DerekRx

Wow, you both came to my neck of the woods and didn't even bother telling me. You had both better hope I was busy on those days, or someone is going to pay!

Soren, after work some time you should head over to Big River Brewing at the Boardwalk Resort. They've got some good stuff usually, all brewed by themselves.

I'd have either gone to Coney Island in its glory days, or perhaps Playland for the Aeroplane, or even to Crystal Beach for the Cyclone or Comet. Of course, Mission Beach is another place I'd have loved to get to.

Nice TR dude, Fresno certainly is a dump. Its no wonder you went to England with us without any prior knowledge of the place. Looking forward to your next trip, where ever that may be.

"Breathe Today"- Flyleaf

Its currently 88 with a heat index of 96...at 8pm!

and now, today's beers. Thanks to my camera phone! Thankfully I got my AC fixed last week! Next stop, Thunderhead Gap That walk from my car took a lot of water out of me! Its hot outside, so we'll start with a nice apricot laced #9

more photos Finally, we got to ride the Racer before my camera died. It made me miss Grand National The longest wait of the day was for the log flume, which wasn't surprising considering how hot it was Hey Mark, what's up with your company's ride? and now you can, even without a child, as Mark happily demonstrates Another credit to get! Nicole enjoyed her first visit to Kennywood and its Traver Auto Race, which is also celebrating being almost as old as Jeff Johnson You know its hot and not crowded when the Potato Patch has no line! The turtle was still fun, and a little bit more now that the nonsliding padding is wearing away All the animals are ready for the birthday party I would have rather gone to Blackpool, but we decided to walk thru it here at Kennywood Noah's Ark celebrated being old this year, and it seems like they're removing more and more stuff from it

So yesterday was the annual ACE event at Kennywood known as KennyKon. The Western PA region has a great relationship with the historic park, and yesterday was another showing of that, with ERT, food, and lots of little things. Unfortunately, my camera died on the trip, so I didn't get too many photos. I will say the event was pretty nice; crowds were lite, the park was fun, and we all had a great time as usual. The only thing that wasn't that great were the weather (brutally sunny and as hot as can be!) Thunderbolt was a little sluggish, and only running 1 train. Did you know this used to be Pippin!! It was too hot out for us to want to do the indoor version of Swing Shot Pitt Fall was awesome as all Giant Drops are mmmm, maybe not! Maybe we should have ridden the Plunge to stay cool Nicole finally experienced a whip, and we had a great time On this hot day it sure would have been nice if the Whip had a roof again While in the 45 minute long wait for Exterminator, Heath and Kim gave a shout out to Ryan, whom they have never and hope to never meet Exterminator "opened" at the end of ERT and we all got a complete dark ride, which I failed to understand the reason for having One of the many airtime moments on this monster The train drops into the ravine and thru the Thunderbolt Hey bunny, you don't belong at Phantom, you should be over at Jackrabbit Whoa! They've even got a Jeff Johnson dummy, and apparently he's been 'fixed', that's good news, right Lou? Just a bunch of dummies hanging out in the back of a pickup truck (think of them as rednecks who don't go out in the sun much!) Much better than Rush at Thorpe Park, probably because of the longer ride cycle Also opened for ERT was the new S&S Screaming Swing, Swing Shot Some BACT members enjoy their ERT. (you can tell Mark doesn't really hang out with us much, he's still giving last year's hand sign) This used to be the only airtime on the ride back in its Steel Phantom days And ran as awesome as a Arrow/Morgan hybrid-hyper could! Phantom opened just before 9:30, for 1 hour of ERT The day started off with ERT on Phantom's Revenge. You can tell from the number of people lined up that this ain't no TPR trip! And here we are at Kennywood, the old park with a new entrance We start off with Nicole in the shower...just to show Casey that the Holiday Inn in Pittsburgh should meet his approval!

Just when you thought crappy beer couldn't get any worse they move it to Newark!

Definitely was an awesome night spent drinking good stuff with good people. Next time we'll have to get there earlier and do a brewery or two beforehand!

