mattnz

Personally, I think the ride looks like a great fit for Heide Park. If your recreation is fairly accurate, it looks like this coaster will have quite the airtime hill after the Immelmann. I must get over to Europe soon!

I think the decade really belonged to Intamin (perhaps in a similar way to B&M in the 1990s with their awesome new coasters/innovations). Amazing mega and giga coasters (Superman/Bizarro, Millennium Force, Expedition GeForce, Goliath), Twisted Impulse Coasters, Prefabricated Wooden Coasters (Colossos, Balder, El Toro, T Express), Accelerator Coasters (breaking height and speed records), Half Pipes, ZacSpins, Mega-Lites (greatness on a smaller scale), and so on. That is just an incredible line-up. Also the rise and rise of theme parks outside the United States - in Europe and Asia particularly. There's been a building boom that's been very exciting to see!

I can't believe a few people actually managed to keep their hands up on the back row of Cyclops. I didn't DARE! Fantastic photos!

^ Thanks! We loved Riddler - it's just got awesome forces. I love Disney but have never visited the Anaheim parks. We'll definitely have to do the original Disneyland next time.

We're finally up to our last installment - Six Flags Magic Mountain! By this point in our trip we were getting pretty tired, and I'd heard that Magic Mountain was in many ways a tiring park - from the terrain to the staff and clientele. But that certainly wasn't going to stop us - and the park was an irresistible draw since we were passing through L.A. We spent two days at the park. The 'tiresome' part was most apparent on day one, which I'd put down to hot weather, bad operations and bad luck. We started out on Revolution - since I'm a bit of a Schwarzkopf fan - and found the Flash Pass vaguely pointless since you were fed into the back of the station, a problem we encountered on other rides like Tatsu and Riddler's Revenge. We then did a circle around the park - and almost every experience frustrated us! Of particular irritation were LINE JUMPERS at Ninja - the only time I saw this during our whole trip through the U.S. The ride op at Ninja was also annoying beyond belief - just really moronic and slightly racist in his 'humour'. Break-downs also plagued us, from Tatsu to Gold Rusher. It actually got to a point where it was kind of amusing! Add the incredible heat and ridiculously over-priced bottled water into the mix and Andrew and I started to wonder how much we could tolerate, despite enjoying the amazing coaster line-up... Day two I'm happy to say the park really redeemed itself for us! We got the Platinum Flash Passes, soon realised we rarely felt like riding twice in a row...but nevertheless the system enabled us to save lots of time on certain rides. We started out on Deja Vu and were the first riders for the day. The ride was awesome and we immediately felt better about the day ahead. That trend continued and we got lots of re-riding in, and also experienced X2 twice, which was an amazing ride. Inside seat = WOW! Other favourites for us were Tatsu, Goliath, Riddler's Revenge and Terminator Salvation. L.A. had a very different vibe to the Mid-West - less friendly and hospitable, but with the multiculturalism and excitement a giant city offers. What a fascinating place to visit. Hats off to those who can tolerate it's less appealing attributes! It rounded off an absolutely awesome trip for us kiwis. Thanks again to Robb and Elissa and our fellow trip participants for the main leg of our trip. It was truly unforgettable. I think we were the only people in history to brave walking to Magic Mountain! L.A. is pedestrian unfriendly! Hmm, doesn't give off the appearance of world's best to me... That is an awesome sight. We got round to riding X2 on day two...it seems to always have very long lines. Valencia Falls! Looks like we've made it. I love Anton Schwarzkopf! It's a great ride at heart, but with those nasty restraints and trim brakes it ain't quite what it used to be. Day one at the mountain was a hot one. Here's Andrew about to head up Baja Ridge. Bottled water was an expensive commodity at the park so we got the free stuff wherever we could. Viper station. I liked this area of the park, with it's Spanish music and succulents. The intensity of this ride surprised me. Arrow loops