mightypotato

While both can be awesome, I'd throw my support behind the humble burrito. It's like an edible sleeping bag of happiness.

Well...it's been a while since I've posted in this thread and boy have I been busy. Since Nine Inch Nails, I've seen the following concerts: - Arkona - Kreator, Overkill, Warbringer - Death Angel, 3 Inches of Blood, Revocation, Battlecross - GWAR - Alestorm It was a busy month, but it also marks the end of my 2013 concert schedule. Unless something comes up randomly in December, the next show I'll be at will be in February. Sad times. Here are some photos and such from my last month of concert going: Arkona! Warbringer! Overkill! Kreator! Revocation! Battlecross! 3 Inches of Blood! Death Angel! Band of Orcs! They opened for GWAR. I thought they looked cool. No pictures of GWAR, but here is the "after" picture from being front row centre. That shirt used to be white. Alestorm!

Here's the final plan for 2014 Canada's Wonderland Six Flags Magic Mountain Knott's Berry Farm Disneyland Disney's California Adventure Universal Studios Hollywood Santa Monica Boardwalk Gilroy Gardens California's Great America Knoebels Kennywood Idlewild Waldameer Cedar Point Martin's Fantasy Island Should be a good year.

^ For what it's worth, the Grand Prix is in Sochi from 2014-2020 (or something along those lines). Now, if the track experiences delays in opening on time, then I'd be concerned.

With the city hosting the Russian Grand Prix, the 2018 World Cup and being a general tourist destination for Russians, I think they'll be fine.

2013 was a great year and I'm sad to see it come to an end. Best moment - Signing the support structure of Outlaw Run Best individual ride - Outlaw Run. God damn. Skyrush comes in a close second. Funniest moment - Bottoming out the log flume at SFOT. Scariest moment - The first lift of X-Car at Magic Springs. TERRIFYING. Strangest moment - The Toboggan at Little Amerrick-A. WTF was that? Favorite individual park visit - This is a tie between Silver Dollar City and my Labour Day visit to Cedar Point. Nerdiest moment - Completely dorking out looking at the launch motor while walking past Dragster and seeing the hydraulic room open. Best non-coaster related thing to happen at a park - Marvel Cave at Silver Dollar City. Hug buddies for life! Best thing to happen on a park trip outside of the park - City Museum. That place is a lawsuit just waiting to happen. Favorite new experience - I didn't really do anything new or out of the ordinary this year. So, let's just say finally riding a RMC coaster. Anything else you'd like to mention as a highlight - Riding Ravine Flyer II in a driving rain. It was both extremely fun and super painful. Also hit credit #200 this summer. Hurrah.

