DerekRx

A weekend I have off and the Hockey Hall of Fame right down the road, how can I say no? I can't!

19/20. Clearly I still know too much about currently operating roller coasters, the park they're located in, and the alphabet.

"Here's to Us"- Halestorm

Happy birthday, KT. 16 more years and I'll buy your first brew at World of Beer!

Back in 1996 Troegs Brewing Company was founded in Harrisburg. With their excellent brewing skills and wide variety of beers, Troegs quickly became very popular in Pennsylvania and surrounding states. After several expansions at their Harrisburg location, they had finally pushed it to the limit there and had to find a bigger building, or have one made just for them. A site was found about 20 minutes away from their Harrisburg location, purchased, and work started in June 2010. In November 2011, "T2" as they called it was ready to go and open for business in Hershey, PA just a stones throw away from the Outlets and Hersheypark. At 90,000 square feet, it is 3 times the size of the former location, and features 5,000 square feet for the tasting room plus an outdoor seating area when the weather permits. I figure some TPR people may be visiting Hershey sometime this year for that new megacoaster they're building there and I think a few people may enjoy a beer every now and then, so here's a look at Troegs for those of you who want to make the journey right down the road while near Hersheypark. Troegs Brewing Company 200 E. Hersheypark Dr Hershey, PA 17033 (717) 534-1297 x102 Gift shop and tasting room hours of operation: Monday - Wednesday 11am - 7pm Thursday -Saturday 11am - 8pm Sunday- CLOSED Troegs sits at the end of Hersheypark Dr right after the Tanger Outlets and The Suites at Hershey. Yes, that is GCI goodness in the background T2 is now opened for business! T1 has since closed up completely The tasting room at Troegs offers samples and sells pints, flights, and growler fills growler fills. There's enough seating for 150 people A look at the taps and the current selections This cocoa porter was from their small batch series in a constant attempt at trying new things, some of which have become regular beers in the lineup Newly added is a limited food menu, allowing you to eat some good stuff while you drink so you don't get too drunk too quickly The new Troegs offers a self-guided tour through a working brewery. Let's take a look, and feel free to bring your beer with you! This here is where the small batch series they call "Scratch beers" are made Back when this photo was taken it was filled with Cocoa Porter. Now it's filled with Triple Mango IPA, a 10.8% doozy of a beer Here's an open top fermenter And a closed top fermenter with interesting facts This could be my job, but I'd get fired after like 20 minutes A look at the microbiology lab Filtering is good Heath shows just how big these tanks are Kegging! A Kegging Line, soon to be a Broadway musical Bottling Troegs version of Laverne and Shirley show how they're gonna make their dreams come true The barrel room contains different Troegs beers being aged for future enjoyment Thus concludes the self-guided tour. Don't forget your souvenir smashed penny on your way out! You can buy Troegs beers in the gift shop, but if you're looking for another place to enjoy one while in Hershey, here's a handy map And for those of you who read this far, have some coaster porn! The people riding behind you would probably appreciate it if you rode this BEFORE you visited Troegs Yeah, you know you want to visit Hershey this year Troegs + Skyrush = Hershey just got 200% more awesome in 2012

^Obviously he has really good insurance! I keep forgetting Busch Gardens is getting this ride, looking forward to riding it sometime this year.

That's not Robin, that's Nightwing! But who really cares, more pics of Wanda Maximoff, please!

It will definitely be interesting to see how the Preds new acquisitions help them fare against the Blues and Red Wings.

I'm just pleased the Flyers did their trading early on and managed to get 2 veteran defensemen that they desperately needed with the absence of Pronger. Already they both seem to be pulling their weight on the team, I just hope they continue to do their part and make Bryz comfortable and confident again in goal.

^I'm just guessing here, but I think it was when he put on that black and gold sweater.

Since we both had to work late today, not much excitement was to be had for Valentines Day around here, but I did manage to catch the Detroit win (still not sure how I feel about the whole record considering how the end boards at The Joe are older than I am and how the Red Wings obviously know how to use them to their advantage, plus the whole shootout etc rule to help them get to that 21st win, but...) congrats to them. For my V-day gift the girlfriend got us tickets 9th row center to see the Flyers hopefully kick some Sabres butt on Thursday and get out of this losing slump they've been in lately. We gotta get some points and stop letting the Rangers walk all over this division!

