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I had mixed feelings about Thorpe. Nemesis Inferno was great (not as great as Alton's but still lots of fun), and Stealth grew on me after riding in the front seat. I even found the bizarreness of X to be rather endearing and liked the Logger's Leap (rapids ride was lame, though). The themeing of the Amity section was pretty cool. Colossus was good, but would've been better with one or two fewer twists (definitely a case of piling on there). That being said, if it hadn't been for the ERT, I would've left around 3:00 pm. I hadn't heard about your falling asleep in the bar, Elissa, but I imagine you (and Robb) were pretty wrung out that day. Well, if anyone had a good nap coming it was you.

Well, Kumba, I live over in Seasons Trace out in James City County. I wasn't sure where to post the photos, so I just went the "TR" route. But to slap me you'll have to get past my semi-psychotic cat. Not sure about the whole "Autobahn"'/"Bumper Cars" question (didn't bother grabbing a park map). Word around town is that Busch is planning to sell the LeMans cars, but that's just hearsay. Still, it would be nice to build a really cool car ride over where Drachenfire used to be.

As most of us are aware, I'm sure, BGE has closed one of their original attractions, the LeMans Raceway, to make room for some new, big attraction in 2007. I ambled over to the park tonight, which was quite busy, to see if there was any hint of what this new ride might be (rumors have been flying, of course). Here's what I saw. Hmm--the claws of a bird of prey, "dropping." Remind anyone of a coaster in, say, Tampa? Time will tell . . . A few weeks ago, this restaurant was called the "LeMans Bistro." Bye-bye little cars! I hope Busch finds you a good home. (Some of them are going to figure in Howl-o-Scream, according to the local paper.) The eerie quiet and emptiness of the LeMans Raceway from the skyride. The little cars putt-putt-putt no more.

^The last time I was there (a Sunday in early June), they were running three trains on all coasters. BBW was running pretty smoothly (not much stacking at all), as was Nessie--but they were stacking all three on AC and Alpie. Another TPR member works on Alpie--maybe I'll pick his brain about this. It was a clear day.

Flour in your hair would make it look old and gray--an old stage trick. Flour sprinkled on a tanned, leathery face would make it look like a chicken-fried steak, I guess.

^I'm assuming your definition involved sandpaper and some sort of varnish, Bill? (The girls' form of "antiqueing" was new to me, too.) Oh, these kids today . . .

Yeah that happened when I was at the park as well. A few years ago, this older gent was in charge of AC, and he was all business--didn't stack trains, kept the crew hopping. But they have him working the locomotives now--too bad. The young crew has improved a bit since opening day, at least.

^The CMs do seem a bit off this season. The crew for Apollo's Chariot was spending so much time asking the crowd "Are you ready to ride?" and "How was your ride?" that they seemed to forget they were supposed to dispatch trains--they were stackin' em like pancakes at IHOP. Never have I heard the word "reset" so many times in one afternoon. They have since improved.

Well, you never know who you might meet. I checked out DarKastle at BGE on opening day (longest line ever) and had a great time with this nice young couple from Florida, one of whom had done design concepts for the ride. (I'm terrible with names, but the guy was named Joe--a sheepish hello from Chuck if you're out there, folks.) Anyway, as we entered the loading station, the designer excitedly pointed at two rather ornate windows and shouted, "That's mine! That's one of my concepts!" This was the first time she had seen the whole ride put together.

Well, it depends on the people there, doesn't it? I've had some very nice chats in line at BGE. Sometimes. people will think you're nuts for talking to them.

I assume you weren't there on July 4, then. Weekdays (other than that one, of course) are a good time to hit BGE; Saturday is usually nuts (Sunday not too bad). Glad you had a good time--I'll probably amble over there tomorrow night.

^Well trackers can ride one and swingers the other, I guess.

^I share Cameron's sentiments here, Sam. Nemesis was my favorite coaster in the UK. And Duel was an excellent shoot-em-up dark ride (would love to be there for Halloween, but it's not in the cards this year).

^I had to log out and log back in. Oh, well . . .

^Still negatory on page 1 of the Pleasurewood photos, Robb.

That puts you two up on Modesto, Ryan.

It was great meeting you, too, Eric. Hard to believe that we survived the exquisite horror of all those dark rides. I'm still kicking myself for missing Spooky 3D at Oakwood--d'oh! At least I saw the partying bunnies! You need to get up to the 'Burg for a DarKastle fix as bad as I need to check out Sheikra.

Excellent TR, Eric. I've been thinking about posting my "Top 5s" from the trip, myself (still figuring this out).

Too bad--I thought the Flooded Mine was fun. I even felt a bit sorry for those poor convict AAs as they floundered and floated around.

You had better luck with Loopen than I did, Nicole. Thought I was going to escape unscathed until the corkscrew. Sock! Pow! Two shots to the jaw!

A mere 42 from me--I recommended that he change his e-mail account.

I was bit concerned that we wouldn't have enough time at Pleasurewood when it took so long to get a ride on Enigma (or Cannonball Express, or whatever the heck it was called); but a shade less than two hours turned out to be plenty.

Hmm--that's the Magic Mountain I remember the last time I visited the place (in the 1970s), only without fire and cell phones. Good to see that they've returned to thier classic mode of operation.

Sheesh, you stop looking at the Random forum for a while and look at what you miss. Happy Belated Birthday, Tom, from the home of BG Euroburg and Pierce's Pitt BBQ!

I know what you mean about Stealth. The first time I rode it in a middle seat, my reaction was "OK--that's it?" But the front-seat ride blew me away (as did the very back). Still, I wished it had one more trick in its repertoire.