Part 5: Silver Dollar City We left Magic Springs and made our way across Arkansas and into Missouri for our night at Silver Dollar City. Originally, we weren't going to have a night here and would have night ERT on Outlaw Run the following day. But, SDC was trying out their Moonlight Madness event that night, keeping the park open until midnight. So, instead they gave us park admission and Outlaw Run ERT the night before! This was just the start of the awesomeness that SDC bestowed upon us. We arrived in Branson, where it is EXACTLY like the Simpsons say, "like Las Vegas, if it were run by Ned Flanders" and made our way up some winding roads to get to Silver Dollar CIty. Like most people, our first stop was Outlaw Run, but the line was still pretty long, so we decided to grab some of the other credits in the park. We made our way over to Powder Keg, only to find it broken. So, we walked just down the path to Fire in the Hole! FIre in the Hole was super cool! It was part dark ride, part coaster with a random splashdown at the end. It's very much of the "old school" variety, but was still a lot of fun. The dark ride scenes were all great and told a pretty cool story. Also, "baldknobbers" is funny in a really immature way. Screaming "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" at the last drop is also way too much fun for its own good. After our ride, we went back up to Powder Keg, only to see it was still down. No big deal, since there was Wildfire just a little walk away! Whenever thinking about the standard B&M sitdowns, I always forget about Wildfire. It's probably because it doesn't really do anything crazy like Hulk or Dragon Khan. But, what it does do, it does well. The ride isn't really intense, but is smooth, floaty and "B&M fun". It's something that could easily be marathoned or ridden when you don't want something too intense. It also has one of the best settings for a coaster ever. The views of the mountains at the top of the lift are great and diving in and around the woods/cliffs is a lot of fun. Not that you can really see that at night, but still. Coming off Wildfire, we gave Powder Keg another shot. The third time was the charm as it was up and running. This was my first air launched coaster and I really liked it! The ride provides some nice airtime and a lot of nice laterals and direction changes. The only bad part of the ride is when it randomly switches to the old Premier track just before the lift. That part is rough and shaky. Overall though, it's a great ride that would be an awesome "first big coaster" for kids. Even KidTums got in on the Powder Keg action that night! After Powder Keg, we were taking a bit of a break and then decided to ride Outlaw Run before our ERT started. We had heard that the restraints were changed and that it would be a tight fit. But as rumours usually go, they were completely wrong. None of us had any issues with the new restraints. But...as for the ride itself? HOLY CRAP! The ride is balls to the wall crazy from the first drop right up until you hit the brake run. The first inversion was a lot more fun that I was expecting and the crazy ejector airtime made me very very happy. The ride seems to do things that a ride shouldn't do, like the 90 degree banked airtime hills. I was also very glad to see that the double barrel roll finale flowed naturally and didn't seem really gimmicky. I was absolutely blown away by Outlaw Run. RMC and SDC hit one hell of a home run with this coaster. It also managed to edge out both Skyrush and El Toro for my #1 overall spot. I can easily say it lived up to the hype. After our ride, we waited for the queue to empty out and we got some ERT on Outlaw Run and the park's Screaming Swing! I love Screaming Swings and this one was no exception. Since the line at Outlaw Run was taking a while to clear, we went over to the swing where they were waiting for us to come over. We had a great ride with a nice long cycle. There were a lot of full swings that made us all very happy. More parks need to install these. During our swing ride, the queue at Outlaw Run cleared and were given free reign of the ride. The park was running both trains for us that night, which led to only small waits, making all of us very happy. I don't think anyone left the station for our entire ERT session. Basically, we got off the ride and back around to the entrance for another ride. It was a fantastic time, that I was sad to see end. When we got back to the buses, the park had another surprise for us, SDC goodie bags! Inside, we found an Outlaw Run t-shirt, an Outlaw Run mug and candy! This was a huge surprise for us and it was very appreciated. Thanks so much, everyone at SDC! The next morning, we were back at the park bright and early in the rain (thank god for TPR ponchos) for our Outlaw Run photo walkback. We got taken back through the structure of the ride, and got a lot of good chances for photos of the ride. But the highlight of the walkback was being given a sharpie and told to go ahead and sign the ride! We all left our autographs on the ride, which was extremely cool and then made our way to breakfast and another walkback, this time of Fire in the Hole. At Fire in the Hole, we were given a really cool behind the scenes look at the maintenance areas of the ride. We got the full tour, from where they do all the in house machining and fabrication of parts to where the trains are inspected and torn apart. I love seeing the inner workings of rides and how they're kept up. So, being in the maintenance rooms made me really happy. Once our walkback ended, we were set loose in the park. Naturally, our first stop was Outlaw Run where we grabbed a couple of rides on it before the crowds started to show up. It was just as awesome in the day as it was at night. From there, we made another very obvious stop...Sullivan's Mill wherein we found fresh baked cinnamon bread. The cinnamon bread is one of those "must do" type things at SDC. It was soooooo good. The loaf we were sharing between our group did not last very long. But, that was just the start of the good food to come at the park. Our next stop took us over to the park's mine train coaster, Thunderation. This was one of the better mine trains I've been