chadster

The only one I know of that's in storage in Texas is Greased Lightn' and was listed for sale not long ago. I've also heard rumors over the last few years of an old Wildcat that may be in storage in Texas. Outside of that, I suppose it's possible Larson is building something at their plant for Chance Rides which would indicate it could be a Vekoma Suspended Family along the lines of Steel Lasso at Frontier City. **Edit** IRM has Greased Lightin' listed for sale here, maybe they sold it and have not removed it from their site. If you happen to come across their booth at IAAPAAAA maybe they could say if they've sold it or not. I've written them in the past and asked about rides they've sold and they've been great to respond back.

Chad doesn't have 10 friends. Sad, but true. Lots of factual information going on in this update

Yay! Another park to whore!

Awesome pics Eric! I need to do Dollywood during Christmas. Headed to SDC in a few weeks for their event, it was awesome last year, but Dolly's looks like it might edge out SDC. In contrast to the Dollywood SP special, SDC is doing one where you can get a friend in free during certain time frames if you buy your pass now. I must say, hands down, Herschend has it going on.

Fact. Also a fact.

My final park visit in the Dells was to Timber Falls home of the Avalanche/Hellcat wooden coaster, and a sweet looking log flume. This visit occurred on Sept 10th, and much to my surprise, it was dead. Except I wasn't really surprised. Before I turned into the park, I took some time to drive around. The town reminded me of Vegas in December. Vegas typically refurbishes outdoor attractions, shows, sets, casino floors, etc during this time frame as it's the slowest month. Various businesses within the Dells were also refurbishing things (minus Mt. Olympus Hotels) like restaurants, parking lots, etc. So yeah, nice side note there that no one probably cares to know. What I was surprised to see was the log flume already drained, logs stored, and things being taken apart, I figured it would have at least ran until the end of Sept. Instead only a miniature golf course, skyscraper, and Hellcat/Avalanche was operating. Why do I tell you this, well, so you don't come in the offseason and expect more if you didn't already know this information. Luckily, when I drove up, two people were boarding the coaster and I was able to get a few action shots, no one else was around except for me. The ride op for the coaster also was running the skyscraper. I was really thinking of a ride pass, but seeing he was running both, I figured a marathon of say 30 minutes was out of the question and went for a single. Welcome to Timber Falls, where this time of year, it's nice and quiet. Pass. This way to the main event, that would be the coaster, not the FEC "Main Event" But first, we imagine what it would be like taking a log ride. Which, if I remember, Fatdaddy and Iloverides both still owe me a log ride. Yup, I can see myself getting out of the log, all wet. Lets do this thing. Overall, it's in a decent setting. And here we have the two lucky rides who get their 5 seconds of fame on TPR, perhaps a little hair time too. Dude looks like he's just seen a naked women for the first time. And it's over. And this quicke report is over too. Actually I rather enjoyed Avalanche/Hellcat. It wasn't all that rough, and for being empty, ran rather fast. I'd do it again. So yup, thanks to the friendly two workers at Timber Falls. Now, I'm off to Illinois, where credits, and pizza, await.

After closing time at Mt. Odeadus, I went to find a bite to eat, and a Family Entertainment Center perhaps. Yes, I went to Knuckleheads armed with my 3 dollars. Sadly, I didn't have my balls with me and I don't play with community balls, so no bowling. Coaster? Why not. Electric go-carts, not the good ones. Looks like this place is KT approved. Possibly also Michael Jackson approved. And certainly Larrygator approved. I hear the Tornado is his favorite ride type ever. In fact, rumor has it that he would install one these for personal use. ACEr's are not permitted to ride. Possibly some TPR members. Looks like a Miner Mike. Smells like a Miner Mike. Sits like a Miner Mike. Produces an expression like only a Miner Mike can, therfore, it must be a Miner Mike. It's also time to leave. As you could tell, even the Family Entertainment Center is dead.

