65skylark

Goliath - SFOG

Sure they do Nice TR. Hopefully I get out there sometime next year. For now I'll just have to be satisfied with Thunderhead as my number 1 woodie.

They certainly have some gifted writers on that show. Good episode but I hate not knowing where it is all going.

Well, as most of you know NoT3 was last weekend and I was able to finally get away from the west coast for a coaster trip. What made this trip even better was that we were able to hang out with some great poeple along the way. Ted has already posted his TR and a lot of mine will be the same sense we were together most of the trip, so I appologize if you get a sense of Deja Vu. So, on with the TR. We flew into Nashville sense the airfare was much cheaper than anywhere else in the area and rented a car to drive across the state to Pigeon Forge. I had never been in Tennessee before and was looking forward to the drive. Judging by the many thousands of vehicles we saw with number 3 on them, I'm guessing Nascar is a little more popular in Tennessee than in Oregon. Stopped at the Hard Rock in Gatlinburg for dinner before heading to our room just up the street. Time for some sleep so we can rest up for a big day in.............. Dollywood. Yeah! Chris, Natalee, and Jerry are waiting at the registration area when we arive. Some of the gang waiting in the station for the first ride of the day on Thunderhead. I have to say I had built this ride way up in my mind and after the first ride early in the morning it did seem a little slugish. We will have to see if she picks up at night. Next up, Timber Tower. Very fun, low intensity flat, that just about anyone could enjoy. Ted tries with no luck to get his keys to work as a Q-bot. At most other parks Q-bots are for rides. Here, they are for shows. Nothing like a Dollywoood size cup of coffee to get your day going. Dave, that hat is totally you. Them is some good smellin' taters, ya'all! The rapids looked like they deffinately had an unexceptable level of wetness, so we passed. Hooray! Kiddie coaster credit! Sandi is so excited she can't even keep her eyes open. Next up was the Tea Cups of Spinning Death. Me: "Hi hun. Just gonna give you a smile for the picture before we take a nice little spin on the Tea Cups." Ted: "This pathetic sucker has no idea." I can't remember the name of this ride but I really liked it (even though they gave us a very short ride). Natalee: "I just love these Dumbo ears." Chris: "I wonder if elephants have ear wax." Dave: "I hope Michael Vick doesn't get injured playing agianst Arizona tomarrow." Time for new credit #3! "Woo hoo! This Arrow custom looper doesn't suck even half as much as Viper. In fact it's pretty darn good." This is one of the reasons Dollywood is such a great park. What other theme park in the world would host a whittling contest? The whittlers hard at work. Inside the Dolly museum we found these torture devices that played a never ending selection of Dolly Parton songs. And if you ever wanted to know what it feels like to ride a giant paint shaker. They have this great simulator ride. Chris: "What on earth is that?" Neil: "I'll eat it if you don't want it!" I was totally diggin these cars! Ted and Catrina enjoying there ride. Flumefanatic. POV! So, now with most of the park conquered, it is time for one of the perks of attending NoT3. Mystery Mine constuction tour! A bunch of coaster nerds waiting to get behind those walls. I know most of you have seen a lot of shots from this construction tour already but i'll post a few anyway. "Follow me everyone." Close up shot of the piece of track you have all seen about 10,523 times now. Supports for the out of structure section. Twisty bits. Ted likes what he's seeing. More supports. In case you were wondering just how close they let us get. OK, time to head back for the main event. Catrina and Sandi wait patiently for ERT to begin. Thunderhead at night! Man did this coaster pick up after the sun went down. Thunderhead moved to the top of my woodie list just in front of Tremors. The ERT was about as exclusive as you can get sense we didn't have to wait out one single lap. The only reason we even got out of our seat was to change rows and experience the ride in a different spot. Rideworld did a great job and I would recommend this event to anyone. Back at the hotel Ted brought along a little night cap. Excellent. Time for some sleep before heading down to the ATL. Fright fest was just kicking off. "I love you gold flashpass." Thanks Joe! On our way back to Deja Vu we passed there rapids ride which looked petty good for a rapids ride. Wow, those towers look pretty cool don't they Ted? Maybe this time you'll finally get lucky. Or maybe not. At least I got mine at SFMM a few years back. Well, sense we are back here, maybe Ninja will be open. Or maybe not. Looks kinda painfull anyway. Superman? No? Oh well, this is Six Flags. I'm sure in about 17 years Shapiro will have this thing completely turned around. May as well get our picture in front of the third ride that isn't operating today. Yay! GASM is open. WEEE! Some of the gang getting ready for there ride on the mine train. Time for lunch. Now time for Goliath. Lift hill shot. You know you love it. Air time and then some. The helix was great also. Next was Gothum City. I think I'm supposed to write "through the trees" here. And yes Joe, Mindbender was great. "Praise the coaster gods" Now lets see what Georgia Cyclone is all about. Hey it can't be any worse than Psyclone can it? "You sure you want to ride on the wheel in the last car?" "We'll be fine." "Holy crap, what have I done?" After getting my brains beat to hell I'm still wondering how it is Ted seems to have a smile on his face in this picture. "I don't know why you're still complaining about Cyclone. Lets just enjoy the log flume." Georgia Scorcher was a nice surprise. Not quite as good as Riddler but still good. Hey look can it be? Superman is running. Superman was not as good as Tatsu but it was still very fun. My second favorite coaster in the park after Goliath. OK Ted, just because Ninja is still closed doesn't mean you can take that pole. Back at Goliath we see this strange looking bunch. Overall it was a great day at SFoG. We ended u only missing out on 2 credits and Goliath was awesome to say the least. Back in Nashville we had some time to kill before catching our plane so we stopped for a quick visit at the Opryland hotel. Yee haw! Very nice hotel to say the least. One more shot at the hotel before we head out. We had a great time. Thanks to everyone for hanging out with us. A special thanks to Chris and Natalee for puting on NoT3 and to Ted and Catrina for making our trip that much better. Thanks for reading.