on. It had some really surprising drops and some of the turns has some decent forces. The ride really came alive at night where you go blazing through the woods at night in the dark. It was a ton of fun and we found ourselves riding this quite a few times throughout the day. Up next was the Flooded Mine, the park's indoor shooting water ride. This was a really old school shooting ride and my gun was pretty broken. Unless there was some random combo scoring system, something went wrong as I somehow managed to score over 800,000 points during the ride. Either way, it was a really fun ride and had a lot of that old school charm. After our ride, we tried another one of the park's delicious treats, a skillet meal. You find these things all over the park and they all look and smell delicious. They also taste delicious. I think we ended up trying every skillet there was at the park. They were all fantastic. All of the food at this park was amazing. You can easily gain five pounds just by walking in the gates. But you know how you can lose those five pounds? The cave tour. Our group decided it was a good idea to check out the caves that are at the park. But, since it was raining pretty heavily that morning, part of the cave flooded, meaning we only got a half tour. It also meant that the trams at the end of the tour were inaccessible, meaning we would have to climb our way back out of the caves. Hurray stairs! Even though it was a half tour, we had an absolute blast touring Marvel Cave. Our guide Tony made all the difference. He was very friendly, very energetic and very funny. He really seemed to love what he was doing and it came across in how he led the tour. We got a fantastic photo of our group with Tony, who is now our Hug Buddy for life. After the caves, we took in the Saloon show, mainly to get into the air conditioning, since it was a pretty hot and muggy day. It was alright, nothing to really write home about. We then met up with the group for an awesome lunch provided by the park. The highlight of the lunch was having the park president just randomly go around taking drink orders and refilling everyone's cups before introducing himself. We also had a visit from Herschend's CEO (at least I think he was the CEO) who was dressed in very formal cargo shorts and t-shirt. Just like with our cave guide, everyone at lunch seemed to really love what they were doing and wanted to make sure we had the best experience possible. I wasn't the only one who thought so, since all of us gave the park a standing ovation after a Q&A for just how good of a place this was. After lunch, we made our way to the kiddie credit to be sad and pathetic. I give full credit to the ride op there for determination in getting my fat ass on the ride. She really had to work hard, but she would not give up until she heard the click of the restraint. It's the little things like that that make this place awesome. Speaking of little things, we were getting another skillet meal and the person at the booth saw our Outlaw Run shirts and asked if were were there last night with the ride op telling terrible jokes. We said that we were, and she told us that the guy making the terrible jokes was her husband! We all laughed and she apologized for the bad jokes. We continued our day, getting in re-rides of pretty much everything at the park. That night was the park's Moonlight Madness event where they stayed open until midnight. The park didn't know what to expect as this was the first time they were doing it. Turns out, it was a massive hit! The park was packed all day, right up until closing. At 11pm, Outlaw Run had a two hour wait! Craziness! I really cannot say enough how much I loved my time at Silver Dollar City. Everything at the park is top notch. The rides, food, staff...everything was incredible. This is one of those parks that everyone should visit at least once. I also cannot thank the park enough for all they did for us. I was blown away by my time here. Here are some pictures of Silver Dollar City! Arriving at Silver Dollar City! Hey look at that! A working RMC coaster! Do a barrel roll! Weeeeee Sideways airtime! Crazy first drop! Inside the ride structure! Leaving my mark on Outlaw Run Fire in the Hole! Control panel for the ride All the machining and fabrication is done in house. Pretty neat. Squirrel! Secret backstage access! The trains are inspected here They're taken apart here! A couple of trains being worked on Wheels! RIP, Buckets Lift hill of awesomeness! First drop of awesomeness! The Outlaw is captured. The good guys always win here. Oh yeah, Chris. Work those udders. Happiness awaits you just inside these doors... Bakers! These guys were very friendly and talked with us for a bit while we waited for our bread Oh god, yes! OM NOM NOM SDC is also a very beautiful park Super fun mine train The next few pictures will be food porn. You've been warned. Soooooo good OM NOM NOM Further noms! The finished product. Delicious. The Flooded Mine Really old school, but really fun! 800,000 points? Probably not...lol Pictures of Outlaw Run from the (really awesome and fun) train ride! Dem curves... More sideways airtime Keep on rollin', rollin', rollin' Starting to descend into the caves I studied physical geography and geology while in school, so I kind of nerded out here More fun rocks Damn, that's one big hole. YOOOOOOUUUU STUUUUUPIIIIIIID BEAAAAAAAAR!!! Very cool formations in the cave Limestone pillar! Lots o' rocks! Hug Buddies! Stirring the candy? That's a paddlin' Some photos from the saloon show The bad guy...booooo But remember, the good guys always win. So, yaaaaaay. Red velvet funnel cake? OMG YES Wacky shack! Slanted! Wildfire! Yay for vertical loops What an awesome setting for a coaster Cobra rollin' I wonder why B&M don't make more standard sit down loopers They also had a decent log flume here. It absolutely soaked us! Neat Powder Keg theming More cool theming If you've still got the old cars, you might as well use them! Heading down the last big drop after the lift It was twisted and very fun! Plus it has fire. Fire makes everything better. They really went all out on the Outlaw Run merchandising... This was at 11pm. The park was just a little bit busy. Next up, City Museum!

