mikeykaise

Cannonball at Lake Winnie in Chattanooga yesterday evening.

well, well, well, no surprise but the Koch family has withdrawn from the Bluegrass Boardwalk project. Its never going to reopen because no one wants to deal with all the headaches that come with dealing with the Kentucky State Fair board. Here is the official statement from the Bluegrass Boardwalk website: Bluegrass Boardwalk withdraws from project June 15th, 2012 Paula We’re so sorry to share this sad and disappointing news. Thank you to all who expressed their unbridled enthusiasm in this project. We will remove this website plus our Facebook and Twitter pages within the week. The following news release was emailed to the news media this afternoon: Bluegrass Boardwalk withdraws from project (June 15, 2012) Louisville, Kentucky —Following nine months of planning to reopen Louisville’s shuttered amusement park, Bluegrass Boardwalk, Inc. today withdrew from the project. “We entered into this discussion last October with full expectation of leasing the park,” says Bluegrass Boardwalk CEO Natalie Koch. “However, we have come to the realization that leasing a park rather than owning it would take us too far from the business model my family has followed for more than 60 years.” Koch says she and her partners were financially prepared to meet the challenge of reopening the abandoned park, however the many layers of governmental regulations and stipulations ultimately caused them to withdraw. Koch says she and her partners believe reopening the Louisville park is still a worthwhile project and they wish the future operator well. “It’s been a lifelong dream for my family to operate a second park,” says Koch, whose family owns and operates Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. “It’s hard to walk away from what we believed was a winning partnership for Kentucky and our team. But at the end of the day, the terms of the project did not fit our business model. It was time to withdraw.” A letter terminating the proposed lease agreement was delivered to the Kentucky State Fair Board this afternoon.

ok, I've reached my draft choice after consulting with sages, mages, and spending hours meditating with my Jedi Master I will have to go with the one that grew up in the same home town as me, Columbus Indiana, the Columbus Comet, the Rushville Rocket, the best athlete out there by far, the man himself, the driver of the #14 car, two-time NASCAR champion....... TOOOOOOOOOONNNNNYYYY STEWWWWWAAAARRRTTTT!!!!! Go Tony!!!

I like both brides, one for each arm that way.

here is a link to a video that Kings Island had us make right after doing the group photo of all the Kings Island coasters in front of the racer before we started our all day ride. Enjoy: http://twitpic.com/9uzo72

Well I'm finally sitting here resting my sore back and shoulders all I can say wow! what a blast. Kings Island had a good TPR turnout with 11 people. What a funny group of people. I had fun and never thought I'd hear myself say "No more coasters for me today" but at 5pm after getting soaked on the Log Flume and Whitewater Canyon to cool off I was just coastered out. I thought having two families that personally visited and stayed at GKTW was awesome even though something in my lunch made my eyes start to water. I had a blast talking to the people on the red train as we were going up the lift hill and of course some friendly race talking was taking place. I loved all the people I met and was happy to make more TPR connections and friends. All in all I have to say I can't wait until next year!!!!

We're packing up and getting ready to head out. Mason, Ohio or bust! Can't wait to meet my fellow King Islanders tomorrow. I'll see everyone there.

It was definitely a fun time. I only got one ride on Raven with my son and one on Legend on Friday night and none on Saturday. My son is still wary of them a little bit so I think next year it will be my wife and me. Mammoth was an awesome ride and it was freezing when we rode it at 11 am so I can just imagine what it was like during ERT. This was an awesome trip report and I'll definitely have to get a nice camera my poor blackberry camera doesn't make a very good coaster camera.

this was a harder duck find this week. I'm not close to the others but lock me in for 5.

I love the whole roller coaster tracking and water ride combo, looks like a very fun ride.

dvr set and can't wait to see Big Mike win big prizes and hopefully really set the big wheel spinning and winning the big cash and the hot girls...

Go go gadget hammer! gazooks!

It looked like to me mountains covered in clouds but there's no mountains anywhere close to Cedar point.... awesome pics again Hanno.

That's what I told her and I'm telling her lets go Saturday and we can ride everything we want but you know wifes and the whole listening to husbands thing.

My wife asked me a question that she was curious about and since this is my first coasting event I wasn't sure. She was curious if we got off the racer to take a break from it if its kosher if we got in line for another ride or would that be considered bad form?

I think I counted 6 duckies but I could be wrong since I kept on getting distracted by the amusement park rides.

That's the version of Elvis that most impersonators do--maybe because it doesn't matter how fat you are? Looks like Elvis went overseas and had a quick sex change done just in time for the ride opening but chose to still dress the same.

I've only been to CP once as a teenager and that was the summer Millenium Force had just opened. I wish I could get back there this summer. Oh well, there's always next summer.

blown away at how much has been raised. I'm playing catchup with topics since work has been consuming all my time here for the past week or two. I've got some possible donations I'm working on, but Our team rocks.... Go Kings Island TPR!!!

I like the kid in the Onell or Oneil shirt... not screaming or anything just sitting back and enjoying the ride like he was watching a football game or something.

beautiful picture and touching letter Kara... aww drat stupid allergies where's my box of Kleenexes.

Thank you Robb & Elissa!!!!!!!!!! I got my first TPR shirt today, I got my first TPR shirt today!!!! What an awesome surprise inside of the envelope with the t-shirt.

To me it kind looks like the cup wasn't running over just working its way loose and she was pulling it back into place? Women riding coasters are all kinds of sexy....

What an awesome trip report, its wierd to not see a jammed pack Walt Disney park but looks like you picked a good time for a vist.

That is awesome, it will be my first Coasting for Kids event and my first TPR event also. I haven't been to Kings Island since around 2000 so I'm hoping to get a ride in on a couple of the new coasters that have been installed since my last visit after the event and before the last rites on Beast. I'm stoked about that too I've never had a chance to ride beast at night like I've been wanting to. I've almost made a full circle. I was born in Cincy and lived there till I was 10 and then moved to Indiana. I grew up there and got married in Indiana then got transferred to Louisville for work so I'm thinking in another 10 years or so it might be time to close the circle.