speedracer

Well said and worth repeating . . .

You're right, SFMW had no theme in that immediate area. SFDK on the other hand may be different story . . .

Here's mine:

Tigger speaks out! Poor guy was being choked by the brat and was just trying to escape: http://www.wftv.com/news/10697738/detail.html I love to give this scumbag and his looser son a real arse whooping just for being such pathetic leeches. .

Thanks again guys for all the input and comments, I went back and redid all the shots and desktops without any color manipulation. Good to know, sure will save me tons of time for the next one since I won't have to mess with anything, thanks for reading!

Thanks for all the comments guys, really appreciate it! And thanks for the feedback Robb, new to all this stuff so I'm still learning and experimenting, good to hear what is and isn't working. Here's the same shots without any manipulation: The sun was in a weird place, so I was trying to bring the colors out more, but yeah, I can see where it ends up looking fake. Did a few desktops, hope I did these right!: http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/navaj/misc/IM000692B-1.jpg?t=1168107877 http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/navaj/misc/IM000695B-1.jpg?t=1168107908 http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/navaj/misc/IM000682A1.jpg?t=1168108001 http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e211/navaj/misc/IM000688B-1.jpg?t=1168108031 Didn't take any other pics, lagged getting out to the park and only had time for these before it was too dark. On the plus side, once it got dark and cold everyone stampeded for the exit and all the coasters were a walk on till closing!

Hit SFMM last weekend to use my SFMW pass one more time, and to get a few shots of Tatsu. Hadn't been to SFMM since the TPR overnighter last May, was looking forward to taking a few flights on this sexy beast again and taking a last plunge on Freefall. **Disclaimer: I'm not ashamed to admit I have a support column fetish, with B&M's big beefy supports being a personal favorite! As a result, there will be a gratuitous amount of support column shots in this report, and I apologize to no one for it! Figured I'd make my way around for my Tatsu shots while there was still decent light out, so I headed straight for Orient Express. First ride for me since it reopened, sure was great to be back in those big noisy bulky trams! Still looked and felt the same as before, just now with a spectacular new view of all these dead sexy support columns commanding that terrain!: Only wish a train had been flying around (sorry, didn't feel like riding around again). But hey, just enjoy the forest view of bright orange giant support columns!: Backside of the horseshoe, weird how from this side it looks nothing like the high tall egg-shaped turnaround from the midway: Just love how much of Tatsu is accessable to walk around and under, makes for great photo ops!: Down the hill for some first drop shots: Even filthy dirty, she's hot!: Major star of this weeks Mega Builders, this giant A support towering high over the ravine is quite a sight in person, just left me in total complete awe!: This view almost made me want to touch myself!: But I showed restraint and expressed my affection instead by taking more pictures (the camera does love her!): But Sky Tower will forever remain my most favorite support column and eternal SFMM icon: Freefall was closed by the time I got around to it. Luckily I had ridden the night before just incase this would happen, will no doubt be gone by the next time I can get back to The Mountain again. By luck I caught the very last row on the very last train of the year on Tatsu, was a chilly but amazing night flight and a great finale to 2006. Definitely an incredible unique coaster experience and a new favorite. Looking forward to what the future holds for SFMM, can only hope someday the rest of the park will match the same level of quality and WOW! factor as that of Tatsu, thanks for reading!

catching up here . . . hawt! Quoted the above because there's some really great perspectives here, as well as what DenDen linked above. In this country gays are taught and told since birth that we should hate and be disgusted with who we are, that being gay is SO wrong and the ultimate abomination (alot of times even from our own parents). So it's really big no surprise that many feel a sort of self hatred of being gay. Just like a rotten negligent parent who constantly tells their kid he's nothing but a worthless POS, he'll grow up believing he's nothing but a worthless POS because that's the only message he's ever received. The key is to reprogram your thoughts to eliminate all that negative conditioning you've been force fed all your life, to realize you are indeed an amazing beautiful person who is capable of loving and being loved. It takes alot of time, energy and hard work to learn to love yourself, but without it, you'll never have the tools necessary to lead a happy healthy normal functional life. And that's where the whole pride issue comes in. The religious right has made gay pride something negative and to be ashamed of, as they always have regarding anything gay (even the media never focuses on the majority of regular Joes like me who go to pride events, only the jock-strap clad drag queens make the news). Whereas DenDen pointed out, it's actually all about accepting and being proud of yourself for who and what you are. It's all about reversing all the years of hateful negative conditioning all of us have experienced and replacing all those unhealthy thought processes with a positive self perspective. When I was younger I also wished I wasn't gay, but after years of growing as a person, realize there's nothing wrong with me and I'm an amazing guy just the way I am. And it's actuallly all the hate-filled ignorant homophobes that are the real problem, not me.

