Naina21

I think I took some of it. I'll have to double check.

Thanks Jason for the info. I was just wondering when we would hear about this year's event. I'm signed up. 3.5 days of roller coasers again since Coastermania is right before it. Here is my page. I'll try to make it pretty or at least add info to it when I get home. http://support.gktw.org/site/TR/CoastingForKids/General/134077216?px=1088464&pg=personal&fr_id=1236

Option 1 with the Twitter feed. I like that feature as I can't access Twitter at work, but usually twitter feeds within another page I can view.

So far no snow the last time I looked, but it is supposed to be around 0 tomorrow for the high.

The job fair is tomorrow 1/4.

I opened mine before I left for my parents' for the holidays, but I was 6 hours away when I realized I forgot to take a picture to post. So now that I am back in town, and have a few minutes to myself, I finally took a picture. Earlier in the day on the day that I opened it, I got a boyfriend and my housemate and I exchanged gifts. So ranking them in order of my favorite things I got that day would be: the boyfriend, my secret Santa gift, and then the gifts my housemate gave me: a set of 12 Doctor Who shot glasses, Dalek socks, and a couple non-Doctor Who DVDs. Sorry secret Santa, the boyfriend trumped everything I got for Christmas, but your gift was the 2nd best thing. So what did I get from my Secret Santa? A Doctor Who mug with a lid! I love it. Thank you so much.

I got a box last week from Amazon and since I haven't ordered anything from them this year for Christmas, I am pretty sure it is from my Secret Santa. To open now or wait until the weekend before Christmas when my roommate and I exchange gifts?....we will see how long I can hold out.

I'm looking forward to seeing friends again on the mini New Hotness tour. It should be fun to hit up all the parks I go to with a large group of friends, rather than by myself. Kentucky Kingdom re-opening. Excited to have a park just minutes from me. Banshee - Looks awesome and I can't wait to ride it. I always look forward to Coastermania at Cedar Point. And in Nov or Dec of 2014, I am hoping to take my niece to her first hockey game....probably only ECHL level to start with.

I'm in. My interests: Doctor Who True Blood hockey - Pittsburgh Penguins Russian/Eastern European history Vampires I collect Pepe Le Pew stuff This one is gong to seem odd - I make my own lotion bars, sugar scrubs, solid perfume, and just getting into lip balms....so stuff for making lip balm from brambleberry.com - any flavors, mica colorings (make sure it says lip safe), chapstick tubes, lip balm base, push tubes. Surprise me! Shirt size XL I can't think of anything else right now.

Here 'ya go! Haha! Awesome! Wow, there were more of us drinking than I remember. Nothing like a little collective boozing in the Dells to forget Hades! I didn't think there was that many drinking either. I love that our table has almost everyone with a dirty shirley in hand.

Since none of the other options made the cut, I've signed up for my 2nd choice...the mini-New Hotness. Check is in the mail.

What? No photos of us having the time of our life drinking at Mt Olympus? I think the only people that remember this day are the ones that were under 21. lol It is nice to see photos of Timberfalls. I remember getting on Hellcat, getting off of it and playing mini golf, but I don't remember the park or the ride itself. lol And I didn't get any photos of the place.

You won't be able to get any of the perks that the group will have, but you can show up and hang out with them. I am thinking about that as I don't think I can swing the vacation time for both mini hotness and West Coast.

#150 Arkansas Twister at Magic Springs.

Summer West Coast trip I would go on. Contemplating the mini New Hotness, but I live within 2 hour drive or less to most of the parks. So between that and not sure if I will have enough vacation time for 3 weeks off in a row, I probably will skip the mini, but maybe show up at KI and KK to hang out with some of you.

Need to go back and find the Oreo funnel cake. I can't believe I missed that.

I must have lost 5 pounds in that thing! They need to put up a sign stating that it is a round trip. That was the killer not being able to escape at the other end.

Almost always takes me close to 2 hours to get from eastern Louisville to KI with traffic in the greater Cincy area.

I can feel the pain all over again watching the video.

