TheStig

^There were a lot of idiots, but no TPR members from what I could tell. I did see a Club TPR shirt floating around though! I added some photos I took today, though nothing special Here was how the line was set up prior to the ride opening. Lots of awesome views of the ride from the Skyride! This part was pretty cool, especially with a gondola going underneath you! Twisty!!!

Just got back from Busch Gardens and managed to get a ride in on Cheetah Hunt. Let me first start out by saying that despite the INCREDIBLE amount of morons that were there this morning the park did a great job of handling the situation. As soon as we got to the attraction after the ropes were dropped an announcement was made saying there would be a delayed opening. AS SOON AS WE GOT THERE! These spiels were played in the ENTIRE park. People were getting pissed, and one guy even said "lets hear from the security guard!" and was dead serious. That being said the whole Cheetah Hunt crew, and the other Busch Gardens employees around the area were way more informative than they needed to be. Instead of just saying "we are down and don't know when we will open" there were several announcements stating that it would open in the early afternoon. These announcements were made about every five minutes, and it DID open early in the afternoon!!! There was absolutely ZERO reason for ANYONE to be mad, Busch Gardens handled this far better than I ever expected. Major kudos to them. That being said when the ride did open around 2:00 I got in line immediately. I decided to wait it out for the front row, which after a series of small downtimes ended up taking an hour. I LOVED the ride. It is a ton of fun!!! There is nothing overly intense about the ride, but it is still an absolute blast. You get a good amount of airtime going in to the figure 8, and a nice bit of floater airtime coming out of it and in to the trench. The barrel roll is perfectly done and you feel weightless as the train goes through. The twisty section in the back was great as well, it might have even been my favorite part of the ride! It's not neck snapping quick, but it does have very smooth and fluid transitions which make it exciting. The launch in to the hill is great, and you get some more ejector air going in to that. The return run is fun, but nothing overly exciting. It feels a bit like the outrun though, which isn't a bad thing! I also liked the pop of air in to the brakes, it's not much but it's still there. It's smooth, fun, and a decently long ride. Is it the greatest ride in the world? No, but it is still a ton of fun. Tyler told me to expect a California Screamin' type of reaction, and I really liked that ride. I thought Cheetah Hunt was better to be honest! When it comes down to it, this is a coaster I would suggest to a kid who has never been on a roller coaster before. At the same time it is still an exciting attraction that would make a seasoned coaster rider happy. I think this type of ride is exactly what Busch Gardens needed to really round out the park. I highly suggest going and riding.

Depending on the parks policy the operators may not be allowed to go in to the ride track until the ride is closed for the day. Even though there are piles of vomit, you can't go out there if lock out tag out procedures aren't followed for the attraction.

Here is how you replace a water pump on the OM617 in a 300TD: Start by loosening the alternator belt that runs to the pulley. You don't have to remove it yet, as long as it is loose. Then remove the bolts that hold the fan on to the pulley. I have two removed here, but there are four total. You should be able to slide the fan off after taking off three bolts and loosening the fourth. Disconnect the fan shroud so that not only will you be able to remove the fan, but also so that you have more room to work with. Tada! See how much space you have now? Remove the belt and the pulley from the water pump. I have the larger alternator on Norm (AL129x I believe) so it was easier for me to remove the pulley with the belt still on, just loosened, then it would be to remove the belt first. Give this thing a good cleaning before you put it back on! Next up is to drain the coolant from the radiator. Try to do this on a level surface or point the nose of the car down. I didn't and it resulted in more coolant coming out of the water pump when I went to disconnect it. Before removing the water pump, remove the crossover tube that runs out of the block. It's hard to get a picture of it on the engine, but this is what it looks like. It bolts in to here... ...and here. Remove the five bolts that hold the water pump on and hit it with a mallet to knock it free from the housing. WARNING: The bolts that hold the pump on are most likely deformed and need to be replaced!!! I made the mistake of not checking this and sheared a bolt when trying to put the new pump on!!! The thread pitch is 6.1 and you can find these bolts at ACE Hardware for .27 cents each. Do yourself a favor and get new bolts!!! Once the pump is out, remove as much of the old gasket as possible from the housing. I used sandpaper to remove it, and it came off easily. Failure to do so will result in coolant leaks from the new gasket not sealing properly. Much better! Old pump vs. new pump. I bought a Laso brand pump, and it is an identical match to the original pump. It's made in Germany, and while slightly more expensive then other pumps, I feel it's totally worth it to have a quality part! Place the gasket on the pump. The gasket can only fit on one way due to the holes in the pump. Mount the new pump on with your NEW bolts! I can't stress enough how necessary new bolts are! I torqued all five bolts down to 8 ft/lbs. Once the pump has been mounted reconnect the crossover tube. Replace the belt and pulley on to the pump. I found that it helps to have one bolt threaded in to place before placing the fan shroud back in. This makes it easy to line up the pulley and water pump, but also give you somewhere to put the fan on to. Put the fan shroud back in to place, but do not connect it in to place until the fan has been put back in! It give you a little more wiggle room to mess with. Replace the fan, refill with coolant, and you are done!! Some say that removing the radiator is necessary to do this job, and really it isn't. I had to do it in order to get my easy-out in to the broken bolt, and while it does give you a lot of room you don't need it to get the pump out.

I can already see differences in those Timerliners than the ones HW has, which is good actually!!! I'm really surprised how good this thing looks despite it's size! They really crammed that in there, and the track switch looks like a transformer. I approve.

This is what I want from 1990...

I vote no.

They should just tear down Festival Bay Mall and build it in it's place. Sure it would still fail, but nothing could possibly fail as hard as Festival Bay has!

