haux

How in the world is that an oxymoron? Do you even know what that word means?

Interactive educational walk-through museum.

Maybe I'm old school, but I like the real records of human achievements. Tallest building, longest fingernails, most watermelons crammed in one's anus. Stuff like that. I just find it to be an odd publicity stunt. Why not just say they want pirates there? No record. Did Goliath's opening have the most Davids and Goliaths in one place? Ha. I'm really not as angry as I sound. I just think it's kind of lame.

No kidding, larrygator. What a stupid record.

Hydro is an Intamin water ride, so it had the standard Intamin lap bars. Perilous Plunge was the same way, and the same thing happened to someone on it before this. Hydro now has OTSRs.

They're still saying it's got a 75-degree drop. Wasn't that incorrect?

Huh. That's a fairly old version of NoLimits. That's probably the same model that S&S has on its Web site. There's a screen shot of the El Loco, and this looks similar. Except for the drop. I don't see the 120-degree drop.

Why did they choose this name?! Didn't Shapiro or whoever is the head of Six Flags get that name changed at another SF park?

Actually, it's not really the same franchise. It's different people and a different engine, I believe. The Fairgrounds people got permission to slap the NoLimits name on their program because of its popularity. It's been a long time since that was explained to me, so I may be a little off.

I totally agree about the drop ride. I didn't ride the one at Beech Bend, but I rode the one at Castles 'n' Coasters. It's totally sick. You hit it right on the head. You can't see where the top is, and you just drop. No wait. No way of knowing when you're near the top. It's just a drop. It's the best drop ride I've ever been on. Oh, and Kentucky Rumbler's pretty freaking good too.

I'd say it's real. Vekoma and NoLimits work together, so I'm sure it's the real deal. I can ask the NL team if you want.

I called, and they said they'll even run the rides in the snow. As long as it's not lightning or it's above 38 (I think) degrees, the rides will run.

Beech Bend opened at 5 p.m., so it was dark by the time we got there. To start, you drive through the Christmas lights set up in the campground. They're pretty cool. The best part was driving through the 12 days of Christmas. The lights are set up beginning with a partridge in a pear tree, followed by two turtle doves and so on. After winding through all that, you come to the race oval, which is the parking lot for this event. There's a hay ride or a shuttle that take you to the park. We took the shuttle because it was freezing outside. We (Doug, his friend Andy, Christy and I) got off at the park and walked the long way around the pond to Kentucky Rumbler. We'd never been here before, so we just wandered around. We bought our tickets in a gift shop next to the coaster. We got enough tickets for two rides each on Kentucky Rumbler. Off to the coaster! Christy and I sat in the back car, and Doug and Andy sat in the car in front of us. This was going to be cold. The ride hosts waited for a few more people to board. They went to the front of the train. We handed the ride host our tickets, and off we went. There's a short prelift run that drops into an airtimeless bunny hop. The lift hill's quick, and the turn before the first drop rules. I like it because it's really quick, and there are some good lateral G's in the turn. The first drop has pretty good airtime. It's really abrupt. The rest of the ride is a blur. My hands and face were freezing, so that's what I mostly focused on. But I did notice that the airtime is better than Thunderhead's. It's a lot quicker, and there's more of it. But this ride didn't really have the total out-of-control feeling Thunderhead does. Not that it matters. 10/10. It became my No. 5 wooden coaster. We rode twice. We switched seats for the second ride so Doug and Andy could ride in the back row. This ride was just as freezing as the one before. Oh, how I torture myself. It was probably about 27 degrees. Ouch. My exposed skin hurt. Two rides was enough. We didn't want to die, so we went over to miniature golf. We rode Bench: The Ride first, then we grabbed our stuff for mini golf, which is free. We played half a round -- nine holes. It was freezing! The course was set up with Christmas decorations. We finished that before we froze to death. We sucked, but that's usual for me with mini golf. I didn't see the par on any of the holes, and the score card didn't say. Whatever. It was too cold to care. We stood by one of the many fires set up around the park so we could warm up. After that, we got back on the shuttle and into our car. We got our coaster credit in, nearly froze to death doing it, and we played some golf. It was a fun, quick day. The lights set up around the park were cool too. I'd like to visit Beech Bend sometime during the regular season. I'm sure Kentucky Rumbler really rips it up when you're not worrying about your hands and face falling off. Fire keeps us warm. I have to ride Bench: The Ride. Woo! Freezing cold golf. Lights set up around the park. Kentucky Rumbler's great first drop. The reason we're freezing.