really are pretty damn great. All-in-all a fun ride despite the unimaginative lay-out. We were really looking forward to Tatsu. It broke down a few times but was worth waiting for. It felt smooth and exciting, gliding through the sky... The pretzel loop was the 'oh crap' moment, eliciting screams from riders every time. Ninja required a bit of a climb from the back of the park. Guess we didn't time this one right - bugger! Themeing confusion! We queued up for Ninja. It had an awesome station. But also had LINE JUMPERS! Not to mention very irritating, loud-mouthed ride ops. The ride itself was really fun. A good use of the terrain at Magic Mountain, which was also true of several other rides at the park. Gold Rusher was a pretty decent mine train. But it would have to wait for day two - another break-down! Riddler's Revenge had a long, annoying queue. (You're doing it wrong!) Andrew and I enjoy the stand-up coaster concept and this was our absolute favourite. In this area we found Batman The Ride - our third of the trip. Always a reliable, fast-paced, intense ride. Nice paint job too. For those who say Magic Mountain has no flat rides - behold! Mr. Six providing some entertainment. Scream, the infamous 'car park coaster', was a great ride with lots of fun elements. Whee! How about some grass or even some Californian dirt under this ride Six Flags?! Goliath was another ride we were really looking forward to. The first drop would have been better with an Intamin-style cable lift to fling you over the top but was still pretty intimidating. Yikes. The twisted back half of the ride was incredibly intense and we both greyed out during the helix every time! The Colossus station reminded me of Racer. This coaster was very iconic for me growing up and I actually quite enjoyed it - old age and all. Day two began on Deja Vu - which we loved! That backwards lift is so cool. Next door's Terminator Salvation was a decent GCI - 'The ride that's better than the movie!' The queue was a bit strange but I thought Six Flags did a good job with it. If I was employed here, I'd appreciate the air conditioning. I guess these guys are leaving with the re-theme to Apocalypse. We finally rode X2 with the skip the queue pass thing. O-M-G! I can see why people rate this as their #1 coaster. For me it's a little lower than that due to the outside seats... But an inside seat ride is spectacular! (I didn't notice the bumpiness at all.) We went up the Sky Tower. Lots of great pics to be had from way up here. This would be 'Arrow corner'. Hey Deja Vu! Ninja and Jet Stream intermingling. The aesthetics of Colossus is somewhat hindered by Goliath penetrating the ride. Somewhere out there in Valencia is Theme Park Review headquarters. Now I've visited Valencia I have an all-new appreciation for Robb and Elissa! The Sky Tower also had some really cool exhibits. I'm glad the park has kept the 'Orient Express'. Great way to save yourself a long walk. We got lots of re-riding in on day two. This was a nice area of the park. I rode Log Jammer all my myself despite the queue, which thanks to our Q-Bot I completely skipped. I was surrounded by Latino families who wanted to ride together so got my own log - and I felt a bit guilty floating past the massive queue! The park's carousel. More flat ride evidence! Also in the area... Belch! (Excuse me.) All in all, day two was excellent. The staff seemed to do better on a Saturday, the vibe was good and the rides were awesome. That is a good skyline. All that remained on our trip itinerary was a little sight seeing. (No one's better than Bette when she's bad!) And of course we had to hit up this place too. I found Santa Monica very entertaining. Some kind of Iraq war protest was happening. I always take photos like these, and always feel guilty afterwards. We've finally come to the end of this TR. Whew! Thanks for reading our observations and checking out our often mediocre photos. But we hope you enjoyed them! Matt & Andrew

Awesome photos of the City Museum - and Whitecastle! Andrew and I weren't sure if people were exaggerating the awfulness of Whitecastle, but an hour or so later...well let's just say it wasn't pleasant!

Hey Kevin - just caught up with your TR. Nice work. Everytime I saw you there was a camera strapped to your hands. The hard work has paid off!