^Absolutely! Why there were a bunch of mid-50s people at a concert for a band they never heard of is beyond me. I did enjoy how the one guy kept trying to take pictures with his phone and couldn't tell why they were turning out so terrible. Idiot didn't realize his finger was covering the lens. They were perfect participants of "Dave Tasers America"

Lacuna Coil at Ram's Head Live in Baltimore yesterday. Thanks again for the ticket, Dave (and Deena)! Lacuna Coil took a day off from Gigantour to headline their own show in Baltimore Cristina Scabbia played a quick romantic number while Andrea took a break. If only all singers looked and rocked like she does! The encore contained their new single "Trip the Darkness" and ended with "Spellbound" off the Shallow Life LP. They put on a great show, though Within Temptation was still better

From what I was told today, the lift will start going up very soon, the trains will be on site by the end of February, and they hope to have the station completed before the trains arrive. The flooding has been a hinderance (more rainfall this year than in the year Hurricane Agnes devastated the area back in the 1970s) but they've adapted nicely. Two giant pipes were buried in the creek banks to divert the creek in the construction area and to not affect nature, and two dams were built between Comet and the far edge of the ride for construction purposes. The dams aren't very high, so any heavy rains will see it break crest and fill up the dry area, but pumps are on site to dry it out for further construction, which usually takes 2-3 days of no rain to do. Luckily they have plenty of places to work this early on that they don't need to divert all their attention to construction at the flooded areas. They're still well on schedule for a Memorial Day weekend opening.

"Living After Midnight" -Disturbed cover of Judas Priest

I'm against it, not because I hate Harry Potter or anything like that (in fact, I can tolerate it a heck of a lot more than that Twilight crap!) but because I think Universal did a really bad job with their original intentions. Yes, as far as everything Potter is concerned it was amazeballs, but did they really think killing the already wonderful and unique charm of Lost Continent was the way to go, in which they ran out of room quickly? Or would it have just been better to attempt to build on a whole new expansion to the park, not just a retheme and one new ride. Now there's all this talk about Florida killing off the rest of Lost Continent for more Potterizing, which we all knew would happen, but apparently the higher-ups at Universal didn't. To quote NBC/Universal employees Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler, "Really? Really!?" The main draw at Universal Hollywood is and has always been the movies being filmed there and the backlot tour. I'll wait to see what the full announcement is, but that park seems small enough already, they're going to have to retheme and knock down a heck of a lot of attractions to get a decent Harry Potter World going on, pretty much removing everything that says Univeral Studios. I'd say just go with a Forbidden Journey clone, one gift shop attached, and 3 butterbeer carts outside and leave it at that with a sign saying "if you enjoyed this glimpse into the Harry Potter Experience, be sure to visit Orlando"...at least until Japan does it fully proper!

A third one does still exist, or at least did as of 2008. The people who run Shocktoberfest in Sinking Spring, PA had found one and set it up for their 2008 Halloween season. Still fully operational with plenty of working props. I only rode Devil's Den at Conneaut Lake once, but as soon as I got on this I recalled the very similar layout and the "riding in a shopping cart" feel. I don't know how many years they kept it or what became of it since, but I don't believe they used it this year. A ride through the Warehouse of Horror was the reward for making it through one of the mazes

I was a machine tonight. Got done working at 9, was at Toys R Us shortly after they opened, picked up the PS3 and got over to Wal-Mart before the electronics went on sale at midnight, managed to pick up the TV and home theater system I wanted and get the heck out of there. It was definitely crazy, but I could see how it could be considered fun if you're there with friends (assuming you don't mind getting separated 4 seconds after getting there and intend to spend several hours at the place). I was going to go to Best Buy instead of Wal-Mart, but with all the people in the parking lot I figured I had a better chance at getting the Professor from Gilligan's Island to make me the TV I wanted out of bananas and coconuts than I did actually obtaining one at Best Buy for $199.

"Without You"- Breaking Benjamin ^and no judging, that's a great song!

If nothing else hopefully this will draw away some of the crowd from Monsters Inc. Of course these two rides are right next to each other and the Japanese aren't dumb and will probably just end up Fastpassing one and then waiting in line for the other. Oh well, maybe it'll help Pooh's line a little.

Good to see they wasted 18 months of their lives preparing this case. I would pay good money to see members of PETA get mauled by the whales, bears, big cats, and all the other animals they're giving human rights to, all choreographed to those awful Sarah McLachlan songs.

Yes, but it's Potter's fault for attracting droves of Potter fans to the park along with their entire families, including too-cool-for-Potter sister, and emo brother who doesn't know anything about Harry Potter and after riding the ride once says "this is lame, instead of waiting in line with my stupid little brother and my awful parents for 2 hours to pick out a stick, I think I'll go throw pennies off of that rollercoaster. That'll teach them!" Sister says, "that sounds like way more fun than cramming into a candy store too, and I can't even buy any Coca-cola in this area, I'm coming with you!" And that concludes my investigation.

Caught a little segment on the Orlando news tonight that looks like Universal made a decision about the undueling Dragons situation and based on an internal investigation, they shall never duel again. If this is true, it sucks big time. Thanks, stupid Potterland! Edit: added article from Orlando Sentinel. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-universal-dragon-challenge-20111018,0,371498.story

Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom, back seat of alpha side today. Love the airtime!

Epcot on Tuesday for some Food & Wine goodness!