ebl

^ Sounds like what my computer has! Anyway, no, I have yet to even go overseas, so I haven't had the displeasure of eating something to get "culture. Do you ever watch TV Land?

I took a day off of job hunting and got plenty of miles' worth of walking today. By a coincidence, it happened to be at SFMM. Who'da guessed? When I arrived about 10am, they were parking cars in the second part of the lot. The first section was deserted. But I found out that there was a special event later on after the park closed. Tonight, it was 6pm. There were a bunch of high school kids there for Physics Day, but I stayed anyway. All I rode was Tatsu, Scream!, Colossus, Goliath, and Ninja. Riddler was closed, and Deja Vu was open, but closed when I went over there. According to the guys there, it would be open in 45 minutes; didn't want to wait. Just after coming down from the Sky Tower with TPR member TATSUFAN and his brother, I ran into Jay Thomas, who was picking up trash with one of those claw thingies. Neal Thurman was with him and we talked to him for a bit. Apparently, someone tagged the ACE plaque honoring Revolution. That was one thing that Jay and Neal were alerted to. Lunch was at Johnny Rockets, did some more walking around, then headed for home. It was very nice out there, weatherwise and overall a nice break. Eric

^ OK, orange. But a funny fact: at one time, Calfornia's first-generation Intamin freefalls were the same colors as Gumby and Pokey---The Edge was Pokey, and SFMM's Freefall had been repainted in its teal green color! Eric

I had the old Coaster game, and the layout was very rough---in fact, not really that close. It sounds like an accurate layout is likely out there somewhere. I'd like to get ahold of it and re-do it in AutoCAD. Sometimes it still amazes me that there is almost 4000 feet of coaster track stuffed into that mountain. Eric

^ Less emotional than a rock. < Lived when everything was made of rocks. V Head is filled with rocks!

^ Funny...south of our border, they do take our money! Eric

^ Thinks I'm named "Kennyweird." < Thinks I'm going to head out after this post. V Thinks he's going to cry after reading this post!

Thank you so much for sharing all of this information about a ride that I once feared, but now enjoy despite being rather rough. Do you, Alpenguy (or anyone) have a good track plan? In all of the times I've ridden, I still can't figure out the layout of this thing. I well remember when the mountain was "hollow" inside and you could see the then single-car bobsleds rolling around the tracks. Those pictures brought back some memories. I think my first ride was about 1966 or 1967. Eric

I've heard nothing but good things about Morgan hypers. And I always forget that we actually have two Morgan coasters here in the Golden State, though none are hypers. One day, I'll get out and get some Morgan airtime under my belt, be it in Texas or elsewhere. Eric

^ Didn't understand my April Fools prank. < Doesn't understand continued unemployment. V Doesn't understand dirt!

"...they [Cedar Fair] would attempt to turn Knott's into Cedar Point West in order to compete with SFMM, however to date this has not yet happened." (AllenA07) They're working on it, though. Knott's may come close to Blackpool in number of coasters in such a small area. Pony Express is what, number nine for them? And I do agree about the whole SFMM vs. Cedar Point thing. It's pointless. Eric

"EBL wrote: Why is it that the more I hear "X2," the more I think of this as "Algebra---The Ride?" What a dumbass... Eric

"...money is money, but I do like it when they freshen it up every once in a while." (Louise) This is why I like the State Quarter program here in the U.S. And the 2004-2005 nickels. And the Presidential Dollars. And the forthcoming Lincoln cents in 2009. Even though we drive on the "wrong side of the road"---according to your historian, MG --- we do "change our change" occasionally. Eric

We interrupt your commercials to bring you a picture. This isn't my picture, but I found it on the Web a number of years ago. It's an aerial view of the old Busch Gardens in Van Nuys, CA. Looking toward the northeast, you can get a very good view of the park. For you locals, the north/south street running in the lower left of the picture is Woodley Avenue, and the street running along the top right of the picture is Roscoe Blvd. If I-405 could be seen, it would be in the upper right of the picture just beyond the brewery buildings. That bluish track that goes all over the park was the Arrow-built Sky Trolley monorail. This park had another Arrow monorail (similar to the one that used to be at Busch Gardens in Florida) that took visitors through the brewery. (You can't see that one in this picture.) Enjoy! Eric

"I don't think you can use that argument, especially when Universal just down the street chose to go with a different company even though they have several B&Ms" (SharkTums) True, maybe it's one of those great Zamperla flyers! Seriously, yeah, my reasoning was a bit flawed. We'll see what they get---after all, it's only a year away... Eric

No large park in their right mind would buy an S&S ride. Not because they're bad rides, but their capacity would be a nightmare. "Don't they have that new noninverting coaster with the cars suspended from the sides" (UberBeavis) I believe you're thinking of the Crazy Canoe. Again---capacity nightmare. They already have a B&M floorless, so a B&M flyer makes sense. Eric

Believe it or not, when Colossus opened in 1978 and ran the IAD trains, they claimed that ten (!) trains could run on the ride. To my knowledge, they never ran that many. Joey's right---only four trains (two per track) could run till they flattened the double-down and made it into a block brake. SFMM has run up to three trains per track, but I don't know if they ever had both sides up and running with a total of six trains. Right now, I don't even think they have six full trains to run, as I know that at least one train is in pieces (and part of it is up in the Sky Tower Museum). Eric

"La Vibora! I rode this 24 years ago when it was 'Sarajevo Bobsleds' at SFMM." Fixed for me! I have to do the major Texas parks sometime. The only one I've been to is Wonderland in Amarillo. Eric

The guy actually said, "Eleventy-five?" Who taught him how to count? Eric

A bit off-topic, but it does seem strange that San Francisco Municipal Railway would paint one of its Market St. trolleys in the old Pacific Electric Red Car scheme when that particular car didn't actually run in Los Angeles. I thought those trolleys were supposed to be actual cars from the various cities---sort of a rolling museum. Anyway, this is a very nice photo TR. The more I see about CGA, the more I feel like I need to go visit it again. It's been over eight years since my last visit. Eric

"In the UK it almost seems backwards." (Carnage) Well, remember which side of the road they drive on... Eric

Why did I think Britain adopted the euro? Or did they, and this is just traditional coinage? As a coin collector, I should know simple things like that. Eric

Glad to hear that the Dipper got some TLC and is running smooth. The last time I rode (August 2001), I had a very rough ride. It didn't help that I sat in the second row right on top of the wheels, but I'm sure it would have been rough nonetheless. My last visit to SeaWorld was September 1997, so I guess I'm due to go again... Eric

And why were they on the far side of Psyclone? I noticed that just before they got on. But I've always said, Psyclone was actually nice during its first couple of seasons. I used to get some decent airtime on it. Eric

^ Amen! I just got back from Del Taco, where I had a pair of chicken soft tacos (now with 50% more chicken!) and a Macho size Diet Coke. The tacos vanished rather quickly, but I'm still working on the Diet Coke! Eric