ytterbiumanalyst

Fire today at the pork rind shop, park evacuating. https://www.ozarksfirst.com/local-news/local-news-local-news/officials-two-shops-are-on-fire-at-silver-dollar-city/ [quote]BRANSON, Mo.- According to the Southern Stone County Fire Protection District, a pork rind shop and woodcarving shop are on fire. Fire crews are on their way, and evacuations are in progress. OzarksFirst crews say that the park is now closed. A crew inside the park said that there were no reported injures moments after the fire. Fire crews are still putting out an active fire at this time. This is a developing story.[/quote]

Good luck to him! He's been trying for a while to get this park back together again. Hoping he finally is able to make it happen.

New Courtney Barnett album, y'all!

White Lies - As I Try Not to Fall Apart

Agreed, Jake. Every time they rehab/replace a ride they make it way better. I have loved FITH since I was a kid, it was my first roller coaster, but I can't wait to see how much better this new one is.

They both are really great dark rides, but FITH has had a lot of audio issues lately. It kinda feels on its last legs. FM has always been mechanically difficult to maintain with the animatronics in the water, but they've really kept up quite well. I'll embrace a FITH replacement, but I don't see a good reason to replace FM at this point.

What is this "Metro East" you speak of? There are no St. Louisans in Illinois. Beyond the Arch there be dragons.

Oh this is a cool topic! Thank you for posting it! I went with friends and no adults starting in junior high, so probably about 11 or 12. There were exactly three rules: 1. Be back by this time at this meeting spot. 2. Don't go off by yourself. 3. At least one person must have a watch at all times. If, say, there's a group of 4 and you split into 2 groups, one person in each pair must have a watch. What would I do now? Same basically, with some adjustments for technology. No need to meet up at a particular time if you can just text to find each other. 1. Charge your phone the night before and have a full charge when you arrive at the park. 2. Charge a back up battery and bring it with you, with the proper cable to connect to your phone. 3. If I text you, text me back as soon as is reasonable. 4. Don't go off by yourself. My kids haven't actually asked to go to a park with friends and not us yet, but these are basically the rules we've used when we've gone to parks as a family and they want to go off by themselves. Theme parks are pretty safe places, all things considered, so I'm not too worried about things happening to them.

Yeah, SDC keeps the water rides open through the end of October unless first freeze happens before then. We're still hitting 80 on the reg here, so not worried about a freeze yet.

I was about to say, "You drove when you were a kid?" and then I remembered that there is nothing but corn between St. Louis and Sandusky, so you know, have at it.

Nah, the track for the 500 footer will arrive by submarine. Easier to install it under Lake Erie that way.

Ooooh, it's happening! Very excited about this. Do we have anything at least quasi-official about them turning the backstage area between FITH and Outlaw Run into a guest path and completing that loop? Been rumoured for years, and it makes so much sense, but wondering if we have anything more than wishes and reasons.

steve types in all lower case,

Tennessee Tornado runs every day, I don’t know what you're talking about.

You're welcome!

We are the children of those who tolerated this, but the Manics are still there for us.

Remember, remember, the 5th of November....

Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain doesn't jackhammer at all!

Clearly you didn't watch the video associated with that announcement. The worker housing is to entice people to come from outside the area to work at Dollywood. It is not for current employees who already live in eastern Tennessee.

I will add that the rides close if the temperature reaches those limits anywhere on the ride. Your weather app will be reporting the surface temperature, but the temperature at, say, the top of the lift hill can be 2-3° less.

Good to know, sounds fun. I've had an idea for a Carowinds/Kings Dominion/Busch Gardens/SF America/Ocean City Maryland trip, whenever that becomes possible again. Charlotte is one of the few places I can get a direct flight.

Interesting. I haven't been on Ride of Steel, but the trains do look a lot like MF's in the photos. 54" for it, hmm? Interesting.

Yeah, if it's a safety thing, you'd think that identical trains would have an identical height requirement. Cedar Fair just puts theirs way higher than other parks and I don't know why. So as long as they do that, their parks are just not going to be as great for families with younger children.

You are spot on, DILinator. Even out here in Missouri, Worlds of Fun is far stricter than Six Flags about their height policies (although SDC beats them both). I remember one time when my son was 46" exactly going up to Fury of the Nile. The employee at the beginning of the queue said he was good, so we waited like 30-40 minutes or so, then when we got all the way up to the front, the ride op decided he was under 46" and that was that. I felt like one of "those parents" insisting that the other employee height checked my kid before we got in line, but it was the honest truth! Ultimately they didn't buy that, and I don't blame them, they didn't have a system set up for the two employees to communicate with each other so they couldn't take my word for it. We just went back the next year and he was inarguably tall enough. Also frustrating is the fact that both SFStL and SDC's rapids rides had a 36" height minimum on basically the same ride (this was a few years ago so it was still Lost River of the Ozarks, not Mystic River Falls).

That's an excellent band name.