DerekRx

So summer has followed me back from Indiana apparently, as its stinkin' hot here. Decided to cool off with a beer, but I guess I should have stuck to one I know and love instead of trying something new. Went with the Yazoo Dos Perros, a dark ale with Austrian heritage and stuff. Chocolate malt, hops, etc. Good beer, but not the right type of weather to enjoy it. Its good, but its too hot for this right now =( Dos Perros, see? uno, dos. Dos perros

^If I would have seen him more than once or twice I would have offered him a ride. Greg enjoyed the car, except when he wanted to read the paper while I was driving with the top down. Just wait until I head back to SoCal. Can you say 350Z?

Thats a lame time for a fair. 'Cause everyone stays in Pennsylvania for Memorial Day weekend

Around here the sexism goes 1 step farther...girls don't get wanded, but all guys do. So if you have a chick with her, get her to hold your gat and you're good to go!

Well put, Robb! I always get annoyed at that stuff, just like every website that posts their pictures with their stupid logos or whatever that take up the entire lower half of the shot. I never really understood the reasoning for it. I guess some people really just want to be "the first" and they really don't care about the quality.

So with all these coaster trips on weekends, I've gotta cut the grass during the week. May as well get it out of the way today and have a cold one while I'm at it! After a job well done, its time to enjoy the rest of the Hog. A few sips before starting the mowing process I choose you, Hop Hog

I'm not sure when exactly the sign went up, but I know it was up on the 15th, which was 2 weeks ago to the day. The new area looks really nice, but I can't understand why they opened the new area yet without the main ride and restaurant. At this point I'm not counting on riding El Toro before heading over to Europe for a month, but that's ok, I'll still get to ride Balder. Granted, it would have been nice to ride the closest new coaster before heading overseas in June, but some of us have forseen the delays in the opening of this ride months ago. I just hope they do get it opened in time for their Coaster Celebration, or there will be some really POed people out there! I'm still saying THAT is the reason they postponed the event by 2 weeks, not because they didn't want to compete with Cedar Point's event.

^That 2 weeks until the bull is unleashed sign has been up for....2 weeks now. Just imagine if those construction workers had to built The Voyage instead, it'd take em 3 years to complete!

Finally tonight, I think I'll end with a Victory See, I'm normal, I swear! "Durrr! It does smell like a da hot dogs!" The Whirlwind Witbier, supposedly smells like hot dog water

Finally, we end at today. Originally I was thinking about stopping off at SFKK for a few hours before my flight home, since all I'd have to pay for is parking. But on the flight in, I found something interesting that was more worth my time and $15. Since we didn't get to hit up any microbreweries this weekend with the delays at Beech Bend, I had no alternative! Ahhh! And still another day off before I have to go back to work! Finally, as a welcome home gift to myself, the local Lancaster Hop Hog IPA Then the Bluegrass Gold, which was just a lager. Still better than the alternatives though, both other beer companies on tap AND the park across the street! First up, the Alt Bier, pretty tasty Yeah BBC, right at my gate too!

No meeting last night due to the late ERTs and early morning ahead, but I still needed at least one beer! The Yazoo Pale Ale, from Tennessee!

^Dude I want a sink like that! So, a few of us have been away for a few day, in case you couldn't tell. Some of us went to Holiday World, and after Friday's ERT all decided to hang out back at the hotel. But forget the bar, we've brought our own stuff! Lots of what we had was thanks to Mike (Memphis) because he's awesome (and he drove). Here's the documentation: mmm, Fat Tire. Coasters, Beer, only 1 thing is missing from this being paradise. And I was happy to get back to my Fat Tire, thanks to Mike! Heath ended the night with a 3 Floyd's Alpha King Good stuff yo! In honor of Lily, I tried the Terrapin Rye Pale Ale Then Heath went with the Spaten Optimator, found at the convenience story nearby! With no alcohol of his own to consume, we sacrificed Glutenfree to the beer gods BACT group photo! Adam gives the Derek-style self portrait a try, but he's clearly not the master I am Heath does his signature face with his New Belgium Blue Paddle Pilsner Its sunshiney! I start out with the New Belgium Sunshine Wheat Time for a BACT meeting/Beer Thread gathering. The bottles chill out in their little ice bath

Today I was going to stop off at Kentucky Kingdom on the way to the airport, but I didn't feel like paying for parking, and I had a better idea! So, 2 hours early for my flight, and look what is conveniently next to my gate! Don't worry, it sounds gross but its just like a fried mozzarella ball And don't forget the cheese curds! mmm, butterburger! Thanks to Adam, I found out there's now a Culver's near Louisville, right off I-64 in Indiana at exit 105.