I haven't been on YOLOcoaster, so I really can't say which is better. When I was at CP with TPR this year, my opinions of Gatekeeper were not very positive. Like most everyone else, I was not impressed and the ride didn't do much for me. But...about a month later I found my way back to CP, and my experience was completely different. The ride seemed to be much smoother, had better forces than I remembered and was a whole lot more fun. It was a complete night and day difference in my experiences. I have no idea what caused the change, but I really enjoyed my rides on Gatekeeper that weekend. Next year, I'll finally be heading out to SFMM, so I'll be able to compare the two rides then.

^ Definitely go. I've seen them a few times and it's an experience like no other. Be sure to wear a white t-shirt that you don't mind getting ruined if you go.

On Thursday, I made my way to Toronto to check out Scorpion Child. In support were Mothership, Gypsyhawk, Wilson and Kadavar. The entire night was fan-freaking-tastic. The crowd was VERY small (100 people tops) which made for a very intimate feeling. It was a long show, but it was fully worth it. The next day, I drove back to Toronto for Nine Inch Nails in front of a crowd much bigger than 100 people. They always put on a great show and still have one of the best light packages I've ever seen. Fully worth the money. Here are some photos from the shows! Mothership! Gypsyhawk! Wilson! Kadavar! Scorpion Child! Nine Inch Nails! Next up will be Arkona on Halloween!

This year is slightly behind 2011 with 69 new credits obtained.

Really hoping West Coast is one of the chosen trips for next year. That trip looks like a ton of fun.

