Kennyweird

^I think the floating bridge connecting the main part of SoakZone with the children's area may be partly to blame for the lake's poor condition. If they got rid of it and replaced it with a real bridge, the water might be able to circulate a little better and keep that area from stagnating. It's also possible that I was just there at the wrong time. We've had a lot of rain recently, it's possible that it could have rinsed a lot of nutrients out of the soil and into the lake, which would explain all the algae I saw. At any rate, I don't think draining the lake is the best solution. There's probably legal issues with draining the lake, as well. It's just not a good idea.

Old radios had all sorts of cool gimmicks.

1000th post!

A Canon Rebel XS - $509.00 or something like that.

^Perhaps they want to install it in the future but currently don't have any room for it.

Hint: it's an electronic device.

I figured it out. There's a maximum file size and it won't let you submit your picture if you exceed it. At any rate, I entered a higher quality version of this picture:

I'm having trouble. Every time I try to submit my photo a "validation error" occurs, even though I filled out the form correctly. Anybody know why?

^Good guess, but no.

Oh, boy. It looks like they're just swimming in money. BTW, the "ferris wheel", as you called it, is actually a Rock-O-Plane. I remember riding one at the Pitcairn fair a few years ago.

That's interesting. I never noticed that, thanks for pointing it out.

Take a guess.

The piston on a shock absorber.

I made a diagram with MSpaint to help show what CoryPa77 is talking about. I'm pretty sure this is how they work.

^ I know. How sad. I know. "Malaria water" is a term Robb uses to describe dirty water, so I thought I would use it here as well. And for the record, malaria actually means "bad air". In other news, I posted my review, so go ahead and read it.

Well, I went to Idlewild Friday, along with my brother and mom, and despite the best efforts of my crappy backup camera, I managed to get some decent pictures. But before I get into the pictures, I'd like to do a brief review of the park. Since Idlewild brands itself as a rustic, kid-friendly amusement park and picnic grove, I will review it as thus. Atmosphere: This is definitely the park's best attribute. The rustic, wooded setting adds greatly to the park and helps take the edge off the heat. Also, most of the rides have been placed slightly out of sight to help preserve the park's rustic, picnic grove feel. The one complaint I have regarding the atmosphere is the condition of the pond that surrounds SoakZone. When I last visited, it was in good condition and had a place where you could rent paddleboats. Now, the paddleboats are gone and the pond is completely covered in algae. It looks like the park gave up on it. Rides: Idlewild's features a small but unique ride selection. With the exception of Wild Mouse (more on that later), none of the rides are terribly intense, but then again, Idlewild is a kid's park. The most interesting ride there is definitely the park's 1947 Traver Caterpillar, complete with a working canopy and blower. You won't find too many of those around anymore. Food: The food was good, I have no complaints. You can't go wrong with Potato Patch fries. Staff: The staff were courteous, cheerful, and competent. I have no complaints regarding them. Waterpark: SoakZone has gone downhill slightly. While they did get a new kid's area (sorry, no pictures), they also removed the speed slides, and like I said, the pond surrounding the area has gone to crap. But overall, it's still a decent area, and if you're there on a hot day, it's worth doing. Misc. I did not get to check out Mr. Rogers and Confusion Hill, but I've done those in years past. They're fun, I guess. I also didn't get to ride the adult hand cars. I really wanted to. Conclusion: Overall, it lives up to it's image as a great kid's park. It's worth checking out if you have the time, just don't expect lots of thrills. Okay, I guess I've droned on long enough. Let's move on to the pictures. Darkness falls, the fireflies come out, and our fun-filled day at Idlewild finally comes to an end. Thanks for reading. One of the last rides I rode that night was the Paratrooper. This one is kind of ugly compared to Kennywood's. Oh yeah, the Round-Up was closed all day, so I never got to ride it. Whatever. The Great Balloon Race. I used to love this ride when I was little kid. The Spider looks nice at night with its lights on. Idlewild also has a Whip. For some bizarre reason, no single riders are allowed. Warning: Guests who stand up during the ride will have a red steel bar fastened to their genitals. Everybody loves the Scrambler. After dinner, me and Matt took a quick spin on the Scrambler. We watched this show while we were eating. I didn't understand it, it was really abstract and weird. Dinnertime! Idlewild has a Ferris Wheel. Um, yeah... moving on! Matthew is SPF 007. Hmm, maybe this is why they got rid of the paddleboats. These fish live entirely off amusement park food. They also have heart disease. There used to be speed slides here. Apparently they removed them due to age. Some tubing slides and a racing slide. Nothing that special. A standalone dump-bucket. There's something you don't see everyday. Some weird water battle thing. This used to be a nice lake, complete with paddleboats. I don't know what happened. Yeah, I'm pretty sure the malaria water killed them all. After taking a quick spin on PBLT, we headed over to Idlewild's waterpark section, SoakZone. To get there, you have to go around this massive pond of malaria water. As you can see, it really doesn't get you wet. Hey look, PBLT is running! I repeat, if you do not place your hands on the red tape and brace for stops, YOU WILL DIE!!! (okay, maybe I've over-exaggerating) Wild Mouse has a tilted lift hill. I don't know why, I guess someone thought it would be fun. Listen to this sign or you will be picking chunks of handlebar out of your teeth for a week! It may look harmless, but this thing has some of the most brutal block brakes in the world, but then again, what do you expect? It's Vekoma. And a not-so-nice view of this gum-encrusted tree. Ewww. Wild Mouse's queue offers a nice view of the Loyalhanna Creek. Wild Mouse THROUGH THE TREES!!1!1 (Insert your own caption here) It has a very sprawled out layout for a wild mouse. Wee? Idlewild is also home to another coaster: the world's only Vekoma Wild Mouse. The children seem to like Flying Aces. ^ After Rollo Coaster, we took a spin on Flying Aces, one of the park's newer rides. Unfortunately, on this Flyer you're not allowed to "snap". It's a cute little ride. Just don't expect it to deliver high thrills. A train of expectant riders on Rollo Coaster. You know you want to touch it. It's also completely operated using brake levers. No computerization whatsoever. It's all historic and stuff. Next up is Rollo Coaster, one of Idlewild's two coasters. Caterpillar POV! At least it doesn't look high like a Wacky Worm. One of the cars has a face painted on it. I guess that means Idlewild's Caterpillar has been chasing it's own butt for 62 years. A good look at the canopy mechanism reveals why. (It's a high-maintenance mess of cables) Next, me and my brother rode the Caterpillar. This is one of the last Traver Caterpillars that has a working canopy. For lunch we had corn dogs and some Potato Patch fries. Yum. The seating arrangement is also a little strange. This type of ride has an incredibly inefficient way of loading and unloading. Nerd shot. The Spider, first ride of the day. Hmm, I don't see any loggin' action going on right now. I'll check back later. Ah yes, it's Paul Bunyan's Loggin' Toboggan! What's this I see? A log flume? Idlewild is many things. A magical land of pavement, however, is not one of them. Welcome to Idlewild!

