ILoveRides

Thanks, and don't worry... Gertrude is here to stay! Haha thanks! Of course, the same goes for the Bebes as well!

Out of curiosity... does anyone know how they evacuate you if you're in the outdoor, open water part of the ride?

After much too long of a wait... here's our West Coast Bash Knott's Day 2 trip report... Enjoy! Gertrude met up with "The Cluck Crew" in the morning outside Knott's. Unfortunately, Gertrude thought only the Magic Mountain day sold out... little did she know Knott's was sold out too! Gertrude was devastated! Then, one of The Cluck Crew made an offer Gertrude couldn't refuse. Gertrude began battling with all her might. Unfortunately, Hilary and I couldn't stay and watch the whole fight, because we had to head into Knott's for our behind-the-scenes tours. Hopefully Gertrude pulls through! Once inside Knott's, I had a little time to wander around and snap photos. It was really neat being allowed to walk around the park before it was open to get photos. Here's Boomerang and Perilous Plunge. And here's Xcelerator, which unfortunately was still down. Not many people know the real reason Xcelerator has been down so long... it was actually attacked by Mega Piranhas! They were still eating at the ride while we were there. More photos from around the park. That's too bad about Xcelerator... you can see the Piranhas devouring it in the background. A shot of Silver Bullet. The Ghost Town was actually a ghost town this morning! After taking photos, we headed to the Calico Mine Ride for a behind-the-scenes tour. Here's what it looks like inside the building! Stuff you can't normally see! More stuff you can't normally see... This is what the rock looks like from behind. And now, stuff you can normally see (but can't normally stop and photograph well). We were led into the ride where we could stand by the tracks and take pics. Hilary and I were honored to be allowed to see behind the scenes of a historic attraction like this. Thanks so much to Knott's for the opportunity. We then headed over to the engine house for a behind the scenes tour there. Here's a look in the engine house... a view you can't normally get. Knott's has some of the happiest maintenance bays around! Another site you don't normally see. The Galloping Goose is Gertrude's Great Grandfather! Taken on the engine house tour. All kidding aside, the tour guide we had was really informative and seemed like he really loved what he did, and loved having the opportunity to share it with us. We then headed into the engine house to see more things you can't normally see. Here's Robb feeding Gertrude's Great Grandfather a worm! Maybe Gertrude will have a shot at winning against The Cluck Crew. I sure hope so! One of my favorite shots from the day... taken from inside the engine house. Seeing stuff you can't normally see is fun! One final look at stuff you can't normally see. There were actually two Calico Mine Ride tours, which each got to look at a different part of the ride. With the permission of Robb and the park, we got to do the other one too! Another pic from inside the ride. But wait a minute, who is that behind us? Is that who I think it is!? IT IS!!! It's Gertrude!!!!!! She was really happy to have won LASER EYE CHALLENGE and got a ticket in time for the tours and morning ERT. WAY TO GO GERTRUDE!!! She was so happy that she struck a manly pose! After our tours, we headed towards Timberline Twister to get a credit that Hilary and I didn't have yet. On the way, we saw them filling up at the water tower. It turns out I was too tall to ride Timberline Twister... so here's Hilary getting a credit I can't get. And here's a Mega Piranha eating Hilary for getting a credit that I can't get. After Timberline Twister, we headed to Montezuma's Revenge. Gertrude was there enjoying morning ERT. After the park opened, we decided to go ride the train. Outside the train station was a stroller parked with this baby in it. Creepy! Hilary thought it was real at first! A picture from the train. This was Hilary's first ride on the train... and I purposely didn't tell her about the train robbers. She got scared when they stormed in! We then headed to lunch just outside the park, where we saw a member of The Cluck Crew. Hilary at lunch with Snoopy. After eating, they had some games for people to play. We joined in one where you had to race to find various items. One of the items we had to get was a sandal. And one of the items was a sock! *Gross* I'm glad Hilary got this one. She said "it's still warm" when she was holding it haha. ALSO NOTE: We entered this into the WCB Photo Contest on TPR's Facebook Page, and out of approximately 66 votes, NO ONE VOTED FOR US! Thanks guys! Hilary then showed off her hula hoop skills. To which I said, "I can totally do that too"... ... but failed miserably. After lunch we made our way to the Charles M. Schulz Theatre for the management and S&S presentations. We were pooped after 2 full days of riding rides, walking around, and getting virtually no sleep. There are 6 people asleep in this pic hehe. After our brief snoozes... we were woken up by a funny and informative presentation by Knott's park management, and a great presentation by Kevin Rohwer from S&S. Kevin introduced a new coaster concept (which looks amazing) and was really open and honest when fielding questions. In my mind, S&S went from "Oh, they're kind of cool" to "Wow, I can't wait to see what they have in store next." Really great presentations by both S&S and park management. Thanks to them for that! After the presentations, we headed to Ghostrider to ride and get our free photos. We were so tired, we tried to convey that in our first photo. Unfortunately, Ghostrider slammed our heads together a bunch of times while we did this pose. I think you can see the pain in Hilary's face. And of course we did a manly pose! After Ghostrider, it was time for night ERT. We started off ERT at Sierra Sidewinder. Where I rode several times in a row with Justin... ... and the Bebes! Justin and I tried really hard to get a good spin going. We finally succeeded after many attempts, and Justin started feeling sick hehe. Finally, Hilary and I headed to Silver Bullet where I spent the rest of the night riding. (Hilary was feeling a little sick, so she sat the rest of the night out). I rode 8 or 9 times in the front and back rows, and most trains just had me and one other person on them. It was such a great end to the weekend watching the sun set while riding Silver Bullet again and again. I thought night ERT at Knott's was a blast, and am so happy we fought off sleep long enough to enjoy it. Bye bye Knotts! We had a fun and memorable day, and hope you continue to participate in West Coast Bash in the future. IT'S BONUS PIC TIME!!! You may have recently seen Emiroo's post about Gertrude being in The National Enquirer for lifting a car to save a baby! Well, I have an exclusive picture of the actual event!!! And, it turns out The Enquirer got the story a little wrong... Gertrude wasn't saving a baby... BONUS PIC #1: Gertrude was saving a Bebe!!! Way to go Gertrude... We're glad you're using your manly powers for good and not evil! BONUS PIC #2: Don't miss the Bay Area Bash Party Bus!!! Hilary and I are working on a special surprise for Gertrude and Manly Pose Enthusiasts on the bus!!!

