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I'll never live this one down. Back in 1995 or 1996, my gf and I were driving from Pittsburgh to Cedar Point. We stopped at SeaWorld of Ohio, which was beautiful and amazing. Now, we were into coasters, and we could see and hear Geauga Lake directly across the lake. But for some reason, we just didn't made it over there and continued to Sandusky. We kept making fun of the name "Geauga" because we'd never heard it pronounced before. In retrospect, I'm surprised my gf didn't want to go over there because she was into coasters and you would think that a lifelong Pittsburgher familiar with CP would also know Geauga, but no. In any case, I blew my chance. Fast forward 10 years later to when I got back into coasters and I learned the sordid tale of SeaWorld Ohio's sale and destruction and then saw the closing of Geauga Lake forever. Live and learn. Still grateful that I hit Astroworld in Houston that very same year. -Martin

Check out the July issue of Holland Herald Magazine. There's an article about coasters and they talk to Robb and Elissa. It's pp. 16-19. Very cool. -Martin Holland Herald_tpr.zip Here is a zip file of the pages scanned. Enjoy!

I'm a New Yorker but I work here in the Netherlands. A few months ago, I went to a mini-conference at a small college that dealt with new attractions at amusement parks. The school is NHTV in Breda and they have a program in amusement park management. One of the speakers at the conference owns a park called BillyBird Park Hemelrijk in a small muncipality called Volkel. It started out as a nature park and has a lot of self-powered attractions (like pedal boats and such) and outdoor activities. I believe that the idea is to create a chain of parks. Apparently, a survey of clientele said they wanted a roller coaster, but the owner thought it would betray the spirit of this naturalistic park. He was also against the idea because roller coasters are expensive to build, operate, and maintain. The solution was a relatively small and inexpensive coaster (Tube Coaster model by abc rides) and solar panels on the roof of the station to power the lift hill. In addition, cross trainers will be added to the station next year in order to help power the lift. It's the world's first "green" coaster. Of course, I was itching to ride this thing after hearing this guy speak. Luckily, it opened at the end of July, just as Cheryl and I were planning what turned out to be an 11 park, 38 credit trip through the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. So last week we stopped at BillyBird Park Hemelrijk. We had come from a day and a half at Efteling (which is the premiere park of the Netherlands, report coming), and it was raining pretty hard for most of the drive. Enough talk, enjoy the report. Introducing Familieachtbaan (Family Roller Coaster)! We decided to get our soggy selves back on the road. There's pedal boats and one of those sled water slides. Okay, hope you enjoyed the park visit! -Martin Ah, here's where everyone is, at a huge themed indoor play area. There are slides and play structures and such. Looking up at lift tower. These kids just kept riding and riding in the rain in their own little ERT session, running back up the stairs each time. Under track shot of load and dispatch area. Nerd shot of second car. Sorry about raindrop on my lens. Up the lift hill, then around the station to the side facing the water. After you get out the train goes up the lift hill, riderless. I'm thinking wtf? Can I count this as a credit? After all, one does not ride on the entire track circuit. Whatever, I decide to count it as a credit. Lots of coasters offload you in one spot and load you in another. And this thing just doesn't have the juice to lift riders up the hill. You disembark! I couldn't believe it! Edit: The translation of the sign is "Exit, not yet suitable as an entrance for the disabled/handicapped". Interesting. Note Splash Battle type of thing in the background. After the helix you come into the final brake run, and, unexpectedly... Here's the basic layout: You board at the top left and it comes across to the right, then down the swooping left drop turn and the bunny hill, then the brake block, then into a helix. Here's the station and the op. He told me that the area to the right is where the cross-trainers would go. It's a very fun looking layout. And 46 feet seems pretty high when you're up there. We're almost at the top. Here's the view through some netting. After walking through hundreds of feet of sand and mud, we see Cheryl climbing stairs to station. Notice Lake Compounce poncho and SFKK sweatshirt. Volleyball, beaches, swimming, and there's the coaster. You have to climb the lift tower to reach the loading station. Park appears to be open year-round. Here's the front gate in the miserable weather. As you can see, the park is pretty dead. There is some mountain ahead where kids can play. Fairly typical Dutch weather.

Any update on when this coaster will be operating again?

^^^^ Yeah, saw this! We actually hit a piece of equipment *really* hard and unexpectedly in the last section before coming back to the station and I wondered if there was was any connection.

Hey, we're thinking of hitting Slagharen next week but we cannot access the website for some reason. Does anyone know park hours (openingtijdens) on Monday August 10, and also admission and parking price? Thanks!!! Martin

Thanks for the great pictures and comments. I always wanted to shoot up there from Pittsburgh when Wildcat was SBNO, but never got the chance. -Martin

Robb, your patch reports keep getting better and better, and congrats on hitting the big 300 coaster mark! Lake Winnie was a real treat and I had wanted to visit there for some time. It didn't disappoint and it was great to do that park with Theme Park Review, which made it 10 million times more fun. I also thought it was GREAT that the media came out to watch us play. They put together some very nice pieces. Cannon Ball! -Martin

So is the definitive opening day August 15, even with the technical problems? I think I can be there that day. Thanks, Martin

Apologies for not going through all 70+ pages of this thread...I have to vote for my ride on GhostRider at Knott's. I was pretty sure that my kidney stones were being shaken loose. -Martin

For some reason, I can watch this video over and over and never get tired of it. It's the music, the sunshine, the humor, the cast, everything. It kinda typifies TPR for me and you can tell that Robb has got the video production thing down to a science. Cannot wait for TPR Deep South next week! The patch jacket is ready.