Leftover paint from Wicked Twister.

It wasn't too cold. It was in the 50s and rainy. At least it wasn't snowing. Wait until I write my Beech Bend TR. It was about 27 degrees when we rode Kentucky Rumbler. Oh man.

My friend Doug, girlfriend Christy and I got up really early to leave Ohio and head to Tennessee to visit Dollywood. We'd never been there before, and once we found out it was open in December, we had to make a visit. The drive was going to be long, and a storm was heading into the area. We hoped to miss the storm, but it hit us when we were in Kentucky. And things got worse. After stopping at a gas station for gas and food, we got back on the interstate and headed on our way. Maybe a mile after getting back on the interstate, we hit a patch of snow, spun completely around and went off the road. We were shaken up but OK. The car was fine too. We called a tow truck and paid $80 to get us winched out of there. The rest of the drive was slow, but that was fine, as the snowflakes got bigger. We got to Dollywood after noon and immediately headed to Thunderhead, where we were greeted with a sign telling us the wait was no minutes. I was really excited because I hadn't been on a GCI since 2005, when I rode Lightning Racer and Wildcat at Hersheypark. I absolutely love Millennium Flyer trains, and Christy got to experience her first coaster with them. She fell in love with them too. Christy and I waited about two trains for the back seat, and Doug rode in the car in front of us. The prelift run is a simple turn dropping to the right and circling around. I like it because it speeds up quickly and gives some laterals. The first drop on Thunderhead is spectacular. There's good airtime, and it's steep and twists sharply to the right. Then the track banks to the left into an insane hill and then goes into a double up. There wasn't much airtime in the double up, which disappointed me. But the next part had great air. The track drops and banks to the right, flies into a turn to the right and drops, where your photo is taken. It then soars into a high hill before the station fly-through. That's really cool. I waved at the people in the station each time I rode. Then the ride hits a turn to the left, a drop and a bunny hop with some floater airtime. This is when the ride really gets out of control. There's a shorter bunny hop and a turn to the left. Then the ride has some small hills lots of turns and a big turn into the brakes. Thunderhead was amazing. 10/10. It became my No. 3 wooden coaster. We went to Mystery Mine next since it's just up the hill from Thunderhead. I was pretty excited for my first Eurofighter and the second coaster I'd have ridden with a beynd-90-degree drop. The wait was pretty short, and only one train was being loaded at a time. We got seated in the second row. I wasn't really familiar with Mystery Mine's layout, but I knew it had a big 95-degree drop that turned a little, and I knew it had a heartline roll and a twist-and-dive maneuver. Watching the twist and dive from the midway was awesome because it looks like you'll get more than a second of hangtime. The drop out of the station surprised me. I wasn't watching the cars leave, so I didn't know it did that. The prelift run was really cool. There's a part where the track is banked the wrong way, and it's taken slowly. That was fun. The theming on the ride is really good. The vertical lift was cool, and I thought it would drop right out of it, but it didn't. It turns to the left, then the right and goes into a block brake. Then it drops 90 degrees, turns through a high-banked turn, a helix and goes into another block brake. Then it drops and enters a hill that, sadly, doesn't have airtime. It enters the mine again. A bird in a cage on the left of you dies, which I found hilarious each time we rode. You go up the second vertical lift hill, and there's a video at the top showing the mine shaft collapsing or something. It was pretty neat. You stop at the top, and some fuses burn toward explosives. A fire bursts in front, and then you drop down the big drop. That was crazy and really fun. The airtime is great, and the drop gave me a little tickle in my stomach. It flips through the heartline roll really quickly, and the twist and dive is right afterward. I was right about the hangtime. It's insane. There's about a second and a half or maybe even two seconds of just hanging out of the seat. I love it! It drops and enters the brakes. Wow. What a rush! 9/10. We walked down the midway and headed toward Tennessee Tornado. This park has an odd layout. It's not a circle or an oval or anything like that with ends connecting. It just has fingerlike midways that extend into the hills. The coasters are at the ends of the fingers. So we had to leave one and walk up an extremely long one to get to Tennessee Tornado. The wait for Tennessee Tornado was pretty short. We only waited a train before we boarded in the back car. The lift hill is built on the side of a hill, so it doesn't come too far off the ground. The first