bert425

Rudy's is gas station chain BBQ. It's decent but not great. Black's in New Braunfels is fantastic tho. are you driving to Dallas along I35? If yes, when you pass thru Austin, I highly recommend a stop at Baby A's - famous for their texmex and STRONG frozen Margaritas (available in 10-12 flavors, including the infamous "Purple" (made with everclear - limit 2 per customer), and take out from Franklin BarBQue (just off of 11th street) to eat later in the drive. https://www.babyacapulco.com/ the one on Barton Springs is the one you want https://franklinbbq.com/ there isn't gonna be anything decent near Fiesta or SeaWorld, other than chain restaurants. Both are along loop 1604 that loops wide around the city. You'll need to go into San Antonio proper for really good TexMex or authentic food, and there are many mom/pop places. Just pull up Yelp and look at reviews. If you go to the Riverwalk, the location is stunning, but most of the food is only so-so. This place is decent tho, and is on the Riverwalk close to the entrance that's across from the Alamo. The portions are big, and I know the Chile Rellenos are fantastic. Casa Rio https://www.casario.com/ there's also a decent Brazillian Steakhouse that's close to there too (tho over by Hemisfair plaza) - Fogo de chao - it's a chain, but it's good. I don't know how it compares to the one you note above, as haven't ever tried that one. https://fogodechao.com/location/san-antonio/ *if you're eating in the Parks: SFFT has good-better than decent at: Aztek Nacho, Totally Kicken Chicken (strips), and I've hear the BBQ place by Whitewater Bay (Old Blues) is quite good. anything else is gonna be standard Theme Park Food - tho some unusual options in the Sangerfest Halle - but they are all sorta mediocre, as is the Asian food at Chop Six, and the burgers (mostly boiled) and pizza thruout the park. SFOT - it's all substandard theme park food, at least in my experience. We end up at Johnny Rockets in Gotham as that's the least nasty choice we can always find. . tho I hear the sit down place over by Runaway Mountain is decent (but have never eaten there, we always pass it by after looking at the menu) I haven't been in Schlitterbahn in years, but I think you can bring in your own food? Id just eat local outside the park (s) anyways. (there are two separate sides to Schiltterbahen, if you weren't aware - shuttles can bring you back and forth between the two sides) There's a really good local pizza chain in New Braunfels, called "Stouts". . while looking this up for ya, it appears they have two locations in San Antonio now. . so that's an option for above too, if you like Pizza: https://www.stoutspizza.com/oakrun-new-braunfels-location hope this helps. bert

^^ HAHAHAHA. . until you just posted that? I TOTALLY forgot that Grizzly existed. and I've had some really good rides on it! (front car of train, non wheel seat)

the world is a BETTER place today. good riddance to rubbish (whom I won't even name, as he doesn't "deserve" to be called a Celebrity, even tho he was). but this gif sums up my feelings. and if you think that's horrible? this is a person who made fun of Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's Disease.

they have my *favorite* junior coaster in Woodstock Express. I could ride that sucker all day, so I'd count that in the standout category. Flight of Fear is great too - even if it does come to a complete stop at MCBR and I enjoyed Rebel Yell (can't recall what that racer is called now). Even Apple Zapple is really good for a pretty standard mouse. Volcano was great, but without it, the only "bad" coasters there (to me), are Anaconda - which at least has a lovely setting over the lake, and the MiniCooper ride, which I just didn't like.

I dont' recall FoF having that extra "side" seatbelt, that won't click in, unless you have the lap bar down low enough. but it's absolutely there on Poltergeist, and causes lots of walks of shame.

SFFT is, I think, the only park with Two RMCs they also have the 1st S&S Freespin in the United States

INCREDIBLY friendly. I've only ever seen one person not able to get the "cage" restraint to click. (WW does not have standard RMC restraint. .it's a "cage" that comes down over you - with two connected shoulder straps - and then clicks into a seatbelt in the front. the only coaster you're going to have an issue with is going to be Poltergeist. the restraints on that are NOT friendly to many different body types - the lap bar will be fine, but the shorter side seatbelt MUST be able to click, and many folks have issues with that. So expect you won't be able to ride Poltergeist. It's extremely rare that I've ridden and the train didn't have at least 1 - usually 2 - folks that have to get out as restraint won't click in place. the two B&Ms (Goliath (Batman clone) & Superman) both have "Big Boy" seats). Iron Rattler & Pandemonium have lap bar that have a lot of space. IR has an adjustable seat belt that has to be on too.. that wont' be an issue, but you might need to really suck in to get the green light. you should be ok. Roadrunner is old skool lap bar restraints, so no worries there. Batman (S&S 4D), again has an overhead that has to lock in, but also never seen someone walked from that. I dunno on Boomerang, as havne't ridden in a while, but believe it's OTSR, so that should be ok if you wanted to ride it.

it'll all melt by Friday. supposed to be in the mid 40's on Thurs, and low 50's on Friday.

agree with you on SFOT. . but I'd also put Giant in "mediocre" category. and would move Batman up to "decent" Runaway Mountain is a lot of fun, and not sure why folks never talk about it.

it's immortalized on my Coastermania 2017 T-shirt as a coaster. . . Pipe Scream the coaster - it's forever!

I'm *living* for it being called "Croc Drop" I hope the teeth glow at night!

Park President Jeffrey Siebert has been sharing some wonderful pictures online! (I did mention to him I was going to post them here at TPR)

thanks. . . don't wanna jinx it - especially since it's a statewide mandate for the rolling blackouts. We don't use Austin Energy tho, since we're technically not in the city. Our power company IS doing the rolling blackouts too, but not as severe as Austin Energy is doing, and hasn't affected us (yet).

howdy from Austin this morning. Gee. . why didn't Fiesta open today???? (and file this under: Holy crap) 4.7 degrees this am

^ looks great!

not that it wasn't a given anyways, but Jeffrey Siebert posted this (to the newest Texas Coaster FB group) yesterday. so here it is officially from the Park President:

oh yes. . DEFINITELY the correct call. right now, forecast for Sunday/Monday has low temps predicted to be -1 (with high of 8). yeah. we're under Winter storm warning until Monday afternoon (sleet/ice thruout weekend), with 100% chance of Snow on Monday. then a 2nd front coming thru on Wed with 60% chance of snow! *but* right now, on Sat, 2/20, high is supposed to be low 60's, and on Sunday High in the 70's here's our back peach tree from a few hours ago (we've gotten SUPER lucky and haven't lost any limbs from the large trees in the front - the rest of the neighborhood looks like a bomb dropped with broken trees everywhere - but seeing the forecast? yeah, we're gonna lose some of our tree limbs).

One that really hurt me today, was Rowena passed. I have so many books/games on my shelves that feature her cover art. She was most known as a fantasy artist, but she did quite a few Horror book covers as well. She'll be missed, as I was a big fan. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rowena_Morrill

thanks for the reminder on the front page! My input is done! some slight changes in my top 10, but pretty similar to last year!

if they moved it to Canada, would they need to change out the I-Sux topper track?

I assumed it was "theming" LOL

there's PLENTY of space up on top of that hill to put a Windseeker next to the drop tower.

^ not surprising at all. just took this out the back window - and the "real" cold (with Snow and temps in the teens) isn't supposed to hit until Sunday.

^ park map from ~2017 (so before the new stuff was added). . . NOT to scale, there's a LOT of space between attractions it's very spread out with a lot of space still to expand. (and it's less than 5 minute drive from the Horseshoe falls - you can see them from the drop tower, which makes that tower even more amazing)