DerekRx

Finally the stupid grass is short again (for like 3 days). And now its time to reward myself again. I'm only shirtless because I'm sweaty and my shirt is really dirty. I'm not trying to compete with Derek...errr...yeah Ahh, Lagunitas IPA, this'll hit the spot

So after an amazing organized trip is pulled off, what do you do next? Well, if you're Robb and Elissa, you test the waters for future trips. A few of us old skool friends were given the opportunity to explore with them for this extra add-on to the land of SharkTums, Finland! Once again it was back to Stansted to fly Ryan air to another rinky dink airport, this time in Tampere, Finland. Everything went smoothly again and soon we were greeted by Tommi, a Finnish TPRer. Then it was off to Helsinki with Robb behind the wheel for a stop at Linnanmaki. Linnanmaki was a nice little park surrounded by the city of Helsinki. It seemed more geared towards kids, as all of the coasters weren't too intense, and there wasn't one loop on any of them. The park was somewhat busy with buy one get one wristbands, but we never waited more than 10 minutes for any ride. Onto the photos: The finale slide alone was worth the trip to Linnanmaki But we couldn't pass up the funhouse, no matter how long the line looked to be They also had a nice ferris wheel, but it actually had a line and we skipped it The park had a very nice setting and some nice gardens and flowers and fountains Elissa must have had a major moment of weakness, because she agreed to ride this evil Huss ride with me. We flipped 11 times, yet she didn't get sick Dan enjoyed squishing Elissa on the powered coaster after she told him he wouldn't get wet on the water coaster We got wet enough on the water coaster, so we didn't bother even attempting the rapids This was Space Express, an indoor space themed Zierer. It was cool, I guess Which just baffled us They also had a clown darkride The darkride was recently updated, and was really good Its like a wild mouse with shock absorbers, very odd Linnanmaki also has a Mack e-Motion coaster, which we all pretty much said "WTF?" to It was fairly short and not Dan approved, though he did ride it for the credit Up next was the only remaining Premier water coaster The scenic railway had a nice layout but only offered a few moments of airtime, the rest of the time it was fairly slow The park was fairly busy, but not overly crowded On this one the brakeman sits in the very back so he can get the most airtime Our big draw was the scenic railway After 3 hours on a plane and 2 hours in a car, we're finally at Linnanmaki On the way Robb and Elissa enjoyed a few moments of peace and rest Its back to Stansted to fly to Finland

Finally its not raining outside, so I get to go cut the grass (yay!). Figured before I started I may as well have a brewsky! Good stuff, this'll give me the energy I need to mow the lawn Fordham's Maibock, a gift from Heath

A bunch of donuts would have been so much better than that supposed "hamburger". That had to be the grossest food on the trip.

Me and some of BACT are going to see the movie in IMAX 3D on Saturday after hitting some brewpubs. Not sure if that's the smartest thing to do, but we'll see

I'm on a hill so no flooding for me. Lots of people at work though have flooding basements. Fortunately my beer is all fine The roads suck though, lots of them closed due to flooding, mud, or errosion.

^Beats me, its Nicole's absinthe, not mine. But I do believe she dumped what was left, since we wouldn't have been drinking anymore of it on the trip, nor were we going to get arrested for bringing some nasty stuff back to the states. Of course, I thought the stuff was way overhyped, we didn't experience any hallucinations at all.

"Beautiful People"- Marilyn Manson

^Sure thing, Heath! Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Heath Rhoads of Heathco Pharmaceuticals, maker of Heathamycin, a revolutionary chemotherapeutic agent used in the treatment of liver cancer. Side effects may include nausea, vomiting, neuropathy, and squinty eyes and smirky smiles, otherwise known as the "Heathface" Next meeting is in a few weeks, be there or pay for your own drinks!

Wow, yeah, that looks like the same situation my parents are going thru right now too. I sure am glad I purchased a house on a hill/slope. Not too tough to navigate in the winters, and no flooding in the summers. I'd also suspect that poor Bushkill is also under water, as our rivers here have crested at 14 feet.

Of course! You haven't met me yet, have you?

So tonight we had a drug rep dinner where nothing was to be discussed. While I wasn't in charge of the location, I was in charge of the date, so I made sure to make it for a time when I'd be back from the UK. The place was one of the better bistros in town, with a nice variety of beer. They're gonna be sorry when they get my bar bill! Do I even still have a liver?? Yeah, now that's what I'm talking about! Our nurse's aid wants one too, so make that three! So sweet in fact, we'll have a second! mmm, even sweeter when its free For dessert, lets start with a $10 bottle of Lindemann's Lambic Framboise Hello, Hoegaarten, would you like to join the party in my stomach/liver? Of course you would! The boys get acquainted Yeah, its finally summertime! Followed quickly by a Franziskaner Hefe-Weisse Here its free, so drink up! First up, HopDevil. Yeah I've got it at home, so what?

