DerekRx

After having 1 too many at Russian River, we made the short 20 minute drive up the 101 into Healdsburg to enjoy another California brewpub. While they're not on the top 50 list, lots of their beers are, and the place had a nice variety of food to choose from as well. Onward to Bear Republic! and don't drop the deuce here unless your friends are blocking the door! Just remember, if you're going to drink at Bear Republic, there's no privacy in the bathroom, and if you drink too much, the walls will freak you out! and I had the always fantastic Racer 5 IPA on tap. Fantabulous! along with some awesome food, Heath went with the Hop Rod Rye on tap. This time we actually chose to get the good stuff, not the credits Sadly, this is all we would see of Racer X at Bear Republic, the double IPA in his honor was not on tap even the water glasses had logos on them, score! Kim enjoyed a root beer A look at the taps Woohoo, merch, along with random Bear Republic theming on the walls just some of the brewing process in the building Heath was smart enough to get the Smokey Bear Stout, but I got the Big Bear Black Stout not remembering that I had it before. Oh well, at least this time's on tap instead of bottle The taplist had lots of stuff we've yet to try, but after that Pliny from Russian River we were a little forgetful Tiny bar area compared to Russian River and El Toro, with the dining area scattered throughout Bear Republic Brewing, one of the first California microbreweries that distributed to our area. Once again, this place wasn't like we expected it to be Healdsburg, California, home of... Three whiteys in a Fusion make their way to the next stop on the agenda...

I think a lot of the problem with these awards are the high number of ballots placed from certain areas. Cedar Point, Beast, and all things Ohio find themselves on the list (as does Holiday World, even if their new ride is something 900 other parks also got the same year, as it's close enough that Ohio people can venture there without feeling like they're too far out of their comfort zone). Amusement Today's HQ is in Texas, and Schlitterbahn seems to win every year, coincidence?? In short, things will never change, simply because the ballots go out to the same people and those two markets are pretty much TOLD to vote local at the events. And sure, they may give out ballots to those who travel frequently or to other countries, but they definitely do not do so to the same degree. And when someone has been to every park in the world, his vote for Europa as the best park has the same vote count as someone who has only been to Geauga Lake, Cedar Point, and Kings Island. Thus making his vote pointless when compared to all the people who don't get out of Ohio and vote the same every year. I mean, come on, Haunt being better than Halloween Horror Nights? That probably only won because HHN keeps changing what park it's in each year. Same with how Holiday World keeps winning for cleanliness. Of course it's much easier to keep a small park clean than it is to keep Magic Kingdom looking beautiful, yet Disney seems to do it on a daily basis, 365 days a year. These Golden Tickets are meaningless to "those who know better" and are only used by the same parks as advertising gimmicks. The only way they will ever change is if there is some conspiracy where those of us who do vote and have been to lots of places can all agree to pick the same place for each category. That's why the only one of these awards that will ever mean anything is Mitch's Poll, plain and simple.

Well, we're sadly home now, but we accomplished everything we wanted to do on our Bay Area BACT Attack. Continuing on, Sunday we started out the day at PGA before heading up north of San Francisco to Santa Rosa. We were a little worried about the traffic thanks to the Bay Bridge being closed all weekend, but we only ran into a little bit of traffic on the 580. Arriving in Santa Rosa we hit up a BevMo to stock up for our return home before going to the #17 place to have a beer in America, Russian River Brewing. Merch on shoulder, Russian River has been completed. Next stop, Healdsburg! We didn't go this route, but the sampler looks pretty cool You're a beer nerd, and you've got your pad and pen, trying to rate Pliny on site. Pliny gets a semi-hop face from Kim, or she had a stroke and neither of us realized it because we were too excited to be at Russian River and to end our drinking at RR before we move on to the next, Pliny the Elder double IPA fresh from the source Check out that awesome lacing While I would try the O.V.L. Stout on nitro. Yum! see, told you. Now he's enjoying a Russian River IPA Heath will be right back, don't take his seat all Russian Rivers medals and awards are proudly displayed Time to get our drink on. Blind Pig IPAs for the boys and a Little White Lie for Kim The place is well known for their excellent Belgian styles. Unfortunately, they were out of all the top ranked stuff Good stuff on the beer list, all brewed on site Not what I was expecting, but the people were all friendly and passionate for good beer Finally, we arrive at Russian River, where all day Sunday is happy hour. $2.75 pints sounds great to us! It took Heath 30 seconds to realize he'd be broke if he lived in California...and 35 seconds to realize we need to invest in a travel case for beer First beer stop, BevMo A man cannot survive on beer alone. Luckily there's In N Out

Boomerang at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom. Blah.

