XII

$300.00 2011 SFMM Season Pass Coaster Expedition Volume 14 Penn & Teller Bullsh*t Season 3 Simpsons Season 13 RCT3 Platinum for the Mac Many Many Christmas Cookies

1. TPR's Middle America Trip 2. Bay Area Bash 3. West Coast Bash

Death of Will Koch - He seemed like a great guy who did a lot for Holiday World. Six Flags Budget Cuts - We're losing all the liscening lost in 5 years, Funatics, and the New Years Event. It's kind of a downer that all that is going. But at least Green Lantern is coming. Mt. Olympus - I was really disappointed by this park. I was really looking foreword to it, and the whole place had slow operations, long lines, and didn't seem as great as it did in Photo TRs.

Unfortunetly for me, the damn clouds obscured the actual eclipse itself. But on the bright side, I could still see it's effects and got some really cool photos of how the clouds were from the eclipse.

Onto today's photos. Well today we were at Holiday World, where we got all sorts of awesome perks and other cool stuff. And I'll let the pictures do all the talking from this point. Sweet. This is a great view to wake up to. This however, is not a great hotel to stay at. Not recommended. Yup. Today, we're at Holiday World. Wow. We already got a backstage tour first thing in the morning. Today is really looking great. We were able to get very close to the coasters today. Raven through the trees. "Ooh!!! We're touching Raven!!! We're so cool!!!!" Ok. That's enough looking around. Let's ride. Unfortunetly, I kind of found Raven to be overrated at first. (It got a lot better in the evening.) Next up, the Legend. While Raven and Voyage are better, I really found Legend to be a great woodie and it needs some more love. Speaking of the Voyage... "Whoa Whoa Whoa!!! I like you as a friend and all, but that's it!!! Just a friend!!! Back Off!!!!" Yeah, this ride kicks ass. And here are the Timberliners which I am looking foreword to seeing on Voyage in 2011. Ooh!! Let's check out Splashin Safari!!! Unfortunetly, I never really got a chance to check out Splashin Safari. But oh well. It just gives me another reason to come back to this awesome park. Yikes. It's boiling out here. How much are soft drinks here? At Holiday World, your soft drink is FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!! That is awesome. For once, I felt fully hydrated at a theme park. Thanks, you guys are awesome. Well, I at least managed to get on Wildebeest. Wildebeest was freaking amazing. And it wouldn't have been possible to experience this awesome water slide without this awesome front of the line pass. Once again, thank you Holiday World. You guys are awesome. That may be it for Splashin Safari, but that certainly won't be it for getting wet. Pilgrim's Plunge is a very interesting water ride. Pilgrims Plunge is a giant shoot the chutes with an elevator lift and apparently, you don't get wet on it. So far, it looks like the rumors may be true. Nope. You do get wet. As expected from a giant shoot the chutes. All right. Time to check out one of the more patriotic parts of Holiday World. S&S