chadster

Greetings and welcome to this weeks edition from Pacific Park in beautiful Santa Monica, California. Built in 1909 the pier almost met the wrecking ball in the early 70's but locals refused to let it go which forced the city council to create the Pier Restoration Corporation. The carousel building, known as the Hippodrome was designated a L.A. County historical landmark by Uncle Sam. Today the Pier is made up of kiddie and family attractions and houses several restaurants including Bubba Gumps. Speaking of Gumps, ever wonder if they serve fresh fish? Does Hot Dog on a Stick sell all beef hot dogs? Well, you're in luck! I have that answer to those questions and many other's so get ready, it's gonna be a blast! Welcome to Sunny Santa Monica! What on earth could we be doing here today, hmmmm.... Why is it a bird? Is it a plane? Is it Muscle Beach? Why no! It's a mini Morgan kiddie hyper! So let's head on over And a beer in my hand, life is good today... Yuuup! Looks like a pier. I'm I allowed to even use Yuuup! anymore? Who are these two ugly sons of bitches? Caught two kids trying to break in, called the cops, cops came, took the kids to foster home, parents went to jail. True Story. Cirque was in town with Ovo, sadly I didn't have time to see this production which I understand is really good. So if you are in the area, see it before it leaves. Before the park opened, RD and I did some exploring. Didn't realize they had a Gumps. Hey look, they are getting a food delivery! WTF?!?!?!?!?!!!! FROZEN FISH??? THE OCEAN IS RIGHT THERE! So now when you see fresh shrimp, fresh cod, fresh whatever advertised on the menu, yeah, it was fresh, 6 months ago. And to boot they are using the Walmart of food, Sysco. They are now dead to me. #GordonRamseywouldshutitdown Buy tickets to see the Whole City! Grab a burger and some crap. After you grab a burger and some crap, you can walk with your crap, your burger too perhaps. Or maybe sit on the beach with your burger and crap. Then when you get done on the beach you can buy more crap. NOTED! Some famous movie was filmed here. Classic movie foto And here is what the other side of the Pier looks like. So now you have seen the pier. Oh, wait, you want to see what's inside the park, well, ok. I'll take a #2. So I guess we are going here so RD can get his credit. Feeling sad and pathetic, I decided to ride again. Intense G's are being pulled in that helix. More airtime than El Toro For you lift hill nerds. For you lift chain nerds. And I couldn't leave out the anti-rollback nerds. So we turn and turn in the helix, pulling tons of G's and was able to get a few aerial shots. These were super tough to get, the intensity was so much I almost could hold the camera. So I hope everyone appreciates the fact that I struggled through almost grey out conditions to get these past few foto's Ok, that's enough, get me off, I'm gonna puke. So before we left, we went to check out the Carousel. Hand crafted goodness. ACEr's have their own private seat! Hey look it's the original Hot Dog on a Stick stand! WTH?!? Turkey Dogs?!?!? SCREW THAT! APPROVED!! That's it for this week, hope you enjoyed! Check back next week for another California Park that just might include a ticket giveaway for Give Kids the World! Be sure to post your comments!

Next week I'm turning up the wick, not sure how far up the flame will go as I work with a bunch of tight asses... BUT, for those who enjoy my whorish adventures, another whorish adventure will be announced very soon, so prep your pocket books(Donations=Whorish Adventure Release) as this one is shaping up to be a video adventure...just need one more approval...

The only thing besides $$ that I can see logically holding them back would be the FAA red tape nightmare, but given the wheel got approval and the tallest point of the ride being about 1500k feet away from the wheel, I don't foresee any height restriction issues. However its the FAA, never know what they are going to do...

Too bad I don't live in Orlando, as after ready Everything Kara has posted thus far, I'd be giving a few hours each week. And if anyone wants free stuff for donating, click on my current Adventure in my signature for details!

Huh, no one wants free stuff eh? Maybe I should through in a set of playing cards from one of the naughty party pits.

^I agree, 1000%

In all fairness the Harmon tower has a major structural flaw, not that they couldn't finish it or ran out of money, it simply didn't pass inspection and now must be torn down.

Dude, that camp snoopy boat looks, um...what's the word, not creepy, but, hmmmm, not pedo bearish, idk, it's just looks wrong, but so effing funny at the same time!

I agree, certain areas of Vegas look like scene out of Israel, but who knows, maybe the North end will one day be the new South end....nah, who am I kidding

Lines on opening day at times got up to probably about 45 minutes. It should only get worse on the weekends from now on. Thats why you go on Sunday's

Maybe they could serve actual slider size and knock $5 off the price? Nah, who am I kidding. They look good, too bad they weren't amazing.