Three years is pretty excessive. Do they actually have any real engineers working on this thing?

*facepalm*

I would have to say Skittles. I love Skittles.

Not quite true. I would consider Kennywood an urban park, maybe Dorney. I'm assuming when Ginzo referred to them as "Urban Parks" he means like right in the middle of the city, like Liseberg as well. I would NOT consider Kennywood right in the middle of Pittsburgh! You have to drive a good ways to get there through some confusing roads (if you're not a local.) For some of the parks on our Scandi trip they were RIGHT smack in the middle of the big city and very easy to find. --Robb Okay, I see what you mean. Yeah, I can't think of any American parks that are right in the middle of a city.

The DC crash happened while under computer control, authorities have said. Even computers have errors. Think about it: what if every time your computer crashed or froze up, a train crashed. same basic principle. -James "hopes his train is driven by mac and not windows...." Dillaman The computers that control subways and other public transportation systems aren't anything like the computer sitting on your desk. The computer on your desk has thousands of programs and a convoluted operating system that has to be executed with a high degree of accuracy, otherwise the computer will crash. By comparison, the computers that control subways, planes, and roller coasters are extremely simple. They usually don't have an operating system, in fact, they usually only consist of a few thousand lines of code. They don't have to surf the web, they don't have to play videos, and they don't have to do powerpoints. All they have to do is execute a simple task, like keep the trains separated, or keep the plane on course, etc. These computers are so simple it's almost impossible for them to fail. When accidents do occur, it's usually because the computer is receiving bad information, take for instance the recent crash of AirFrance flight 447. That accident appears to have been caused by faulty pitot tubes - the computer was operating fine, it was just getting incorrect airspeed data from the pitot tubes. I hope that cleared up some misconceptions about computer reliability.

Not quite true. I would consider Kennywood an urban park, maybe Dorney.

I remember a commercial where some guy bends a paper clip into a loop and then that design somehow ends up as part of a roller coaster. Does anybody else remember that?

They are running the coaster in test mode in that video. Check out page 187 to see it at full speed. The lift does not sound quite as loud in that one. I already saw the video on 187. It's still pretty loud.

This sucks. My sister took our good digital camera to Germany, so all I'm left with is my crappy Sony Cyber-Shot camera. How am I supposed to make a decent photo TR when I go to Idlewild Friday?