arby

This is great stuff! Keep it coming!

^I had it lockup on me about a year ago and when I reset it, that new max speed showed up. I love keeping it on there to see people's reaction. Our RV is actually governed at 75 MPH. It's awesome that you are able to share the experience with your family! We started out with a travel trailer and weren't real fond of moving to a motor home. Now that we have gotten used to it we do like it even more as it works much better with our lifestyle and our love of road trips.

Just curious what other amusement park you have seen them at, so I can be on the lookout on future visits. Yes, I don't recall seeing Bison Burgers being offered anywhere else. Good point. I wasn't considering 'only at amusement parks' as part of my comment. I have seen bison burgers numerous places but not at any amusement park I can think of. Outside of an amusement park, I've seen them numerous places.

Love it!

Bison burgers are not too hard to find. The other food items that Larry listed, though, I've not seen anywhere except for Knoebels.

This is great news and I am sure Knoebels will give us something great. Hopefully it is wooden.

Great news for Hurler, especially if that allows them to remove the first set of trims.

Truth.

^Thanks! I will certainly do that next time we are in that area. There certainly will be a next time because I still have plenty of credits to pick up in that area of the country.

Wow, was I surprised this afternoon when an awesome bag of crap showed up! Thank you so much, Rob and Elissa! I really appreciate and love it all! I'm starting to dream about some of those overseas parks, now. An overflowing loveseat

I'm looking forward to this although I'm not a huge Harry Potter fan. I think the story could have been improved upon if it weren't for the author's intervention. Oh well, we should be there in the fall to check it out. Funny how our next trip is starting to line up with HHN. I do love the money Comcast is pumping into the parks. They've caught our attention and some of our budget.

To add to tarheel1231's post about Charlotte: The track is often open most of the time during the day although you should check their site for big events going on where traffic and crowds will be heavy. They have a gift shop where you can also buy tours. The main grandstands are also usually open so you can see the track. Additionally the Richard Petty Experience goes on here so a lot of the time you will see cars going around the track. The NASCAR Hall of Fame is also located in downtown Charlotte and should be a must-do for any NASCAR fan. Even though I'm not a fan, I went there once and had a good time. In my opinion, Epicenter is awesome and a must-do for anybody who has a little time in the Charlotte area. It is focused on a younger metro generation and is more 'hip' than your average mall. StrikeCity is a state of the art bowling alley that has private bowling rooms, and the movie theaters are in-theater dining experiences. I haven't tried the food yet at the theater but it's on our to do list. Additionally our favorite restaurant is here, Blackfinn American Saloon. Their fresh upscale-casual American food at Chilis/Applebee's prices is some of of my favorite food, especially the bacon-wrapped meatloaf with maple glazed carrots. I highly recommend stopping by Epicenter if you are in the area (there's also a Five Guys here). Regarding parking, if you self-park at the attached parking garage your rates will be more than if you park at a nearby parking garage and walk.

We had a blast and can't wait to do it again sometime. Thanks, everyone! Our next big trip will probably be to Colorado in the next couple of years. We call 'big trip' anything that takes more than 16-18 hours to drive to. I was crazy busy on the strip and it looked like they were having a blast. By the time the party got going well we were back in our camper drinking our own much cheaper alcohol. I was too exhausted by the time the fireworks went off that I didn't leave our camp site so I couldn't see. That is one regret of mine from this trip. We needed gas and they have a Flying J.