Part 4: Magic Springs Following our day in Dallas, our group woke up at a stupidly early time to get on the bus for 5:30am to make our way to Magic Springs. After a long drive through Texas and Arkansas, we made our way to Magic Springs! When we arrived at the park, we were all given free souvenir bottles with unlimited refills! Since it was still stupidly hot outside, it was needed and appreciated. We didn't have any ERT at the park since it was more or less a "run in, run out" quick credit stop. But, the park was definitely helpful in getting our rides in! Our first stop was the park's woodie, Arkansas Twister. This ride was...interesting. It was smooth in the parts where it should be rough and was rough in the parts where it should be smooth. For instance, at the bottom of the drops, it was smooth and fine, but cresting any hill, it started to jackhammer. Mild jackhammering aside, it was a pretty fun ride and is a good fit for the park. Something not too intense, but not really boring. Also, the ride op here was either jacked up on caffeine or cocaine, was insane or all of the above. She was...different, lol. Our next stop took us down the massive hill the park is built on and to X-Coaster, one of those crazy Mauer-Sohne Skyloops. This ride was supposed to be gone for this year, but was given a reprieve. Hurrah. We lined up and as we were making our way to the station...it broke. And it didn't sound like it would be going back up any time soon. No matter, there are still other credits to hit. We walked by the kiddie credit which had a huge line...the vast majority of which were TPR members and made our way to the park's SLC, Hangman. What else can I really about Vekome SLC's? It was shaky, rough and not that good. So, pretty par for the course. Happily though, this was the only SLC we had on the trip. Thank god for small miracles. While we were getting off the SLC, we saw that X-Coaster was running again, so we made our way back over to get our ride. This ride scared the crap out of me. I absolutely HATE vertical lifts. Not sure why, but they really freak me out. So, going up the 150' lift was not very pleasant. However, the upside down part of the lift was pretty damn awesome. The restraints actually felt more secure than I thought they would, so it was enjoyable. The twist/dive back down into the station was neat, but the highlight was definitely the inverted lift. After successfully riding X-Coaster, we tried to get on the kiddie credit, but it was broken. So, it looked like we were going to miss out on the ride since we only really had time for lunch and then to leave. After lunch, we were making our way back out of the park and ran into Elissa who said we had an extra half hour at the park! Guess where we went? Yep...the kiddie coaster. Guess what? It was still broken! So, we were guaranteed to not get the credit. Kind of a shame, but no big deal. Instead of riding the kiddie credit, we made our way to the park's awesomely named S&S shot tower, Dr. Dean's Scream Machine. It was a fun little tower, with a good pop of airtime at the top. But...once the ride finished it broke, trapping us for a few minutes. We had a good laugh imagining missing the bus because we were stuck on the tower, but were let off pretty quickly and made our way to the front of the park to meet up with the group. All in all, I had a good time at Magic Springs. It's a nice little park with some nice rides (and unique in X-Coaster). The only downside to the park is the steep hill you need to climb down to get further into the park and climb up to leave the park. But, that's just because I'm lazy. We got back on the bus and made our way to Missouri for our night at Silver Dollar City. More to come on that later. And now, pictures! Arriving at Magic Springs! They had a pretty nice waterpark. Kind of a shame we didn't have time to do some of it. First coaster of the day! They call it Arkansas Twister, but it doesn't really "twist" Dr. Dean and his rocket machine! X-Coaster! Terrifying, yet fun Wait for the *ker-chunk*! Twisty! Still yet more X-Coaster Random pirate show Oh. Goodie. Not the worst SLC I've been on, but it still wasn't very good Next up: Silver Dollar City!

Out of random curiosity, if you could break up the parks into two categories (amusement park/theme park), what would you put at the top?

Aside from a dragon theme, I do not believe this ride will have anything to do with Thunder Run. I will say though, on my last ride through Thunder Run last week, I did notice the show lights for the dragon were not on. I am sure it was nothing, but it was just a little strange. The show lights in Thunder Run haven't been working all season. Or at least they haven't been whenever I've been at the park.

So, my travels for this year are done (unless something random comes along). Mainly because of doing a TPR trip, I've made my way to quite a few parks this year. For 2013, the parks I hit (in order no less!) were: Canada's Wonderland Hersheypark Knoebel's Six Flags Fiesta Texas Sea World San Antonio Six Flags Over Texas State Fair of Texas Magic Springs Silver Dollar City Six Flags St. Louis Mount Olympus Timber Falls Little Amerricka Six Flags Great America Cedar Point Conneaut Lake Park Waldameer 2013 was a good year.

