BJ KoasterKooK

Busch Gardens Williamsburg next Saturday, the 16th. Hopefully it'll be a dry day, but whatever, it's been awhile so were really looking forward to it.

Probably Phoenix at Knoebels. Of all my credits no coaster has always given me an ear to ear smile like Phoenix. Every ride, every year, time after time.

Like a number of others here, I seem to be right in the middle, exactly 31 of 62 in North America. Of those who listed their rides, that's in the top 25%, not bad overall.

Let's see; 1) Invert: Alpengeist, BGW 1998 2) Hyper: Apollos Chariot, BGW 1999 3) Sitdown: Incredible Hulk, IOA 2004 4) Dive: SheiKra, BGT 2006 5) Floorless: Batman TDK, SFNE 2006 6) Stand Up: Georgia Scorcher, SFOG 2007 7) Flyer: Superman UF, SFOG 2007 8) Wing: Wild Eagle, Dollywood 2013

Impluse at Knoebels last September, nice little ride.

Never been able to blend my steel & woodies, so; Steel 1) Bizarro 2) Banshee 3) Alpengeist 4) Skyrush 5) Apollos Chariot 6) I305 7) Diamondback 8) X2 9) Volcano:BC 10) Montu * Yes, I luv Inverts most Wood 1) Thunderhead 2) Comet (SFGE) 3) Phoenix 4) Lightning Racer - Thunder 5) Lightning Racer - Lightning 6) Beast 7) Great American Scream Machine 8) Wild One 9) Twister 10) Jack Rabbit or Thunderbolt (keep switching the KW pair)

Phoenix @ Knoebels last Friday, that's one coaster I luv doing over and over and over.

Also Impulse from Knoebels, a couple days ago.

Knoebels on Friday the 14th, can't wait to try out Impulse as well as numerous rides on the great woodies, especially Phoenix. Oh, and the food too

Redo after KI; out of 10: 1) Banshee 2) Alpengeist 3) Montu 4) Afterburn 5) Talon Basically, a new Banshee barely beats out an old Alpie, even with those great ride memories from 15-17 years ago.

I've had 15 "new" coaster rides between June 1st and 4th, the first being Banshee at KI, and the last being Sea Dragon at the Columbus Zoo

Kings Island June 1 & 2 Hershey Park July 5th Knoebels late July Adventure Park USA very soon to ride the "new" coaster

Alpengeist at BGW back in 98'. Even after all these years and 25-30 other B&M's it's probably still my favorite...good family memories I guess.

1) Alpengeist 2) Montu 3) Afterburn 4) Talon 5) DD - Fire 6) Great Bear 7) DD - Ice 8) B:TR (SFMM) 9) B:TR (SFOG) To elaborate slightly, ~80% of my rides on Alpie were in it's first 5 years of existence (say by 02'), when the back half of the ride was far more intense than it's current state (at least up to 13', didn't ride it last year) I'm fairly sure Katun, Nemesis, Banshee, and possibly Black Mamba would rise to the top of the list, but only Banshee is definitely on the horizon for the near future, like early June, I'm hopefully planning on.

1999 - Apollos Chariot (BGW) 2007 - Griffon (BGW) 2010 - Intimidator (Carowinds) 2012 - Skyrush (HP) Apocalypse (SFA) Verbolten (BGW) 2013/14 - *Flying Turns (Knoebels)- unsure what counts here as it was open last October for a couple/few weeks, I rode this year.

My first was Skyrush at Hershey, my last was Phoenix at Knoebels...or...Verbolten if I make it to Christmas town this year. I do wonder if they might fire up Alpie again, but I doubt it.

Skyrush; front row, outside right seat. Started the season off with a bang, or was that a wild bronco?

^ That's just sad, I can & do find good in any park, even the most ghetto of the bunch, SFA. I've only done five SF parks, so; 1) SFoG - a great blend of true southern atmosphere and some great coasters and rides. 2) SFMM - some great coasters mixed with hills, trees, and ergonomic movement nightmares when it's busy...kinda like a west coast HP, in my opinion. 3) SFNE - multiple trips, multiple fun, still luv Bizarro, miss the old Riverside Cyclone, looking forward to the replacement. 4) SFGE/TGE - a pearl of a wilderness park, just need a better steel coaster to match up with Comet to round out the park better. 5) SFA - rough park, literally, yet I enjoyed most of the rides and my experiences there. Guess it depends on who you're with, right? SFGAd, SFGA are my "goal" SF parks as they look the best from most enthusiasts point of view.

The Incredible Hulk @ IOA in 04', a rather nice, pedestrian introduction to launch coasters. The next year I did Flight of Fear, Hypersonic XLC, and Volcano:BC @ KD, all a bit more intense and fun launch coasters. To this day V:BC is my favorite overall, there is something special about a Suspended coaster launching you up through a volcano, twisting you sideways & then upside down in the process.

I've always luved the old Arrows, regardless of the uncomfortable OTSR's or inherent "roughness" of some of them. I believe I've ridden 15 of them, counting the Mine Trains, and my top five are: 1) X2 2) Loch Ness Monster 3) Big Bad Wolf 4) Tennessee Tornado 5) Drachen Fire It's too bad two of those are now defunct, and indeed, most are a dying breed of important history to the coaster enthusiast community.

^At least that was very true in the past when they did truly duel, the combined interaction of the two rides is/was far superior to either ride as stand alones, much less whatever they do now to separate the timing between the two. (All my rides were back when they did duel) That being said, I too rate Fire/CF a little bit higher as a single ride just for the slightly more intense overall nature and with that air-time hill being most superb. Although Ice's/HH's Zero G roll is excellent also.

1) Bizarro (SFNE) 2) Thunderhead (Dollywood) 3) Skyrush (HP) 4) Alpengeist (BGW) 5) Comet (SFGE) 6) Phoenix (Knoebels) 7) Apollos Chariot (BGW) 8) I305 (KD) 9) X2 (SFMM) 10) Volcano:BC (KD)

Too much great food out there to name just one or two. My top 5 based in order of when I first did them are as follows: 1) The hand made Cannelloni at the Ristorante della Plaza in BGW 2) Most anything at Mythos in IOA, especially the Mediterranean flat bread & chicken wrap, Blackened fish tacos, and something called Crispy Spanakopita...all yum. 3) The Smoked beef brisket, ribs, and BBQ chicken at the Zambia Smokehouse in BGA 4) Again, anything at Dollywood, especially the Fried Chicken & Cinnamon Bread 5) The Bison Burger and Pizza at Knoebels...there's more good options there, I just haven't got to them yet.

Phoenix; front row, right seat, orange train, almost a walk on.

-very surprised with such a low turnout thus far, hopefully there will be a late push of entries to get the ratings more accurate. Listing a top 20 seems to be the most popular, so: 1) Favorite Wood Coaster - Any Park Anywhere 2) Bizarro - SFNE 3) Alpengeist - BGW 4) Skyrush - HP 5) Apollos Chariot - BGW 6) I305 - KD 7) Volcano: BC - KD 8) Intimidator - Carowinds 9) Montu - BGT 10) Kraken - SWO 11) SheiKra - BGT 12) Goliath - SFOG 13) Afterburn - Carowinds 14) Griffon - BGW 15) Kumba - BGT 16) Dominator - KD 17) Incredible Hulk - IOA 18) Loch Ness Monster - BGW 19) Talon - Dorney 20) Phantoms Revenge - Kennywood 21) Superman:ROS - SFA