Well, after months of planning, our big Bay Area BACT Attack for LaBeer Day Weekend is finally upon us. After waking up at 4am and flying from Philly to San Francisco, we were pretty hungry and in much need of food and beverages before hitting up some parks. When doing my research, I found a place that had an awesome name, but no brewpub. Suddenly, they decided to open a brewpub, and while I heard the service was lacking, we decided to check it out anyway, and I'm glad we did! Even Kim was double fisting these sweet things. Definitely check out El Toro Brewing if you're up in the Gilroy/San Jose area. It rocks! and to end our drinking, a sampler of the 3 fruit beers (raspberry wheat, peach, and black raspberry) and their Imperial Stout Definitely gets passes Kim's Hopface challenge The big reason we wanted to come here for the beer, The Deuce, a double IPA and an Alpha King Challenge winner. Pure hop bomb excellence here! some of the brewing process right there on site and the El Toro burger with salsa regular pork bbq Hawaiian style pulled pork bbq the food ruled too. To start, hot dog tacos! cute sign To end our sampler, Negro Oatmeal Stout and their Porter. Both nice bitter and packing coffee The bar is made out of a rock that is found only in Morgan Hill. Purdy stuff 2 different IPAs on tap too, a regular and a Bravo. As you can see, both awesome as well Definitely enjoyed the Extra Hoppys there, all done! for now... oops, better zoom out so you can see the rest of our starter sampler Not knowing what to start out with, we chose a sampler. The 4 different hop varieties of the Extra Hoppy Poppy Jasper; Amarillo, Columbus, Simcoe, and Apollo Holy crap, look at all those taps! 24 beers, all of them El Toro! The place was nice and big, and the bar was calling to us and with a name like El Toro Brewing, you know us coaster beer nerds had to go! First stop of the day, the old Morgan Hill Police Department, now remodeled into a brewpub

To prepare for the weekend, as well as to pay respects to MJ, I not only had some NorCal goodness tonight, Nicole also decided to join me in the thread! and Nicole joins me for an update, sampling my stout as well as drinking a nice glass of Bailey's, Kahlua, and milk This glass is for you, Michael Jackson (the beer expert, not the pedophile king of pop) Starting to show its age a little, but still excellent and loaded with coffee For me, the Lagunitas Cappuccino Stout

10/10, I'm a little too coaster nerdy for my own good

No confirmations at this time, but Comcast is saying this is the most likely individuals based on a Sports Illustrated article where they discovered they purchased drugs online. Charlie Haas - Purchased drugs as late as January 2007. Chavo Guerrero - Purchased drugs as late as May 2006. Edge - Purchased drugs as late as February 2007. Funaki - Purchased Somatropin in March 2006. Gregory Helms - Purchased drugs as late as February 2007. John Morrison - Purchased five different drugs as late as February 2007 . Mr. Kennedy - Purchased three drugs between October 2006 and February 2007, including testosterone, which is an anabolic steroid. Kennedy sternly claimed in a recent interview entitled 'WWE Stopped My Steroid Use' that he completely stopped doing steroids as soon as the WWE Wellness Policy was implemented. You can read the interview at this link. Randy Orton - Purchased drugs as late as February 2007. Umaga - Purchased Somatropin as late as December 2006. William Regal - Purchased drugs as late as November 2006.

^But from the looks of it on Michigan's Adventure's site, there is no more Maxx Pass. Your only options are 1 park only or all the parks. Not sure if I like the idea or not. It's great it includes parking now, but the separate gate waterparks don't really interest me (and probably about 90% of people who get the Maxx passes to begin with). Seems the only separate admission waterparks are mostly all in SoCal, with the exception of Kansas City and Cedar Point. Still, looks like this is a way for CF to make more money off of pass sales. Last years were a steal for anyone who didn't buy their pass in Ohio! I really do hope they change their admission policy though and make it more universal. Right now it's probably the dumbest thing ever; old Paramount park passes you can walk right into the old Paramount parks, but CF passes you have to go to GR to get an admission ticket. Old CF parks everyone has to go to GR to get in. Meanwhile SF is universal across the board, even up at LaRonde you just show your pass and walk in! I'll be getting one for myself, as it'll definitely pay with parking. However, not sure if it's such a good thing for families, as they really don't need more than 1 pass with parking. I actually like the way Six Flags did it, all the passes are one price, and then you can upgrade and get a parking pass good at all the parks for $45 more. It appears CF is offering a parking pass too for $35, but who would need a parking pass good at all the parks if they're buying the Platinum Pass, they already get parking included. And if you're going to just get a 1 park pass, why would you want the parking pass for an extra $35, if for $15 more you can get admission to all the parks too!?