I'm not sure dog poo is the exact term I would use, but yes, I thought it was dog poo. My ride in the last seat was worse than any ride in any seat I have had on Psyclone at SFMM and that is saying something. Other than that, Sandi and I had a blast. Goliath kicks some serious ass and Thunderhead at night is freekin awesome. Hopefully I'll get my pics up tonight. Justin "who thinks Georgia Cyclone sucks but liked GASM" Saxe P.S. Joe is the man giving us his free Q-bot card. Saved us 100 bucks and we waited no longer than 10 mins for a ride all day. And Joe, Mindbender was great. It was definately one of the best rides in the park.

This last weekend was Night of Thunder 3 at Dollywood. Ted was nice enough to bring along some Hop Devil for me to try out. As a regular reader and occasional poster to this thread I must say that I was very excited to finally try out this Victory brew for the first time. Very nice! Definately high on my list. I would say by the way Ted is making out with his bottle that Hop Devil is one of his favorites also.

Several of his books could be considered Dark Tower prequels or the other way around might be a better way of putting it really. Flagg is most definately a wizard as The Dark Tower books spell out also. "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." Damn, this thread is making me want to start reading the Dark Tower series again.

I am a huge Stephen King fan having read most of his novels and short stories. I have always thought The Stand was good but not his best work. I read the first version of The Stand many years ago. It is quite a bit shorter than the one that he re-released and I actually like the shorter version a little better. Both are good though. If you really want to read some great Stephen King, start reading his Dark Tower novels. There are seven total and if you liked The Stand I think you would really like the Dark Tower series. It's a little over 3800 pages between the seven books but it is great and you can take it a book at a time. Oh, and, good old Randall Flag makes many appearances in the Dark Tower books along with other characters from some of his other novels. Also his newest novel, Cell, is kind of a more modern version of The Stand in a lot of ways. Instead of being wiped out by a virus most of the population is "changed" from receiving a "pulse" through there cell phones. It is also really good and easier reading at around 400 pages. For pure suspense you can't beat his second novel 'Salem's Lot IMO. The TV version stunk and the movie version wasn't any better but the book is great. Still gives me chills when I read it. And last but not least don't forget one of the greatest movies of all time, The Shawshank Redemtion, is based on a Stephen King Novella. One of the very few examples of the movie being slightly better than the book IMO.

