chadster

Call me crazy, but wouldn't an operating, money making park bring more money at sale than just paying off the debt?

Maybe they will learn what not to do from the other three...

That was pretty neat! Certainly cleaner than a crab boat!

I sometimes ride coasters to help clear thoughts from my brain. I never stopped to think that riding coasters might permanently remove those thoughts from my brain. Maybe I should ride more.

I will blame the aquatrax.

Dr. P

I read that there was supposed to be a Himalaya there. Did you happen to see/ride it?

1. Kraken 2. Dominator 3. Bizarro 4. Medusa 5. Superman: Krypton Coaster

Might as well join in: 1. Montu 2. Afterburn 3. Batman (SFOT) 4. Talon 5. Patriot I like a good mix of intensity and pleasure. The first three for me are more intense, 4 & 5 give me more pleasure.

So what many people do not know is that Oklahoma is the unofficial Festival and Carnevil capital of America. We hold strawberry festivals, corn festivals, tubuli festivals, carnevils just for the heck of it, and one I was unaware of until just a few weeks ago, the Italian Festival located held at the county fairgrounds in McAlester and Held on May 21 and 22. So, just where is McAlester you ask? Well, its about 90 miles South of Tulsa off of Interstate 75 and is home of the maximum security Oklahoma State Penitentiary and the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant. Yes, I know, very exciting. The nearby town of Krebs, Ok it known as Oklahoma's Little Italy, hence the reason I am in town, for the annual Italian Festival that hosts a small midway, an Italian dinner, and a place to buy crap. So, here we go. I'll start off with the midway. Tickets were $1 each with most rides in the 4 ticket range. I will say, this midway was the flagship for backyard attractions. They had several kiddie rides. This thing, still not sure what it was. A carousel I'm not lying folks, backyard attractions here. Swing and a Scrambla And of course, a Credz! For those that don't know, I spotted this traveling coaster, literally traveling down the highway coming back from NTAG bash and snapped a picture for my FB. Credit Stalking? You bet! So here it is traveling up hwy 69, yes, 69. Notice the trailer from the pic above? As soon as I saw it, I had to text the person whom called me a credit stalker to tell her of my good fortune! Sadly tho, I was unable to ride, and felt just a tad creepy, and, quite honestly scared to ask a bunch of rednecks if I could ride with their 3 year old. So taking the walk of shame, and very much disappointing my fellow creho, I held my head low and walked towards the food. WTF? You can't have an Italian Festival without the Gelato! or BBQ? hmmm, Italian BBQ, no thanks. I will go here, where you pay $10 for a huge portion sausage and balls complete with a drink. The sauce was some of the best I've had, the sausage was bland, but the balls were good! The penne pasta with olive oil, garlic, and olives, which was served warm, is something I could eat all the time! Behind the tent, you could bounce around. Ride ponies Or play some paint ball Finally, being a small town, they also include a place to buy crap, but wait a minute, is that what I think it is? NOOOOOO!!! ACE's have infiltrated the Italian Festival!!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!! Anyway, there you have it, one of many small town Oklahoma Carnevil/Festivals.

I can't sleep.

This Memorial Day weekend I thought I would share with you a local tradition that has received not only national recognition, but has also attracted people from different countries. Known as the Avenue of the Flags, this Memorial Day tradition displays the flags of our fallen Military men and women and is located at Floral Haven in Tulsa, Ok. Started in 1972 with a single flag donated by a widow who had no means of displaying her husband's flag, the annual flying of the flags has grown to 2,969 flags. The flags are stored each year in waterproof, fireproof containers and are raised and lowered each year by local boy scouts. So this Memorial Day, take a moment to remember those who have defended our country and our freedoms. Welcome to the only display of flags of fallen war veterans in the country. This is my grandfather's flag, Louis P. Carter, who served in Korea. His brother and brother-in-law were both POW's of the same. Each flags has it's own dog tag. This is a special area for war veterans and the spouses. NOTED! Thanks for looking and while you are out and about, if you happen to come upon the Blue Star Mothers this weekend, donate a few bucks, all money goes towards sending care packages to our deployed troops. You would be amazed at what a small care package does for troop morale.