Time for some last minute East Coast goodness before heading away for the weekend for some West Coast sweetness. Definitely one of my favorite Pale Ales out there Then it's time for some Shelter Pale Ale Such a wonderful flavor First up, Dogfish Head 60 Minute

^Because people like you keep posting to the thread! If you'd stop complaining about the complainers, maybe people would stop posting, as this thread would eventually leave page 1! A page holds like 10 posts, in the last page, 2 of those 10 were from you, about the same thing. So 1/5 of the senselessness this thread has become in the last page is because of you. People see 31 pages of a discussion and think it's a hot topic, when in reality it's the same 7 things over and over again. The trains look dumb, the drop looks cool, the name is stupid, the trims could suck, the layout is ____, this will be the best ride in the park, and shut up until you ride. It's not rocket science, if you would just let it die, eventually it would. Instead you continue saying the same thing over and over again, making the thread longer, and bringing more people back to see what all the discussion is about, who then voice their opinion, which is exactly the same from what everyone else has said previously. It really shouldn't matter to you if people think it could be trimmed, we're all not as positive and humorless as you, Dee Dee Dee! And everyone is entitled to their opinion, but you don't have to try to jam yours down their throats to stop posting.

Last night I decided to go with a heaping double helping of summer goodness with Three Floyds. That's one hopped up wheat brew. Excellent tastes of spices, wheat, and hops. No Gumball taste though 2 bottles of the newly bottled smaller size of Gumball Head, one of Three Floyds best brews (outside of Dark Lord, Alpha King, etc)

Such great weather as of late, I figured I'd take this one outside. Awww yes, the Rye Pale Ale proves that Rye can be good in something, just not in barleywines (sorry to break that to you, Weyerbacher!) Time for more Terrapin goodness. I so wish this stuff was distributed up here, especially cumbersome since it's still actually brewed in Maryland!

Something tells me it's not a Eurofighter, and I'm still leaning towards Intamin, especially how they've had a good history with them regarding Storm Runner. I don't know where this "vertical lift" talk and 95 degree drop is coming from, but Maverick does has a beyond vertical drop, and Intamin could have thrown a vertical lift into the equation. Maverick may have cost a lot of money, but how much of that is because of the LSMs and theming? Have a chain lift or elevator lift and I'm sure you can knock off a nice chunk of change.

That doesn't sound like the woodie some lawyer dude said ground had already been broken on! Sounds like fun though, great idea trying to keep families around, instead of nothing but teens and thrillseekers. Though with their blaming the weather for a bad year and then shooting for families, thems sounding much like Six Flags here!

I can see the higher ups wanting to take out some of the coasters, though when we were there a few weeks ago, the longest wait we had was for the SLC (only running 1 train, as was mostly everything else except Dominator). Face it, Geauga Lake now mainly just draws interest in the waterpark, as that side is packed and the other side is empty. CF can pretty much remove everything that SF added and still keep the other side alive if they wanted to. Taking out the two waterfront coasters, clearing out the old waterpark area around Big Dipper, adding picnic pavilions to that area where SUE and Xflight were, and maybe a skyway or monorail from the waterpark side to the rides side would be a major help to have the park look nicer. I think part of the problem is the fact that it's all 1 park now. After spending all day at a waterpark, people really don't have enough energy to walk across a lake to ride stuff, they just want to go home. Make each park like $20 to get into, and then have a ride and slide combo for $30, and that will help people decide more if they want to pay an extra $10 to do the rides, and they'll put more effort into visiting the other area. The rides side definitely still needs some work done to it, like adding more bathrooms, water fountains, and removing all the stuff that isn't working anymore (monorail, skytower, waterslides by Dipper, random closed walkway by Double Loop, etc). Something else that would majorly help this place regain "traditional look"....lots of trees, something Cedar Fair is definitely afraid of. I still think this park is doomed (at least the rides side).