^ Well Paul only Robb and Elissa know how the lottery will "really" go Just kidding of course.

^ Yep. The water park is where I see them focusing there attention for a few more years. It is a very nice park and has helped ease the crowds on the ride section of the park. I think Derek is right on with the new coaster also. Any type of "hanging coaster" would be huge when it comes to marketing. The entire Pacific Northwest has nothing when it comes to a coaster like that. As far as drawing people in, they would be just as successful with a standard SLC as they would with a custom B&M invert or flyer. I visit the park at least once a year and I see no issues with having to expand the walkways. Another PTC for the 2 woodies would be great though. I personally would rather see them go the Holiday World/Mt Olympus route and put in a GG woodie (or even a GCI). I would WAY rather see another great woodie than a mediocre steel coaster, although obviously, a steel coaster would be a bigger draw in this area. Bottom line, I think Silverwood is steadily improving each year. It can't be more that a few years before we see another coaster. It is by far the best park in the entire Pacific Northwest and I am glad it is in good hands.

My son rode Tremors when he was five (almost six) and he loved it. Still his favorite coaster. Good luck.

Ted, you're killing me.

^ I agree. filming on ride takes a lot away form the ride itself, but, I am to the point that I almost enjoy filming and editing more than riding. I spent a lot of time trying to get some good POV shots on my last trip to Silverwood, but, like Robb, I set aside a few rides on each coaster to just enjoy and not worry about filming. Anymore, I can have just as much fun at a park just walking around taking pictures and video. It really is amazing what you notice when you are focused on taking video and pictures. I love it.

Just wanted to add, I TOTALLY understand the UK trip deal. Just want to be sure no one takes it as a complaint on my part And, Lou, at least people know who you are for the most part. The first time I met up with Ted, I was sitting in the bar at the Knott's Hotel with Wally and he was looking at me like "Who the hell is this dude."

I personally enjoy Knott's to this day and I made many visits to the park between 1980 and when CF took over. But, most of the comments made so far I would for the most part agree with. Mainly when it comes to the park staff. Absolutely no excuse for there below average operations. As for the best park in California other than DLR I would strongly disagree. Maybe one of the better parks in SoCal after Seaworld and Universal but head up north and I would put Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, PGA, and Bonfonte - for a family park - above Knott's. Heck I would even put SFMW on the same level as Knott's. They at least have put some recient TLC into there woodie. Bottom line for me. I enjoy a day at Knott's because of the rides and usually low crowds, but, it is not the park it used to be and that is kind of a shame.

Great post Lou. I know it was in response to someone elses question, but, I think there are others with the same feelings. I will have my wife if I go, and, like you, I am fairly outgoing and like to talk with people, but, I also only know just a handfull of people from this site. After the UK trip there is definately a feelling of being kind of an "outsider" if you weren't there. Even as Robb or Elissa posted (sorry can't remember which one) "people who have been on a TPR trip before will be accepted first" adds to that. I am in no way putting any blame towards anyone for this as I would do the same thing if I were Robb and Elissa. But, anyway, nice to here from someone who was there about this subject.

It looks like we will be flying into Nashville as it is much cheaper than Atlanta from Portland. Tentative plans: Fly out early Friday morning. Sight-seeing in Nashville Friday afternoon and evening. Dollywood-NoT3 Saturday SFOG Sunday Fly home Monday.