What an awesome well rounded fair, it certainly has most of my favorites! I especially loved the StarFlyer pictures, it looks like a great ride, not to mention mesmerizing. The rain keeping the crowds away was a bonus, or maybe it was the not allowed in Oregon snake, either way, glad you had a good time and that you got to ride your Gravitron! Loved the report, thanks for sharing, I may be just a tad jealous! P.S. Now I know why my mail hasn't come

I waited 45 minutes in line for a kiddie coaster last weekend, parents kept cutting in front of me with their little hellians and then were like, were you in line? Yes bitch, I was in line, but since you are more important, by all means, please, go ahead of me.

^ Fantastic information! Thanks! And glad you liked seeing the park again!

So today I bring you a bit of a surprise, Kiddie Park in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Kiddie Park has been around since 1947 and is located inside Johnstone Park. Bartlesville is home to Conoco Phillips and the Frank Phillips Home. The town is also home to the Frank Loyd Wright designed Price Tower located in downtown Bartlesville. Parking for Kiddie Park is available along the roadside or anywhere you can find a spot. The park is geared toward, you guessed it, kiddies with a nice collection of old school rides with some dating back to the parks inception. Rides tickets are only .25 each with most rides requiring two tickets. Park admission is free. The park's coaster, Little Fire Ball, required two tickets for three laps. I highly doubt you will find a cheaper credit out there other than maybe free. On this Saturday, the 21st of May 2011, the park was packed with a line of 50+ people waiting to buy tickets. With mom being a school teacher, she asked to go along to see the park. Her last visit was many many years ago and she swears I rode the coaster, but I didn't remember it. So, for good measure, I had to travel back to ride it. Mom became my ride ticket flash pass standing in line about 15 minutes to purchase the two ride tickets while I took the photos below. Overall this a a great small community park thats low stress and easy going. All of the rides are sponsored by local business. The park itself is operated by the Bartlesvillle Playground Association and hires several local youths to operate the rides. Some rides had four ride operators! So if you are in the area, stop by, grab a cheap snack and a cheap credit! Welcome to Kiddie Park! Where "the" last train ride is free! The water got THIS high. Park Rules One of the directional signs. and the other one. We will start off over here with this contraption. And a close up of the ride vehicle. Swing batter batter, swing. This was an odd setup. Ride op sets a timer, turns on the power, then presses a green button, releases the brake, then gives the ship a swing to get it started. The kicker was he couldn't take his finger off that green button! Now this is old school. I'm talking vintage. Speed boats. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Nope, a real turtle ride! This is where you buy your tickets and junk food. They also had a candy store located in the train station. They also had some old school planes But they were not going to fly today. Air traffic control must have been asleep A caged spinning ride thingy. Even the older kids were riding it. The line for tickets. Swings, with ride op standing in the middle! Mini Bumper Cars! Which was sponsored by a good doc. Something tells me there will be no NASA staged lunar landings today. A brick. I thought this painting thingy was cool. It showed off the town and what it's all about. A Jeff Johnson Credit? Ferris Wheel Wooden horses that go in circles. Creepy character. Ok, so here it is, the original ride sign. Yes, I know, it says Little Dipper. It's real name apparently is Fire Ball, because that's what's written on the train. The course. The Lift. The Train. The People. The Station. Notice the wood brakes. They were squeeze brakes. The Train in Station The on ride photo Yes, I took the kiddie coaster in the rear. A fellow enthusiast was proud of me for whoring it out in the rear. The on ride photo. The business end. Nerd Shot Board here for the last ride of the night. Train parks here. The Train, duh! The Train Cars, duh! Wooden horses running in circles at night. So, you didn't believe me that this park was packed, well, here is some proof! So there you have it, a visit to a real Kiddie Park!

