coaster_dude2002

Count me in! I was planning on being there to see some of the midwest trip people. 2 hours of ERT on six coasters sounds great!

I never thought of that one! I tend to skip season pass night on years when we get new coasters. When the Italian Job opened the lines were horrendous that night, breakdowns and undertrained staff made for a 2-3 hour line. Opening day is pretty good if you get there right when the gates open, or go on friday nights when the park is dead. ^Shawn I hope you are up for a mad dash to Behemoth on opening day! (p.s I have to live up to my Geography degree somehow and maps are strictly Monday-Friday, don't make me change your address point to somewhere in the arctic!)

^ Brother Jay is correct. The USA is larger than Canada if you subtract the inland water masses from the total land area. According to the US Geological Survey (USGS) the land area of the USA without water is 3,539,289 square miles. ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/wetstates.html Statistics Canada lists the land area of Canada at 3,511,022 square miles. www40.statcan.ca/l01/cst01/phys01.htm Its fairly insignificant, 28,000 square miles isn't a heck of a lot when you look at the total size of our countries. Now that it is settled. Behemoth looks amazing and I can wait to ride it in May. Any word on the trains arriving yet?

The Toronto FC are fairly new team with 2008 only being their second season. I haven't made it to a game yet, but hopefully that will change this summer. BMO Field home of the Toronto FC (http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/t280/stadium/)

This is the first one I created. I started supports on it but never got around to finishing the ride. eurofighter 1.nltrack

The parks Mondial Splash Over was also renamed from Cliffhanger to Riptide. Im ok with that name since it does work with the ride and the lack of theming present in the area. As for Flight Deck and Drop Tower, they were expected. Will always be Drop Zone and Top Gun to me though. Finally Time Warp for Tomb Raider? It will interesting to see how they theme that one with all the existing stuff around it.

Visited This year: Thorpe Park Chessington World of Adventure Alton Towers Blackpool Pleasure Beach Oakwood Canada's Wonderland Cedar Point Confirmed: Islands of Adventure Busch Gardens Africa Sea World Universal Studios Florida Walt Disney World Disney MGM Studios Animal Kingdom Hope to visit: Darien Lake Martins Fantasy Island Marineland It's going to be an expensive but awesome year!

We have had plenty of snow here in the last week. A major storm came through on Friday with about 7 inches of snow. Most schools and offices in the area closed for they day. Today another storm hit with snow and freezing rain in the morning and heavy snow falling this evening. In total we are supposed to get 6-8 inches of snow tonight. Here is a photo of our drive way. The cars were clear about an hour before and the driveway was shoveled this morning. Good Canadian Winter!

The tree is just a bit over 17ft tall.

Well we finally put the entire tree up yesterday. With 3 of us working on it we finished it all within the day. Here are some photos of the process for the putting it together. We start with half a tree on the ground and then put on some lights and decorations before standing it up. Then it is filled in and decorated after being secured to the wall. The final product. Just a few more decorations to fill in the empty spots. Half a tree up and ready to go. The festivus pole. Who is ready for the airing of grievances?

Right now I use Shure E2C. Once you figure out the sizing for the ear pieces the sound isolation is amazing. I can be on the subway and the only thing I can hear is my music on 1/4 of the volume with normal iPod earbuds.

Here is a photo of our tree from last year. We haven't set it up for this year yet, but we should be getting around to that this weekend. We switched to a fake tree about 6 years ago. Finding real trees was a big pain since 17ft trees can be hard to find, and then there is the issue of it sometimes being too tall for the room, and having to cut it to fit around furniture. Also January the needles would go everywhere! The tree now is really two 10ft trees that have been welded together in the middle. It looks a little strange since it is really narrow but it doesn't take over the room now. Setting it up is a big task, it takes about 3 hours for just the tree, and then a day for the lights and all the decorations. *Edit* New photos of the tree posted on pg. 3

Nice job Shawn. Everything is working well for me. Cant wait for it to hit 100 parks, thats not a challenge, its a quest!

I'm glad to see that the platinum passes are $150 ($145 for CW) at all parks now. With the exchange rate of the Canadian dollar it was not worth getting pass at wonderland and I was going to wait until hitting CP or another CF park. Now I'm set for Behemoth season pass night

Nice job on the quiz. I was way off for a few parks, but after two tries I scored 93,503 points.

Congrats Shawn! Glad you enjoyed my message

Wow they are moving fast with this beast. Its looking amazing from the highway already and they are only just getting started.

^^^ Glad to see some photos from that night. It was honestly one of the best nights on the trip. Wading back to the hotel through the parking lot without shoes (maybe not the best idea), and eventually watching Grindhouse certainly made up for the cancelled ERT.

Magnum at CP this afternoon. Great ride in the back row. Barely any trims and massive amounts of airtime Last ride for the season and it was awesome.

The top one on my list would have to be the SCAD tower at Wisconsin dells, it gets me every time. I don't know if it was just because I was the first one to go and the ride op didn't give me a countdown, but the drop felt soo long (long enough to question why I did it). Free falling 100+ft with nothing around you and not being able to see the net below certainly adds to the feeling as well. Maverick in the back is also amazing.

Great job Tomi. Loved the video and the animations you threw in. Glad to see the Hooters crew made it in!

The seats are similar to the junior inverts with the addition of a rubber vest (like B&M flyers). www.coastersandmore.com/pic/eas06/sitzg.jpg Hopefully it will reduce the head banging and add to ride experience without having all the padding around you head like the current seats.

^ Ten more times. Whats that? the ride op won't let you ride? Sorry thats only 9! I enjoyed kennywood and the Phantoms revenge was great in the front. In the back, well... slamming your face into the front of the car is not my definition of fun. Great airtime on it, right Nadia! - Andrew Maaattt Daaamonnn and LBB get some major "Hair time"

O what a day that was. 8 hours in line and we only moved 10ft. glad we split that meal part way through. Dallas Dance! we certainly go some strange looks the next day in line. When it comes to our ride on Thunder Canyon well I think soaked was an understatement.

David you are spot on with the spending money for the trip. Over all for the 13 days of the midwest trip I spent $450 U.S. but that included the hotel on the night before the trip, SCAD tower x2, Skyscraper x2, Slingshot x1, meals/snacks, a few t-shirts, and a couple of souvenir photos. Another thing to keep in mind is how much you eat/drink at parks. I generally don't eat a lot, so some days I would get by with just breakfast, a snack, then dinner. Also on the midwest trip a few of the parks had unlimited soft drinks/water available, either out in the park (Holiday World), or in the TPR picnic shelter (Mt. Olympus). - Andrew