Hilltopper39

^Yeah, while the USC vs Oregon game was fun to watch, you can keep you those video game defenses out west and I'll take that 21-17 chipstrap buckling concussion causing slugfest that happened in Baton Rouge last all day. Man that game was intense, and anyone that watched it would have to admit that home field advantage in Tiger Stadium at night is worth WAY more than a few plays and miscommunication penalties here and there, that place was absolutely insane! Honestly I haven't watched LSU play that much this year, but they are freaking tough. They might even have more top level NFL talent than Bama does, just couldn't seem to make enough plays to win. I think it's safe to say at this point that AJ McCarron is a pretty good football player, that guy made some huge plays in about the biggest stage there is. There is a lot of football left to be played but I'm pulling for an Oregon Alabama championship, nothing against Notre Dame or Kansas State but I think Oregon would be the most exciting matchup.

Wow that foods looks fantastic, I'm starting to think that I really got screwed on my only RCCL cruise because the food on that ship was pathetic. It was only a 3 day voyage on one of their oldest ships but it was seriously awful, not a single thing we ate on the trip came close to anything pictured in your report. I really need to do a longer cruise.

Looks like a pretty decent stadium, but I get what you are saying about it lacking some of the "charm" of other modern facilities. Still looks pretty nice, nice enough for the Mets I guess. I've never done one of those "club level" experiences for any sport with the food and drinks inclusive but really want to one of these days. I can probably find some cheap club level tickets for the Jaguars here in a few weeks, might have to give it a try .

Should be interesting to see what HHN looks like in about 4 years after they finish up Transformers and Potterver 2.0 at the studios park.

Wow, those picture are fantastic. I feel like Hollywood needs to get out there and film a Zombieland Sequel movie right away before the clean up starts.

^Wow, that's a crazy picture, the thing still looks like it's almost completely intact. Here's a theoretical question for any resident materials engineers reading this thread. I realize this is a fairly crappy coaster that probably isn't worth saving, but if they were able to somehow disassemble this thing and remove it from the water, do you think it could be re-assembled operated again? Again, I know it's probably not a great idea financially and I know all of the electronics and mechanical components would have to be replaced, and likely a few damaged sections here and there would have to be replaced, but overall would sitting in salt water damage the metal beyond repair? Or could they just paint it blue and sell it for new?

I've heard a lot about Jungle Jim's but have never been there but I definitely need to make a trip next time time I'm in the Midwest. Great report as usual Jason!

I had no idea that Arrow family coaster existed, pretty cool little find there. Nice update Adam, La Ronde is one of those parks that even though I know the place is terrible and all of the reviews of it I've ever read are very below average I'd still like to check that place out one of these days.

Exactly. The parks will re-build, are insured, are backed by the city and the community...but there needs to be a community! It's like I've been saying this whole thread, but people keep trying to twist my words around, I feel much worse for the community and the people than I do those two roller coasters. But so many people keep focusing on those two coasters...as if they really matter in the big picture. I just don't "get" some people.... Yeah, I mean if the town was okay and the two piers just so happened to collapse because of erosion and winds maybe I'd feel bad for the parks having some bad luck, but that place is in a state of emergency right now and there are A LOT more important things to be concerned with besides some crappy coasters. I feel like all of this coaster talk has distracted us from discussing the more important issues, mainly how did the Jersey Shore house fare in the storm? If the cast was in it and the cameras were rolling maybe they could have aired a few watchable episodes. MTV might have missed out on a gold mine there. Gym, tan, Laundry, emergency evacuation, would have loved to hear Paulie D yell "The Helicopters are Here!"

Yeah, some of the shots I saw of the towns were far more troubling to see than the amusement parks.

I'm totally with you on this one. The worst part of a day at a water park to me is waiting in long hot lines for short water slides, and adding wet "amusement park rides" adds a HUGE capacity attraction to alleviate some of those lines. Brilliant idea, surprised more parks haven't tried this in the past.

Subtract crappy Miler Star Jet, insert awesome Gerstlauer Eurofighter, win win for everybody. I feel worse for the people who live in that area that weren't prepared for a storm of this magnitude and have lost their homes and personal possessions than I do for the owners of an amusement park who had some wind and water damage that is likely covered by insurance.

So this was the highlight of my NFL weekend... and this..... The world needs more absurd Rob Gonkowski touchdown dances, the more the better!

Alright, let's all get off Joey's back here for a second, to his credit the PAC 12 is 12-11 in head to head games against the SEC over the past decade, and I will admit that I personally think the PAC 12 is a much better conference than most people in America realize simply because very few of their games are on television on the East Coast. I do still think the SEC is superior for a lot of reasons (recruiting, coaching, history, fan bases) but the Pac 12 is a clear cut second in my mind. Now if USC would just win a few games and solidify their status amongst the "Elite" teams maybe the rest of America would give the PAC 12 a little respect . A couple of huge games weekend, Alabama at LSU and Oregon at USC are probably the two that will garnish the most national attention. Any other big games people are looking forward to?

I went to Night Terrors her in Jacksonville last Friday night and it was fantastic, I haven't been to very many stand alone haunts (or non HHN haunts for that matter) but this was easily one of the best I've ever been to. The atmosphere was great, the actors really put a lot of effort into their scares, and there was a nice mixture of live actors and animatronics. Overall a very well done haunt that I would highly recommend to anyone in the area.

