Skycoastin Steve

^Google Chrome was a nightmare for me, not that user friendly at all. My old computer sucked and didn't handle Firefox well, but it's perfect for this one.

All I gotta say is GO CAPS!!!!

^Never had that problem with Windows 7, Robb, but my laptop is fairly new (bought it at the beginning of February). Unless you're totally against Firefox, maybe try that as your browser. I get the occasional crash while browsing, but it's pretty rare.

This project is really starting to look good. Can't wait to see the finished product.

^I think it's Invertigo at CGA just based on the green coloring of the cars.

^Sounds like what Arrow loopers do to me these days now that I'm a giant! But for some unknown reason to me, I still love them. It's one of life's greatest mysteries. I honestly wish someone would take the layout of Drachen Fire, give it some non-murderous transitions, smooth it out a bit, and rebuild it. Cause if it wasn't so brutal, it was a pretty sweet layout with two elements that haven't been recreated in any fashion since.

^I only rode it as a kid in '95, post corkscrew removal, and it was the coaster that made me start loving coasters. Of course, as a kid, head banging is minimalized because of height, so I imagine if I rode it today I wouldn't be so fond of it.

That's me in the Gator picture, just wanted to throw that out there. So glad that there's a bit of a Gator following on this board!

^They want the pre-ride photo because the pained looks on people's faces during the ride wouldn't make for very good advertising at the photo booth.

Quoted for truth.

Dudley Do Right's Ripsaw Falls, and it's really not even close. I guess Bluto's Bilge Rat Barge would be 2nd and Splash Mountain would be 3rd. They sure know how to build a good water ride in Florida.

^The $50 million price tag was due to a couple factors. One, it's the longest coaster on the planet, so more track=more money. Also, they had to earthquake-proof the entire structure which meant basically using double the amount of steel in the supports, obviously also jacking the price WAY up. Edit: I also believe that Expedition Everest was the single largest investment for a roller coaster at $100M.

Just for curiosity's sake, I'd love to get a radar gun to each of the giga-coasters on Earth and clock them to see just how fast they really go, that way we can settle this debate once and for all.

I really wonder if they are going to put a couple layers of wooden track on top of the I-beams, kinda like what was done with Colossus. I mean they made a point to still call it a wooden coaster, so maybe they really are going to layer the track with wood?? Should be really interesting to see how this shakes out.

^I wonder how that would have gone over. They could have been the W&M Tribal Trannies. **Disclaimer: I am in no way making a crack at trans-anyones. It was just an easy use of alliteration and I was obliged to use it.

Something kind of interesting to ponder over. The College of William and Mary has been forced to give up their Native American mascot (known as the Indians for a VERY long time before changing to the Tribe in the 80s), and has now adopted their new mascot, the Griffin. It was among other finalists, but I wonder if the nearby Griffon at BGW had any influence on the submissions and/or selection of the new nickname. Link to the story.

^I don't think there's any limit to how high I would jump if BGW got a woodie. Seriously, I would be through the roof.

Nicely done! I haven't been back this year, but I have to imagine it's going to be very sad having to skip my obligatory ride on BBW.

I still think Beast is good enough. I had a night ride in 2007 that was nothing short of spectacular, but my daytime rides have left a lot to be desired. They have to protect the structure, though, and the engineering from 30 years ago just wasn't good enough for this ride to stand on its own without modifying it. As far as SOB's fate, I guess it's pretty clear they don't want it around anymore. I would love to see another woodie take its place, but as Elissa said, would the GP truly get it that it was a different coaster? Even as massive as the structure is, and how much different a GCI or GG would look there, I can't help but think the morons of the park going world wouldn't be able to put two and two together. Plus, what would they call it, Grandson of Beast?

^^Look at my TR from SFA just above my Carowinds one and you'll see if I've ridden Batwing. Batwing was pretty rough, too. I rode Firehawk the year it was installed at KI, and it wasn't that rough. But then again, when they move a ride it gets a complete rehab, so that probably had something to do with it. I think that's another part of the reason Nighthawk wasn't that bad in '06 (when it was still Borg). It had just been rebuilt in '05, so it hadn't had time to get rough yet. I'm willing to bet Firehawk will be bad in a few years. Vekomas do NOT age well at ALL.

^It honestly wasn't that bad four years ago (the last time I had ridden it). The ride I had on Sunday was one of the worst experiences I've had on a coaster. It felt like I was in a metal trash can rolling down a hill, that's how much it shook. The rattling was so bad my teeth hurt. The wheel assemblies above our heads were rattling so much I actually pondered out loud if our train was about to drop off the track. I might have taken death over finishing that cycle.

Same disclaimer applies to these pictures, focus was awful all day, didn't get many good shots. Really like this. Dale's "Victory Wall." Entrance from the Skytower. Hurler and my old friend, the Xtreme Skyflyer Craphawk from above. Can you spot all three trains? Such a simple layout, but so damn good! I see Charlotte! Looks great. Rides like....well......feces. Blech. Loop shot! Another attempt at art, the USA and NC flags with the Skytower. It works. First drop action. The row marathon!!!! Disclaimer: I DO NOT refer to this ride as "Timmy," it was merely a running joke of the weekend and it gave me an opportunity to quote Southpark every time I wrote down another row number. Giving a ride a nickname like "Timmy" is about the lamest thing ever, and yet another reason why I often times roll my eyes at fanboys. On the way out, more opportunities for good shots. Trees and coasters. Going down! Going up! 2nd hill/turn. Empty train. A couple silhouette shots to end the weekend. Last picture of the weekend, and it turned out perfectly!