Double Shots may be small, but man do they pack a punch. All right lets just get this over with. Cha Ching!!! "Hey kids, now that you conquered Howler, you ready to go up against the Voyage?" In case you didn't know, this was lunch. We ate this. Yo Holidog!!! What's up!!!? Wanna tag along for the rest of the tour? Those are the ugliest bunnies I've ever seen in my life. And I know what ugly is. Gobbler Getaway is Holiday World's Dark Ride. And it's a very interesting dark ride. You're not shooting the turkeys, you're calling them. (We had to do some compromising with PETA in the designing process.) "Is that turkey doing what I think it's doing?" So that's what we were calling the turkeys for. We needed them to run the Tilt a Whirl for us. Anyone up for another ride on Pilgrim's Plunge? Yeah. That whole "You don't get wet" statement is total bullsh*t. I can't wait till we drag Samantha on this thing later today. Oh boy. I finally got a job working at Holiday World. Nope. This is just the start of our amazing backstage tour. Hello. I'm Samantha. Long time park employee, Tour Guide for your tour, and until the end of this tour, Pilgrims Plunge Virgin. Anyways, on with the tour. Yes. Congratulations on 1,000,000 visitors. First up, a park history lesson via puzzles. In the 60s and 70s, Holiday World was known as Santa Claus Land and only had small flat rides. In the 80s and 90s, They became Holiday World and added roller coasters. And here's today. The puzzle is not complete as it was meant for employees to do a good job and then they'd get a puzzle piece. Wow. I had no idea that the Voyage station was that big. Ok. Who wrote that? We all know that a Holiday World employee wouldn't write Bad Butt on the whiteboard. Ok, time for a quick ride on the Voyage. Random Voyage Car sitting randomly on a random peice of random ground randomly. Yeah. This ride is awesome. During the backstage tour, I was summoned to a Funnel Cake Challenge to see who can make a better funnel cake. Dammit!! I dropped my wallet in the batter. Better go fish it out. It's no coincidence that I was summoned to partake in this funnel cake challenge. For this is just training for my appearence on Iron Chef. So far, so good. "Oh my god. Did I just create that?" When I open up my own theme park, all the funnel cakes served will look like this. "Ha!! You're going down Kevin!!" Now this is how you make a funnel cake. Oh crap. That's a good looking funnel cake. Maybe if I put powdered sugar on mine, they won't notice the properness of Samantha's funnel cake. Yeah, I lost. Holiday World 1. XII 0. And now onto our scheduled backstage tour. Next up, the Sign Room. That's a good looking picture. They should build a mural to put that photo in like they have at SFMM. Hello, I have great ideas for Holiday World. I'd share them with you, but I'm not for obvious reasons. And now, time for a Voyage Photo Walkback. Run Voyage Run!!!! Run away from the Paparazzi!!!!! Time for one last ride on Raven when it's running awesomely. And one the bus to the hotel, we partook in Elissa Bingo. Up next, Indiana Beach.