Well, its not 10 minutes to Thundercoaster, but its about a 5 minute walk there and a 5 minute walk back to Speed Monster. Plus the queue walk at Thundercoaster which isn't really short (and the fact that if we passed a bathroom, Nicole would have to stop and use it) and we would have been giving up our spot in a line we already invested about an hour of our time at.

It looks like Robb and Elissa were saving the best for last, ending the trip with a big bang. That bang, of course, was Liseberg and Balder. Everything was wonderful, from the free porn in the hotel room to the hotel breakfast, to the awesome welcoming reception we received at Liseberg, and the almost 3 hours of ERT on Balder and Kanonen, it could not have been a better end to the trip. Where else do you see unicyclists in a park? Too bad we couldn't get Elissa on the spinning boat ride We cut our time at the bar short though so we could experience the Pepper Steak, which was everything it was said to be and more! So guess where I was at 5:00 on the dot? I was most excited when we found out that day there was an Ice Bar at the park and it'd be opened at 5pm We did this only because the Observation Tower preshow told us to, honest! Like most of the layout of Lisebergbanan The observation tower and the ferris wheel offered great views of the park Its always a good idea to have Dan with you. He'll be the bag bitch while you ride the log flume (the bags were all gifts from the park!) The haunted hotel was included in our VIP wristbands, so we did that as a group after Operation: Apollo's Chariot We were told this was running pretty good, but its too close to Balder, we couldn't pass up short lines on Balder to justify a ride on a Chance and Robb tried the strange throw the fish at the seagulls game Back at the park we checked out some weird flatrides For lunch a few of us had to check out the McDonald's across the street to see if the hot chick was still there. I was also intrigued by the Delirium Cafe Liseberg is another beautiful park, with lots of lush landscaping The first riders of the day even got to go backwards a bit Once the park officially opened, we all headed to the banana ride and who couldn't love a zero g roll threading the loop!? With a vertical loop, I just had to ride it though Kanonen was also opened during ERT, but we could hardly take ourselves away from Balder to ride it It may look small and compact, and it is! But it still provides awesome airtime. Its things like this that rank it so high with me, along with Phoenix We managed to ride every row, and could not find either a bad row, a row that provided more or less airtime than other rows, or even a favorite row. Balder is THAT awesome Then we rode Balder until our hearts were content We quickly formed a Union though and started taking breaks, to drink free beer! Before we were allowed to ride, they asked us to do some work on the coaster, complete with Balder hammers Our welcome reception from the folks at Liseberg took us inside Balder to check out the little cottage inside the ride Here we are, finally, at Liseberg. Built right in the middle of the city of Goteborg

Yup, sounds like Cedar Fair. Don't worry, in like 5 years they'll throw up an old photo of the building, just like they did recently with all the old rides they took out when they acquired the park. The parks around me are really pissing me off lately, looks like I'll be saving money on season passes and just flying to Europe more often.

Once again, Chris, we have no clue what the heck you're talking about. We got in line for Speed Monster, wanting a front seat ride after it broke down but they tested a train. Got in line and then 45 minutes the park closed. Figured we'd just hang out there, especially since it was now raining and we didn't want our jeans to get too wet for a nice 3 hour bus ride back to Sweden. The one op told us we could wait and it should be opening up shortly, but then he went over to Thundercoaster. The mechanic also allowed us to wait, as we were the only ones there. Another employee translated for him that it should be up in about 10 minutes, we should go ride Thundercoaster and come back in 10 minutes. Since it was about a 10 minute walk to Thundercoaster in the rain, we decided to just hold off for a few more minutes, and if it didn't open, we'd just head over to Thundercoaster then. Well, around 7:30 we gave up on Speed Monster, as the mechanics were still running around trying to figure out what the problem was. As we were heading over to Thundercoaster, we were told it was closing and the crew was going to be moving to Speed Monster. So we just used the bathroom and headed back to the bus, figuring Speed Monster probably wouldn't reopen and even if it did, we were tired and didn't feel like walking back over there. And then my mom called and told me that a snake was trying to eat one of the pies she had cooling in the window.

Well, you'll just have to wait for Robb to post the official update on it. I only took like 4 pictures there, and the weather made them look really bad, too foggy out. I will say though that Jubilee Odyssey was a big surprise hit with us. We went in expecting to get beaten up like on other SLCs, only since this one was super-sized we figured it'd be a super beating. Ended up that the coaster was pretty much smooth and painless, with only a little rough spot coming out of the sidewinder element. We were shocked, and ended up reriding it several times.