Part 8 - East Bound and Down, well sort of It's time to wrap up our trip. We've had a great time visiting 3 new states, 6 new amusement parks, and 27 new coasters traveling over 6,000 miles in 15 days - but who's counting? The adventure isn't over, though, as we have a couple of more stops as we continue East. We'll be hitting the Grand Canyon and Petrified Forest. Club TPR in southern Nevada. Ever wanted to get behind the wheel? Hey, same to you! There is still wide open land out west. Need a fixer upper? There is also a lot of beautiful scenery... cool rock formations... and other places of beauty. We safely made it to Grand Canyon National Park where we'll be staying overnight. They were ready with the animatronic deer... Hey wait... Looks like they get a lot of snow here. Hey, what are you looking at? We reached the Grand Canyon at sunset. Winter sunsets lend to some great views. A great place to stop and think. Can you imagine this view for the first drop? That's the Colorado River down there, btw. It is a truly awesome place to see and experience. I hope everyone can see it at least once in their lifetime and may it be preserved for many more generations. Good night Grand Canyon. That night we found a Mexican restaurant - can you tell we like Mexican food? It is in the town of Tusayan outside the main gate of the park. My wife said it's the best burrito she has EVER had. I thought my food was very good. We woke up and there was a slight chill in the air. At least if you're an Eskimo. Only 2,000 miles til home. Why don't you enjoy a sunrise with us? Red at night, sailor's delight... Maybe this is orange. I swear, every bug in a 5 mile radius heads straight towards my windshield. Standing on a corner in Winslow, AZ, freezing my butt off. Let's take a quick stop here to check it out. It is really cool to see the petrified wood. and more wood... and more wood... (dialogue of teenage daughter) Here you can make out the rings There is lots of beauty here. and the scenery is unique, too. Inside the park is a tribute to Route 66 that used to pass right through here. While the roadbed is gone, it used to run right beside these abandoned power poles. You see lots of trains across the west and midwest. Ha! You missed me! Beer run! Enjoy the final sunrise with us as we're almost home. 6,016 miles and we're home safe. I shaved 1/2 a day off the trip so we did it in 14.5 days. Thanks for reading! I hope you have enjoyed my recount of our most recent trip.

^That's awesome! I loved hearing that story! They are certainly overpriced and I haven't been happy with some of the construction techniques on any of my units. So far they have been the best on my current one, a Winnebago. I still think I can do better myself so I plan to start 'building' my own unit in five years or so on a 45' diesel bus chassis. That way I can have it completely converted in the following 3-5 years. There is no better way to get the exact layout you want than to do it yourself.

Part 7 - New Year's at Las Vegas Thanks for hanging in there on this mega TR. Let's cut right to the pictures. On the road again. I just can't wait to get on.... What, where are we headed? Bakersfield?? Are there any coasters in Bakersfield? The motto of this trip. Look, it's a boomerang highway! State credit +3 this trip. I also enjoyed the accidental framing of this picture. While we're here, we might as well stop! Not for gambling, of course. I'm too cheap. For a coaster, of course! Desperado wants to stay within the boundaries of this trip... ...and be closed for our visit. It looked like it opened about 1 1/2 hours later but we were under a tighter time constraint on this leg. Oh well, maybe next time. Arriving in Las Vegas, I had reserved a premium site that actually came with grass, real grass. The website said it would be 'real or fake grass' so I wasn't sure what we were in for. Since I'm a planner and have reservations made way in advance, it looks like I got one of the better premium sites. Here's our view for the night. Next off, The Adventuredome. No El Loco love this trip. But plenty of Canyon Blaster love! This comes in at a close second to Tennessee Tornado at Dollywood for Arrow Loopers. It was great and I had a... wait for it... blast! I'm here all day. Time to move on as the sun is setting. I really love the architecture you see on the strip. The porta johns are lining the sidewalk with care... In seven hours I'm not sure I'd want to do anything in there. Treasure Is A neon lit McDonald's arch - c'mon, you have to include a pic of that even though I'm not a fan. We stopped to watch the Volcano blow. My son loved it! How can you go wrong with some lights, some music, some explosions, and FIRE! ...brought to you by Mirage... One of the local TV stations was already broadcasting live. Another one was still at the casino bar. Ooh, water and lights. ...not brought to you by The Cosmopolitan. They just get a free view of it. You never know what you're going to see in Vegas. Those are frozen pillars formed from the 'sheet' of water, I gather. Because we had a wheelchair, we were forced to take a detour around Aria. The fountain was cool. Nothing like trying to attract pigeons... Our final destination on the strip. I bet you can't guess why. Roller Coaster, of course. The idiot taking this picture couldn't read the sign but they didn't ask me, er him, to delete it so I'm sharing. I was expecting the worst but it really wasn't bad. I thought it was just meh but not awful. Last credit of the 27 I picked up on this trip but who's counting? Hey, the ticket counter is also a coaster. If I put a ticket in there can I count this as a credit?? Now the long walk back down the strip to our campsite. The streets were now open to pedestrians and the crowds were definitely picking up. Back to our 'casino.' I could see where this one could use some love but it's not like it was totally run down. While we are fans of KOA the campground could also use some love. I will be generous and give this one a 6/10. What are we waiting for, it's New Years. Let the fireworks begin! We really had a great view of the Stratosphere from our site. Happy New Year, TPR! How'd you like to be riding Big Shot right now? Next up - Part 8 - East Bound and Down