I had the same opinion of the ride that Laura did at first, however my first ride was in the middle, and the middle to me is just "ok". Second time was in the rear, and it was wayyy better, the front, total money. I won't go into all the details that happened on our ride in the front, but let's just say it kicked some serious ass. I also found that nighttime (during ERT at NTAG Bash) gives the ride a little extra kick in the pants, totally awesome. Riding with several different people at bash, everyone had similar reactions that the ride was solid. Some could only take a few laps on it. Personally I tried to fill in empty seats wherever possible for maximum riding pleasure. I'm with Robb, give it another chance, go on a Sunday in September, the line shouldn't be that bad and would give you a chance to try out multiple seats. I loved the front row, but I am starting to become partial to the 2nd/3rd rows. If I had a guess, NTAG will most likely hit the top 10 list for 2011. Do I think it's a #1 ride, probably not, but I could see it in the #5 spot.

^ & ^^ It was nice meeting you guys as well!

Sorry Big Mike, I've already stolen one of your interns Thanks for the pics, enjoyed it!

Little Dipper @ Kiddie Park

So it's New Texas Giant Bash day, for those of you keeping track, that would be May 14th. For those of you traveling to the park on a Saturday, I strongly suggest you obtain a flash pass. Why you ask? Well, the answer to the why will be contained in the pictures below. I won't bore you with my usual dissertation on the park and what's near it as there are plenty of reports and information out there on SFOT, so I will just dive right in to what everyone wants to see, the pictures! OH!!! And if you ever wanted to know what TPR Quest/Triva is, I have posted videos to the NTGB thread here. Welcome to NTAG BASH! Rates charged to store your horse and buggy Look, it's a bird, it's a plane, no it's a helicopter! TPR has the local news asking, what are all of these people doing at the park so darn early!! You can only get this shot from the super secret group entrance...after you go thru the body scanners. Robb had to catch up on the porn he missed from the night before, so he hung out in the chicken coup Happy Happy Riders! NTAG KICKS ASS! OMFG! OMFG!! OMFG!!! OMFG!!!! After ERT, a shed load of us went to the Flash Pass office where we got 10% off on top of the parks SP discount, a helluva savings. See? It pays to be a CTPR member! After we passed it up and attended the QA session with the park Prez, we headed to Mr. Freeze. This ride will NEVER get old. FP wait time, < 15 minutes. The wait time for these people >>>>>>>>>>>>> 15 minutes. Next up we had Batman all ready to go thanks to the FP. So now, sit back, relax, and enjoy a few Batman photos. So, I bet you are asking, how long was the line to get on a solid ride like this? Longer than this... It stretched all the way out to the games!!! All of the switch backs were full. The park is doing some incredible business this year. I've seen commericals in my area where over the last 4 or 5 years, I have seen none. Hopefully corporate will continue to invest in this park next year as a result of the crowds. Next up was one of my personal favorites, the tallest in the world, S&S combo tower. weeeeee Soon to be renamed and re-themed. I'd look for that to happen mid summer The park was soooo busy today that you needed a flash pass just to get food! So how about a little Judgement. Now, I know some people are spoiled... And tend to complain... about a rough woodie... but look, not every woodie can be a GCI... And personally I don't find JRS all that rough... So if you are one of those who doesn't like JRS because it's too rough... May god help you, because you'll never be able to ride Mean Streak, Georgia Cylcone, Wildcat @ Lake Compounce, Jack Rabbit, Rattler, The Boss, Timberwolf, or Boulder Dash. oh, why not still wrapped and still a boomerang. I have to agree with a very knowledgeable fellow coaster enthusiast, this rang is actually pretty good. So I snuck off to the hotel for a bit after TPR Quest/Triva. If you have not seen the video of the event, and have not ever participated or experienced Trivia/Quest, you should watch the videos in the link provided. So, it's ERT time on Shockwave. TPR is ready. Superman is ready. These folks are ready. The Oil Derek is ready (and it was open toward the end of the day as well, I know, shock) and these guys were ready. But Shockwave was not ready. So Robb checked out some more porn. Until Jermey, the friendly area supervisor, told us that we broke it real good and that we should head over to NTAG, so we did and I rode and rode and rode and rode and rode some more. Great event, great people, and great operations folks at SFOT. Had a blast. Will be doing another bash real soon, and you should too!