2 drops not into water, on COASTER track, yeah its a coaster. Besides, its got more track length than some other coasters. Besides that, Roller Coaster Database says its a coaster. They may say powered coasters are coasters too, and they are, just powered, which I don't count, but I could understand those who do count them. Tidal Wave is marketed and sold as a Shoot the Chutes, not a Water Coaster, and as far as I know it doesn't have coaster track, nor does it have a drop that doesn't end in water.

And now, for all those folks who decided not to do the add-on, here's what you guys missed out on. Don't worry, you'll have a chance to hit all these parks and more on the Scandinavia trip, which'll most likely happen within the next few year. Saturday night we drove to Stansted and were up and at the airport by 4am to catch our flight to Gothenburg, Sweden. Everything went very smooth, thanks to our wonderful tour organizers. The flight was pretty uneventful, lots of sleeping took place. Then it was a 3 hour bus ride to Oslo, Norway with no stopping. Everyone survived, even though Robb and Elissa couldn't bring 400 bottles of water, grapes, fans, and random foot massage oils to please everyone. Norway was a really beautiful country, lots of evergreen trees, hills, and moosen. The weather was weird, going from hot to cold to sunny to rainy all in a matter of minutes. Tusenfryd was a really cool little park, built into the side of a hill. Not a really big park, but there was plenty to do, and loads of walking up and down hills. All their coasters were really good and unique, like Teeny Weeny the smallest coaster ever, a fairly nice Vekoma loop screw, a Mack water coaster, a great Vekoma woodie, and Speed Monster, an Intamin launched. I'm looking forward to returning here. Too bad Speed Monster didn't cooperate for our ERT. This is as close as I got to my front seat ride, and missed all of Thundercoaster ERT too =( The Norwegian Waffle ruled! Good thing Nicole made me watch this before we rode. No thank you, evil hidden water ride And it was pretty cool, even though we couldn't understand the signs or the language But this one actually WAS a haunted house! Ut oh, Spookslut! Cute little Intamin rocket. Not too intense, but fun Every other credit obtained, its time to get the Speed Monster ride in Sure, kids were taking shortcuts thru the flowers, but they were actually careful about not walking ON the flowers! You know we're not in America anymore Lots of pretty flowers and stuff at this park too This drop was airtime supreme And it ran insane during the ERT in the rain, I guess Thundercoaster was another great Vekoma woodie Its got more track than either Journey to Atlantis SuperSplash is the Mack Water coaster, totally a credit We had no idea what was in here, but it turns out it was a pretty cool Viking boat simulator that told the story of traveling to America Jeff is pleased to get a credit, be back in California, and have a chick in his car (even though she's married) Teeny Weeny was really small, but easy to spot right on the main midway. The cars were pretty roomy though, lucky for Casey Hello Norwegian vertical loop! Our first credit would be Loopen, a Vekoma loop screw in a compact layout, much like Whirlwind Taking the escalator up to the park, you cross right under and over Speed Monster We ain't too sure how to dress for this weather Dave was here before and he says it rocks, though the weather is a bit odd Here we are at Tusenfryd, where the new coaster welcomes us by showing that its running Crossing the border from Sweden to Norway

Nice PTR. That canopy on the Cyclone is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen on a coaster.

My thoughts exactly. With any new ride, the people who ride it first are usually the ones who say its number 1. Of course, it was probably anticipated #1 way before it even opened. I'm expecting it to be good (great in terms of Jersey standards) but I highly doubt it'll be #1 (of course, I have been on 126 different wood coasters so far). Even if its only like #12, that's still the top 10%.

The final day of the official UK trip took us to Thorpe Park, the place where Robb and Elissa got engaged. The park added 2 big coasters since 2002, Nemesis Inferno and Stealth. Hitting this park on a weekend could have been disasterous, but Robb and Elissa thought of everything, not only did we get ERT on the 2 newest coasters, we also had express passes for all the other coasters as well as those 2, and some of the more popular flatrides. Even though the park was crowded, we managed to ride everything several times, and still have time to relax. It was a great end to the trip for those who didn't sign up for the add-on (those dumbasses). But it didn't stop the ride...at least not for a few more days. Until someone yelled "party fowl" and had everyone running from the unloading train to the loading train. Quick and easy riding there While not the best of the rockets, its not the worst either The night ended with an hour on Stealth Jeff, we tried to tell you! We didn't get too wet on the log flume, and the double down surprised us A lot of the flats had really short lines, but also really short cycles With all the coaster credits obtained, we decided to ride some flats Finally we wanted to hit Stealth while it was running. Thanks to our express passes, we were on and off again in less than 3 minutes and some other cool inversions Which means there's at least 1 vertical loop! Next up, Colossus, the 10 inversion Intamin looper And was fairly comfortable The S&S Skyswatter was a lot cooler than I thought it would be Detonator is a great drop tower, but sadly the soundtrack didn't work for us this time And the interlocking corkscrews were a new thing for B&M to try on an invert Inferno was cool with these water cannons under the loop I could stare at this all day too I could stare at this all day First up was X:/No Way Out, but it wasn't opened yet, so we headed to Nemesis Inferno Welcome to Thorpe. This does not look good

