gregleg

Wow, really? You're actually honestly glad it's gone? Nobody was forcing you to ever ride it again, and some people DID like it, but you're happy it was one of many things destroyed in a devastating storm? The loss of a ride is minor in the grand scheme of things, especially with the loss of life, but being GLAD is just...wow.

Wasn't my top year in terms of number of credits, but it wasn't bad: Current coaster count: 487 Count for this year: 121 # of those that were new-to-me: 65 # of new for 2006 coasters ridden: 8 (I think, I'll have to double-check that later) Most ridden wood: Boulder Dash (22) Most ridden steel: SFoG Goliath (20) Best new-to-me wood: Voyage Best new-to-me steel: Expedition GeForce Most pleasant surprises: SFoG Goliath. I had high hopes, but wow; Silver Star really shredded my low expectations Hilights: Sue & Rich's wedding; Adam & Ellen's wedding; Todd & Krista's wedding (hmm, anyone noticing a trend?); Spring Fling; Holiday Park; 3 days in Berlin without a coaster in sight, and not caring! (Yes, Berlin is THAT interesting!)

No, but it actually was quite good. Normally not something a diabetic would be drinking, but with the activity levels of this trip I've been consuming a lot more sugar than I normally would, so that wasn't a problem at all (during park trips I take less insulin AND eat more sugar, and maintain a fairly level blood sugar with that combination, so I'm not arguing. Even my endo approves ) Oh, THAT was an adventure, to be sure! I was the sober one, but I hadn't really been paying attention during the walk over, so I had only a vague idea where the hotel was! We found our way back, though... Well, I sure am! We didn't get nearly enough RIDE time in for my tastes (We DID go back for a few hours the next day, BTW, so we still got some more rides in, and I picked up some awesome snacks for our train rides) Many many thanks to Captain and his friends for being such great hosts!

Nope, Greg stayed quite sober during Oktoberfest. Still a good time, though, and we got Derek back to his room safe and sound (I'm sure there's posts to that regard, I haven't gotten through the entire thread yet, posting from the lobby at our Europa Park hotel...)

They were running both trains on Phantom when I was there the weekend before KennyKon (crowds were MUCH heavier that weekend). I think they just felt that the crowds on Sunday weren't heavy enough to warrant it. I don't know why Kennywood is hesitant to run both trains, if I have one complaint about the park it's that. After Derek and Nicole left, the BACT members that were left hung around through the evening ERT. I hadn't planned on staying the entire day, but once the sun went down and the Kennywood nighttime magic kicked in, I couldn't leave. Good times.

Overall: 1: Kennywood's Jackrabbit 100: Hershey Wildcat 200: Georgia Cyclone 300: SFNE's Superman: Ride of Steel 400: Aska 500: TBD (currently sitting at 452) 100th wood: Voyage

According to this entry in RCDB, DelGrosso's park will be the new home of Libertyland's old loopscrew, Revolution. While this isn't a major coaster by most enthusiasts' standards, I can't say I blame the park at THAT price. For less than the cost of most flatrides, they're getting a ride that they should be able to market like crazy to the locals. I just hope they leave enough room for the woodie they've been talking about...

There are only a few gluten-free beers out there, so usually I drink hard cider, wine, or something heavier (tequila comes to mind ) Tonight I decided to give one of the gluten-free beers a try, though. Now, I used to be a dark beer guy (Guiness, Oatmeal Stout, etc.) so this really isn't my thing, but it ain't half-bad. Definitely not the best beer I've had, but it's passable. Far tastier than, say, Bud, and it won't kill me either... No wheat or barley (or rye) == gluten-free! Holy crap, beer I can drink!

I was thinking the same thing, Robb. I loved Japan well enough in August, but the scenery in these pictures is just amazing.

A friend of mine actually picked up Seaman. It was weird, but fun. We had to give Sega credit for trying weird things (some of which work -- Chu Chu Rocket and Monkey Ball for example) Of course, my friends and I have always been "fringe" gamers -- I still have my Atari Jaguar and crank it up for the pure bliss of Tempest 2000. On my Genesis, the most popular game was this quirky little title called Zoom.

The more I read other trip reports for FujiQ, the more grateful I am for our experience there. It was overcast and rained on and off (and that wait for the hamster coaster was HELL), but we actually managed to get all the coasters. Go figure. captain, can't wait to read part three, and I'll apparently be meeting you with Derek (and Tim, for that matter) in September.

I'll have to get back to Fuji-Q someday. Although if it impresses me as much as "X" did (read: not much) I'll probably end up taking one lap on that and go back to Fujiyama I'm really interested to see if they've improved the trains any -- my ride on X consisted mostly of rattling around with the occasional "Oh, cool" moment.

Heath, you're doing KennyKon? I'm sure Derek would agree if I say "Eat at the Church!"

Nice meeting you guys, as well. I apologize for needing that stupid Top Gun credit. Stupid, stupid SLC. Vortex was a pleasant surprise, though. Easily the best coaster there -- never thought I'd be saying THAT about an Arrow in these times. For lunch Dave and I had both opted for salads instead of pasta (for me pasta isn't an option anyway, unless it's a nice rice pasta like a pad thai or something, and even THEN I have to be careful of the sauces). Anyway, the salad station was nice, making salads to order and mixing each in a separate bowl (no cross-contamination issues there), but slow as a result. Still, it's great to see an option like that at a park, much higher quality than the usual crap and easier for me to find something I can eat.

Cool pics. Based on the various reports I've read, I think the XBox 360 is in really good shape. Some killer games coming up (Gears of War, Chromehounds), with Oblivion sucking most of my free time until then (and probably well after ). The Wii looks really good (even the name is starting to grow on me). Sony just looks so "Oh, me too!" this time around -- I'm not sure I'll be getting a PS3 at all, and this is coming from a launch-day customer of the PS/2 AND Playstation. (Colecovision kicks ass. Mine still works. As do the Intellivision, Odyssey II, Atari 5200, Atari 7800, NES, SNES, Genesis, TurboDuo, Saturn, Jaguar, and others. Yeah, I collect these things Sadly, my Vectrex finally died -- it still powers on and you can hear it, but the screen doesn't work anymore. I'm tempted to open it up and see what I can do, but these things aren't very servicable...)