Part 3: Six Flags Over Texas/Texas State Fair Leaving San Antonio behind us, our group of adventurers made its way across the state to Dallas. But before we could get to any parks, we had some business to take care of. Namely, the international snack exchange! These are always fun events where we get to try different tasty treats from around the world. And I really do mean around the world! We had snacks coming from all over the US, Canada, Europe, Australia and even China! We are certainly a diverse group. My favourites were Bill's super hot habenero brownies and Stacy's Jack Daniels balls. Delicious. The next morning, we made our way across the street to Six Flags Over Texas. We didn't have any ERT at the park, which was disappointing, but the park let us in early to head back to the Mr. Freeze area before the park opened. So, that was at least nice of them. Tragically, that would be the last nice thing the park did for us. So, Mr. Freeze. This was both my first Mr. Freeze and backwards launch (unless you count that one part of Mummy or impulse coasters, whatever) and I really liked it! The inverted top hat was awesome, providing both hang time and airtime somehow. Staring straight down the vertical spike with only the lapbar was also very cool. It was a refreshing change of pace being on a Premier launched coaster that wasn't either a Flight of Fear or Italian Job clone. Mr. Freeze is definitely my favourite model of theirs. Afterwards, we hit up the park's new hotness for 2013, Texas Sky Screamer, a 400 foot tall Starflyer. For being 400 feet tall, it was really tame. I never felt like I was that high up in the air. It might have been that there is really no frame of reference around you to get a sensation of height. For instance, in San Antonio, you have the cliff walls or at SFGAdv, there is the ferris wheel. I actually found the ride to be pretty relaxing. I think with this ride, I finally got over my fear of Starflyers. We wanted to ride Judge Roy Scream next since it wasn't on Flash Pass, but it was closed. Boo-urns. So, we instead made our way over to mine train corner, home of Runaway Mine Train and Mini Mine Train! Runaway Mine Train is one of those "ACE landmark plaque" rides since it's the very first mine train built. For being as old as it is, it was still a good bit of fun and provides a really good pop of airtime that I wasn't expecting near the end. Mini Mine Train is well...a mini mine train. It's the same model as the one at La Ronde, only you don't need a kid to ride. A credit's a credit, so we rode it and were done with it. After grabbing a quick ride on the park's S&S combo tower, we made our way over to the second Pandemonium credit of the trip. We ended up spinning quite a bit on this ride, which when added to the extreme heat of the day, didn't really sit well with us. Let this be a lesson, really hot day + spinning = no fun. Wanting to take a bit of a break, we ventured out in search of an air conditioned ride. Our quest was completed when we made our way to Yosemite Sam and the Gold River Adventure, the park's indoor dark/water ride. Now, this was most definitely old school! You just float through the various scenes of Bugs Bunny and company fighting Yosemite Sam, but it was really enjoyable. I like these types of rides and it's a shame you really don't see them anymore. Well...or they get ruined like the one in Kennywood did. You still suck, Garfield. Now, the park has the first mine train, but did you also know that it has the first log flume as well? You did. Oh. Well, way to steal my thunder. El Aserradero was the first log flume made and the source of absolute hilarity and embarrassment for our group. For some unknown reason, the ride op thought it would be a good idea to send the four of us out in a single log. Now...we're not the slimmest people in the world. So, not only were we uncomfortably close, but when they tried to dispatch us, the log just sunk to the bottom of the trough. Being the persistent people they are, they kept raising and lowering us over and over again until we eventually dispatched successfully. But the fun wasn't done there! While we were going through the flume, there were times when it definitely felt like the log was going to tip over. It was terrifying, uncomfortable and a bit awesome. After getting off the log flume and vowing never to talk about it again (a vow I clearly just broke, sorry guys), we hit up the park's bobsled coaster, La Vibora. La Vibora is an Intamin bobsled with one abreast seating. I really don't care much for Intamin bobsleds and none of the three I've been on have been very good. You really had to hold on to avoid getting rocked in the brakes and it was just...boring. On our ride, we broke up into two groups of two. On the ride I was on, there was a kid in the front seat. The instant we pulled into the station, he just climbed out of the restraint and hopped out of the train to our bewilderment. No one tried to stop him or anything. Next up was the park's hypercoaster, Titan. I was really looking forward to this ride, especially the bonus helix which I had heard kicks all sorts of butt. As it turns out...it DOES kick all sorts of butt! The first drop didn't really do much for me and I really didn't find much (if any) airtime, but those positive g's...WOW. The bonus helix was probably the most intense helix I've experienced. When we hit the MCBR, all I could say was "holy crap, that ruled". The rest of the ride also provided great forces, especially in the Goliath helix. If you like positive g's, this is definitely the coaster for you! Remembering that we still hadn't ridden Batman yet, we went and rode Batman. This was the third Batman clone in three days for us. I'm really running out of things to say about these things. It was