bgwfreak

^ Yeah pretty much. I watched this little girl freak out before going into it. Apparantly they are blowing air into the thing the whole time so when you open up the front to crawl in a blast of air comes out and the girl was freaking out about it.

Glad you guys had a cooler day than we did on the 17th. R.I.P. Pavilion.

Well that answers what "Hydra Fighter II" was at Wet n Wild Emerald Point (name wise). I always wondered what Hydra Fighter 1 was. I think HFII was just being ripped out recently as well. Glad I got that credit when I did!

I live in a little town called Mint Hill (which is basically a suburb of Charlotte) and have lived here all my life. Every September we have Mint Hill Madness which is basically like a town fair and craft show. They also have local singers and such come in. The town also hosts the obligatory town parade down "main street". So I took my trusty camera out Friday afternoon to show off my little town to all the world. We're not as much fun as Oktoberfest, but hey it's home. Enjoy! The Mint Hill Fire Dept. must have heard I was coming. So you're saying the only thing that is keeping me from being a story on CNN tonight is that little pin?!?! Oh. Well that makes me feel better. Time to ride the safe looking Ferris wheel. This is a non-Derek friendly park. Sorry dude. Oh crap1!!!111!! I was right! They are building a hyper in Mint Hill!!!!!!! You heard it here first!!! Grrrr! I'm the angry generator! Gimme some candy...........This can only mean one thing!!!!! Oh silly me. It' just an ATM. We like to protect our ATM's in Mint Hill. Hmmm... what could be hidden in this tent? Osama Ben Ladin? OJ Simpson? Any girl that I would be interested in??? Ok sweety. You crawl in the through the big bugs stomach and then crawl out of his...uh...well you get the idea. They had one of these sit and puke rides that I can't ride. Ok Dad what do I do when I get to the top? Hello? Dad!?! We have the world's smallest carousel! No seriously! You don't believe me? I was right!!! *wink wink* Ooooh...this must be a high quality ride. This is Matthews-Mint Hill Rd. If we had a Main Street, this would be it. We be very patriotic. And as the sun sets on Mint Hill I will leave you with this last shot. Until next time...Please sit on your sandals! They had vending and such... On this ride you go around in a circle and don't go anywhere. Kind of like my last date.

I'm confused. What's up with non-colored hair? We're you afraid the KKK would get you if you had green hair? I also knew you'd have to show your favorite park in da world! (Carowinds) It's weird how the mouse was much less rough to me than it was for you. But you're a bit thinner than I am. Hurricane beat the crap out of my legs. Oh and thanks for breaking Hurricane. Maybe people won't be tortured by it on Saturday. lol Too bad it was packed when I was down on the 17th. I wanted to re-ride the Haunted Hotel and ride several more of the flats. But I totally ran out of time.

I really didn't find it all that funny. And it's not because they didn't show the park. I've been there twice so it's not like I need to see the park. I just really found it rather flat on the writing side of things. Colbert though has always been kind of hit-or-miss with me. I tend to prefer the Daily show over Colbert. Which is probably why they won the Emmy.

^ That's one reason I really feel like the drinking age should be lowered in the States. If you tell a kid all their life NO! You can't drink until you're 21!!! Then what happens when they get to college? They become a drunk because they've been held back from it forever. I'm not advocating being a drunk or anything, but I think if kids here could get used to it earlier on like they do in Europe then we wouldn't have as many problems. I guess though it just comes down to culture, it seems that in Europe that drinking is more a social thing and part of your meals. Whereas in America we seem to drink just to get drunk.

Next time your'e up there check out Fredricksburg and their battle fields (if you haven't already). It's worth a stop and it's like half way between PKD and DC. I stopped there on the way back from SFA a couple years ago.

I don't think you have anything to worry about. B&M builds high quailty products and I've never heard of one of their restraints failing. I also wouldn't mind there being a seat belt on the flyers or their hyper trains, but I feel pretty confident in B&M that it won't all of a sudden pop open. Plus their computer systems are very sensitive. I've seen them have to like jump on Superman's restraint a couple times to make sure it was locked because the computer was telling them it wasn't.

Awesome pics! Oktoberfest looks awesome. I couldn't even drink about 1/4 of one of those pints. I also love how Europeans have common sense about coasters. Here in America we all run up to coasters and try to jump in front of them. I'm sure glad we have fences around our rides.

Wow! Awesome pics! France looks gorgeous.

I can hear Derek now... Yeah I had jet lag or something like that! It wasn't the beer! Honest! I only had 2!

Reminds me of BGE. I miss the Bergermeister (forgive me if I spelled that wrong). That pic reminds me so much of the beer hall at BGE. Even though I don't like beer, I SO want to go to Oktoberfest in Germany at least once in my lifetime.