They can take a pounding and are still able to walk straight afterwards? Honestly, no clue, to me, the front is worse than the rear. (Coaster people, coaster)

With Speed: The Ride being carefully dismantled in hopes to be sold to a new park I thought it would be neat to take a look back at the ride and what it looked like just two weeks before being disassembled. Speed: The ride opened on April 28th, 2000 at the Sahara Hotel and Casino as part the NASCAR Cafe. Built at time in Las Vegas history where Casino's were focusing more on the family than the gambler it was hoped the ride, along with a remodel of the property, would draw additional patrons to the North Strip Property. Initially your $7 gave two back to back rides along the 1365 feet of track which included a second launch after the loop that not only boosted speeds up to 70mph but also served as a brake to slow the ride down on the return before going backwards thru the loop. The OTSR's were widely frowned upon by the enthusiasts community, and considering other Premier launched rides such as Mr. Freeze did and do not have them, it certainly didn't make sense as to why Speed did. The ride closed suddenly in August of 2008 and little was known of it's fate. However in February of 2009 the ride re-opened. By this time the price per ride had increased to $10 and you no longer received back to back rides. In fact they began launching the ride only once every 15 minutes seriously decreasing its theoretical capacity of 1600 riders per hour . Not a good deal if you bought an all day pass. Speed closed in May of 2011 about a month ahead of the casino's closure due to lack of maintenance personnel. It packed a punch reaching a height of 224 feet and pulled some nice g's. The initial $1million price tag was super cheap. Many parks would jump at the chance of a coaster of that price. Custom built for the area the owners have yet to find a buyer. If you missed my liquidation sell photos, Clicky Want a piece of Sahara History? I have a mini-shot glass I'm willing to do a random drawing for. How do you enter? Donate $1 to my Coasting for Kids Page (Link in Signature) by Next Monday at Noon. I'll put everyone's name in the hat and announce a winnner during next Monday's episode! Easy eh? TPR Video Speed: The Ride was located in the NASCAR Cafe where you found, well, NASCAR stuff. Funny, never saw this car on the track. I think this would have been the entrance. This was my last visit to the ride in October of 2010. They had four employees, two at the ride, one cashier who was also selling stuff for the arcade, and a person at the photo hut. I happened to be the only customer at about 9:30 at night. Very sad. This would be the train and where I would wait 10 minutes to load. They only ran every 15 minutes and I happened to have gotten in line at 9:33. Despite having not run the ride at 9:30, I still had to wait. I was slightly unimpressed with the operations. Yet another reason the property shut down. So anyway, I strapped in for what I didn't know at the time would be my final ride and shot out the hole. Through the loop, which was amazing... Into the second launcher to boost up to 70mph Past the strip show... around the front of the building... before heading up the spike to fall back and do it all over again in reverse. Still a much better bargain, and ride, than that POS up on the South end of Strip. A few months after the ride closed I was able to get a few shots from the top of the building. I tried for weeks to be able to take pictures inside the station and maintenance area But in the end, the owners decided they couldn't allow it. Fast forward to end of March 2012 and we find the rear door open to the station. I imagine it's been open since the place closed. Of note, many lights were on in the building and the HVAC was still turning. Signs something is going on... The door was also still open on the other end of the station. Now we go down the hatch nice landing surface rust is very noticable all around Launch control Second launch section The plants were also getting watered, so was the sidewalk. coming out the second launch to zoom past the front of the building At least the bolts haven't moved, the power box says it all. Loved this part of the ride. Overall it was very well designed, one of my top 25 it almost looks like part of the support has rusted through track rust has also set in Noted. Someone's had some fun. Oddly enough, people were coming down sad they couldn't ride today. Apparently they thought the ride would be open....um...no comment. See ya later Speed, hope to see you again somewhere soon. If not, you will be missed. Also noted. The fence behind the fence look familiar? It should...it was wet-n-wilds And finally, why Wet-N-Wild closed, a still not fully erect Fountain Blue. Anyway, hope you enjoyed a trip down memory lane! I promised last week a look at Pacific Park...but with the disassembly of Speed I figured no one would mind. So next week we will answer the question, finally, does Bubba Gump's use fresh fish?

I think for this time of season fastlane at WoF is not worth it, lines are typically less than 20 minutes and in many cases walk on. Once Mid June hits it will be worth it on the weekends for sure.

But it packs a huge punch. They've been pretty hush hush on opening dates now saying early summer 2012...

Thanks again Kara for taking all of us on a tour of the village! All of these food offerings you've been showing is making me hungry, or at least wanting a cinnamon roll.

I'm sure Premier wouldn't mind making small modifications i.e. taller/shorter supports, maybe a track bend here or there, all it takes is $$

I have stuff to giveaway that coincide with my upcoming adventures, so be on the lookout,a small donation could yield you something very cool!

^Exactly, it would not have a problem kicking you out of the train at all. Coming up on Monday's edition, a look back at Speed: The Ride.

Good thing I got a large library of photos of it two weeks ago. Just found a video on KTNV, shows they are getting a move on and being careful, which is a good sign. Would love to see photos. I guess Monday's edition of my vacation adventures will include a look back at Speed: The Ride. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCT9_695wUI

You should have just pointed down and said wiener beener. What?

This was posted to their Facebook Page a view minutes ago

First person to donate $20 to my page by this Thursday gets a free ride wristband ticket to Castle Park (that would be in California) good until 4/2/2013.