Time for park # 3. I timed my entry to Coney Island be after 4pm, when it was only $8 for the rides. There was some kind of technical problem at the ticket booths and ended up waiting almost 30 minutes to get the wristband (there was only 4 people ahead of me). I headed for Python first as it is right next to the ticket booths. Watching the supports sway a bit made me a bit nervous. It was about a 20 minute wait. Once I was closer to the station, I noticed that the ride ops had to manually push the training from the unload to the load stations. Nice! The ride was not very fun, as it would jerk to an almost stop often. I spent the entire ride with with my arms bracing myself against the seat in front of me. The kid that rode with me looked absolutely terrified during the entire ride. It could be improved if it would gradually slow down without slamming on the breaks. I headed over to the Flying Bobs next. Turns out it alternates between running forwards and backwards. I had to ride it twice to catch it backwards. While I was waiting in line, I saw a ride that I loved to ride at the county fair when I was in junior high - The Rock-O-Plane. So I headed over to them next. I don't remember the lap bar being that painful when I would get the cage to flip upside down. I wondered around a bit. Where Stricker's felt like a small festival, Coney Island felt like a fair - either a county fair or state fair. All the fair rides - Scrambler, Supper Roundup, Ferris Wheel, Tilt-a-Whirl and more were there. I ended up riding the Scrambler, Super Roundup, and The Tempest after walking around. The Tempest was different. I'm not even sure how to describe it. The Coney Island site calls it"A tornado-like whirling dervish." There are 4 compartments that hold 8 people each. There are two compartment on each side of the ride. The entire ride spins, and the each side spins and each compartment also spins - that is quite a bit of spinning. Like Stricker's, I didn't really look at the food offerings. I know there was a pizza place and I saw an ice cream truck and a shaved ice truck. Overall it was a cute little park and not very expensive. I wouldn't mind going back to check out the water park side of it. I think I need to turn in here. I'm in the right place My first glimpse at Python Another view of Python while looking for the ticket booth to buy a wristband so I can ride. While waiting in line for Python, a view of Flying Bobs - goes forwards and backwards Python train Had a hard time trying to get a good shot of Rock-O-Plane, as there was a big tree in the way. When I was younger I loved to stay upside down on the ride or to make it roll, but now - the lap bar is too painful. A Classic - Tilt-a-whirl The Scream Machine was not in operation that day. The Grand Carousel Play houses for kids The Tempest River Runner Super Roundup

Thanks for all the comments. I'm beginning to think I should have taken more photos while at Stricker's Grove. Maybe I'll try to get up there again, and try to take a few friends too. Now on to park #2. Since it was still pretty early (I probably spent a hour, if that at Stricker's), I decided to head over to Kings Island and make use of my season pass. I always joke that I stop in for a ride on something every time I pass through Cincy, and this wasn't an exceptions. The parking lot was fairly full, and I was lucky to grab a good spot as someone just happened to be pulling out as I was turning up a row. With all the speculation about the possibilities of the new coaster, my first stop was the Eiffel Tower to take a few photos of the construction area. I wandered over to Diamondback, I didn't see the wait time, I just saw the long line, guessed it was well over an hour by past experience and continued to Beast, which had a 45 minute wait. This ride was much better than my last on the Beast, when we were stuck on the track for about 15 minutes. After the Beast, it was time to head out to Coney Island. Tune in tomorrow for my report on Coney Island. View of the construction from the Eiffel Tower close-up of the right side Close-up of middle towards the back Close-up of the middle towards the front Close-up of the left side - the scarecrows are still there

