! Night became day and we saw where we actually were, truly in the middle of the corn. Across the street Down the street. Yep, a sign of what's to come! What an incredible Day 1! Up next, Adventureland!

Thanks Olov! That looks amazing! I can't wait to get back there. It's impossible to think that they fit yet another ride in what literally looks like a twisted mess of metal, but it works! Great head choppers!

Stone the infidel! Chuck, you read my mind, I was already warming the stones....

Joey, great stuff! Wow, that Waffle House was something fantastic, maybe not more than Prowler but close. I think we displaced all the regulars that night....

Hanno, thanks for your reporting and pictures yet again! So happy to see that Gardaland finally has some substance to go with its incredible theming thanks to some cool additions over the past few years.

All set. Robb and Elissa, thanks for setting up the group rate!

That sounds awesome, were you with us when we did that East Coast Hooters run?

This just made my day I think the announcement will not only feature all the details of how we'll be able to ride the Big Dipper in Nigeria, but also that world hunger has ended and world peace achieved. Who needs Miss America or Miss Universe....

Also Wooden Warrior at Quassy I think. The great news is that they'll have an upgrade with the latest and greatest by 2012! The coaster is still a good ride, even if a bit rough.

Awesome trip pictures! New York is great, glad you all had a great time! The pizza sure is different but I love the NY style better than Chicago deep pan so far. Is Larry's Ghetto Pizza tour still offered?

Going to Italy for roller coasters just sounds strange. But man, that, combined with iSpeed could easily take anyone away from the beach, food, wine and the Uffizi for a day or two without issue

Wow, class of 2008! Knoebels is one of the parks that provided some of the best memories ever on that trip. It really is something special and unique. To be honest, even without Flying Turns, some us still didn't even finish all that there was to do at the park in terms of crazy classic flat rides. Oh, dare I say the best flyers and bumper cars around? I can't wait to try out Flying Turns, whenever it opens. I really think it'll be worth the wait.

That park is so cool, I can't wait to get back there some day. Did they have any crazy theme with the new ride? Thanks for posting! -J

Very cool! Shane, congratulations again! That's gotta be a lot of work but so exciting. Hope to check it out one day. What an amazing view!

Just got the package today and really enjoying it! I know it's not high def but the quality of the footage and encoding is so good that it could just about pass for 720p. Congrats on another great video Robb! Really like the reverse POV. Oh by the way, the lady that gave you the finger at Belmont during the Giant Dipper POV? Nice area culture capture

Although a Wind Seeker is coming to Canada's Wonderland (a cool thing), I'm personally a bit disappointed that we're losing Jet Scream in favor of it. Even if you don't like looping starships, this one was well-maintained and the best example of one that operated without added safety features. On that note, seeing a 'wannabe' Star Flyer instead of the real thing added to the original disappointment a wee bit

Some more entrance news, construction and attraction updates from the LA Times.

Hanno, just awesome! I thought the back seat thing was 50% truth/ 50% gimmick. Yah, uhm, 100% truth for sure. That was insane and I don't think anyone can be prepared for it, at least during the first go. I wish it wasn't overcast that day, it gave the park this dreary kind of atmosphere, which didn't help its case. All and all, the woodies were cool and that wave pool was a one-of-a-kind. For their 2012 major attraction, they should add Power Park style Go Karts.

Wow. This is both very scary but really funny. It's hard holding back the laughs at work Prince Desmond, been off the threads for month or two and just wondering, how much have you collected and what will happen to the Big Dipper now that you've left us? What will you save next?

Hey Kevin, awesome pics so far! Something to keep us all smiling during the winter. Love seeing people's Mall of America pictures since I couldn't make the pre-trip day....still can't believe that log flume and how soaking an experience it was.

Great discussion! Like most, I think ‘value engineering’ the materials form a part of it along with the trains. I really want to try Ravine Flyer II out again to see how it’s changed since opening year within a park that really looks after its attractions. As far as D/S stuff, I really enjoyed Predator this year, so really not sure why there are such variations from year to year or month to month. It was very smooth. After trying out a lot of woodies, including a lot of D/S ones thanks to TPR, the roughest ones by far for me have been GGs. Being my favorite new rides of late, this was really upsetting since you could just imagine how awesome they once may have been. The Voyage and Hades have to be by far some of the roughest wooden coasters out there. Each are in a park perceived to provide better TLC to their attractions than the other so it can’t all be related to park upkeep. I may not enjoy GCIs as much as others, but you have to hand it to them for building great products that in recent memory, aren’t featured in a similar discussion threads.

Awesome stuff again! Thanks for sharing. The videos rock. Did you notice any trends/ changes over the past year or two with respect to food, games or rides? Any thing that looked like upcoming 'must haves' at parks? The water park queue system looks like it'll have great potential and success. Cheers, J

^Hopefully not, they're pretty good about that type of thing. Plus, there's a fair bit of room around there.