It's because they are running the new three row, six seater trains like Huracan at Belantis. The cars are longer and thus require an increased radius in order for the vehicle to not hit the track. Just look at Huracan's lift, it's the same.

It's destroyed hymen.

I think if you really want to build your own car that going with a Caterham is the best route...

?

I agree that this was some sort of miscalculation, especially considering that the sky ride has been down for a long period of time now and nothing has been done to modify it. In fact I'm pretty sure that the cable is still on the ride itself! You would think that if this were the plan all along that it would have been one of the FIRST things they would have done, even before assembling track.

So. Stumbleupon lead me to THIS recipe for an orgasmic looking brownie. Considering that Jake and I both love brownies, and oreos, and each other, we decided to get together and bake these. Also we played No Limits. Enjoy! First things first, you need brownie mix. Then you need some idiot to put two dead chickens in to a bowl. Add oil, and brown powdery stuff to the top of the dead chickens... ...and mix it for 50 strokes. I had to switch hands halfway through, I'm usually done after 25. Secret ingredient: Ice cream. Cookies and cream ice cream to be exact* *No longer a secret ingredient. When you are all done (or are just awkward and clumsy) murder the rest of the already dead chickens. Seriously though, I dropped these on the ground. They cracked and made a mess. Stupid 50 strokes... Your badder should look like this when it is all said and done. But just to make sure you should dip a spoon in and show your thighs who's boss. Next thing to do is add half the badder to the pan, then layer with Oreos! Food can be artistic too you know. You should be able to get most of the package on there, but if not just eat the rest while the brownies are in the oven. Layer with the rest of the badder... ...and then place in to the oven! Thirtyish minutes later you get this! Wow! NOM Just like the picture on the website. THE END

I waited in line for 2 hours and rode Dive to Atlantis at Mt. Olympus. I'm still bitter and soaked. I rode Dive to Atlantis for 2 hours at Mt. Olympus. I'm still bitter and soaked.

The handles are on upside down...

What do late nights at Del Taco result in? Spontaneous road trips to ride kick ass roller coasters! That's basically the jest of the trip that Jake, Renee, Andy and I took yesterday. We started by leaving my house around 9:15, and hit up Chik Fil A three hours later just outside of Ft. Lauderdale. I had to pee, so I missed taking a picture of "daddy daughter date night" posted on the sign out front. Incest is the best! Following CFA we made a pit stop at Uncle Bernies, which is where the photos and videos will commence. Sooo...COMMENCE: Walking in to the Flea Market area was confusing, not because there were vendors selling shemale porn, but because of what was inside... What. The. Eff. This, inside of a Flea Market?! An MC-12, and an Enzo. But the biggest WTF was this, AN FXX!!! I mean how did this get out of Maranello, let alone to a Flea Market in South Florida?! I guess it is the owners private car collection. Considering how many multi-million dollar cars this guy has, and the simple barricades protecting them, I'd say that he banks off of this place. Of course he makes all of his money off of Uncle Bernies! Tent: The Ride was popular among all ages. But only teenagers. We got both credits, but for some reason only my dragon wagon video came out. Needless to say Abandon Mine (no, not Abandoned Mine) was not really worth the memory on my phone that I used to take POV. So without further ado, here is the Dragon Wagon in all of its glory: Wasn't that....exciting? Sure. Anyway we bailed shortly after, and headed to the real reason for our visit. OH YES. Hurricane absolutely KICKED ASS. I mean it was smooth and had a ton of airtime, not to mention a really cool layout. I'm sad Coaster Works is no longer around, they built a winner with this one! The ride had some retracking done as well, and the blue train appeared to be in the midst of an overhaul. However I will say that the ride is not very well taken care of, but for an FEC who can blame them. Most of our day looked like this. It was nice, but dispatches were slow. Although the super high tech lap-top was nowhere to be found today! Here is an awful POV shot on my cell phone. Cell Phone Coasters: IN THE RAW! to hit shelves in 2012. After half a dozen rides we took a break and made a trek over to... JAXSON'S!!!! Jake and I split the Oreo Sundae. Renee told us we couldn't finish it... We told her to F-off and did, FOR AMERICA! Back at the Hurricane we took this picture together. And then this one... ...then this one! Then we left. The end.

Good news. I visited the park yesterday with some friends and walked past splash. I saw no less then three boats with three people in a row, one was full of adults! So it looks like they still allow this, but I can't imagine it's very comfortable.

I got my present in the mail today!! I too received the Nacho Lip Balm. Thanks Real Art!

PLEASE READ! Paula didn't say they ordered a "another train", she said they ordered some "extra cars." How do you know they may not have needed these cars anyway for Raven and Legend? I highly doubt that any park in the world is going to go spending the large sum of money that additional PTC cars cost if they didn't feel they needed them for something. --Robb Agreed. If I remember correctly one row from the original PTC train was removed so as to match Raven's train. If they bought new cars to even them out yet again then that would be an incredibly SMART move. Plus once it's all said and done the new cars could go on and the old ones used as parts. I see no problem with what they are doing. I think some of you really don't understand what it takes to get a new product fully functional and operational.

This. Forever.

The forum version is much easier to look at. The yellow almost looks lost against the brighter green of the main page. I vote keep it, it looks good!

This is very much making me want to come out to WCB. Hmmmm...

I like the way it looks, it stands out more and grabs your attention! I like the tagline, but do you think it might flow better if you removed just "and roller coasters" from it? So it would just say "We like theme parks....we just have a funny way of showing it!"

I hope these things work really well for the ride. It needs an improvement over the PTC's that's for sure. Kentucky Rumbler was fantastic with them, however Roar was not. Hopefully it's more like Rumbler!!! I'll be out of town on the 22nd, but I'll for sure be there the week after.