adamico2

I don't know about Morphine and Vicodin, but I did purchase a double dose of Advil for 75 cents in the exit gift shop in 2011, which was displayed in a prominent location. That being said, the Voyage comfortably sits in my top five; I don't know, maybe I have just a little bit of masochist in me.

^I guess not!

Onto the pictures... Flying Turns tour and some pics from the Pioneer Train This ride will open someday... Mr. Knoebel, himself The park was testing out the new cars that day, before the seats were added. I would have volunteered to luge down the ride in a heartbeat, if they would have let me. We got to walk the track! The park claims the train will actually hit 90 degree banking on a couple of the turns. Just chillin' Pioneer Train Through the Twister! More Twister support structure This ride goes way back into the woods For good, old-fashioned fun, Knoebels is the place to be!

Knoebels Often times, when I visit amusement parks on my own, I get the feeling that there are not enough hours in the day, and I leave the park wishing I had been able to do more. When traveling with TPR this is almost never the case. Knoebels was an exception to that rule. There is just so much to do at this park. Seriously, I could spend a week at this place and not get bored. Needless to say, I did not end up taking very many pictures, so this installment will be mostly words. The day started off with an awesome tour of Flying Turns which I will talk about in the next post. Next was my first ride on the Phoenix! Never before have I ridden a coaster, declared it my favorite, then had to revoke that claim the very next day. Well, that's what happened to El Toro. I took a spin on the Phoenix in the Schmeck seat, per Larry's suggestion, and loved every second of it. I was expecting some decent airtime, but I got way more than I bargained for. It seriously felt like the only thing holding me in was my feet wedged under the seat in front of me. (A side note: the only things holding KidTums in were Elissa's hands.) On top of the incredible airtime, the ride was smooth, provided some nice laterals around the turns, and was just plain fun. Glowfest during evening ERT just brought the ride to an even higher level. Twister was just okay, but not a bad ride; Kosmo's Curves provided more airtime than any other kiddie coaster I've ridden. Food at the park was great. For lunch, I had a large slice of taco pizza and a large slice of chicken and broccoli alfredo pizza. Dinner was a buffet of good home cooking. I don't know where all the old ladies came from, but boy could they cook. On top of the food, Birch Beer was the beverage of choice. Flat rides are what this park is all about. A lot of the rides are fairly standard but run long cycles in "berserk" mode. The park also has some rare gems like the Roll-o-Plane that tried to kill me. Seriously, this ride's designer was an evil genius. During our takeover of the Flyers, I finally got to accomplish what I had always dreamed of: snapping. To someone who has never snapped a flyer: remember back to when you were a kid and, like any good thrill seeker in training, would pull back on the chains at the top of your back swing to make slack that gravity would soon despise and send you plummeting for a split second, ending in a sudden jolt. Now imagine experiencing the same sensation in a couple hundred pound flyer tub. I finally understand the cult-like following of the Flyers. Anyway, if you couldn't tell already, I love Knoebles and can't wait to get back.

For a little background, the engineering firm I work for occasionally hosts events for it's employees after work. A few months ago, I had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Gene Poor Ph.D, professor of entrepreneurship at BGSU and founder of LifeFormations. Many of you, I'm sure, have experienced some of his creations. LifeFormations has worked on many animatronic displays throughout the amusement industry, including those for Dollywood's River Battle and Europa Park's Volo Da Vinci. He gave a very entertaining presentation about animatronics and the importance of creativity. At one point he had us stick crayons up our noses to bring out the child in each of us. Once we were all on the same page, he explained the difference between industrial and animatronic robots. In industry, precision is key, while, in the world of entertainment, the goal is to make each robot look as lifelike as possible. Gene indicated that he loved talking to engineers. It gave him the opportunity to talk technical with his audience, detailing the different challenges involved with using pneumatic and hydraulic systems. He definitely has some engineer in him, having built a working replica of a bowling pin setter in his mother's basement, at age 18. Of course, the most entertaining portions of his presentation involved interaction with a couple of his creations, Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. These figures were incredibility life-like and bickered like an old married couple. This portion of the presentation was beautifully scripted, as he interacted with the historical figures. See the pictures below. After the presentation, I got to chat with Gene about IAAPA and the amusement industry, a well as my aspirations in roller coaster design. He was a very personable guy, and I look forward to seeing what his business will create in the future. Tom and Ben Dr. Gene Poor with his creations

To answer your question, not all states regulate amusement parks. Texas obviously being one of those. The question is, do you really think government oversight, even at the state level, would make amusement rides any safer? I think not.

So, I didn't even see this post but just so happened to be flipping through channels a minute ago and caught you saying amusement rides are FUN!

I received my Bag of Crap the other day. This was by far the best crap I've ever received. It included lots of glossy pieces of paper from different ride manufacturers, including a complete Proslide catalog and a dozen or so 8.5 x 11 photos of GCI coasters. Thanks Robb for these promotions that encourage us to donate more!