^ totally agree. One of my most favorite parts of any park is the hidden quiet sections that no one else bothers with, where you can get away from the crowds and insanity of the main midways to take a breather. I'm all for progress too, just unfortunate that more and more parks are loosing these little sanctuaries that IMHO, actually enhance the park experience and provide a low keyed slow paced alternative for those that care to appreciate them for what they are. They need to fix TL, then fix DCA, and then worry about things that don't really need "fixing" (cept for the fort, really should open that back up).

Just described PGA to a T. Why I'm not worried about CF taking over, Paramount already long ago strip-mined what was left of the old Marriott park, not much left to ruin. I'm all for progress as long as it's an improvement, problem was many of Paramounts "improvements" at PGA were questionable and of far less quality than the classic rides and well done theming they replaced.

^ Announcement should come next month, but it looks like Best Western already got the heads up: http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwestern/productInfo.do?propertyCode=05585#null Also, do a search on yahoo for SFDK and notice the first entry that comes up. So no official announcement yet, but this all is pretty solid evidence and confirms the original rumors.

Think I said something similiar a few pages back, can't remember the last time I've seen Kong running 2 trains, and have seen it broken down more than not, which seems to be happening more and more every year. There are rumours that we'd be getting 3 used rides for the SFDK remodel (2 dry, 1 wet), sure hope this is one of em!

I like this move by CF. I was against this ride when it went up in 2000-01. KD has so many of these small steel coasters (not one of the park's steelies breaks the 3,000 ft mark). Now glad that it didn't go into PGA afterall (another Paramount park lacking any coasters at all over 3K feet cept for the horrid Grizzly). Still stings though that we lost our Great American Scenic Railway for this mistake.

Not that I doubt or question your sources at all, but I hope they got the info wrong since I've heard nothing good at all about these trains. Nothing to back this up, but the other rumour I'm hearing on other sites is GCI will be supplying custom Flyers made specifically to fit SOB. Probably just wishful thinking on some SOB fanboys part, but I could easily see GCI not wanting to deal with building custom wooden coaster trains that would also be required to negotiate a loop, if they are indeed at all involved in this project.

Thanks for the pics Cal, very interesting! I agree, my selfish side is hoping it's heading West to SFDK so we can get rid of that POS Kong, definitely belongs in a lower tiered SF park. We've gotten a few other hand-me-downs, this is one I actually wouldn't mind coming to Vallejo.

At least one good thing will come out of all this, as Screamscape pointed out, notice the large show building where Water World is located?: http://www.screamscape.com/html/ush_-_vision_plan_0.htm Bring on the next generation Amazing Adventures of Spiderman!!

^ Looks like a fun ride!

Hopefully the new loop with be alot smoother, was the only spot on the entire ride where there was very noticeable vibration and shaking, just stood out so much due to the rest of the ride being so glass smooth. Better yet, wish they were permanently removing the pointless loop so they could also remove the equally pointless OTSH's.

Only a rumour at this point, but it's an interesting thought nontheless about one proposal Disney may be considering for DCA's future: http://www.miceage.com/allutz/al112806c.htm

According to this article, expanding the park is indeed part of the plan: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=4829097 Bring on the next generation Spiderman!

^ Lucky you! The flight itself looks amazing, it's the braking thats looks frightening, would seriously rack you up if those cables failed! Vegas needs one of these dropping off the Stratosphere and flying down The Strip!

^ Then why not just sell the rides as is or for spare parts or something. Regardless of why any abandoned park closes, just don't comprehend the point of letting any ride rot away when they could easily be relocated or utilized somehow. Throw a few of those loose Tilt-A-Whirl cars on Ebay, I'd bet the owner would make a fortune! Those abandoned parks in Japan and elsewhere with big coasters and such really puzzle me the most, not every ride in every abandonded park is condemed and couldn't be given a new life in a new home.

Here's a page in English with some more amazing videos, looks incredible!: http://www.fantasticable.fr/produits_anglais.htm#vid

Thanks for the great comments guys, really appreciate it! I think the cars parked around are for the campground next door, not anything to do with reopening the park or anything. Yikes! Glad my friends house is on the other side of Guernville, I personally just love being up in the redwoods, the sights and smells of the giant trees is intoxicating! Really cool for a city guy like me who's stuck in nothing but concrete 24/7 to visit such a beautiful place. For me Mad Mouse was the only reason to visit, hands down the best mouse on the West Coast and one of the most frightening coasters period. Flying around all that rusted beat up track, watching the ENTIRE support structure lift and tilt off the ground as the buckets rolled around the course, truly frightening! And the wild ejector air on those last 3 bunny hills/drops was a great finale, personally sad that this little rippin' coaster will most certainly be scrapped.

According to this article, it'll be 200ft tall and only use bits and parts of Traumatizer!!! . http://www.blackpoolcitizen.co.uk/display.var.1038347.0.resorts_8m_whiteknuckle_ride.php I want some of whatever this "reporter" was smoking 8) .