After 2 parks in 1 day, Robb and Elissa figured it was time to attempt 3 parks in 1 day, Pleasurewood Hills, Joyland, and Great Yarmouth Pleasure Beach. The task was accomplished easily, with us only needing a walkback to Enigma to ensure it would all work on a tight schedule. We even managed to finish early and get to the hotel at a more reasonable hour. We even had time to chill on the beach before catching the bus back to London Complete with some more TPRers who also devoured the parks in 2 hours or less! Wow, another working Disk-O! Big Mike came thru with his promise of free treats for winning the UK trivia contest, more 99 Whippy Who did a good job at not killing us This time I sat right in front of the brakeman Time for some more rides on the scenic railway I'll pass on this after the experience at Flaming O land With another goofy snails ride, this one themed to random fairy tales Joyland took like 5 minutes, so we decided to take the horse drawn carriage back up to Pleasure Beach Hey fishy, how's it going? As was this darkride Snails was just weird And a pseudo-Virginia Reel, which was a lot of fun Home of Spook Express, a really random themed kiddie coaster Then we headed down to Joyland, a few blocks away And the darkride, with a gag that got Nicole We also did the 3D funhouse, which was pretty cool But the cycle was short It was a fun ride Which was cool because it had a working canopy With time to kill, we rode "Mulan" "Hi, I'm Bill Paxton, you may remember me from such Scramblers as Twister" And it sent Nicole into triple digits The scenic railway was pretty good So here we are at Great Yarmouth, where we were originally going to have like 4 hours here, then they tried to cut it down to 2, but some people wanted 3 (we were done in 1) "must...obey...billboard..." On the way to Yarmouth, I saw this sign And Nicole wanted to make out with the Vekoma track for the upcoming boomerang We wanted to ride this, but the ride cycle was pretty long and we ran out of time This little flume actually got you pretty wet That ain't really 3D. And you thought Garfield's Nightmare was bad! (well, it still is!) Oh wait, no, its just a "3D" boatride Why is Nicole wearing these 3D glasses? Is she about to get on Dueling Dragons? Spiral slides are fun And that's where it goes! (as slow as possible!) Heehee, straight And the Snake in the Grass/Rattlesnake/Ladybird/probably 13 other names The park also had a Huss Tri-Star The main reason for the stop at Pleasurewood Hills was to ride the 1-of-a-kind Enigma (Cannonball Express) Schwarzkopf Jumbo V.

I know my spot will be opened for the Midwest and Japan trips, but I'm definitely hoping to do Spain and Italy. I didn't take 6 years of Spanish just so I could visit Van Nuys!

Flamingoland, on the other hand, changed a LOT since 2002. They got rid of 2 awesome Schwarzkopf coasters (not that anyone besides Joe would care anyway, and he was too busy filing papers to even go on the trip, so who cares about him ) as well as the indoor Pinfari Thunder Mountain. But at the same time they added a bunch of cool rides like the Disk-O, and 2 great Vekomas (is that even possible to say!?). The park's also been getting better and better theming. A great end to a well planned and executed day at Lightwater and Flamingoland, unlike the ACE trip of 2002 Doesn't Nicole look hot in this picture? I'm thinking about getting her a motorcycle With a quick stop at a very disappointing ride Finally we took the skyride over to ERT And we saw a random peacock wandering about Of course, we had to find the infamous flamingos of Flamingoland It was themed to monster guys, and even had the fartometer like BubbleWorks used to See, I'm not lying! We even stumbled upon a darkride and the same can be done with sideloops too! This is how you turn 1 vertical loop into 2, just add water Yup, loop and sideloop! "Hey, do you see what I see?" I guess 2 good, smooth Vekomas in 1 park will open up a time vortex to the 1980s and suck a few patrons thru the portal Kumali was the surprise coaster of the trip, it was actually baby's butt smooth! The Disk-O was actually working, that's like the first time I've actually seen one working lately! I tried to tell these ninjas they should beat the crap out of the Evilution, but they ignored me The Evolution was the worst flatride of the trip, with lots of uncomfortable hang time The oncologist in me didn't like the amount of red or the peeling back skin on this Brit, so I left her my business card The Wild Mouse was on stealth braking death mode I opted to sit this one out, thank you very much The park wasn't crowded either, so it didn't take 45 minutes to ride this kiddie coaster Even BIG girls could ride! The booster bike, Velocity, was a really cool Vekoma coaster Here we is, and not an hour late!