The fun at Cedar Point continued... Another early morning at Cedar Point, another early morning rush to... Maverick! Having NO queue certainly made up for our 1 1/2 hour wait the evening before. That's right, work those curves baby! Having got that out of the way, we took the rest of the day a bit easier. The boat ride - Paddlewheel Excursions - provided a good break. I hope they keep it - bad jokes and all. Disney inspired? The dude's flying machine wasn't working today. Now I know I'm at a Disney park! This is the 'wet' area of Cedar Point. By all accounts, this is a great ride! I liked the look of their rapids too. Moving along, we got this thing out of the way. Not one of the better Mine Trains we experienced, especially after Thunderation! We also got a kiddie credit in. Across the way is this very cool old school Arrow ride. Love the station - and how it EATS through the queues. *Underskirt shot!* Gemini is a great ride. Fantastic airtime - one of my favourites at the park. Meh, whatever... Heading to the front of the park we passed this ridiculous stall. Guess MY WEIGHT?! Are you KIDDING?! We rode the retro Arrow corkscrew. Love the airtime hill on this thing. For some reason the S&S Turbo Drop had longer queues than the Space Shot. Personally, it's Intamin or nothing for me when I'm dropping, but I do find the Space Shots a lot of fun. Especially when they're this tall! Everything we'd heard about Iron Dragon was true. It wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere! (Still love this coaster concept though.) Mantis, right next door, was bigger, badder, meaner, louder and untrimmed! Say what you will about stand-up coasters, that's pretty damn impressive. Andrew and I really enjoyed this ride. Toward the front of the park, we found more awesome rides, like Wicked Twister and maXair... Very impressive. Raptor was great too. We only got one ride in. I think you need to time the queues *just so* with this one. Nearby, and Blue Streak had such short lines. It's an enjoyable ride. We liked the bouncy turns! Looks like the last year for the old Pirate Ship. Fortunately we have one of these in New Zealand! I enjoyed this side of the park. It did seem a little less crowded too. In our mission to get all the credits we ventured in here... The black light showed up all the specks in our filthy clothes. (Mainly splatters of sun block I swear!) At least we weren't dressed like this guy. Seriously, we saw this all over the Midwest. Interestingly, NOT in LA. Disaster Transport was a surprisingly fun ride. After all our thrill-seeking, we kind of felt like a drink, and kind of didn't... We went up the Space Spiral. "Remember we're parked in the Itchy lot!" Beautiful setting by Lake Eerie. Beautiful uniforms too! (I love that they brought the retro uniforms back this year.) Hey Andrew! All in all, we loved Cedar Point. With its super-sized rides... Awesome roller coasters... Fantastic thrills... And high food prices! We'll be back!