1. Viper (Six Flags Over Georgia) * 2. White Lightnin' (Paramount's Carowinds) * 3. Drachen Fire (Busch Gardens Europe) 4. Chaos (Opryland) 5. Crazy Mouse (Myrtle Beach Grand Prix) 6. Z-Force (Six Flags Over Georgia) * 7. Corkscrew (Myrtle Beach Pavillion) * 8. Hydra Fighter II (Wet 'n Wild Emerald Pointe) 9. Wild Maus (Busch Gardens Europe) * 10. Little Rock-N-Roller Coaster (Opryland) * 11. Python Pit (Jeepers) 12. Wabash Cannonball (Opryland) 13. Wacky Worm (Myrtle Beach Grand Prix) 14. Scooby's Ghoster Coaster (Paramount's Kings Island) Those with * I wouldn't really consider defunct since they were moved to another park and still operate.

I just saw this. http://www2.paramountparks.com/canadaswonderland/shop/shopping_season_pass.cfm They are going to sell MAXX passes after all.

thanks for all the mammories

I was totally thinking the same thing. Where's Nessy?

This will be a shorter one, basically a few shots around the park. Swampy was running pretty good. In fact I thought that it was running better than Thunder Road has run some days and it's 10 years older!!! The double-downs in the front car were awesome. Here's the full versions if you want to check them out. http://travel.webshots.com/album/554368908vlomrQ Yeah I'd hide behind your sign if I were you too! That's it. Not much else to say about the park. It's not a dump, but it's not anything that great either. Big wheel across the swamp of doom. This was my first yo yo and I loved it! Beats wave swingers any day in my book. Yo! Swamp Fox was PACKED!!! *wink wink* As seen in Kenny Chesney's video that I have no idea what it was called. Big wheel alert! Big Lemon alert! You go wii!!! Swamp Fox and it's curvy station goodness. Swamp Fox. Happy 40th old girl! I guess this means that Johnny Knoxville won't be coming here anytime soon.

Time for Part 2. Here we start "Fun with cameras in the dark!" And last but not least...McDonald's through the Beetle! This truly was a TPR approved trip. 2 trips to McDonald's, 1 trip to Carrabba's but no donkeys this time. That tis all for now peeps. I HEART gas in South Carolina. Nice of them to have cheap gas as you head to the hurricane shelter. Any hotel that has a plasma in the breakfast room also gets high marks! Any hotel with Jimmy Dean at breakfast gets high marks from me. Yo. I am the big scary Fairfield at Myrtle Beach. Gimme some candy! Fun with VH1 at 4:00 am. Has anyone seen this video from Keane? It's almost like a mini rollercoaster! Awe! he's so cute! He hasn't grown up yet! (Just like Dan). Attack of the pillow people! Later at my hotel...in case you forget which hotel you're in when on the Jon, they place these convenient stickers on the TP. Time to make this a true TPR photo TR!! Carrabbas baby!!! Note the cool, although accidental "artsy" shot. Goodbye Pavilion. It was fun while it lasted. Hmmm...is this Six flags? Actually that's the 2nd shop they had earlier in the year with all the park closing stuff. (I'm assuming) Oooooooooooh Pretty! This was a great wave swinger. It was built about 10 feet above the midway and it was so much fun to wiz over peoples heads. The enterprise was really fun. I had never been on anything but the Schwarzkopf version until this one.

Chickens are animals. Oh Crap!!! I should stop eating at KFC!!!!

Last Sunday I headed down to the beach to say my last farewell to the Pavilion as well as visit Family Kingdom. This TR will cover just the Pavilion. You've probably already read Robb's TR from earlier this year, so this will be my spin on the park. Enjoy! If you want to check out my full version pics go here: http://thumb3.webshots.net/t/57/657/7/34/82/2705734820054618143sncAWp_th.jpg And if that's not enough for you, check out my article I wrote for ThrillNetwork here: http://www.thrillnetwork.com/stories_view.php/1757/myrtle_beach_pavilion__goodbye.html Did I mention the lines were huge? And that's all for now. More to come! "Scary" Self-portrait. Haunted Hotel THROUGH THE HAIR! Grrrrrrrrrr! Welcome to the Haunted Hotel! Would you like Doom Service? Which way do we go? Mad Mouse was so mad about closing that he jumped in front of my shot of Top Spin. I TOLD you I didn't want to go on this ride!!! LOW CLEARANCE! Scramble? Definition - French for a poodle barking at the Moon. Even this guy takes a shot at Johnny. Things must be pretty tough for Johnny Depp these days. This guy is already trying to escape from the park before it closes. Argh! I'm the evil skeleton at Treasure Hunt! Gimme some candy! The pain has started already! Wiiiii! I love how enthusiastic the angels are on the German organ. LOL Riding a chicken on the carousel!!! This was the first ride I hit when I got in the park. The park was having "family appreciation day" and the all ride wristbands were $10. As a result it was PACKED. Hmmm...I sense great pain is nearby. I headed up to Grand Prix to get some pics since it had just closed the day before (see my album for those pics). Welcome to Myrtle Beach!

