the_rock401

May I also suggest the view coming south on 35 as you come under the overpass at Liberty, by the Super Wal-Mart? After driving all day across boring-as-hell southern Minnesota, Iowa, and northern Missouri, coming under that overpass and suddenly seeing the park skyline on top of the bluff is a HUGE morale boost! It means we're almost there! Yay! I'll have my TR of WOF opening day up later on.

After Friday night's season pass preview, I was "meh" about Prowler. Sure it was fun, but it was not my #1 by any reach of the imagination. previously, my wood list went Rene, Viper (SF Chicago) in a downpour, (large gap), Avalanche, then Hades. I was ready to swap the large gap for Prowler, but couldn't move it much higher. Friends, Romans, and countrymen, lend me your ear. I thought of Prowler much like what both timberskara and I did of SpongeBob. At first Prowler was kind of meh, but it kept getting better and better with each ride. By the time nightfall came to Kansas City, it was running out of it's mind. IMHO, what gives a night ride on Prowler the nod over a night ride on Rene is the placement of the on-ride camera. Why? Because as you go past the camera, you're momentarily blinded by the flash. Then, BAM! You're jerked hard to the left, and by the time you get your wits back about you you're going into the helix under the lift hill. A night ride in Row 2 of Mamba wasn't too shabby either. In other news, Timber Wolf is a piece of (junk). I can't believe I waited 45 minutes for that crap. Headed back to Minnesota now. Unfortunately, my camera conked out, which means no photos to add to this thread. Paul

Paul, I think you were leaving just as I was coming in. Just as I was entering the park around 5:45 PM, two people were walking out wearing TPR hoodies, and I didn't want to look like a creep by calling out the TPR hoodie. EDIT: Then again, I'm not sure who it was that I saw leaving the park. The picture of Mr. and Mrs. ASLinterpreter looked awfully similar to who I saw on the way in. Prowler is not better than Renegade. I must also offer the disclaimer that I was NOT able to ride in either the front or back. The line marshall put me in row 7 all three times, even after asking for the back. Plus it may be raining by the time the park closes. Right now, my top 3 go Rene, Viper (Chicago) in a downpour, and this. What order they go on will require some deliberation and more rides. If you're out there today, feel free to flag me down and tell me you're from TPR. I'm 6'4", black hair, and wearing a slightly frayed Golden Gopher Athletics sweatshirt, cargo shorts, and a Twins cap. Paul "And I still hate Iowa!" Miller

I was also in that scrum in front of the dark ride. I would not consider that to be waiting in any sort of organized queue. If we used this as a benchmark of how long we waited, Coasterville and I waited for 3 1/2 hours after getting to the park around 7:45. Once the queue got properly formed up, 2:30 should be the longest you hear from anyone. Speaking of TPR people, about the time the line got to the Nick Universe bathrooms, a guy in a TPR zip-up hoodie went sprinting past us in the opposite direction, with a girl in some sort of lacrosse sweatshirt in tow. I believe this happened about a quarter after 10. If anyone cares to identify themselves as this Unknown TPR Assassin, please feel free to do so in this thread. Paul "Glad I Came" Miller

Seattle Times: Puyallup Fair incident accident 12 children A slightly better article from the Seattle Times.

A quick and dirtyrecap, before the epic trek back to Minnesota. I don't know what ride some of you were riding, but the two times I rode it (in rows 12 and 16) I was out of the chair on every drop. My new #1,nosing out Raging Bull. Keep in mind that I my list of coasters ridden is still missing a lot of the high-end coasters, but right now my Top 3 is DB, Bull, then the Tampa Trifecta and SFMM Goliath in some order. Yes, the line was insane at it's peak. Coasterville and I arrived at 7:45 AM, and were in the line right at the backside of the Eiffel Tower. Got through the line in 2 hours on the peg. Operations at D-back got better as the day went along. At one point, the line had shrunk to inside the temp pen. Even after the line grew back to the bathrooms, 55 mins-1:10 was pretty standard for that line. However, they were dreadful everywhere else. Beast's line didn't look too bad, but it was an hour all day while regularly having two trains sitting in the brakes. Top Gun was 40 minutes, SoB 45 minutes from the bottom of the ramp, FoF and Firehawk lines out the door all day until close to the end. Racer was the only thing with no line. I can't complain about the weather, but I kind of wished for crummy weather to keep the GP away. My VF platinum pass didn't pull up my picture when scanned at the turnstiles. The clerk waved me through anyway, but Cameron W and the other VF passholders that came didn't get so lucky. They got sent to guest relations, where they waited 45 minutes to get the mess resolved. CF has got to work on this, as I plan on using my pass a lot away from Valleyfair. One problem that was exposed right after I rode it was that the test seat is more forgiving than the actual train is. Several friends drew the green light at the test seat only to be rejected on the platform. Overall, mostly good impressions about my first visit to KI. It actually reminded me a lot of Six Flags Chicago.