intense and fun. Go Batman. When we got off Batman, it was time to make our way back to the hotel and catch the bus for the Texas State Fair. When the NTAG accident happened and Shockwave went down, Robb and Elissa worked their magic and got us some time at a bonus park! The vast majority of us left Six Flags early to go check out the State Fair. And...holy crap, did that place rule! We were immediately met at the park by very enthusiastic employees who gave us all leis (probably the first time in a long while a lot of us have gotten lei'd), free bottles of water and all you can ride cards. For most of us, the first stop was the park's 500(!) foot tall observation tower. From inside the gondola, you got great views of the park, downtown Dallas and the Cotton Bowl. Plus, being 500 feet up in the air is damn cool. After the tower, we went in search of the park's three credits. First up was their Wacky Worm clone. This was my first Wacky Worm, believe it or not. I don't know how I went so long without riding one. But the star of the park was just up next. We made our way over to Jungle Twist. When we saw it from the tower, it looked like a really small, lame kiddie spinning coaster. We were wrong. Dear god, we were wrong. I have NEVER spun more in my life than I did on this ride. I don't know what it was...but this ride was "holy crap" insane. Words really can't do the ride justice. I hope someone got video of the ride in action because...damn. Remember what I said about heat and spinning being a bad combination? It most certainly was after Jungle Twist! So, we cooled off by going into the awesomely named Island of Cats and Dogs to watch the dog show. It was a bunch of dogs doing frisbee tricks and racing eachother. It was fun and a nice break from the heat. Afterwards, we got our last credit, Windstorm. Windstorm has a unique feature that other rides don't have...a water tunnel! Granted, this water tunnel is just the ride op spraying you with a hose, but whatever. The friendliness and humour of the ride ops at Windstorm really made me enjoy the ride that much more. I mean, it's just a portable Windstorm, but I loved it. Looking for things to do next, we went into the Bubble House, the park's fun house. We came into one room that had a really sad bubble machine and were like "oh, that's it? That's kind of lame". Little did we know that at the end of the attraction was a room just covered and overflowing with bubbles. The bubbles were well past my ankles and about halfway up my shins. Awesome and wholly wacky. Speaking of wacky, the park also has a ghost house! In said ghost house are really awesome (if cheesy) rooms with mirrors, tinfoil and psychedelic paintings. Again...awesome. During our wandering, we noticed that the park has a skyride. We like skyrides and thought we should ride this. Immediately upon entering the gondola, we realized the terrible mistake we had just made. These gondolas were fully enclosed with only small windows and no air conditioning. It was no skyride. It was the Texas Sweat Lodge. Oh yeah...and it's a loooooong skyride as well. But, despite the heat (or maybe because of it) we had a blast and were laughing about it the entire time. We even pointed and laughed at other people riding it on the return trip back to the station. After finishing up the rides, we had a nice dinner of pizza and more beer, then sadly had to leave. I had an absolute blast at the State Fair Park. Everyone was extraordinarily friendly and the place was really nice. I would definitely go back if I ever make it back down to Dallas. It definitely kicked the crap out of Six Flags. Speaking of Six Flags, once we finished at the State Fair, some of us went back into the park to get any missed credits. I went back in to get my Judge Roy Scream credit and another quick ride on Mr. Freeze. After that, I took off and crashed at the hotel. I really wanted to like Six Flags Over Texas and I had heard so many good things about it. But...it just kind of sucked. The staff were rude, inattentive or just didn't care and the operations were definitely not the best. I don't know if we caught them on the mother of all off days, but it was not a good experience. And it's not like you can blame it on NTAG and Shockwave being down. The staff at SFFT were still great and the park went out of their way to show us a good time. The whole thing was really disappointing. But...thank god for the State Fair Park! They know how to have a good time! And now because I'm sure you're tired of my rambling...pictures! Welcome to the La Quinta Inn. Please do not molest me. Thanks. Arriving at Six Flags Over Texas on the hottest day ever. Seriously...it was like "surface of the sun" hot. Our first stop of the day Inverted top hats rule This part was very cool as well Still more Mr. Freeze It definitely did not seem like 400 feet tall... Choose your destiny... Historic and junk Superma: Tower of Pow! Another panda coaster Spinny spinny OH GOD WHAT IS THAT? KILL IT WITH FIRE! ...really? Rackinfrackin' no good rotten... I hate rabbits... Four adults + 1 boat = hilarity! It was a decent flume though La Vibrator While it's not the best ride, it does look pretty! *sigh* Again, to be so close and yet so far was sad. I bet this would be fun This part too Here's a ride we did ride though! Full of bonus helix goodness Crazy intense g's! I guess from here it looks 400 feet tall... This was the third Batman...so I guess this one is Batman Forever then? 'Merica! 500 foot tall observation tower at the State Fair! This huge ferris wheel? Absolutely dwarfed by the tower. Downtown Dallas The Cotton Bowl! Crazy stilwalker people having fun with people at the park Bubbles! Returning to Six Flags at night I did like the lights on the entrance to Mr. Freeze Next up: Magic Springs!