Apparently on Thursday night a series of storms went thru the Indiana and Kentucky areas. Lightning ended up striking the Kentucky Rumbler, thus closing it down for Friday. I thought this would ruin my plans of getting on that ride on Saturday, but Beech Bend had people repairing the ride all day Friday and by 9pm it was operating. Even Holiday World was nice enough to tell us all during ERT that it was going to be reopened the next day if we were planning on heading down there. So Saturday morning Greg "Glutenfree" Legowski, myself, and Heath, Kim and friends decided to head down to Beech Bend to ride the Rumbler. We got there right at opening (Greg and I a little sooner, thanks to the Mustang) and headed right for Kentucky Rumbler. Managed to get on the 2nd train of the day, back row. Good solid coaster, lots of fun, nice pops of air, good laterals, lots of swoopy turns. I love the station flyby, the first drop, and the airtime hill by the station. Definitely a solid A level coaster. Unfortunately, as we were heading back around for a front row ride, all the power in the park went off. 30-40 minutes later things were reopening, but when they brought Rumbler back up, everything went down again. We decided to try and come back later, after getting on the other coasters first. Things reopened in another 20 minutes or so, but this time they wouldn't load people yet. The Looping Star guy said "it doesn't have enough inertia to get thru the loop with people yet." At least he used a big word to try to confuse people. As we were walking around just looking at the park trying to find something to ride, the kiddie coaster opened, so we ran to that. I think the op was a little frightened to see 6 grown people running to the kiddie coaster without any children. After that credit achieved, we managed to get on the Looping Star finally. (I guess the lack of power was now no longer affecting gravity) This ride was BRUTAL. So brutal in fact that I don't think I love vertical loops anymore. The headbanging was so bad that both Jay and Greg lost their glasses, something that's never happened to them before. Jay had a strap though luckily, and I snagged Greg's with my feet. We then hit the Wild Mouse, which had a little line, and would send cars out with only 1 person if that was the total number in the group. By the end of all of this, it was really hot and humid. We took a ride on the Haunted House, then did the drop tower before going back over to check out Rumbler. Still no sign of it opening. We decided after a stop at the bathroom that we'd head out. Just then, it tested, so we got in line. 5 minutes later we were on the ride, this time front seat. I actually liked it better towards the front, more popping air. We went around again, this time in the middle, and as we got to the end of the ride, BRAKEDOWN! So after another 5 minutes sitting out on the brakes in the baking sun, we rolled into the station. Heath and crew were still waiting for their ride, but I was too hot and hungry to wait, so we bailed. They weren't too far behind, though the coaster did reopen shortly after they left. The park seemed like it was doing really well, and the Rumbler is a great addition to the place. Too bad the power outages and hot humid conditions wouldn't allow us to get more rides in. I feel really sorry for the mechanic, who was running around frantically the entire day restarting all the rides, fixing Rumbler, etc. The Rumbler crew was especially pleasant, very proud of their ride. I hope all goes well for them tonight. 69! Must...obey...McDonald's Tray Subliminal messaging....go ride Voyage now I'm happy, they have honey (unlike my stupid local McDonalds who claims it was discontinued! How can you discontinue honey, did the bees all go on strike or something!?) Time for an Elissa approved stop for food Too...hot...must...leave...park...soon Hooray! Its running again This time its actually working. Guess pictures don't really prove that, do they? Well, then pretend these people were stuck here for 19 hours straight, forced to listen to Celine Dion Heath looks disappointed because he thought he'd get beer with his haunted pretzel A very old skool pretzel type darkride Yey, an Anti-Elissa Spinny Rodent ride, now with cool lap bars! ...and stopping it too! Practicing for the World's Strongest Man competition includes starting the ride... In a world...desperate for riding, people will even line up for a Looping Star of pain and torture Um, yey vertical loop!? Hooray! Finally we can ride again and neither does this! "At least this concrete rock formation doesn't require power!" Sadly Rumbler sat like this for most of my time there "Hello, I'm a powerless Power Surge. Won't you spare a 9V?" "Hi, I'm a drop tower stuck halfway up" When the power goes out, this is what happens to said flume This is what a portable log flume looks like with power The park has a lot of newer rides, like this evil spinny ride But the ACErs who came early enjoyed their ride Not too many people for the first ride of the day The reason we came to Kentucky This PTR is in honor of the great Glutenfree Earnhardt, who died the night before when he drank one of my Weizens With the raceway nearby, I should have taken this rental for a real drive!