On Saturday July 13th I had a goal to finally get to Stricker's Grove and Coney Island in Cincy. My last attempt was on the 4th of July and I gave up due to it raining all day (did win a bit at the casino while trying to wait out the rain). So Saturday started out nice and sunny, and once I managed to get through the road construction in Louisville, I was happily on my way to Stricker's Grove with an ETA of 1PM when the rides opened. It was interesting to find an small amusement park in the middle of what appears to be a farm. So it was opened this day due to a 4-H competition, so I wasn't expecting it to be very busy. There wasn't many cars in the parking lot, and I think most of them belonged to people manning the different booths. I saw maybe a dozen or so people walking around outside. I didn't go into the building where most of the exhibitions were, so maybe there were more inside? Not all the rides were open, but then the rides that were usually only had one or two people riding on them at any time. I walked around the park first and took a few photos. The park is very small with all the rides practically on top of each other. Because of this, I wasn't able to get a good shot of Teddy Bear's track. I was able to get a few decent shots of Tornado, but only while on the train ride. After my short tour round the park, I went and bought tickets for the rides I wanted to ride - the train ($1.50), Teddy Bear ($3.00) and tornado ($4.50). They only charged be $6 for the tickets, not sure why, but I wasn't going to question them. My thoughts on Stricker's Grove was that it reminded me of the various festivals that I went to as a kid (apple, pumpkin, coal, etc), where there are a bunch of small rides in a small space. The only thing different was this one had a couple coasters. I can see this as a place where a family with younger kids would go for a nice family day out...when the park is open. The next time is August 11th, if anyone is interested. I didn't really look at what food was offered, but I saw stands for soft serve ice cream, hot dogs, pretzels, and nachos. Teddy Bear is a small coaster. I would consider it a kiddie coaster. It was a pretty smooth coaster, pretty boring, but would be great for kids, like to two that rode a couple rows behind me. Tornado was my 75th coaster, I think. Since I only tried figuring out my coaster count a couple years ago, not sure what I may have forgotten that I rode as a kid. Tornado is another smooth coaster. Nothing too exciting, but it is bigger than Teddy Bear and has a bit more speed to it . There was about 6 other people riding it with me, which was the most people on a ride at the same time that I saw during my short time there. The train ride is 1/2 mile long. I expected a little bit more than what I got. Most of what you can see is nothing. When it first sets out, there is the back of the game building on the left and a corn field and empty field on the right. When it rounds the corner, you get to see the 4-H animals on the left and the river on the right. As it heads back on the straightway for most of it, there is pretty much nothing to look at on either side until you go under the driveway entrance to the park. Then you get a decent look at Tornado from the side that faces the road, and the back corner as the train rounds the final corner (track is an oval shape). There were some cute buildings as we pulled back into the station. Overall nothing exciting other than a nice view of Tornado, that I could have gotten from the road if I had pulled over before turning into the parking lot. I'll try to get KI and Coney Island up tomorrow. Arriving at Stricker's Grove Tornado from the road I don't remember ever seeing a Ferris Wheel this small. And a small Merry Go Round too. Teddy Bear coaster - it was impossible to get a shot of most of the track. Scrambler Tornado Tornado on the left (red), Teddy Bear on the right (blue) and the Flying Scooters. This is how the entire park is. There is really not much space between rides. Electric Rainbow in front of Tornado Weeeeee! The tickets to ride. 4-H Community Fair program Here I am for #75 Tornado Here comes the train! Really? This is the view? Not much better Making progress. The parking lot and the coasters. All this land and they stick all the rides in one small area. close up view from the train of Tornado

Stricker's Grove for the 4th of July

http://www.wdrb.com/story/22694922/kentucky-kingdom-confirms-it-has-secured-financing Kentucky Kingdom confirms it has secured financing Posted: Jun 26, 2013 2:38 PM EDT Updated: Jun 26, 2013 2:50 PM EDT LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- Ed Hart and his business partners say they've secured the private funding needed to reopen Kentucky Kingdom. It will spend $43.5 million to get the park up and running. Part of that will include refurbishing rides and buildings that have deteriorated since the park closed in 2009. The goal is to reopen it in May of next year. The group will talk about those plans on Thursday after the monthly meeting of the Kentucky State Fair Board, which is considering the plan. "Kentucky Kingdom has been closed for four long years," Hart said in a news release. "My partners and I are proud to announce our plans to spend $43.5 million to return the park to its former position as Kentucky's number one paid tourist attraction." Of the $43.5 million, $36 million will be spent in the first year, and $7.5 million in the second and third years as the park "ramps up to its full potential." Kentucky Kingdom is expected to open in May of next year. Copyright 2013 WDRB News. All rights reserved.

Can't wait until I get home from work so I can watch the video on a bigger screen and with sound. It looks amazing from what I could see on my phone.