tell you what WE said about it: "ouch, ouch, OUCH, F##k, G@#*am that HURTS, ouch, ouch, OMG there's more? OUCH, when does it end. . . never again" LOL! I know exactly where you said 'OMG there's more?' because I said the exact same thing at one point. I'm sure I used some of the other wording, too. We sure will. We went on a Monday this time but it was doomed because it was the week after Christmas and the weather was great.

^^Thanks! It's not if but rather when we're back in Tucson since it's all her family. I'll certainly let you know when we're back in Tucson. I'm actually thinking I might like to retire out there. We'll be making a summer trip in the future to see what we think of it then. ^That's what I thought when I was looking back through the photos!

Yeah, we've been to Dollywood at least half a dozen times. She has always liked the shows more, I just wore her out with too many coaster and amusement park trips the past few years. That's ok. We'll take it easy (er) this year. Congrats on the 20 years and an extra week of vacation. Unfortunately we don't have tiered vacation time so I only get 3 weeks a year regardless. Technically with a mobile hotspot I can work on the road so we'll be looking into some of those options down the road. We only have a BGW/Colonial Wiliamsburg trip in the Spring and an Orlando trip in the Fall tentatively planned although I'm not sure the scope of either trip. Yeah, a motor home isn't cheap to buy or rent. We had a Class C for five years but were starting to have major issues with it. Our previous dealer gave us an awesome deal we couldn't resist on this Class A. We should cut down traveling for the next year or two since we've put 15,000+ files on it in the last year and a half. We have had to make numerous sacrifices over the years in order to afford one and I'm still frugal with lots of things. (my wife calls me cheap although she is too ) Anyway, looks like some great trips you are planning!