- Cookie Dough - Cookies'N'Creme - Passion Punch Sherbert - New York Cheesecake

Onto the next day, Six Flags St. Louis. This was one of the more memorable days of the trip thanks to the blazing heat. This was without a doubt, the hottest day of the trip with temperatures of 112 degrees. However, with all the days on this trip, we still managed to have a blast. Anyways, onto the photos. We're here!!! Today's park is Six Flags St. Louis First off, we got a backstage tour of Mr. Freeze. Ooh. Getting personal here. We had a park director come talk to us about Mr. Freeze. Be sure not to fall onto the track. Yeah. This is awesome. Nerd Shot. Who needs captions when you have photos like these? "Mr. Freeze has had a very dark past. I am about to reveal some very shocking content about this ride that most of you never even thought was possible." Meh. Backstage Shots like this are better than any dark past of Mr. Freeze. All right. Time to actually ride some rides. Good thing we have ERT on Evel Kinevel. While not nearly as good as the all mighty Prowler, Evel Kinevel is still a very good GCI. Standard GCI Twistiness. And now it's time to ride Mr. Freeze. More rides need restraints like these. "In case we die, I just wanted to say that I love you." Now that ERT is over, let's get this sh*tty ride out of the way. "Hey!! That sh*tty ride over there is my 200th Credit!!!" While it's not the worst coaster of all time, it's definitely in the bottom of the roller coaster barrel. Yeah. You get a good smack to the head here. And it has these horribly ugly Stride Wraps. While I've seen these Stride Wraps on other coasters and look good, they simply look bad here as black and rainbow simply don't mix. But look on the bright side. Why make a sh*tty coaster look good? Up next, Batman the Ride. Hmm. Something's not quite right here. Ahh!! It's all backwards!!! Cha Ching!!! Next!!! Superman Tower of Power. One of the few things that survived from Six Flags Astroworld. Good thing because it's a fun ride. Up next, Screamin Eagle. It's not a bad ride. There's just nothing special about it. Up next, another Tony Hawk Clone. Not much to say other than that it was fun. After this, I will have gotten all the credits here. The Boss is sort of what it would be like if Ghostrider, Villian, and Son of Beast had a threesome and spawned a son that they sent to SFSL. We got in all the credits before lunch. Qbots are awesome. Yeah. Those were necessary today, being the hottest day in TPR History and boiling. Anyone up for more rides on Evel Kinevel? I'll trade Terminator for you. (Oops. I meant Apocalypse. My bad.) I'm not a log flume person and normally will not ride them at parks I'm visiting for the first time. However, today was an exception due to the extreme heat and getting in all the credits. Just in case you forgot where we were. (Hey, don't blame yourself if you did. It was memory destroyingly hot today.) Ooh. What's this? Now this is something you don't see everyday. A dark ride in a Six Flags Park. Hmm. What's this? Xcalibur is the park's evolution. I really hope more parks buy these rides as I really liked this one. Ahh. Why can't Screamin Eagle run with those trains. Oh well. It's still a fun ride. Holiday World Photos will be up soon.