drop is great. It swoops to the right, where there are good G-forces, then it enters a hill and drops in a tunnel through the ground. There's great airtime in that hill. The big loop is next. That was fun, and I was glad that Arrow updated its design and made a smooth coaster with a large loop. There's an overbanked turn followed by the butterfly element, which is a loop and a sidewinder. That was fun, and the G's were pretty high. There's another high-banked turn, and it ends with an airtime hop into the brakes. Tennessee Tornado was pretty fun, but we only rode once. 7/10. We asked an employee how many coasters were in the park because we'd forgotten. She told us that Blazing Fury also was a coaster, so we went to it. We looked at the track in the station and saw that the rails were I-beams. It was built in-house. We sat in the back car after a short wait. Most of the ride is powered and goes through different scenarios with things on fire, though there isn't any real fire during the ride. We got dripped on a few times on the ride, which took us by surprise. Most of the ride is really dark. The ride was sort of confusing because I didn't really see how it was a coaster. Then we got to the end when it just suddenly drops. The airtime took us by surprise, and Christy slammed into the lap bar. There's another big drop and some turns, and it ends with a water splash. Wow. What a wild ending to a mild ride. We talked to a mechanic afterward, who told us the ride was built in 1978 by the park. We rode again in the front seat, and we got hit by some water in the water splash. I liked the back seat more. 5/10. We went to Village Carousel on our way to the Dollywood Express train. The train didn't leave for about 30 minutes, so we rode the carousel. It was OK. The ride lasted a long time. Christy looked at me and said it was taking forever and that we hadn't slowed down in a while. We went to the train and waited in the station. While in the station, we rode Bench: The Ride. Whee. We got on the train, which was pretty cool. The engine is a big steam engine, and the track is five miles long. It goes through the woods and hills and has a big loop at the end. We slowed down, and the announcer told us some caribou were on the tracks. Ha. I imagine it slowed down so the track could be switched at the end of the loop so we could go back. The woods were really pretty, and it's a cool, relaxing ride. I'm sure it would have been better if it weren't rainy and already night, but I enjoyed myself. We went to Demolition Derby next, the bumper cars. Doug didn't ride. I didn't really like the setup on this ride. You have to drive around in an oval. You can't just bump into anyone because you have to drive around the track. Also, at the end, you have to pull the car up to the side of the track and park it. Everyone parks the cars on the side in a row. Weird. We took the trek back to Thunderhead, where there was no wait at all. We hopped on, and when we got off, the ride hosts told everyone they could reride as long as they didn't get in the same seat they were just in. Sweet. We took advantage of this for three rides. Then we went to the Timber Tower, the Huss Topple Tower. Since it had been rainy most of the day, the seats were wet. It sucked sitting down and getting our butts wet, but we rode anyway. We were the only people on the ride. It's fun and really has a different feeling. The parts I like are when it tilts down and you're facing backward. It's a weird sensation. There are sound effects on parts of the ride, and it was timed so we would hear them when we faced the ground when it tilted. 6/10. We went to Mystery Mine and rode that twice. We got the back row the first time and the front row the second time. I really enjoy this coaster. To end the night, we went to Thunderhead and rode eight more times. Thunderhead gets totally insane at night. The ride is completely dark in parts, and its speed goes crazy after the station fly-through. The back seat is the best place to sit, and we tried lots of areas. The front seat was OK, but the airtime is way more intense in the back. Thunderhead is a spectacular addition to the park. We decided to head out since we were tired. We wandered around and looked at the lights, which were all over the place. Dollywood is a great park with some awesome rides. The only negatives I have are the odd layout and the size of the bathrooms. The park has long, hilly paths with dead ends, which makes it a little annoying when you try to get from one place to another. The bathrooms are also pretty small. On a day like this, which wasn't crowded, there was a wait at both bathrooms I went to. It's also pretty expensive ($48 ), and we were told there are no discounts. 8/10. And we had to ride Bench: The Ride. Woo hoo. The lights around the park were impressive. The butterfly element. Good G's there. Big Arrow loop. Best hangtime ever. Awesome second hill. A sign I like to see. Woo! Saved! For $80. Scary! We're off the road! The roads got covered in snow quickly.