After the awesomeness of the Mid-America trip came to an end, Andrew and I couldn't resist hitting the biggest park of the Midwest - Cedar Point. It was great to see lots of other TPR people there too. We spent three days on site at Hotel Breakers in a somewhat ramshackle room, but that one hour early morning entry came in handy as the park was VERY BUSY the whole time we were there! After the ERT sessions and cool perks of the TPR trip it came as something of a shock! When not racing to the rides after early morning entry we had to wait in hour and a half queues for rides such as Maverick, Millennium Force and Top Thrill Dragster the rest of the day. Saying that, those three rides really impressed us - and being new to us they were worth the wait. Other stand-outs for us were Magnum XL-200 (2nd row - WOW!), Gemini (though I came off with an airtime-related bruise!), Wicked Twister, Raptor and Mantis (which ran untrimmed - we found it quite comfortable). As usual with us, we also gave lots of other rides a spin but for one reason or another didn't make it on Shoot the Rapids. Other TPR people seemed to really like it though. I loved our visit to Cedar Point and found lots of positives such as consistently good ride operations, but had my frustrations as well. No fast pass option (I don't care what Cedar Fair's excuse is for that, for people like us who've travelled from the other side of the world it's unacceptable), awful trance music blasted at you in the blaring sun in the largely uncovered queue for Millennium Force, a generally very corporate atmosphere, insanely high food prices... Saying all that, I'd go back tomorrow if I could! (Andrew will do the next TR for Kings Island - which was the exact opposite to Cedar Point in terms of crowds...stay tuned!) Oh, and please excuse our lower quality of photos in this TR. Damn camera settings! Cedar Point's fancy sign! Must be going in the right direction... Oh yes, definitely. By this point, I nearly ran our rental car off the road looking up at all the GIANT ROLLER COASTERS! After checking in to Hotel Breakers, we made our first ride Millennium Force. It's certainly a beautiful ride. A photo never seen before! Getting closer... I liked the sexy station. Millennium Force blew us away. Who said this thing has no airtime? It's got that and a lot more. Night riding in the midst of the hot Sandusky summer, bugs and all, is a must! We had nothing but praise for this ride as well. For one, they played Rick Astley in the queue. Fudge yeah! This hill, and the whole ride, was great. Our TPR friend Stefan recommended row 2 - and that was the money seat for us! Thanks Stefan! (He's a Magnum fanboy!) Some say this phallus-shaped ride is a one-trick pony. It (literally) took our breath away. Only Intamin-approved cable can take you to these heights. I'll take the odd break-down for these kind of thrills. Speaking of which... Breakdowns occurred at least three times we were at the park, one for each day... But one of them cut off a good hour's wait as we decided not to leave the queue! (I think they have pretty good maintenance people at Cedar Point.) Being a Schwarzkopf fan I was looking forward to Wildcat. (Look at the crowds!) Cute train - decent ride. We popped off-site to eat - with good reason - and found some decent photo ops. Yep, it's a photo of Mean Streak, a rough, meandering pile of shite! I was kind of surprised how bad it was! This guy just took Mean Streak for a spin. Fortunately nearby is our saviour - Maverick! See, the heavens have opened! Hallelujah! We were excited to ride Maverick. But were greeted by a very full queue. A queue so long, even Cedar Fair couldn't deal with it! It just went on... And on... And on! (Now I know how Jennifer Connelly felt in Labyrinth.) The park provided overpriced soft drinks in the queue, including my favourite - Sierra Mist! By the time we got on, it was nightfall! Ah, well, whatever, it was totally worth it! Part 2 coming up soon.

I'm not sure why, but I felt the same way. I had no idea I wasn't alone, since the park is so highly praised! I did like the landscaping, and I thought the ride collection was pretty solid though not amazing. I think perhaps I was a bit put-off by the "commercial" atmosphere (although I understand that it helps the park). I enjoyed your TR! It's a great reminder of the trip. Thanks Laura! Yeah, there was just 'something' lacking in the park's overall atmosphere and vibe. Love to go back though.