I went up to the PNE towards the end of last August, when I was still living out in Seattle. First off, if you ever get the chance to go to Vancouver, GO! I thought Seattle was a goregeous city, but Vancouver was in a whole different league. As for Coaster, I rode in a middle row at night after a hot day of full trains all day. It was an airtime monster, and there is a surprising lack of restraints, other than the lap bar. I've been on woodies with far less airtime and far more restraints. The thing was NUTS. It was probably the only time I've ever braced in the car and hoped I wasn't thrown out of it. Oh, and the rest of the PNE was fun, too. Too bad that at the time, 100 loonies cost me USD99.75. Paul "Missing the Northwest" Miller

http://www.kdwb.com/pages/nickelodeanuniverse/ KDWB is back at it with the power-ride contest. They first did it a few years ago on Wild Thing (twice it went 10+ days), then last year they did it on Avatar (it didn't last 24 hours), and now they're switching to SpongeBob. Methinks this is gonna be a little harder than Avatar.

Rumors of a sale have been floating around, in various derivatives, for at least 15 years. However, today was the first time CF has put any substance behind said rumors. park fan> I also can't see the land VF sits on to be much good for anything other than the existing amusement park. The property is bordered by Hwy 101 to the south, the Minnesota River National Wildlife Refuge to the north, Murphys Landing to the west, and the Blue Lake wastewater treatment plant to the east. It's also on the wrong side of Highway 101 to be of much use as industry. The original park is the only area that is walled off from Minnesota River floodwaters, and Renegade required a lot of wetland mitigation. Given that real estate prices have taken a bath in the Twin Cities metro, I don't see any industrial developer wanting to pick up their 70 or so acres. There's a reason why, other than grain tanks, they're the only thing on that side of 101/13 between downtown Shakopee and well into Savage. Plus VF's Haunt was as packed as I've ever seen that park. The only night that didn't have hour waits for everything was November 1, the last night. I don't know how their summer went this year, but their fall was BIG.

Alamo is running a deal right now for $10/day weekend rentals. Go to their web site, type your location info in, and in the field marked "I.D./Corp. I.D." type "7014691." I won't be going out to WCB this year. I figured I better give it a year off. Besides, I'll be going to KC for opening weekend of Prowler.

If I don't go to WCB/Solace in March, my 2009 coaster opener will be in Kansas City on April 25. Worlds of Fun, probably Prowler but I haven't been down to WOF yet.

Dollywood is a bigger detour for fewer coasters. VF/NU/Dells before you go to Six Flags Chicago gets you a lot more quality wood credits than just going to Pigeon Forge. Day 1: Drive from Houston to KC. 12 hrs. Day 2: Worlds of Fun, drive partway to VF (appx. Des Moines, IA) Day 3: Drive rest of way to VF, VF. Stay in Twin Cities Day 4: Drive to Dells (appx 3 hrs), MtO, Timber Falls, Stay in Dells/Madison. Day 5: Drive to SFGAm (2-3 hrs), SFGam Day 6: IB. Drive rest of way to HW. Day 7: HW, SFKK Day 8: SFStL. Day 9: Drive back to Houston. 14 hrs. You could cut out SF St Louis at the end (HW back to Houston is shown by Google Maps as 16 hours and change). Otherwise, this is probably what you're looking at for itinerary if you go to Minnesota instead of Tennessee.

Ma nah ma nah!

I think one reason is the experience with Renegade up here at Valleyfair. I'm assuming that the target is Memorial Day weekend. Rene opened two weeks before Terminator is supposed to. A goodly portion of Rene was already vertical in mid-October, and by all accounts, they (GCI and construction crews) had to bust some serious butt all winter to get it done by opening weekend. I realize that construction techniques may be different with Terminator (different amounts of pre-fabrication), but they're still going to have to hustle.