Unless you live in a cave, you are probably aware of some tiny event that went down this weekend out in Santa Claus, Indiana to ride some new little coaster called Voyage as well as the parks other assortment of high class wood coasters. The event went off without much problems. The lines most of us were fearing were non-existant thanks to the skilled staff, multiple trains, and expert enthusiasts. Voyage rarely got more than a 30 minute wait ever during the ERTs, and only occasionally used portions of the "overflow" queue. Raven and Legend were pretty much 1-2 train waits the entire time. On the first night of ERT I managed to get 1 ride on Gobbler Getaway, 3 rides on Voyage, 2 on Legend, and about 7 on Raven, all within 3.5 hours. Voyage, as good as a coaster as it is during the day really goes into overdrive come nightfall. Which is why on Saturday night I pretty much stayed at Voyage for the entire ERT session (after letting the line die down a little by heading over to Raven and Legend for a ride each), where I got another 7 rides in on Voyage. I'm sure there will be plenty of more detailed reports, and lots more photos, but here's what I managed to take of HoliWood Nights. I really didn't want to bother with putting my stuff in a locker, so I only took pictures during the day. Plus I figured there'd be a bazillion more photos being loaded on the other 100+ PTRs that will come about from this weekend. In short, Voyage rocks, hard! I have NO clue why Holiday World would build something like that, nor do I have any clue how any other park can possibly top that. I have a feeling if anyone does top it though, it'll most likely be Holiday World. The event was great, the staff hospitality, as well as the pleasantness of the Koch family and Raven Maven, is as strong as ever. But the event is more than just coasters, its also about seeing lots of friends, some of whom I haven't seen since the last event at HW or even before! It was great to see lots of people again, and to meet some people face to face finally. Oh, and FPD! After ERT ends, its time for a beer thread meeting at Santa's Lodge! Eventually ACErs remember the real reason they go to events, food! mmmm, peanut butter fudge! "What? I don't need a plate for my veggie dip!" Soon they're ready for the ACErs, but they must all be getting their jollies on down at the coasters Bret wants fudge, bad! As the ERT starts, we make a mad dash for the food. "First ones here!" We must be VIPs or something because we never paid for drinks the entire weekend! And look, even Bret himself came out for the event! The new section even has a stupid Bret dark ride! And sometimes it duels! Its like tall and stuff So this is the reason I flew out to Indiana this weekend, The Voyage. Or as they say in Mexico, El Voyage The one that started it all, an exclusive shot Have you heard about this little park with 3 awesome wood coasters? If I'm going to Holiwood, I'm going in style!

HoppiWood Night concluded shortly after midnight in good fashion. HoliWood Nights will end with ERT, but HoppiWood Nights with IPA, 90 minutes of it thanks to Dogfish Head. Pictures will be shown in a few days when I get back from Indiana. Even after all those hops, this really stood out! Our surprise to conclude the night was one of the Imperials

Celebrating my Victory! Hoppiwood night is going pretty good so far! Victory is mine!

Wow, that's a LOT of stuff to do in a short amount of time. You two really know how to cram a lot into a little. Maybe I'll see you guys on my next trip to WDW in July, since I'm doing 2 whole days at MK. Is it just me, or does the dude at the Sun fountain thingy look like he's puking in the water?!

Yeah, with Elissa's "Love" of Hershey, I think she'd choose to have the Hershey 100th TPR celebration at like Holiday Park or something instead! Heck, I'd attend! Don't worry, Elissa, you can always accompany us beer lovers to Troegs instead of hanging out at Hershey, no new credits anyway.

To celebrate the start of a 4 day weekend for me, as well as a Pre-Holiwood Nights nod, I present to you: HoppiWood Night! Too bad its nowhere near Holiday World, or I'd make that a side trip this weekend Next, the Indiana's own Three Floyd's Alpha King Pale Ale Beer first, change clothing second We'll start off the night with a Lancaster Hop Hog IPA

I needed some refreshment while watching the Idol finale. What did the Dr. order? The Devil knows how to keep me happy while I'm suffering through lots of bad singers and cheesy skits while waiting to hear Chris and checking out McPhee Why HopDevil, of course!

I hope if they are seriously planning on adding new parks to the Florida theme park market, they come up with some originality and offer the guests something exciting that they'll actually want. Florida has enough parks suffering because they don't offer tourists anything that Disney and the others don't already supply. Not too many people care about nature and stuff anymore, thus Cypress Garden's whole closing down thing a few years ago. Same with the other struggling places down there, many of which have been around for longer than Disney has.

Nice photos. The whole new kiddie area looks really nice, its good to see SeaWorld finally adding more rides. Shamu Express looks pretty cool, and its good to see a different layout from the usual Tivolis. Dude, a baked potato bagel!? I would totally give up beer for that! And a pasta sandwich doesn't sound too bad either! I love the picture of the Bobby Brown wanna-be "please, no pictures!"

Wes, you're a braver man than I. If you have a headache, let me know and I'll send you some good stuff

Well, its no shocker who won, seeing how they were never in the bottom 3. Oh well, at least we got to see Chris again, he sang with one of his favorite bands, and the McFleavage was looking nice!