Last stop of the official TPR Mid-America trip was Valleyfair. Andrew and I really enjoyed this park, and they certainly treated us well, with ERT and on-ride photos of everyone on Wild Thing, a great lunch, Q&A, walk-back tours and night ERT on Renegade. Dare I say, after Wisconsin Dells, it was quite nice to be back at a corporate park! It was so sad leaving everyone at the end of the trip. What a great bunch of people. WE WILL BE BACK! Saying that, we caught up with quite a few TPR people at Cedar Point before Andrew and I drove precariously across the great state of Ohio in search of more adventures... But for now, here's Valleyfair: This is a wonderful sight to see first thing in the morning. We're at Valleyfair! We began the day with ERT on Wild Thing. I'm starting to think these Morgan hyper coasters are a little underrated. Valleyfair's Twisted Impulse Coaster still uses the holding brake - which is a lot of fun. Like almost every Cedar Fair park it seems, Valleyfair has a Screamin' Swing and S&S towers. I'm not complaining, I love these rides! I'd like to take this ride back to my home park downunder. Didn't ride a single shoot-the-chutes on this trip, but they sure are fun to watch. The park had a fairly run-of-the-mill Arrow corkscrew. The trains were really compact. Clench and squish! This is High Roller, the park's original woodie. It's tame and trimmed. Ka-ching! Valleyfair's mascot. I'd love him to stay around, but I'm not too sure if he will! The park had a large kid's area with lots of old-school rides, all currently getting Snoop-ified. I'm as mad as a mouse, and I'm not going to take it anymore! Fun ride from Arrow Dynamics. Random flat ride #1: Trabant. One of my all-time favourite flats. Short ride programme. Oh, well. Random flat ride #2: Enterprise. Another favourite of mine. I love the colour scheme of this one. Random flat ride #3: Looping Starship. Andrew and I were intrigued by this. It was quite intimidating, not too comfortable, but with a whole group of TPR people riding it, random fun! A group of us also braved Excalibur, another ride that has intrigued me for a while. It surprised me - ran pretty smooth, and was great fun! These bits make it go up. By the wet looks of their rapids ride, we passed. Renegade is the newest coaster at Valleyfair. It proved to be one of my favourite GCIs. GCIs have these fluffy things in the station. To buff/clean the train? I found them kinda funny. Does he mean the Cyclone roller coaster? The walk-back gave us ample opportunities to nerdishly photograph Renegade. We also saw the maintenance area. With wheels and stuff. A giant pumpkin. Snoopy has already arrived. While others took photos of Renegade, we took photos of ourselves! But Renegade is a lot sexier. Look at those curves! Ooohh! Aaahh! We all had amazing buffalo wings before heading back into the park for night ERT, which is where our photos end for now. Cheers everyone!

Next up on our itinerary was Wisconsin Dells and a park I'd heard a lot about - Mt. Olympus. Some good, some not so good... The good: Cyclops! The roller coaster with the insane air time in the back row; beer sold throughout the park (I needed it that day); the giant wave pool; the 'local colour'. The bad: EVERYTHING ELSE!! Terrible, terrible ride operations (bordering on amusing at times!); Hades - a ride that looks so good, that I wanted to like so much, but that beat me to within an inch of my life; Zeus - another very rough ride; large crowds and slow-moving lines that meant we skipped all the race tracks. Oh, well! I guess you have to remember that Mt. Olympus is not really a theme park - more of a large family entertainment centre with four wooden coasters. In true TPR style, it was a fun day regardless, and ALL ABOUT BRYAN! The day was also rounded off with some fun at Timber Falls (especially on their compact woodie Alavanche/HellCat) and a little credit whoring at Knucklehead's. From the car park, Hades looks like a GREAT ride. Once you've emerged from the underground tunnel into this massive turnaround, you may think otherwise! Fortunately, Cyclops still seems to be running well. If I'm not mistaken, that's Jake/Texas being ejected from the back seat! This hill contains most of the coasters at the park, including Hades, Zeus and Cyclops (in order of roughness). Across from there you'll find Pegasus, which was a fairly fun junior woodie. The park has lots of fun-looking race tracks. Kind of odd-looking, actually. As you can see, people flock to this place. It ain't closing down any time soon! This is the outdoor water park. The scary/awesome wave pool. Zoltar read our fortune. The park also had a fairly derelict indoor theme park with another credit to be had. And random farm animals. Who or what are power packers?! After all the fun at Mt. Olympus I needed a drink. Next we hit up Timber Falls. A few TPR people did the insane-looking up-charge ride of death! Scott and Jason are braver than me. Hell to the no! Avalanche/HellCat was a really fun S&S woodie. Andrew and I did find it a little rough - but that could have been due to all the bruises we sustained on Hades. Wheee! As a log flume enthusiast, I probably should have given this a spin. Looks pretty good. We finished off the day at Knucklehead's. Let the credit whoring commence!