We finished off the night Belgian-style Blue, the official color of the Women of BACT Yeah, it was a good night, sure beats watching the Pirates and drinking Iron City! I can't stop with just one Lambic, so next was the Black Currant, this time in bottle Ted went Duval and had a Belgian Facial Heath's Lambic Raspberry may have been a little too foofoo for him! Nicole liked this too, but preferred the raspberry I started with the Lindemann's Lambic Pomme (apple) on tap

Finishing up from Saturday night, we decided to go to the Sharp Edge, since Ted knew how to get there. It was a pretty cool place with a huge assortment (even bigger than Tom's!) Wish they would have had a better list of what was on tap though, as their assortment seemed to be more than was shown on the menu. But the Legunitas Maximus wasn't even worthy of a Kim Hop Face Yup, it was good! Doesn't this look good? Haha! Look what I got next, Wally! Heath finally got his Legunitas Maximus, he was happy, though it was an odd IPA Followed by a Legunitas Sirius (they must have been sold out of XM) Ted went with a new Hefe To finish it off, I went with the old favorite, Victory Hop Devil! And then the Anchor Liberty Ale Followed by Bell's 2 Hearted, a really grapefruity IPA with a nice finish First was the East End Big Hop, not too bad I couldn't decide, so I went with the 4 beer sampler, any 4 micros on tap of my choice Heath chose the Mystery beer, which turned out to be some sort of IPA, citrusy Even Nicole got some beer, a Lindemann's Lambic Framboise, on tap! Just half of what was on tap! And they have food too! Shame I was full from the Church, otherwise I would have tried the Hop Devil Potato Soup And its got loads of different Belgians as well as loads of others, all assorted by country The beer menu is a tad bigger than Tom's Here's the Sharp Edge

I was really sad when I heard this news, poor banana. Hopefully it will be fixed and reopened with any necessary modifications and will continue to be the capacity monster that it is. I'd hate to see it only run 1 train.

Looks like a return trip to Waldameer is going to be in order for next year! Looking forward to getting on the much debated RF2, and hopefully finally getting on the log flume too.

Front seat of Phantom's Revenge on Sunday. Great ride!

Stabby McStab-Stab strikes again!! Stabbings must be the English equivalent of shootings in America. When I was over there, the news reported more on people getting stabbed than shot. Well, that, football, and drunken holligans!

Been busy traveling again, so these are from yesterday, when I found myself in Pittsburgh. And Heath really liked the stout I followed up with a seasonal Belgian Pale Ale, nice and sweet Heath breaks out a worthy face for the Pipe Organ Pale Ale Which went great with my balsamic glazed pork chop I chose to start with the Heavenly Hefeweisen Everyone with beer in hand gets ready for the last supper And we even found another BACT member attending Saturday night service Stained glass, beer, and a confessionary turned gift shop and on the 8th day, man created beer It used to be a real church, now its serving a more useful purpose! Oh, its a brew pub! Pfffew! HEATHens are welcome Yep! Have I taken my relationship with Nicole to the next level and went to a church with her??

I had always wondered if there was a crooked house at Dollywood much like there is at SDC in Branson. I figured if there was one, it probably was right where you said it is, as I could see the ramp by the waterfall next to the skillet potatoes and BBQ pulled pork place. Shame it is no longer operating, as I enjoyed the one in Branson. Also big thanks for linking the Flooded Mine and Daredevil Falls.

Time for another Thunderhead! But I'm sure I'll find a few things to enjoy I sure will miss you this weekend

"Remember the Name"- Fort Minor

"....Mom told me I shouldn't climb that beanstalk..."

I'll look into it and see if they make a portable or pocket megaphone. That'd rock!

Wow, Gerstlauer has really come a long way from making really painful wooden coaster cars! I really enjoyed Speed and this new model looks promising as well, especially adding in a cutback, which I always wanted to experience.

I figured since Heath could have a nut brown, so could I. Broke out a bottle of Blackstone Brewings Nut Brown Ale that Memphish gave me back at Holiwood Nights. Overall, I'm also not a big fan of nut browns, but this one wasn't bad. Tastes like a nice dunkel lager with a hint of nuts. Doesn't taste like dirt as other nut browns I've had do. Not a bad nut brown, surprisingly drinkable All the way from Nashville, this Blackstone doesn't perform magic