It seems to me the point Robb is trying to make - and maybe I'm wrong - is that we are literally talking about less than 20 bucks. I don't believe anyone can "afford" to go for 47.50 but not "afford" to go for 60.00. And even though I'm sure bashing the event wasn't anyone's intention, it did come across that way. I personally know Chris puts a TON of his own time and money into these events and I'm sure it is frustrating on his end when it seems someone may be criticizing one of the events he worked hard just to make happen at all. Oh, and Paul, those stupid credit card fairies have been whispering to me also. If I go, I'll be flying into the ATL also to spend a day at SFOG. We'll have to meet up if it works out for both of us

Well, for someone like me who lives accross the country and would love to get as many rides as possible on one of the best woodies on the planet, this event sounds awesome. I would gladly spend a few extra dollars to be garanteed ERT with a small group than to take a chance of it being busy on a regular visit or go to the ACE event with 5 times as many people. I hope to be going myself but I still have to wait a bit before I will know for sure. Justin "I think Rideworld is great" Saxe.

Silverwood?!? Justin "that would be too good to be true" Saxe.

Portland, Oregon.

You're almost as bad as me at the self portrait thing there Ted. Nice TR. Oh, and, what's with the making out with each drink thing? Probably the only action you got sense you made Catrina the DD Huh?

Here's the rest. Tired from all the fun the kids crash. We rally had a blast and look forward to doing again next year. Untill then. And unfortunatly, this is what most of the ride back looks like. "I think my spiked hair nake me go faster." " I love huge Radio Flyers!" Heading back to the car we see this HUGE Radio Flyer wagon. Sandi: "I wonder how well Justin can swim?" Found the bridge. They would come right up and eat out of your hand. Along the way we saw hundreds of groudhogs. As you can see, it was pretty crowded. We didn't have much interest in the rides having just been to Silverwood so we went in search of a pedestrian suspension brideg I remembered from a previous trip. The "old skating rink themed" Octapus Hey, another coaster that isn't a coaster. 1909 Loof Carousel. The kids stop to feed the birds. Spokane's Riverfront Park. This is now in our rear view mirror. We had our best trip to Silverwood yet. One more stop before heading home. And finally, some super groovy silouette shots as we leave the park. The train entering the 3rd tunnel. Tremors and Skydiver. Super awsome POV shot. Yeah, we all survived. Now lets go ride tremors agian. "Holy boogers and poop." Panic Plunge. What is this I see? People on the drop tower? We must go now. Now that's a lot of wood. "We want our pictures on the web too so someone in Topeka, Kansas, who we'll never meet in our lives, will know just how nerdy we are for taking so many pictures." Smile. You're on Themeparkreview.com!