After a long delay, we thought we'd better finish off our Mid-America TR... Unfortunately for our next stop - Six Flags Great America - Andrew and I left our cameras in a fluffy, fluffy bunny for most of the day. Due to some tricky Six Flags policies, it just seemed like the easiest option for us. And also because there was SO MUCH to do at Great America! This was one of our favourite days of the trip. As you may have read in other Mid-America TRs, we had spectacular night ERT sessions on Viper and Raging Bull after a massive thunderstorm. I love Cyclone clones and had heard great things about Viper, but was amazed at how smoothly it ran. Raging Bull, despite heavy trims, providing awesome night riding too. Throughout the rest of the day, we clocked up all the other credits, including the newly opened Little Dipper. I particularly enjoyed Whizzer, found Demon oddly smooth for an Arrow, and loved the first half of American Eagle. We had our first taste of an Intamin Twisted Impulse Coaster ( ), got beaten up by Iron Wolf and waited in long, annoying queues for Batman The Ride and Dark Knight. We also got on some of the random flat rides at the park like Ricochet, the Loggers Run flume and the Intamin Drop Tower. In all, compared to some of the other parks we'd visited in Mid-America, we felt Six Flags Great America lacked a little atmosphere. When you look at the huge ride selection, it's interesting to note just how many clones there are that you can find at other parks (Batman The Ride, Dark Knight, Demon, Superman Ultimate Flight, Vertical Velocity, among others). But saying that, Great America is certainly a must-visit park for any theme park enthusiast. A couple of photos follow! Great America was consumed by a giant thunderstorm. But it cleared and night ERT went ahead. I wish I had more photos - this was a truly legendary ERT session! Great America is a beautiful park by night - and gave us a really fun day. Check out some of the other photo TRs from this stop on the Mid-America trip. I'll be back Six Flags Great America! And next time I'll have my camera!

Haha - wow! That pool party looked awesome. The night TPR went from PG-13 to a HARD R!!

Ah, Worlds of Fun! I really enjoyed our time there. Love the pics of the Summer Lights - I tried to take some but they didn't turn out. Thanks for sharing!

Hey Lou! Thanks for your nice words. It was great meeting you too - a genuine TPR celebrity! Hope jolly old Britian has been treating you well since your return. Everyone in NZ is paranoid about all these giant earthquakes we've been having! But we're used to it. Andrew and I would love to do another trip and will definitely hang out with all the TPR people more next time round - especially now that we've lost our 'theme park virginity', which saw us do a lot of riding and a little less relaxing with the group (I also wish we took many more and better photos - more lying on the ground to get that perfect shot next time round!)

^ Yup! Kind of sums it up for me!