^ Yeah TG is pretty much the thing at Carowinds. AFter riding about 10 B&M inverts, I'd say that Top Gun is still about #2 or #3 for me. And it's in my back yard!!! I just wish we had another great B&M like it. Vortex is OK, but it's a little hard to ride (for guys).

^ JD bought the hoodie back in April, I'm not sure if they sell them anymore or just in cooler times. I don't recall seeing any in August. I can't speak for anyone in the Atlanta area. I know myself I won't be heading back there anytime soon.

If you hadn't been attacking people that tried to come in the Paramount theater, you might have made it in one of my pics.

As you might have heard ACE hosted C3 this past Saturday at Carowinds. This is by far my favorite event and I'm lucky enough that it happens at my home park. The whole event always feels like a family reunion. I know a lot of the people and it's always so much fun to get together, share what we've been up and ride a few coasters to boot! I've got a ton of pics, so this one will probably take a few days to get all the way finished. If you want to check out the full version of these pics just go to: http://travel.webshots.com/album/554247405QauhPG Who needs coaster ERT? We had bathroom ERT!!! Awe! My bug (left) made a friend in the parking lot @ Carowinds! Breakfast is FINALLY over and it's time to head to the park. The time is 7:30 a.m. Best view from a Cracker Barrell EVAR!!! Go heels! *he he* They have S.C. Game Cocks stuff on the table. (fill in your own comment about the SC mascot). Cracker Barrell also already had CHRISTMAS stuff out! Yikes! We are only 4 shots in and this is already a TPR friendly report! Pez is uber cool. Hey! The gangs all here! As always only half of the people showed up that signed up for breakfast. No that's NOT my portrait from 1912, that's some of the lovely "theming" at Cracker Barrell. A new Cracker Barrell was just opened across the road from Carowinds. So that's where we started our day! Unfortunatley the service was very slow. This is for you Derek! At least this guy is having fun today. Top Gun just added a video system from CdR!de that takes your video and such. You can buy the DVD if you want. Random shot of corn growing by Goldrusher. Borg was not part of ERT and as a result of having a bag with me I could not ride without paying for a locker. So I skipped it and it's Vekoma awesomeness!!!!11!!! This is what happens when Cedar Fair takes over. They suck the life out of you! j/k You can see there were HUGE lines for Cyclone. Part of the Whootah! crew riding on Carolina Cyclone. Morning ERT was Richochet, Carolina Cyclone and Vortex (ouch!). Insert obligatory joke about ACErs and food. Lunch time! OH CRAP!!111!!! It's a CRANE!!! Near the BRIDGE!!! This means that we ARE getting that hyper under the bridge after all1!!!!! The dippin' dots guy told me so. Before lunch we headed to the Parmaount theater and played some games and had fun. We played coaster/Carowinds versions of the Match Game and Family Feud. Scott (from Carowinds) had to sensor some of the questions. lol Scott signature move #2. Scott signature move #1. Not good! The thing broke down (which I've never seen happen in 20 years). They had to manually push people to the end of the ride (not far, about 30 feet at most). Ok ok, I'll actually make an apperance in this TR. Rip roarin rapids was our next ride, but when we got there we saw this... Lunch was ok, but the dessert was awesome!!! Cheese cake! Cedar Fair has really brought the place up a notch! At least the Scarowinds folks have a sense of humor! And that's it for now. More donkeys and such to come! Night ERT finally came and we hit up Thunder Road and Top Gun for some awesome ride time. Alan looks a bit hungry. WHOOOSH! Intamin = goodness. This is for you Elissa. I think I'm a lizard...I think I'm a lizard...I think I'm a lizard. Yum! On this ride you go up, go down and go weeeeeeeeeeeeee! Wow. I'm so cool! I like to hear myself talk and I dispatch Hurler trains like ever, oh...4 years! Sup!! Donkey #2!! And that one actually IS called Donkey! LOL! Care bears are back! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. And that's going to do it for this trip report. It was a great day. We had great weather and most of the coasters were running great. Another awesome C3! The UK TPR shirt makes another apperance. So ERT was great and all were happy then we headed to Wild Wings Cafe to celebrat the day and have some awesome Buffalo wings!! (Seriously if you ever visit Charlotte or Carowinds stop by this place!) AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! It's evil JD!!! DUDE! Like this coaster ROCKS!!!!