So let's see, in order of beginning to end: I started off the day in TPR chat where I viewed two very disturbing photographs that will leave me having nightmares for at least a week Mowed a yard Whored out a kiddie coaster Completed a PTR Ended the day in a heated online discussion with a fellow coaster enthusiast

Seriously? Grrrrrrrrr......

^ It was my choice, tired, hot, just wanted to go to the hotel.

From a fun filled day at Carowinds, I slept in a little on May 1st before making the short drive from my first ever visit to Six Flags over Georgia on May 1st, 2011. I arrived at the park around 1pm and went straight to the flash pass office to Gold Pass it up. As with many Six Flags parks, the pass is really really valuable on some rides and not needed on others. I was pleased to find that all of the coasters and several of the flats were included on the pass. There were only two rides that it really wasn't needed on, those being Ninja and The Great American Scream Machine. Wait times were no more than 20 minutes, with Batman having the longest wait on the pass. Most other rides were 10 minutes or less, yeah!!! Mindbender was a pleasant surprise and will be ranked high on my steel poll should I ever actually finish one. Nice out of air time and a well laid out ride. Superman was a decent flier, nothing special, Ninja didn't really slap me silly, and Goliath is > Intamidator by far. The Georgia backbreaker was not memorable and I can say I would rather ride a boomerang than this piece of firewood. Oh, and the drop tower, while certainly a unique experience, it can have a dramatic effect on ones manhood, an effect that could result in the inability to have children. But nonetheless, the park looked nice, the ops were friendly and mostly on their game with decent dispatch times, even on the stand-up. My only gripe (and lets get real, its not really a gripe) was the confusion on if you could take crap to the ride or had to leave it in a lock box thingy. Goliath allowed you to drop off your drink cups, but nothing else. Wished I had known that, but oh well, I knew if for the second go round, AND I shouldn't bitch as I got free drink refills from the DD stand at Dare Devil Dive all day. Apparently the people working the stand were familiar with TPR and were like, take it. So yeah for me!! So, now, off to the pics! Welcome! Please proceed thru the body scanners. But before you go thru the body scanners, be sure to drop your bitch off here. Once inside, have a look around, take it all in, very Southern like I have yet to try the park branded pizza, but what I have tried is the flash pass, and to get on of those here, you turn to the right at this here pizza place. First up today, Goliath. Queue wait time, 45 minutes. Gold Pass wait time, 12 minutes. Up Down Up And around. Kick A$$ ride indeed. So after the ride I went by to play a miniture version of the Santa Claw - R.I.P. On the way to check out Dare Devil Dive construction, I thought I'd stop by and have my pork pulled. Integrated Dots and Dive, also a source of free beverages (if any one asks, I had a wristband ) Lifty thingy Twisty Thingy Lifty and Twisty Next, rode this re-rideable stand up B&M weeeeee yayyyyyyyyyy Enough of that, let's go here and thru here for flash pass entry to batman, the longest wait on the pass BATMAN Wave Mindbender is a landmark, and a damn good ride Superman! The loop for me was the best part Loopy Flyey Closed Hyyy Yah Not a bad ride, not a great ride, but it had a 1 minute wait on the FP Good Wood Flying with wood out and back So lets see, what else, oh yeah, a wet ride, and it's wet. This hill was not as bad as the torture hill at the Mountain. Whore'd this one out The Mansion was on the pass, but I skipped it. To ride this thing, that squashed my thing. wooooshhh So before I left, I took another spin on Mindbender, everyone of you should ride this ride!!! Thanks SFOG!