After a nice visit at Little Amerricka, I headed back to the Wisconsin Dells. Wait, back you say? Yes, back. I actually started out there on Sept 9th, traveled to Green Bay, then came back to hit up Timber Falls as they were not open on the 9th. Scheduling this time of year is difficult as many of the smaller parks like Bay Beach and Little Amerricka close early and open late, good thing I like to drive. I'll start off this off-season adventure at Mount Olympus, or should I say, Mt. Odeadus. I stayed onsite at one of their "resorts" titled Mykos Resort. That wasn't the best idea. It was $40 cheaper than Rome and came with a "parking pass" which was not needed as they were not collecting parking fees. The hotel has seen better days, and talking with locals, it has not been renovated since being incorporated into the Mt. Olympus family of hotels. To give you a brief idea, the sofa bed was broken and stained, the carpet throughout was well worn and nasty, mold in the bathroom, and came with a visqueen covered mattress. Sure, this is very much a transient hotel, but sheesh, take some pride in it. A room swap showed no improvement. Next time I might try out Hotel Rome, or better yet, I can be extra pervy and stay at the Great Wolf Lodge. On a positive note, the 19" tube television and wireless internet worked well. Ok, enough of that, about the park. This is exactly 4 days after peak travel season ended, and the place looked like a deserted ghost town. The park had already managed to drain all of the pools with the exception of the wave pool, removed the train from Pegasus, started disassembly on the kiddie coaster, and wrapped up the sky coaster. At best there were 100 people in the park with Hades routinely waiting for six people to ride. Most were taking advantage of no lines on the go-carts or taking a swim indoors. The cost to get in this time of year is $20, pay one price, or free if you stay in the super 6 resort. While staying at the resort, you also get into the park on your checkout day so I had two days of park admission to go with my risk of getting the clap at the motel for $69. Hades was crap with 6 people, so, I wanted to try it with a full train. Being as I was headed back for Timber Falls, I made a quick stop back to Mt. O on Sept 10, and well, it was still dead. Since they had a mostly full train, you were allowed to ride in the rear, myself, I took the magic seat, glad I did. It was a much better ride than the previous day. What? Shut up you say? Show me some pictures because I hate reading? Fine. Here you go. As Seen on TV Welcome to Mt. Odeadus, also known at Mt. Olympus. Oh my. I think I see a few people on it. Whew, I did. For a moment I thought it might be in test or something. And to think, I was worried the place would be packed on a Friday. The grounds were well kept. Let's get to one of the last 15 U.S. coasters on my bucket list! "Please feel free to take Hades in the rear, you will enjoy it" One Hades station, no waiting. They had a very strict 6 person min to ride. Also strict was their policy on you must fill the first 4 rows of the train first, no exceptions. Avoid row three at all costs. One Zeus, no waiting. But we will get to that later. I would say hands down this is one of the single best starts to any wooden coaster. Going up the lift I was thinking, this won't be so bad, until I got jack hammered underground. Hades has a great layout and carries tons of speed, they just need to work on the track a bit to reduce the jack hammering. Lets go try this out. This was actually not too bad, shame they were governed. Hmmm, what to do next. Not Pegasus, it was gone. Little Titans has a crazy ride height requirement, also, it was missing components of the train. Hmmmmmm yeah, I don't think that's going to be a huge problem today. As there weren't many takers. Hey, look! It's the "Indoor" Amusement Park! Let's read the rules. Safety First. Noted - Crap that falls out while you are spinning will be picked up throughout the day. One mouse, no waiting. WTH?!?! Moderate spinning. Sorry so many pictures of a mouse, but there wasn't much else to take picutes of in here. NOTED! Zoltar says no line today. All ready for the winter. This looks like fun. Looks good from out here too. Look Big Mike, I found the duckies! Here is the classic shot all lined up and ready. Just another relaxing day on the Cyclops. "I'm king of the world!" WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE YAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!! ok, moving on. Next. Another full train leaving the station. Down the hatch Don't hit the moon! So they tried to bring in some revenue with this. Epic. Fail. They had a stage on this end of the park, and two side by side near the go-carts. Yes, side by side, good luck hearing anything. Anyway, only 4 people listened to these county people, but hey, they got paid! So it's time to leave, and gather my last front row ride on Hades, just look at that first drop goodness. Next I head to credit whore, stay tuned!

Why didn't you let me know you were going there to credit whore because I live like 3 miles from there! Even whores like to go at it alone from time to time...

Effing time change, can't sleep. Why can't we just keep the time the same ALL the effing time. That is all.

I kid, I kid. Actually some PETA organizers have developed their own plans. Clicky After doing some snooping, it turns out that they're trying to organize a boycott against Sea World to raise awareness of the plight of the animals in captivity (as if they don't do this already) and using the Occupy tagline to grab attention (as usual) to their cause. Oh Lord.

This is very technological of them. Cutting edge in fact. Just think, if you could buy a set of mouse ears with a RFID chip inside, an overhead reader scans your ears (similar to toll tags, car wash RFID's, etc) and you get a personalized welcome message from Mickey himself as you walk through. Winning.

Theme Park Post is reporting the following: Call me stupid, but putting two and two together....BINGO! We know where this is going. Almost a 40 foot drop, not too bad. Link

I'd personally rather see Tatsu and Apocinator have two trains running than Superman being open. Don't get me wrong, Superman is a nice ride backwards, but it won't hurt my feelings if it's down.

News: I kid, I kid.

My last coaster was the Miner Mike at Celebration Station in Tampa Luckily, it won't be my last for the year

Considering the volume of chattiness on their FB page, something tells me it's going to be a full plan announcement with a construction schedule.

One thing to keep in mind, the park can get VERY busy on Saturday, as in last year traffic was backed up the exit ramp from the highway, and that was true for almost if not every Saturday. Sunday's are the best if you can do that date. The price they will have online is about the best and runs around 25-30 plus the service fee. Otherwise, I would take my chances on Friday. FP will also be an option and traditionally they lower the price some as Gotham City won't be open. *Edit* wow, I thought they would for sure have NTAG open, but nope, it's listed as not in operation.

Robb - Can you take a look at my upload? It says it's not found, I'm guessing I managed to properly screw it up.

I would for sure go into debt riding all that crazy stuff, I'm a sucker for fairs and small parks, nonetheless, this is now on my bucket list. Thanks for sharing!

Thankfully this one had a good amount of padding and instructions not to remove you hands from the bar infront of you. If the padding wasn't there, I would be permanently located in that patch of land behind the train.

I am affraid to ask.

Would you like us to hide something else? Chris is used to having a foot hidden where the sun don't shine courtesy of his wife.

Does it have to to with a new park opening next year (or one that thinks they might open next year?)

Gee, thanks A.J. Is whatever it is in a thread on the first page of the main forum?