Some of the things I'm looking forward to during the 2009 campaign: -Getting some mileage out of my Cedar Fair Platinum pass. I'd like to finally get to Cedar Point, but since Worlds of Fun is close by, and I've never been there, I want to get down there at least once. -Turning 25. Getting old has some drawbacks, but being able to rent cars without being extorted on underage fees isn't one of them. -Getting back to work. Anyone hiring a civil EIT? -Turning more laps on SpongeBob and Renegade. Paul "

I can't say that I have read any of these books, but I HAVE been to Forks, Washington. It's a hard place to get to (Four hours driving, and more if you have to wait at the Edmonds ferry landing or the Hood Canal Bridge drawspan). Forks is a hardscrabble logging town that was having a hard time staying stuck to the earth, which is hard given the winds and winter storms on that side of the Olympic Peninsula. However, the setting is unbelievably gorgeous. Even with much of the area's timber being unharvestable (either in Olympic National Park or not old enough), it's still incredibly lush, green, and rugged. Highway 101 around the Olympic Peninsula is one of America's best-kept secrets. When the last book came out in August, there was a front-page article in the Seattle Times about how there had been a rash of "vampire tourism" out to Forks, and how glad (and surprised) the local merchants were to see it. Not sure if this has much to do with the actual books, but you have to start somewhere.

Last March, Jerry D (from here) and I were waiting in the queue at Goliath at SFMM. Those of you who have seen us know that both of us are big guys, and we can effectively block the Goliath queue if we feel the need to. Two teenagers were playing the "Excuse me" line to blast their way through the line. They tried to do that with us. We asked them where they were going, and they were flabbergasted and went back to wherever they came from in the line.

I apologize for no pics, but my camera battery died at the Gopher football game earlier in the day, and I wasn't around an electric outlet long enough to charge the battery pack the rest of the day. I parked at the Lowe's by 169 and Canterbury Road, and rode into the park with Cameron, whose season pass saved me $10 on parking. VF had a promotion going where if you buy a 2009 season pass, you would get into Haunt for free. Seeing that I'm getting a 09 CF pass, I planned to take advantage of this. I was going to do this last Saturday, but my meeting in Shakopee ran long and by the time I got to the park, the main lot was jammed full. I didn't even bother to turn off Hwy. 101. Last night, the crowd was much more manageable (cars just past the center aisleway), but the jamup was at the ticket booths. 2009 season passes were being sold at the group sales windows off to the right of the main complex. The line wasn't that long, but it was SLOW. Only one person was selling the passes, and there were a couple of people milling around in the ticket booth. Meanwhile the line kept getting longer until it was out to the parking lot. I finally got up to the window and got my season pass certificate bought. In order to get into the park, I needed to take it to Guest Services and have them wave me through. The door to the GS office was locked, and issues were being dealt with at the window. If you needed something, the person at the window opened the door and brought you into the office. The line was to the end of the ramp, and several times we had people bulling their way to the door only to find it locked, then shuffle back to the end of the line at the bottom of the ramp. This is a very inefficient operation, and while I'm sure there was a reason why the door to GS was locked and people admitted on a need basis, this whole way of selling season passes is very user-unfriendly. Enough with my rant. Park wasn't nearly as crowded as when I was last there (Saturday, October 18). Renegade was running great, the trim coming out of the turnaround on High Roller was grabbing really hard, and Wild Thing was, well, Wild Thing. Most of the lines were 3 to 4 train waits, with High Roller being the only exception during the early going (line to the bottom of the ramp). I'd been through all the mazes in my previous visit, and all of them except for CarnEvil were great. Hellside Farms was my favorite of the bunch, and with the crowds being down significantly, I actually got spooked a few times. This continued until around 10:30, when two of Cameron's friends from the MoA got out to VF to truthfully claim that they had visited Valleyfair in November. They'd all been through the mazes, so there was no time wasted on mazes. We went straight back to Renegade, only to find the line was out of the tunnel. Since we knew that there was only one train on, we headed back up to the front to get final runs on High Roller and Wild Thing. I saw and said hello to timberskara on the way back to the front, then we got final runs on High Roller and Wild Thing. It was about 11:45 by the time we got out of Wild Thing, so we headed back to Renegade. By this time, there were two trains on, and the station had cleared out. While I was in line for the front row, the announcement went out in the station that this will be the last train of the night, and you better spread yourselves out on the train. So we all ended up on the final Renegade train of the 2008 operating season. As soon as we were out of the station, Cam and friends were all on their phones, bugging someone that they had just been on the last ride of the season. Cam brings me back to my car, where disaster is narrowly averted. I had left my dome lights on in the car when he dropped me off to go into the park, and when we got back my battery was so dead the interior lights were off. Fortunately, he jumped the car and it ran without further incident home. It was almost 1:30 AM when I got home and went to bed. This may not sound late, but considering I was on the freeway at 6 AM to go to the Gopher football game, I was ready to hit the sack. I'm still tired today. This brings to a close a very unusual 2008 campaign, a visit or two the the MoA notwithstanding. Between getting laid off, West Coast Bash, bouncing between Seattle and the Twin Cities, almost getting tossed out of the Coaster car in Vancouver, moving back to Minnesota, and going to several college football games, I'm not really sure what to expect for 2009. Thank you, and good night everyone! Paul "Thank you for coming, have a safe trip home, and we'll see you back in Shakopee on May 9, 2009!" Miller