^ OK, here ya go.............. My family and I just took our annual trip to Silverwood. We left July 6th and returned July 9th. This year we actually worked in a few side trips along the way! Our first stop was Multnomah Falls along the beautifull Colunbia River Gorge. Mutnomah Falls is the second highest, year round, water fall in the nation. The kids begged us to climb to the top, and, being the wonderfull parents we are, we said OK. I'm sure there will be no complainig once we start the hike (yeah right). After Multnomah Falls we hit the road for Silverwood. Located just outside of Coeur d' Alene Idaho (pronounced: Core-da-lane) we find a neet little water park right across the street from our hotel. Also get some good views of the lake - which is huge - and find a cool steak house. Next up is 2 fun filled days at Silverwood. Tremors, Timber Terror, the new drop tower, and Boulder Beach - Silverwoods water park. On the way home we stop in Spokane and visit Riverfront Park, home of the '74 worlds fair. We find some rides, more waterfalls, a HUGE Radio Flyer, and groundhogs! So, enough talk and on with the pictures. Back in the park we head for the Ferris Wheel so I can get some arial shots of the coasters. Along the way, we get robbed by some silver miners. Another shot of Velocity Peak as we pass buy. Is it just me, or does that lady behind us look like she needs more fiber in her diet? Train depot. We didn't ride the train yesterday so that was 1st up today. Silverwood's main street section. Back at Silverwood. The main entrance to the park. Not too busy for a weekend in July. Time for sleep befor heading back to the park tomorrow. " We love Tremors at night!" Back in the park, the sun is setting, and we take a ride on the Trubant befor heading for some Tremors adn Timber Terror night ridess Ahh, but this lazy creek has one of them super groovy, float up to, in the water, bars. "I'll have one margarita with salt. Than you." Token lazy creek picture. Chads all " Yeah, that girl over there is totally checking me out. " " Get me out of here!" The wave pool was crouded, but I've seen worse. Tube slides. Velocity Peak. The newest addition to Boulder Beach. Kids area. Sense we are all soaked, this would be a good time to head over to Boulder Beach. And thanks to the water cannon at the end of the ride, me and my new $1400.00 Sony HD camcorder got soaked. Still seems to work OK though. The view from the top of the record setting shortest drop on a log flume. Yeah, we're on. Can't.........take.........much........more. Log jam. Or maybe not. Lets go try the log ride. It's getting hot. Maybe a ride on Thunder Canyon? Ahh here we go...........oh never mind. They only serve Bud. The first screw of the cork. Lift hill shot! Because you know you want it. Always, ALWAYS, remove hearing aids before riding an Arrow Corkscrew. Words of wisdom. " I'm not impressed." The original Knott's Corkscrew. The coaster that started the 2nd great coaster boom. Next up Timber Terror. Not quite sure why that demon tree monster is wearing a chef's hat, but, hey.....what do I know about demon tree monsters anyway? Then you blast out of the gift shop. Inside the gift shop there is a great viewing area where you can see - and feel - the train come out from under the floor and out into daylight. First drop POV straight into the ground. Tremors! Roller Coaster Alley. At least Tremors is running. Closed!? That 2 rides now. I though we were at Silverwood, not SFMM. Next up, the new, not an S&S, drop tower. The Paratroopers is down. One of my favorite rides because it is out on an island and takes you right over the water. The Tiny Toot roller coaster that really isn't a coaster. Too bad that could have been #75. Not a lot here, just a small play structure and................ walking back to the coasters we pass by the newly themed kids area. Yeah! We're here. And back at our crappy hotel after what was actually a very good dinner for some sleep. Silverwood tomorrow! This sign hangs right above the men's urinal. Hey Wally, looks like Idaho is your country. Hmmm. I'm not sure about this. On the way we pass one "small" section of Lake Coeur d' Alene. This picture shows maybe 1 Tenth of the lake. But, there is a cool little water park across the street so we spend a few hours there before heading to a restaurant that my boss recommended. We arrive at our hotel. Never stayed here before and will never stay agian. Pretty bad. Finally one last picture of my kids and me before heading back down and on to Silverwood. Little did I know, my Tatsu campout T-shirt has magical flying powers. Now I really can fly at the speed of fear. Thanks Robb and Elissa! The view from the top. My car is in first row on the far right If you're afraid of hights, this is not the place for you. Finally we make it to the water. The kids stop to play before heading to the look-out. "Not even half way. Are you freaking kidding me!" Not even half way there and we MUST stop before we all die. A family picture before we make the hike to the top. Our kids promised they could do it no problem. Where we started. The lower falls from the bridge. Ellie poses for a picture before we make the short hike to the bridge you see in the background. The main attraction - Multnomah Falls. The Vista House. We stop at a view point to take a picture of the "Gorge". I of couse drop my camera and brake the flash. Looks like only outside pictures on this trip.

<-------- When I'm on the dragstrip. Just a boring, but, very reliable, Honda Accord the rest of the time. This is a picture of my car on nwdragracing.com that was posted after I won a few weeks ago at Woodburn Dragstrip.