Hell, I would go if I lived on the other side of the Atlantic. My trip to Western PA last year included a visit to Conneaut Lake Park even though the whole thing was shut down! Blue Streak is a gem that deserves whatever support we can give. Thanks for the nice TR. Martin P.S. I'm too lazy to edit and re-post, buthere's my August 2008 Western PA trip on flickr, including Conneaut. Day 1: Idlewild, Del Grosso's, Lakemont, Waldameer (I know, one day!) Day 2: Lake Conneaut Park, Kennywood There are some SFoTx photos too, all of this from August 2008.

I was looking at Life Magazine's website and saw this slideshow they have: http://www.life.com/image/ugc1000282/in-gallery/27462/worlds-10-tallest-roller-coasters I think it was posted within the last week but apologies if it's old news. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I've ridden 7 of the 10. (whoops, actually 8). Anyway, worth a glance. -Martin

Thanks for the great report. Question, and apologies if this has been answered elsewhere: I heard a glowing review of the Moody Blues - Nights in White Satin dark ride during the Hard Rock Park season...what is the shape of this ride at Freestyle? Thanks! Martin

What a great TR Big Mike! I'm so jealous for those credits!

It's not unusual. The patch maker has the option of smearing on a glue that melts under heat...thus the iron on patch. It's more expensive to make, so not all patch makers opt for it. Bottom line, however, you have to sew them all on if you expect to actually wear and wash the thing. Otherwise patches will start to peel. I iron on my patches, adding the same kind of glue myself if the iron-on glue is not on already, and then bring the jacket to the tailor to sew on. A bit expensive, but it's coming out pretty sweet. -Martin

It's totally up to you. My jacket is just parks and rides and coasters, 95% of which I've actually visited or ridden. Your jacket could be something else. It's all about making art about yourself I think. Have fun! Martin

Thanks for your opinion, tgadams. I had considered the arms-up-during-ride angle. To answer your other question, you're right that not very many parks carry patches. I think that 25-30% of my patches came from park retail points. The rest are mostly from eBay, but some are from ACE and the like. One of them I even designed myself and ordered from one of those patch businesses. When I'm done with my jacket and my wife's, I'll probably put my spares for sale on eBay, but I'll give you a heads up first. -Martin

This is my coaster patch jacket. I'm filling in the backs of the sleeves, and I can't decide if the patches should appear right-side-up when the arms are at the sides, or right-side-up when the arms are held outstretched. What would your preference be? These are sample arrangements. Thanks for your help. -Martin This is in a row. Patches would appear askew when arms are at the side, but right-side-up when the arms are outstretched in a Jesus pose. I know, I'm an idiot. This is in a column. Patches would appear right side up when the arms are at the sides.

Dank je wel for a most excellent trip report! Very much looking forward to Walibi World in the near future.

Hey, anyone know why RCDB is showing Eagle's Fortress as SBNO since January?

^^^ Very cool. We're doing the TPR Deep South trip in July so maybe we'll swing by there. -martin

Anyway, it's always nice to see parks from off the beaten path! Sorry, Treego is the name of one of these companies that builds the cable-platform-obstacle systems. According to their website they have built 13 parks. The one in Italy was not built by them but it seemed very similar to the Treego park we visited near Lake George, NY. And I've learned that the generic name for these things is "aerial adventure park". I think they've really taken off in France and Belgium and they're now getting built all over. I'd be surprised if one didn't show up somewhere in the Smokies by you. And Go Vols! Cheers, Martin

Final segment of this report. I had Easter Monday off on this long weekend, so we drove down to the Adriatic shore and found ourselves at Mirabilandia. Unfortunately the new Intamin iSpeed wasn't open of course, but I snapped a few photos. We did a bunch of water rides too, including our first splash battle experience. Nothing like shooting water cannons at strangers! Hope you've enjoyed the photos! Cheryl left NYC and came to Italy, only to find that Mirabilandia had destroyed New York and then had imported its ruins to be used as theming for a shooting dark ride. Does this mean we can stop paying our rent? This was disconcerting. Cheryl had just come from NYC a few days earlier. Crazy School Musical had HSM tunes with Italian lyrics. I don't care that much, but it's just so dishonest. Hey, I'm a DIS shareholder! Yes, this is what it looks like: a blatant ripoff. So much for copyright. We might have to sneak back to Italy later this summer. This is supposed to open in June. I'm skipping some photos of a couple of minor credits to get to the good stuff. All of these parks, we noticed, allowed dogs, which is kinda cool. Pakal is a wild mouse themed like a mine train. Explorer is powered, but we rode it. And it was fun. I've always wanted to grab a shot like this. This, Katun, is my new favorite B&M inverted. Sweetness. What's this? If you don't use the q-bot, you end up looking like this and they use you for theming. Lo-Q! We actually met a company rep. He was based in Montreal at La Ronde and had also spent time at SFGAdv. La lengua di parking fees e universal!

Yeah, rope courses always looked really neat to me (as I love nature), but I could never touch one as my fear of heights gets me every time. Why I can stand coasters? Because I know I'm not flyin' out of that train anytime soon at over 200ft in the air! Still looks like a nice lil park anyways. The first time we did one of these, at Adirondack Extreme, I was truly terrified, so I can relate. I could only do the intermediate course, I was just too afraid of the height and falling. Now that I've done it once though, and know what to expect, I wasn't afraid anymore. That drive, though, was another thing!