Only one beverage last night, but it was a surprisingly good Monday (and next Monday will be even better!) Very heady and not too powerful, but a good stout for a warm day. Good mixture of coffee and oats Tonight, more of that Strike Out Stout from Cooperstown

^If that happens, they may as well just close down the whole park and just operate as a waterpark! Maybe they're taking those two coasters out though because the algae has gotten so bad around them that the coasters are sinking due to the supports being eaten by tiny bacteria thriving on algae. No, that's not green cement or turf, it's a pond of algae. Yummy!

I'm with Chris on the whole B&M trim issue. I know a lot of things can alter the speed on a ride at certain times; worn wheels, temperature, etc and B&M usually installs the trims to have them at the designated speed. I know several times I've ridden Nitro where the trim kicks in and gently kisses the train where earlier in the day it didn't touch it at all. Hopefully these trims won't need to be used that often, but even if they are, I hope they don't kill the ride like they do on some other coasters (Montu, Riverside Cyclone, Thunderhawk, Hersheypark Comet, Raging Bull, etc).

The only coaster I could have ridden but didn't because of the long line/lack of time was Scooby's Ghoster Coaster at PKI. It's gone now, but I'm not that upset. I also missed out on the similar model at Lightwater Valley, but wouldn't have had time to ride it anyway. There were plenty of times I ran out of time to ride something, or things were down for maintenance at the time, but I've never intentionally skipped something. I am a true credit whore!

Well sorry to burst your bubble but people are gonna be sceptical about this. Cedar Fair isn't held in high regard by a lot of people on here. And I'm pretty sure that Derek was joking as well. Not just because it's a bit obvious, and you clearly didn't look at his closing remark... How about we all just be docile and say how we're all looking foward to the new ride. Kinda defeats the point of having a discussion topic about it! Well said, Tom. I think this tmcduller needs to read the forum disclaimer before posting, as I've seen like 2 posts from him this morning in which he seems to be incapable of detecting jokes and sarcasm. I don't think I said anywhere that this ride was going to suck and that they shouldn't even bother building it, instead using the $26 million to take out more trees and put in more trash cans, I think I said it looks like fun and that I look forward to riding it. As for the seating, it WILL screw up stuff, as I know plenty of general public people who get on B&Ms and don't "want to sit on the end". I'm pretty sure these people will also not want to sit on the end by themselves. Deja Vu's trains weren't just a problem getting to the seats or the view (you couldn't see anything on them anyway) it also included the fact that it separated groups. No one, save enthusiasts, goes to parks by themselves and therefore won't want to be separated from their friends, not even by 2 feet forward or backward. If the seating had been 6 across in that design, it would work better as it could be groups of 2X2X2, but 1X2X1 really won't go over that well with the public and there will be lots of empty end seats going out, or people complaining about having to ride apart from their friends. Hopefully they install a single rider line for this!

^Hershey has Trailblazer to compete with Hydra... ...as most boring coaster in Pennsylvania

Cool looking layout, though it doesn't look as "complete" as some of B&Ms other hypers (this has like 2 hills after the midcourse and helix). I like the location though, and the first drop looks interesting. But these trains?? Um, did Claude and Walter never ride a Deja Vu, or did they just choose to forget how stupid that seating was and how it breaks up the groups and causes mass confusion for GP and ride ops alike. And the name?! Come on Cedar Fair, could you knock off Six Flags any more blatantly. What happened, did you steal their artist and ride namer, or did you just have no money set aside for the name as you blew your budget on trash cans for the queue and got your janitors to come up with something that original in both name and logo design? What's next, Gargantuan, coming 2009 to Carowinds? It will be amusing seeing a bunch of ACErs running around in gravy-stained 5XL shirts with "Behemoth" across the chest though Looks pretty cool though, and I'll definitely be heading back up to Trono next summer now.

Just got back from the park today, saw more work going on at the Turns. Station to the right with 1st lift, can't wait for this to open Still working, even on a Sunday to get this thing done and opened Looking through the structure at the station hangar theme final lift back to station Looking good, with station to the left

Phoenix in row 1.3 this afternoon, running phantastic. Still holding its place in my ranks