Part 6 - Knott's Berry Farm I want to start out by giving a shout out to Knott's Berry Farm for recognizing out country's military veterans. They let me and one guest in free while we only paid $27 each for everyone else. For only $54 my family of four was able to enjoy a day at their park. Thanks! It is truly appreciated. Continuing on, our next day was exclusively for KBF. It was insanely busy...no it was INSANELY busy. Some park employees were saying they had never seen the park that busy. It took us about 45 minutes waiting in line to get to parking, and another 45 minutes waiting to get two tickets and two fast lane passes, of course. My wife and son are primarily dark ride enthusiasts (yay!) while my daughter and I go for the coasters first. Anyway, EVERY ride had a full and overflowing queue with most rides having a 1-2 hour wait. I have never seen a Cedar Fair park that busy outside of the peak night of a haunt event. Thanks to the way that Knotts operates it's Fast Lane, we were able to easily ride 8 of the 10 coasters in a short period of time with a slightly longer wait time on just a few of them. We didn't try to ride the kiddie coaster, Timberline Twister, and Xcelerator wasn't included in the Fast Lane. We didn't think it was worth the 1 1/2 hour wait. We'll just come back another time. I do think they are missing a revenue opportunity by not offering it as a single ride add-on. Enough of my rambling, let's get to some photos. This is supposed to be a Photo TR after all. Yeah! We're almost there! [one hour later] Yeah! We're almost there! Ghost Town was NOT its namesake on this day Some of the charm remains at KBF. I'm excited that they appear to be bringing back more of it. First off Pony Express. Wow! My second Zamperla MotoCoaster. I wish there were more in the U.S. While they will never make my top 10, they are just plain fun and I want to ride them over and over. Sorry Xcelerator. Not today. On to Coast Rider, it was great to get a ride on the Large Park model of a Mack Wild Mouse. Many of my mouse credits are the Compact Park model including the one in my home park, Carowinds. Who's up for some boomerang love?? I'm still a credit whore so of course I did it. Guess what? It's exactly the same ride experience as every other Vekoma boomerang that I have ridden. The only ride that had a shorter wait than others was Calico Mine Ride. We didn't know what to expect and it was pretty good. It will be great to experience this again once it has been overhauled. Cactus! The Calico Railroad was decked out for the holidays. Next up, Silver Bullet. It was another B&M invert credit to my tally but I only thought it was ok. I'd ride it again but it wouldn't be my first choice. In case you skipped my ramblings above and came straight to the pics, the lines were insanely long. Thanks, Fast Lane! Timber Mountain Log Ride and a few other rides. On to Jaguar! I didn't think I'd have much to say about it, but boy was this a great family coaster. It had a nice length and a great mixture of elements that make it a well-rounded coaster in my book. Here's Snoopy doing a dive maneuver on the stagecoach. Once again, I expected this to be just another spinning coaster and I was surprised at how great this was. Again, not a top 10 coaster but clearly reridable with a fun ride experience each time. Ghost Rider. What can I say about Ghost Rider... I'm a big fan of woodies... and I haven't ridden a lot of the CCI coasters... however neither one of us enjoyed our ride on Ghost Rider. I'll give it another shot on my next visit but for now I'll just be +1 credit. I love the charm of having a real stagecoach ride in the park! More Jaguar! love... Silver Bullet anyone? There was a 2 hour wait for the Timber Mountain Log Ride. Since it's included in Fast Lane and the rest of my family was afraid of getting wet I went alone. When I got to the station they put me right on with a group of two so I had no wait. I like what they have done with it as so many log flumes have no theme. It's not Splash Mountain but it's a huge step up from a parking lot log flume. There is still a lot of character in the park that has not been removed and I expect that we'll continue to see this for a long time. Some random nice (Australian from her accent) lady offered to take our family picture. That was a nice gesture. Note to self: Take one minute of your time to do a random kind act for someone else. While you can't see it here, the upper rocking chairs rock on their own. Great touch! The crowds are too much and we got our credits so we're heading out for now. We will be back! Our plan was to eat here based on great reviews. When it also had a 1 hour+ line, we skipped it until next time. Instead we finally got out In-N-Out credit. My wife prefers In-N-Out and my daughter and I prefer Whataburger although we all like them both. We'll just have to keep checking both our on our travels! Next up - Part 7 - Las Vegas

Uh...have you ridden either of these coasters? I promise you, it wouldn't need to be any more intense. The ZacSpins are pretty lethal as they are. Truth

I have not although I think I was close my first time on I-305. For me, I consider it a greyout when I get tunnel vision as I often get dizzy on rides due to invertigo, particularly corkscrews. Anyway, my field of view kept getting smaller and smaller until I could only see about a 3' wide view. It finally cleared and I regained my peripheral vision by the time we hit the bottom of the second hill. I never had it last that long on subsequent rides although I tried some techniques that must have helped to minimize it.

Thanks for the reminder by replying and bumping this thread. Don't forget you can still vote through 1/24. I'll be working on mine today.

^I'm right there with you. I love wild mouse coasters, also. Now if only I could get an old wild mouse car for my man cave...

Hopefully you get to. Maybe I could convince my wife that SDC is where she should pick to go for our anniversary this year...