Xcel and Batman are very snug on me. I'm also a 38 waist but 6'4", and that has caused problems with my shoulders constricting how far the OTSR can go. I've also found that Riddler is much more forgiving to those with excess height than with excess girth. Tatsu shouldn't be a problem with girth.

Minnesota Wisconsin Illinois Iowa North Dakota South Dakota Montana Wyoming Idaho Hawaii Washington Oregon California Nevada Utah Colorado Arizona Nebraska Texas Florida Georgia North Carolina Michigan Ohio Kentucky Pennsylvania Maryland Virginia DC British Columbia 29 states and a province in Canada. Not too shabby.

Awesome report! A friend of mine is doing a study-abroad in Berlin from next week to the end of September, and the end of her session just happens to coincide with Oktoberfest in Munich. Needless to say, she's excited. I've always wanted to go to Munich for Oktoberfest... Just out of curiosity, how much does a beer cost in one of those big portable halls? Paul "The dollar isn't worth the cotton it's printed on" Miller

Another apt comparison to Silverwood are the parks at Wisconsin Dells. However, both Holiday World and the Dells parks have large metro areas within close driving distance. The Dells are roughly equidistant from Chicago and Minneapolis-St. Paul (3 hours and change), with good-sized cities of Madison and Milwaukee closer than that. The Dells CVB also does a lot of advertising in the Twin Cities to make their presence felt. Holiday World has the large metro areas that someone mentioned earlier. Believe me, it's five full hours from where I am here in Seattle out to where Silverwood is, and there isn't much between here and there. With that said, I will be going out there sometime this summer to check the place out.

Dumb, dumb, dumb! As for the wire thefts, Washington State DOT has had chronic problems with wire theft, particularly on I-5 in Pierce County. WSDOT is mad about it because this has led to disabled stoplights and other public safety issues. They've been hit for $500,000 worth of stolen wire since December 2006. http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/News/2008/04/09_SR16MoreWireTheft.htm

Wind and lightning will shut the big stuff down, but they're more hesitant to shut stuff down in heavy rain than CP. My visit there in August 2006, it started to POUR around 5, and I got the last rides on Iron Wolf, American Eagle, Raging Bull, and Viper before they were shut down for rain. Viper was a FANTASTIC ride, albeit resembling a car wash.

Welcome to Minnesota, where if you don't like the weather, wait a little while and it'll change. I've got a few tornado stories. One of them involved a trip to VF and being bottled up in the Whitewater Country locker rooms for at least an hour, while things blew over and calmed down. Another time, we were at a horse shot at the Mille Lacs County Fair in Princeton. Late in the afternoon, the clouds darkened and a funnel cloud went right over us. Needless to say, the fairgrounds cleared out and we drove back to Brooklyn Park in a downpour. A few years after that, a BIG storm blew over our place. After it was over, we went out to the horse pens and found several steel fence posts looking like something had came along and tried twisting them out of the ground. Officially, there was only straightline winds that night, but straightline winds don't twist steel fence posts.