Wow, I had no idea that they have 12 haunts at Kings Island for this event, don't know if they are any good but that's an impressive number nonetheless.

Mine was probably either Raptor or Mantis at Cedar Point. Cedar Point was one of the first parks I ever visited outside of my normal Kings Island, Kentucky Kingdom, Holiday World home park rotation and my first trip there was in 1996 when they opened Mantis. I think I rode Raptor first but Mantis and Raptor on the same day were my first two B&M's.

This whole project looks fantastic, still not entirely sure what it really is but would love to check it out if I'm ever in the area. Thanks for all the great updates Larry.

Yeah, Kentucky plays Louisville every year. Florida does seem to be about the only team in the SEC that hasn't scheduled any home and homes with major out of conference opponents other than Florida State, I guess Kentucky really hasn't played anyone recently either but no one cares about them. I think it would be cool to see some type of SEC vs Pac 12 showdown (or any other conferences for that matter) where one week of the season every team in one conference plays a team from a different conference, maybe even a few on neutral sites in big cities in that region. Maybe even have 2 or 3 games in a day in one stadium somewhere like Atlanta, or Dallas, or Phoenix. Could be cool. Another scheduling thing that I've always though sounded like a cool idea was last year Coach Calipari (yes, I'm a Kentucky Fan) suggested that at some point he wants to schedule a major non conference opponent where they play men's and women's basketball and football in the same city on the same weekend. So have Kentucky and North Carolina play in all 3 sports in Atlanta or something, could be cool.

^Alabama plays Virginia Tech in 2013 and West Virginia in 2014 LSU plays TCU in 2013 and Arizona State in 2015 Florida play FSU every year and Miami in 2013 Georgia has a home and home with Clemson in 2013-14 Tennessee plays at Oregon in 2013, then a home and home with Oklahoma in 2014-15 Auburn plays at Kansas State in 2014 Ole Miss played Texas this year and will again in 2013, and plays Boise State in 2014 Mississippi State play Oklahoma State in 2013 This post was brought to you by futuresecschedules.com

Wow this thing continues to look amazing, especially in the fall foliage. I have to get out there one of these days.

I will agree with you that some of the "elite teams" and most all SEC teams tend to load their schedule with easy games, but if you have to go undefeated to have a shot a national title can you blame them? I was hoping that with a "playoff system" of either 8 or 16 teams there would be an emphasis on winning the conference and teams with would be encouraged to schedule major non-conference games because having 2 or 3 loses wouldn't necessarily hurt your chances for getting into the playoffs. However with a 4 team system I feel like we will continue to see a lot of cupcake games because you are going to have to be undefeated or a one loss team to get into the 4 team playoff. There have been several SEC teams play major non conference opponents recently and on a regular basis, Florida plays Florida State every year (and Miami prety often), Georgia plays Georgia Tech every year and has played Boise and at Arizona State in recent years, LSU has played home and homes with Washington and West Virginia the past 3 or 4 years, Clemson and South Carolina play annually, Kentucky and Louisville annually, so yeah there are some soft games but when you have 5 top 25 teams on your schedule every year plus a non-conference rivalry it's hard to blame the AD's for scheduling a cup cake every now and then.

For the most part I agree with this, however I still think the SEC is just a level better and has a few more teams in each category. Where most conferences 1 or 2 elite teams the SEC has 3 or 4 (LSU, Alabama, Florida, Georgia). Where most conferences have 2 or 3 above average teams that can make runs every now and then the SEC has probably 4-5 (South Carolina, Arkansas, Auburn, Tennessee, Texas A&M). Where most conference have the majority of their teams barely above average the SEC probably only has 3-4 (Missouri, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, maybe Vandy). And for for bottom dwellers I think you could argue that Vanderbilt and Kentucky are better than most conferences bottom dwellers like Colorado, Kansas, and Minnesota (last year Vanderbilt beat the worst team in the ACC Wake Forrest 41-7 at Wake). The other thing about the SEC is that I think if you put any of the "non elite" teams in other conferences they are all a category higher than what they are in the SEC. Two or three years ago Kentucky probably could have won the Big East. It's hard to argue that it isn't the best conference especially with the number of players drafted, bowl game winning percentage, recruiting, etc. etc. I do think the Pac 12 is a clear cut 2nd slightly above the Big 12 and Big 10 and the rest of the country is pretty much the same. And I know how much you dislike Georgia, so before you slam me for placing them in the "Elite" category they have won 8 or more games probably 9 out of the last 10 seasons (probably 10 or more wins in 5 or 6 of those seasons) they just haven't been as good as Florida Alabama or LSU so they haven't won the SEC or played for a BCS title. Winning that many games consistently for a decade make a team elite in my book.

For the most part I agree with you, but don't forget about how difficult it is to win on the road in the SEC, every game in that conference is a played in a loud hostile environment in front of a ton of people. So while wins against Tennessee, Ole Miss and Auburn might not look like much on paper remember that all of those games are being played in front of 70,000 plus crazy fans. Yesterday when USC lost at Arizona there was a top 10 team in town that played in front of a capacity crowd of 47,000 in a stadium that looked half empty on tv. Even Kentucky who has been terrible this year is probably still averaging 60,000ish fans a game. Every win on the road in the SEC is a big win, other conferences, not so much.

BGM really does look fantastic. I "like" Everest but I don't love it as a coaster. I feel like there is of boring meandering and very little exciting action, but this things looks very well paced and full of surprises. Great footage as always.