Yes I have. It wasn't a fun day. Have you set up any Holiday Decorations yet?

Here are some of my favorite photos from 2010. Awesome Scream Photos from one of the Awesome Backstage Tours at Westcoast Bash. Awesomeness at Bay Area Bash. More Awesomeness from Bay Area Bash. Mr. Six's Splash Island opens up at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor. I just love how this shot on California Screamin came out with the other train dueling. Setting the lake on fire during the World of Color Show. This shot turned out perfect. I just love how I got the entire train in and how perfectly it is set up with the American Girl Store in the background. Prowler in all its holiness. Fun at the City Museum. (I just LOVE the expressions on everyone's faces.) So many amazing backstage shots. This one is of Mr. Freeze. Here's a good Voyage shot that I really like. Now who was it that said you don't get wet on Pilgrim's Plunge? I actually managed to photograph the lightning from the thunderstorm during the TPR Bridge Party @ SFGAm. And here's one of X2 that I really like.

As the holiday season for this year continues, I feel that this little tune says a lot about this time of year.

Thanks for all the comments everyone. And now onto one of the craziest days of the tour, the City Museum day. While there were no amusement parks on this day, there were still giant slides of death, hamster wheels, adult ball pits, and we even saw a famous landmark. So I'm pretty sure that will do just fine. Anyways, onto the City Museum day. Hmm. So today's our no park day. If we're not off to a park first, then where could we be heading to right now. Well wherever we went, it involved Bryan having to drive our bus through these cones. Bryan kicked ass as a bus driver BTW. Where could we be going that involved Bryan to have to perform such a maneuver with our bus? Yup. We're off to Pizza Hut. This little pizza hut in the middle of nowhere Missouri has offically been scared for life. Up next, we're off to the St. Louis Gateway Arch. What? Culture in the middle of a roller coaster trip? How blasphemous. We need more Intamin Hypers and less famous landmarks. That would make the world a much better place. Anyone else think they should just convert the Gateway Arch into a bigass Skycoaster? Gateway Arch Crotch Shot. All right. Let's head up to the top of this thing. Just incase you thought we took the North Tram up to the top. "F*ck Culture! If they don't have any rides for Kidtums here, I'll make one myself!" The Gateway Arch isn't recommended for anyone claustrophobic. The top of the arch isn't that much better than the pods you take to get up to the top. From the Gateway Arch, you can get such lovely views such as the Missisippi River... The rest of St. Louis... And even the bottom of the Gateway Arch itself. Shadow Shot of the Gateway Arch. Ooh!! Artsy Shot of the Gateway Arch. Notice how the culture dominates above the typical TPR Member. The Gateway Arch through some unimportant random St. Louis building. Ahh. That's enough culture for now. Let's do something fun. Like hang out in this f*cked up contraption. In case you don't know, that f*cked up contraption is the St. Louis City Museum. And it is amazing. For those who don't know, at the City Museum, you basically just get to go through all sorts of crazy insane contraptions. Ok. So what exactly is the Cave Slide you may ask? Basically you climb up a huge flight of stairs... And then you slide down a 10 story slide. "Are we there yet?" Well, here goes nothing. Unfortunetly, it was pretty slow due to the heavy friction it creates. (You can tell that this was made for shoeboxes and not humans.) But still!! It's a 10 story slide, and therefor, is amazing. Hello. My name is Mr. Fish. At many places, I'm the star of the show such as at the aquarium or in the ocean. But I'm the most boring thing here. Another look at the 10 story Cave Slides. Time to get crawling through the coils. This is a very bizarre place. Another giant slide at the City Museum. Time to go into the Outdoor Part of the City Museum. This may be hurting my legs, but I love it!!! "I may be out of shape, but dammit!! I KNOW I can make it through these coils!!!!" "A little help here?" All right!! I made it to the plane!! "Hey. I don't remember parking my plane here. How did that happen?" We have encountered another giant slide. It too, suffers from Too much Friction Syndrome and is not nearly as fast as you would think. Vertical Slide Goodness. FIGHT!!!!!! FIGHT!!!!!!! FIGHT!!!!!!!! "Wait? Why are we fighting each other? The real enemy is right over there." "DIRECT HIT!!!!!" This is not going to end well. "My mommy says I'm not allowed in the Ball Pit. So I'm stuck here in the Sponge Room." All right!! I see a beehive! Now where's that bastard who stung me on Wildfire!!!? There you are. Well Mr. Bee, what do you have to say for yourself. Do you think it's fun to sting people on B&Ms? How would you like it if I stung you while pollenating those flowers? Anyone up for Bob's Big Boy? Anyone up to try out that Vertical Slide? "Hey! There's no slide too dangerous for me!!" Yeah. That's the expression most people have while sliding down the slides here. Oh boy!! I can't wait to see what sort of crazy stuff they have on the roof!! Hey, this actually looks pretty peaceful. (For the City Museum.) They have their very own ferris wheel on the roof. Yeah. This place is amazing. HOLY CRAP!!! THE CITY MUSEUM IS BEING ATTACKED BY GIANT MUTATED GRASSHOPPERS!!!! St. Louis at sunset. Dude!! This slide is actually really freaking fast!!! And now, to finish off this night, White Castle!!! It's been a long journey, but we finally made it to White Castle. Unfortunetly, White Castle isn't that good. "DAMN YOU HAROLD AND KUMAR!!!! YOU LIED TO ME!!!!!!" Screw the Gateway Arch. We now have the White Castle Arch. This one's better because we added a drop tower/lightning rod at the top. Six Flags St. Louis Photos will be coming soon.

^Of course not. Carrots are the official vegetable of war.