Andrew and I were really looking forward to Holiday World as were many on the trip and we had another very hot, awesome day. Thanks to an online auction to help flood victims in Nashville TPR managed to get private tours from the park for all the trip participants. Thanks Robb and Elissa for being so sneaky in arranging this for us! The private tours were fun and also included front of the line rides which was much appreciated. Holiday World is famed for its three highly acclaimed wooden coasters - Raven, Legend and Voyage - and everyone seemed to have different opinions about them. Raven was a favourite for me - fantastic lay out and great air time. Legend was a very solid ride with great air time and laterals but a bit on the rough side. Voyage was breathtaking - but exceptionally rough! I look forward to seeing how the park gets on with the new trains. That's Holiday World for you - it's a smart, thoughtful park that obviously cares about its guests (free soda, anyone?). Andrew and I also enjoyed Splashin' Safari and went on quite a few different slides. Wildebeest, the new water coaster, was outstanding! But alas I have no photos of it. Oh well, on with the others. We're at Holiday World! First up was a walk-back tour of Raven and Legend, along with first rides for the day. TPR trips are great There's nothing like the sound of coasters in the morning... The turnaround on Raven was cool. This ride doesn't let up for a minute. Lots of fun! The station was pretty cool too. Legend going up its lift. I loved the 'howl' as the train goes down the drop. Nice touch! Lots of turns and laterals with a few rough spots here and there. I found it very re-rideable though. Hey it's yet another log flume! (Water not included.) Entrance to one of the very well-themed areas of the park. And passing through another. (Holiday not included in New Zealand.) We get this one. But not this! Man, New Zealand needs more holidays. Here in the Thanksgiving section our group set off with Matt for a personalised tour of the park. Thanks Matt! We got to see behind the scenes of Voyage and hang out with the new Timberliner trains. We beat the crowds again to be the first riders on Voyage. This thing is huge, breathtaking...and rather violent, especially round back in the woods! It has A LOT of potential though. Voyage from the new water ride. Really, it IS an amazing coaster. I just wish it was more re-rideable. Pilgrim's Plunge was a nice surprise. Great fun and a good way to cool off. Intamin - always the mark of quality! We also rode this thing! On Gobbler Getaway you do not shoot turkeys, you gather them up for Thanksgiving lunch (or something akin to killing them). Granny Getaway. By this point of the trip I was starting to get good at shooting things. I love America. We wandered past the rapids ride. I really love these. Didn't get on this one though, alas. Matt took us behind the scenes to see the park's office area - and this storage facility. We also got to see the maintenance area. A vintage car getting refurbished. We bumped into Santa! He was a damn good one too! Matt finished off our tour by buying us all chocolate from Mrs. Claus' Kitchen. Thanks Matt! After the tour, lunch with Pat Koch, the lovely Paula and co, and some fun in the water park, Andrew and I took a little tour of our own. Here's one of the park's original rides - the miniature train. The kid's area was very nice. (There is a kiddie coaster in there somewhere too.) We went on the double shot ride - another 'first' for us. Very surprising ride and a good fit for the park. Every park in America seems to have a monster ride. Pat Koch told us at lunch she always wanted the park to have a carousel, saying, "Every park should have one!" I do agree. Another awesome part of the park was coming across these soda stations! And I like Pepsi products because of Sierra Mist. FREE soda - what a great idea. (Smart too - it keeps your guests happy and refreshed!) Andrew and I tried out the park's pizza. It was rather good. New Zealand really doesn't have a damn clue how to make decent pizza! Back at Voyage it was time for a photo walk-back to finish the day. It really is a sexy ride. Coming over that second hill was probably my favourite part. Blink and you'll miss them. After the walk-back we decided to re-ride Voyage and got a great ride in. It was still rough... ...but I think I appreciated the lay out a bit more! Thanks Holiday World for all the awesome perks today! I hope to come back again someday soon.

Awesome - a Hanno trip report! Great pics so far. Was great meeting you on the trip. Matt

^ Haha! Showering for the crowd was fun wasn't it! I do agree about Mr. Freeze. What a blast that ride was. We went on Flight of Fear at Kings Island too and have formed a very high opinion of Premier Rides.