I was at the park on Monday and while I liked it, it was pretty depressing. The park was absolutely deserted while we were there. We saw maybe 10 other people at the park. The place has the feeling that it's on its last legs. It's a real shame because I liked the park and its old school charms. Blue Streak was running surprisingly well and was pretty fun too. Devil's Den was old school fun, though the gum wall is pretty gross. Witch's Brew was crazy fun, and a little bit scary at the same time. We had a good deal of spinning which led us to hold on for dear life. I really hope the park is able to get back on its feet again...

Arkansas Twister was a bit...weird. It was rough in the places it should be smooth and smooth in the places it should be rough. It would be smooth at the bottom of the drops, but then get all shaky when you would go over the hill. That said, it was pretty fun and I'm sad I only got the one ride in on it. Also, the ride op there was insane. Or on drugs. Or both.

I've been on many coasters in the rain. Most notably Behemoth, Leviathan, Griffon and Steel Force. All of those were interesting and a bit painful. However, the craziest rain ride just happened on Monday. I was at Waldameer to grab one or two rides on Ravine Flyer II while on the way home from Cedar Point. Just as we pulled out of the station, the skies opened up into a downpour. It was like being hit in the face with a million tiny pins. It was pretty funny, but rather painful.

Silver Dollar City had absolutely amazing food. The skillets were fantastic and that cinnamon bread? Oh my god. I'm pretty sure I gained 5 pounds just from walking in the park and smelling everything.

The Millennium Force ERT was easily the best one we had on the trip. It was an absolute blast and a fantastic way to end everything. Well...it all ended at Friday's, but records from that evening are spotty at best.

My last coaster was Ravine Flyer II at Waldameer yesterday afternoon. We rode it in a driving rain, which was fun, but very painful. Getting pelted in the face by rain isn't always the best way to ride a coaster. That said, the ride still kicks a ton of ass.

While I would absolutely LOVE to do Scandi, my job won't let me take three weeks off in a row. Looks like West Coast it is, then! I'd imagine we'd be flying either in or out of LA?