I really enjoyed your post! It's always cool seeing behind the scenes at parks, but it's even more special at a park like Disneyland.

Awesome trip report! It was hilarious seeing Gertrude and Beth!

Nice TR! Dubai is so surreal... I can't wait to see it in person someday.

I'm so sad I never got on this It was near the top of my "must ride" list. Hopefully something great replaces it.

Congrats! That cake rocks.

The party bus just keeps getting better and better! Sweet! Hilary and I are also working on a special surprise for Gertrude and Manly Pose enthusiasts on the party bus!

Mega Piranha was on The Soup this week!

Good news... I spoke with Gertrude, and she'll be attending! All the more reason for people to get party bus tickets!

I'm actually hoping they give out tickets in the morning for the viewing area - at least until the popularity dies down a bit. It would suck having to camp out the entire day just to see the show... so tickets will let you at least do other stuff throughout the day. Once popularity dies down a bit though, I hope they abandon that system and run the viewing area first come, first served. I also have a feeling they'll eventually just dim the lights on all the rides behind the show and keep them open (unless there's something I'm not aware of that prevents Screamin' from running during the show).

The World of Color viewing area was open today... it was kinda neat to walk out on it finally.

I haven't had a chance to ask her yet, but I sure hope so!

It's official... Hilary and I will be adding some manliness to the party bus!

Thanks for posting! I'm really excited for this show (and everything else they're doing at DCA). That was a nice sneak peak.

Hahaha hilarious! I was also totally surprised to click this thread and see Gertrude in all her manly glory! Nice work!!!

The board just isn't as fun without Big Mike around! We miss you! Hope you're doing alright.