We all knew we were in for a fun day at Six Flags St. Louis. Not just because of the awesome walk-back tour and ERT planned for us, but because the heat index was predicted to rise as high as 114 degrees...making today THE HOTTEST DAY IN TPR HISTORY!!! Andrew and I managed to cover the whole park, get all the credits in, and re-ride some of our favourites, having a very full day. In similar heat anywhere else we would probably have melted on the spot and formed immediate headaches. Theme parks seem to hold a strange power over us... TPR's day began at Six Flags St. Louis with a walk-back tour of Mr. Freeze before the park opened. I LOVE passing through parks before opening! Mr. Freeze has a sexy entrance. In fact it's generally a damn sexy ride. Great launch and fun elements. I'm glad this thing doesn't still have over-the-shoulder restraints mind you - you do get whipped around a bit. Close-up nerd photo. We got to walk down the launch track. Beauty of a TPR backstage tour: you cannot normally get photos like this! Round back we got to see some extra transformers installed by the park to power the ride. Off-limits area to some, perhaps! I love TPR. Six Flags St. Louis also gave us early morning ERT on Evel Knievel. The man knew how to dress. We rode quite a few GCI coasters on this trip. I've heard it said that GCI's all ride pretty much "the same". I generally concur with that opinion. I found Evel Knievel the most fun of the GCI's we rode on the trip for some reason. I thought it had a great lay out. This is Stefan. Today was a special day for Stefan because he was due to hit his #200 coaster. So why not make it a shitty coaster like Ninja? Andrew and I are pretty tolerant theme park virgins, but this pile of trash really sucked! The mirror-image Batman clone was very intense as you would expect from it's ride type. I was looking forward to Screamin' Eagle as Tornado made me realise I love classic out-and-back woodies. It was fun if a little uneventful. Time to ride Tony Hawk. The general public seemed to like this ride a lot. Must be all the spinny bits. So far all the Mid-Western parks have been very pretty. Every park also seems to have one of these giant sky coaster things. There's a fun Scooby shooting boat ride at Six Flags St. Louis. It's the Mystery Machine! Excalibur was a weird flat ride. We'd never been on one before so we had to give it a spin. It was interesting. Kind of fun... Every park with an Intamin drop tower is approved by me. The Boss had a great entrance. The ride itself had Timber Wolf syndrome, i.e. good lay out but way too rough. (Though we actually found Timber Wolf lots of fun!) The water rides were thankfully included on our Q-bots today. Yay for Q-bots! The rapids ride went around Mr. Freeze. Didn't get too wet on this one. For once, we wanted to. Oh well, Andrew found a better way to cool off! Thanks Six Flags St. Louis!

^ Oh yes, absolutely! We loved it. And the trip was a great way to see the country too. I can't imagine adding places like Des Moines or Branson to our itinerary on a 'normal' vacation. We really enjoyed seeing the weird corners of America.

^ Thanks! I'd drive back to Silver Dollar City right now if I could. Just a couple more miscellaneous pics from the City Museum... The City Museum has a great policy for lawyers. That's my head but those are NOT my legs! Remember that bus atop the museum... It has a great view! Fish and such. "When I was born I remember looking over my shoulder and saying - that's the last time I'm going up one of those!" Mike Austin not only sings Queen tunes on buses, he plays piano too. Like many who tried out this contraption, I'm pretty sure this ended badly

TPR took a day off from the parks for some culture and craziness in St. Louis, where temperatures sky rocketed well above 100 degrees. I'm sure most of the trip participants would agree that the highlight of the day was the completely and utterly insane City Museum. Fun times! Photos in this segment suck a little. It was so damn hot - what can I say! Hey it's the St. Louis Arch! TPR has come a long way. While others went up the arch, Andrew and I stayed on the ground so as not to make a nuisance of ourselves. It's the Kiwi way Word. It was so hot we were soon crashed out under a few trees watching them dredge the river. We also received a little light entertainment from this homeless guy! Bunnies! It soon occurred to us that the museum under the arch would be air conditioned. Approaching the City Museum and not all seems right. This bus hangs over the side of the building. It's the City Museum so of course you can climb in there! The museum has giant slides, caves and craziness everywhere. (This photo blows - apologies.) Oh, and butts! One of the many tunnels to who-knows-where. Some of us ventured into the pitch black tunnels. They got smaller and smaller and it took us quite a while to find our way out. Actually some may still be stuck in there. Upstairs there was a giant random ballroom. Man boobs? We spent a lot of time walking around wondering if we'd entered the twilight zone... The museum actually did have a few exhibits. Like these knobs. This would be the sponge room. Up on the roof there were great views of St. Louis. And a rickety ferris wheel that made strange noises. Down below TPR members were having fun. By torturing one another mercilessly! Hey Texas! We all had great fun at the City Museum! I left the place with a bruised ass! I think I got off lightly all things considered.

Nice report Chuck! I have so many photos of people making love/sacrificing themselves to Prowler. That was a fun day.