Everyone else is posting theirs, so I might as well post mine. To think, back when I first rode it in 2000, The Beast was my favorite wooden coaster. And it still was in 2002. But it's slipped. So has Ghostrider. Shame. The Voyage Holiday World ,IN,y,y,1 My Favorite Steel Anypark Anywhere ,**,y,n,2 The Legend Holiday World ,IN,y,y,3 New Mexico Rattler Cliff's ,NM,y,n,4 Raven Holiday World ,IN,y,y,5 Lightning Racer - L Hersheypark ,PA,y,n,6 Lightning Racer - T Hersheypark ,PA,y,n,6 Thunderbolt Kennywood ,PA,y,n,7 Jack Rabbit Kennywood ,PA,y,n,8 Screechin' Eagle(S) LeSourdsville Lake ,OH,y,n,9 Blue Streak Cedar Point ,OH,y,y,10 Wildcat Hersheypark ,PA,y,n,11 Cyclone Lakeside ,CO,y,n,12 Thunder Run Kentucky Kingdom ,KY,y,y,13 Racer Kings Island ,OH,y,y,14 Racer Kennywood ,PA,y,n,15 Thunderhawk Dorney Park ,PA,y,n,16 Big Dipper (SBNO) Geauga Lake ,OH,y,n,17 Twister II Elitch Gardens ,CO,y,n,18 The Villain (SBNO) Geauga Lake ,OH,y,n,19 Beastie Kings Island ,OH,y,n,20 GhostRider Knott's Berry Farm ,CA,y,n,21 Colossus S.F. Magic Mountain ,CA,y,n,22 Gwazi-Tiger Busch Gardens-Tampa ,FL,y,n,23 Gwazi-Lion Busch Gardens-Tampa ,FL,y,n,24 The Beast Kings Island ,OH,y,y,25 Raging Wolf Bobs(S) Geauga Lake ,OH,y,n,26 Twisted Twins-Lola Kentucky Kingdom ,KY,y,y,27 Mean Streak Cedar Point ,OH,y,y,28 Psyclone S.F. Magic Mountain ,CA,y,n,29 Rattler Fiesta Texas ,TX,y,n,0 Son of Beast Kings Island ,OH,y,n,0

This is the gayest nongay thread I've seen on these forums. But, man, I like hot dogs! (not gay)

Superman Krypton Coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas has crazy hang time in the loop. It really surprised me. An apostrophe does not mean plural. You did it three times!

Scandia Amusement Park is near the Ontario (Calif.) International Airport. The Screamer coaster even tells you to watch for low-flying aircraft.

Cool pictures, Hector. You need to shave.

Wow. That sucks that it's doing poorly so early in its life. Does the salt water have anything to do with that too? Maybe they should have gone with steel supports. I'm surprised The Gravity Group didn't because they seem to only be doing that. Congrats on 400 rides in three months. So, do you have a job or something? Because I understand if you don't.

I hate to be a cynic because Arizona really needs an amusement park, but this isn't happening. Period. But I bet I know exactly where they're planning this. Some guy maybe a decade ago was planning on building a family amusement park in or near Eloy (between Tucson and Phoenix), but he went bankrupt or something. There are still a few theming elements sitting on this large plot of land near Interstate 10. I bet these people bought that land or are planning on buying it. But a rock 'n' roll park? South Carolina called ...

Look at the support in the block brake. It's just two supports with wide bases that meet in the middle. That seems crazy.

The car ride is in Kiddie Kingdom, so the beeping should stay. This is cool. I heard this area's getting Beaver Land Mine Ride from Geauga Lake.