And Part Trois! So on Easter Sunday we had to head back down to Alabama, and what better way to break up a drive than by stopping at Carowinds?!?! Since we already went on opening day, the only new credit Daniel needed was Nighthawk, which meant lots of intimidation! Carowinds is a solid 6 hour drive from my family home, so we were gone by a little after 6, and we arrived right around 11:30 to the sight of a barely crowded park, which meant it was prime time for marathoning Intimidator! We immediately hit up that beautiful red B&M monster for a 4th row ride. While waiting in the station (it was a station wait for practically the entire day, never waited longer than 10 minutes), we figured that a good challenge would be to ride in all 16 rows before closing. We had till 6, and there was no line, so we had an outside chance. After our first ride, we went up in the Carolina Skytower to take some nice aerial shots that we weren't able to get on opening day. Then we went back to Intimidator and started a mini marathon. Rows 13, 3, and 14 fell by the wayside, all delivering wonderful spectacles of airtime and wind. Then it was time to grab two of the best rows on the ride, 16 and 15. We had 6 rides in 6 different rows and we hadn't even been there for two hours yet! One more ride on row 11 and it was time to go to lunch. Seven rows down, nine to go, and it was only 1:30. We went to Jack in the Box for lunch and I thoroughly enjoyed my Ultimate Cheeseburger and curly fries. Then we hurried back over to the park to continue riding. At this point we took a break from Intimidator and concentrated on getting Daniel his Nighthawk credit. I wish I had sat this one out. The wait wasn't horrible, I believe it was about half an hour or a little longer, but the ride has gotten tenfold rougher than what it was in 2006 when I worked at Carowinds. Nighthawk has plummeted in my steel rankings now. Since I felt I needed some sort of redemption, we went to Afterburn and got three rides, one in the back row and two in the 7th row, all in a span of 10 minutes (yes, there were no lines). I don't know how I had forgotten just how good Afterburn was, maybe it was not riding it for 4 years. But it's SO damn intense and awesome. Not sure how it doesn't get more attention from enthusiasts. Once we were sufficiently Afterburned, it was time to hit up Intimidator for the rest of the day. We had about 3 hours to get the last 9 rows in. At this point we still needed 1, 2, 5-10, and 12. Once again, the wait was minimal. Row 6 was our first post-lunch victim. The next ride, the (somewhat rude) grouper at the station gate forced us to go to row 14 when the ENTIRE STATION was literally EMPTY, even though I asked very politely if we could go in the front row. This would be our only repeated row of the day. After this ride, I had to run over to the employment office and process my application before the employment office closed at 4 (yep, might be going back). We got back around 4:30 and had an hour and a half to get the final 8 rows. A tall task, but not impossible! We were quickly able to get 12 and 5, and now we had 6 rows to go with an hour before closing. Next time around we got 8, and then I realized that with the grouper assigning rows, we weren't going to be able to get the specific rows we needed. After that, I literally reminded the grouper that we were going for every row in the train and told him which ones we needed, and he let us go to whichever ones we needed. A huge thanks to this grouper (different than the one from before) who allowed us to achieve our maximum dorkness for the day. After this, rows 7 and 9 were eliminated, and we only had 3 left. Row 2 would fall next, leaving us rows 1 and 10 with about 15 minutes left. The line had gotten a little longer since people leaving the park were getting one last ride before they left, so we surmised that we might only have one ride left. We automatically picked row 1 for what we thought would be our last ride, and we were sweating just wondering if we could get just one extra lap in row 10 to finish our marathon. Then it happened. A woman threw up a few trains before we were supposed to board. And she threw up EVERYWHERE on the car she was sitting in. Well crap. At that point we were content just getting 15 rows and 16 rides. The crew hurried to clean the mess up and just loaded two trains while the puke train was cleaned off. We got on our first row ride at 5:54. As long as no more delays happened, we had a chance to get back in line before 6. After our spectacular first row ride (seriously, front car is amazing), we hurried off the ride and were able to jump back in line at 5:58. As we got up to the station, I knew I was going to have to plead my case to the grouper one last time for row 10. However, when we got to the grouper, there was one row that hadn't been filled yet in the station. Which row was that? Yep, row 10! The roller coaster gods smiled on us on Easter Sunday. Our cycle was the 3rd last cycle of the day before closing, and we had finished our 16 row, 17 lap marathon successfully with several silly on-ride photos and all kinds of floaty airtime goodness. So that was our day. 17 rides on Intimidator, one VERY painful ride on Nighthawk, and three intense, face melting rides on Afterburn. We never even went to the back of the park.

^It's everything challenged. Horrible colors (I firmly believe that Skycoasters should NOT be painted or themed) and only 100 feet (seriously, what's the point, there's not even a free fall!).

Time for pictures from SFA. Didn't take any more at KD that day since I had taken so many the day before. There aren't too many, and keep in mind that my camera is for all intents and purposes broken, so the focus is screwed up on a few shots. Park entrance, nice colonial theming. Going under Wild One into Gotham City. 250th credit! Go me! Great airtime in the bunny hills. Trees were blooming everywhere, very pretty time of year. The sun is melting the Ride of Steel! Oh nooooo!!! Weeee!!! Could have been a better shot if my zoom/focus worked. This one turned out great, though. Ugh. 3rd and final Vekoma flyer. Thank God. Ugliest Skycoaster ever? Time for some spaghetti bowl madness! Silhouettey goodness! So I guess Superman fights the Joker in Gotham City now???? Epic superhero/villain fail on SFA's part. Blurry picture, classic woodie. Credit! SKLOOSH!!!!! FML. This actually was more uncomfortable and painful than T2, and that's saying a lot. Please get me away from here. ROAR! Fan turn sweetness. Good ride!