Maybe it would help us to know how many people (and age groups) will be visiting with you ... and what sort of rides you like. Shows? Shopping? I think we can still manage to scrape together two days of fun for you. (WORK with me here, TPR!) Thanks, Paula While the park certainly can be conquered in a day, spending two days would not be a bad thing. You would certainly not be bored. Holiwood Nights is a day and a half with essentially no lines, so two days with some waits would be easy to fill. You can save money by camping and apply some of your savings to a second day at the park. How's that for some PR

I'll take Miss North Carolina.

Hello I'm glad someone was paying attention!

If someone quotes this post in the next five minutes, he will receive a ten dollar donation from me.

I guess I'll go first. My guess is 6 duckies!

I just had to take you up on your offer. Thanks! Joey is just $7 away from his goal; who wants to push him over the edge?

In the spirit of making sure GKTW receives two dollars for each dollar I donate, I will match the next $20 donation to my page.

Thanks Nick! Who wants to match my donation to Nick's page and bring him up to his goal?

I will gladly match the next donation to my page! (up to $100)

My prediction is 2 out of 3, but I really hope you get them all!

Really? Thanks!

From Screamscape today: "(5/20/13) An Australian news site reports that a 5-year-old boy was thrown 10 meters from a flat ride at a local carnival. The ride was called the Frisbee, but it is not a Huss Frisbee style ride at all, but appears to more similar to a Trabant or Wipeout style ride. The boy is in critical condition and some witness reports claim that it looked as if he slipped out from under or over the safety bar, as he may have been too small to ride."

I only took a few photos outside of the backstage tour; it rained a lot. Manditory Shot El Toro Turn Around I'm Batman! Up Close and Personal People wondering why nerds in orange vests are taking pictures of them Nitro Rocks! First Drop Airtime! Helix of Death Artsy Almost Perfect Amber doing the splits I'll leave you with a group shot of our tour, including Joe's epic umbrella

Six Flags Great Adventure We started out the official trip with an awesome ERT session. I managed 11 rides on Nitro, one on The Dark Night, and two on Green Lantern. After ERT, we headed over to Kingda Ka, only to find out it was closed, so El Toro it was. After two rides, I was convinced that this was, hands down, the best coaster I had ever ridden. A quick spin on Rolling Thunder brought in a huge thunder storm. Good thing we had ponchos; thanks TPR! We dodged rain drops over to Skull Mountain. It was fun, with some good air time on the first drop but not a religous experience as a certain vegan might claim. After one more ride on The Dark Knight, this time with the lights off, it was time for lunch. The spread was your typical burgers and dogs, which, to my surprise, did not set the standard for the rest of the trip. In fact, Robb and Elissa managed to schedule different food for almost every meal. Park management treated us like royalty, giving us four exit passes each, in addition to our gold Q-bots, as "an apology" for the rain. I have never seen a corporate park so eager to get rides open after a storm. Kingda Ka reopened later in the day, and they even switched sides on Rolling Thunder so we could get both credits. In fact, despite the rain, I managed to get all of the credits at the park. In my next post, I will include pictures of the Batman/Nitro backstage tour they were so nice to re-schedule for us. Houdini's Great Escape blew my mind. The world needs more Mad Houses! The log flume operators had a really strange policy. They were requiring a minimum, yes minimum, of four people per log. Three of us climbed in, two in the back, one in the front. They tried to force us all to sit in the front with two random people in the back. Luckily, the random people absoutely refused and made a scene until our log cleared the platform. I can't believe the operators wanted to put five full grown men in one log. I understand they were trying to maximize capacity, but come on; plus, there was only a five minute wait for the ride. Anyway, we capped out the night with El Toro ERT. The schedule said an hour, but we rode for an hour and a half. I managed a total of 25 rides on it by the end of the day. On to the photos...

Coney Island After our pizza tour, we hit up Coney Island. The vast difference between Luna Park and Dino's was remarkable, even though their boundaries are just inches from eachother. We were treated to a ride on each of the coasters, an unlimited flat ride pass, and even a go kart ride. First up was the Cyclone. I wanted to go for the true Cyclone experience and ride in the back seat. Despite all of the padding, the extreme airtime gave me a charlie horse and a bruise that hurt for the next few days... ...but it was totally worth it. I loved the ride and it sits just outside of my top ten woodies. Well, I guess I didn't take any pictures of the rest of the park, so I leave you with Dino's Wonder Wheel.

I'm out of school forever (or at least until I forget how hard it is and decide to go back for a masters degree). That means I finally have some time to write a trip report about the awesomeness that was the New Hotness Tour! Scott's Pizza Tour Meet Scott. He is one of the best tour guides on the planet and will bend over backwards to make sure everyone has a good time and, in this case, to lift pizza boxes so we could look at fire. Our first stop was Lombardi's, the first pizzeria in America. They served up a clasic margarita pie and let us tour their kitchen. Our next stop was Forcella. This oven cooked up pizzas in minutes. The pizza crust tasted like fried dough! Bonus Forcella slice Our third, and final, stop was Joe's, which served up huge slices of a more typical pizza with low-moisture mozzarella. They were all good, but Forcella definitely takes the cake, or in this case pie.

I still have the 1997, 2000, and 2002 installments that I taped on VHS! I really need to get around to converting them.