I *HATE* blacking/graying out... but aside from that it looks amazing.

Wow, thanks for all the positive feedback everyone! I'm glad you all liked the TR. Sure thing! Anyone can feel free to use it. I attached the image below... Manly Pose Enthusiasts... Use this to authenticate your manly poses!

Hilarious TR as always Bebes!!! And yay for all the manliness! Hilary and I had so much fun hanging out with you guys, and hope that we bump into you at more events in the future. Keep up the amazing TRs!

Hilary and I had a blast at West Coast Bash! Here's our TR... (PS... if you don't know about the manly pose or Hilary Duff... check out my Adventure City Trip Report and read the comments!) We arrived at SFMM at 7:30am and found Gertrude and Beth waiting outside. Poor Gertrude. Neil welcomed us and announced special excursions this year! Then we were let loose for morning ERT. Here is the line at X2! After riding X2 twice, we headed up to Tatsu for a few rides. And then on to Terminator where other WCB'ers were surprised to see that I am a machine. ERT rocks. See what I mean? We got to stay on the train for as many re-rides as we wanted. Next up was the behind the scenes tour! We got to check out construction of the new 500ft. Intamin going in by Deja Vu! It's really coming along. Can't wait to ride it! They told us the ride is going to be named "Fanboys Rejoice!" A view of Deja Vu you can't normally get! I wonder what that track is for. It must be for 2012 cuz it doesn't look like it's going on the 500ft Intamin. Another view of Deja Vu you can't normally get. We then walked around Terminator towards Riddler's Revenge and Batman Spotted on the tour We got to take pics under Batman. The new paint looks great! One of my favorite shots from the day. Batman and Riddler's One last pic taken of Batman on the tour. I really like the new colors. We then met up with the Bebes who struck a manly pose when they saw us!!! The Bebes are huge manly pose enthusiasts! And what would an ILoveRides Trip Report be without me striking a 100% official manly pose? Next up was our excursion that had more stuff you can't normally see. We got to check out where the old metro trains are stored and the plot of land that Flashback used to stand on Flashback's old queue building. Wait a minute... who is that inside the Flashback building? Is that who I think it is!?!? It's Gertrude!!!! And look how happy she is to finally be at West Coast Bash!!!! I bet you're wondering how she got in... well... I told her I'd give her an extra ticket I had if she did something for me... I had her strike a manly pose to get my extra ticket!!! Looking good Gertrude! Giving the Bebes a run for their money. Flashback's queue now stores a bunch of stuff, including some water dummies. Some of them had writing on them. This one says "Get To Work" This one says "I'm going to pee" After the neat excursion, we went to ride canyon blaster since Hilary and I didn't have the credit yet. Hilary then got arrested for trying to ride Percy's Railway. (Disclaimer: No, we didn't actually try to ride it... we know we're too big) Later on we met up for the group picture. This is what it looks like when you're standing in the crowd. And look who else made it to the group picture! We then had a hilarious Q&A session, and found out about the awesome night ERT (racing Colossus + custom soundtrack on Terminator + basically every coaster open) After the presentation, we left the park for a bit to get the world's best vegan pizza at Tomato Joe's. YUMMMM. This is a tradition every time we come to magic mountain. On the way back, I snapped a few pics of X2. X2 in black and white. I didn't get any pics during night ERT since we were too busy running around having the time of our lives... so I'll leave you all with two final shots of the SFMM skyline. Bye bye SFMM!!! We had an amazing time, and can't wait for next year! WCB Knotts TR coming soon!

I'm really sorry to hear that news Big Mike, and wish you the best of luck getting through this tough time.

I got this response back from Magic Mountain... (Note: I edited out the information they may not want reposted) So, I gave them a call, but she said she didn't see my name on their list for Tuesday, and that all the spots for that day were full so I couldn't do it. She said I could do a different shift on another day with openings, but unfortunately Tuesday was the only day I had free, so I was out of luck. I wish they had done it first come, first served like they said they would. I'm disappointed

I decided to write them an email asking if a mistake was made since it appears I got skipped. Fingers crossed.