Ok, sorry about the long delay. I just had something called life get in the way. Oh well, on to the Photo TR. And where else to pick up again than from my favorite park on the trip. Silver Dollar City. This park is awesome. Everything about it. Why ramble up here about how awesome Silver Dollar City is when I can just show you photos to prove it? Ok. That's really depressing. We need something to cheer us up. That'll do the trick. Today was an awesome day at Silver Dollar City. Don't believe me? Just take a look at our itinerary for the day. This place is stunningly beautiful. They really nailed down the 1800s town look. Just to let you know where we are. Yikes. Look at all the funky jerky they have here. I should've tried the Kangaroo Jerky. Ok. Enough of that. We have rollercoasters to ride. This ride was awesome. Another thing people rave about here is their Cinnamon Bread. Surely, it's just bread. It can't be THAT good. "Holy Sh*t!!! This stuff is amazing!!!" Up next, Fire in the Hole. It may not count as a credit. But that doesn't mean that this wasn't a kickass dark ride. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!!!!!" Where can I find this attraction? I can't find it on the park map. Yay. Now it's time for us to ride Wildfire. For all you lifthill nuts out there. It's no Kumba, but Wildfire is still an awesome B&M. Hey! I didn't think this ride had armbanging!! Wait, how is that even possible? No wait. That was just a bee stinging me on the ride. And the bee was still attached to the stinger, which made for a very interesting meet and greet, But look on the bright side. I'm still alive and that bee is not. XII 1. Bee 0. Time for a ride on the Giant Barn Swing. Hmm. Looks like an ordinary mine train. Not only is this mine train more insane than any other mine train, but you can also ride it backwards. Aww. River Blast broke down on us. In that case, time to get the final credit needed here. Cha Ching!!! The Disko here actually runs a pretty good program. "Teacups anyone?" Aww. Nothing refreshes you better than a Cherry Coke Icee. (Yes, you can get that thanks to the beauty of the self mixing Icee machine.) Sweet!!! River Blast opened back up for us!!! You know, considering that this is a Splash Battle, this is an acceptable amount of wetness. I think I'm wet enough already thank you very much. Back to the Barn Swing. This ride is awesome and I'm glad to see this ride is coming to Dollywood in 2011. This park's sense of humor is awesome. Yes, Silver Dollar City is so awesome that they make their own milk. And considering how much they gave us, we owe them a little manual labor. Sweet! Time for the park's shooting dark ride. "Can I take these guns with me back home to Australia?" OMG! The food here is phenomenal. Everything in that skillet is awesome. Hey Grandpa! We just popped back in Ventura to give you a quick visit. Hmm. Something about this just isn't right. Hey Grandpa. If this is what you did to your house,then I'm really looking foreword to seeing what you did with that farm in your backyard. If I could, I would. Dinner was awesome. This time, I won a book during trivia. All right. Back to Powder Keg. If someone said "I want to go on something more thrilling than California Screamin, but not nearly as insane as Maverick", you'd pretty much get Powder Keg right there. EXCITEMENT 3...2...1!!!!!!!!! All right. What's American Plunge? I think I'll pass. I'll just stick with Wildfire thank you very much. This may not be as crazily forceful as Kumba, but hey. Kumba doesn't have ejector air on it's first drop. Look out for those bees. They're gonna sting you. All those excuses are lame. Did I mention that this park is beautiful? I'm really hoping that some other parks in the future will give their mine trains the Thunderation Treatment. What exactly is the Marvel Cave you may ask? The Marvel Cave is an actual cave that Silver Dollar City owns and gives tours to. And it's not an upcharge. Welcome to hell. (Seriously, the local indians originally thought that this was the entrance to hell.) While this is cool and all, I wouldn't recommend this for people with claustrophobia. Am I really at an amusement park? Then when it's all over, you get in this tiny little car and are dragged out of there. Well, that's it for Silver Dollar City. Next up will be photos and video of the City Museum.

Kyle's Moms a Bitch - Southpark

Smooth Criminal - Michael Jackson

I saw the sign. And it DID NOT open up my eyes. I saw the sign.

Coaster @ PNE Playland. It's already my favorite woodie. But that ride is just amazing. Extreme airtime on every hill along with some damn good laterals. A really good package all under 75 feet.

Thankful for TPR and all that they do Not having an off season Going to new parks and riding new coasters Everything coming to SoCal in 2011 The Northeast Trip

Thanks for the IAPPA DVD Robb. Looking foreword to watching it.

I finally bought new headphones today, and it is just so nice to not my old sh*tty headphones leaking my music into the room.

I didn't the Back Street Boys were still around. Glad to see that they'll be playing at SFMM next year.

Awesome job covering IAPPA Robb. These updates have really got me excited for the 2011 coaster season.

My rant for today. I have perhaps the worst neighbors that anyone can possibly have. Some of the hobbies that these people enjoy include banging on our walls in the middle of the night, playing loud horrible music, kicking our door, and playing knock on door ditch, which is basically ding dong ditching, only with knocking on doors, and they do this daily. And until I took the whiteboard off my door, they would come and draw giant dicks there all the time. These people are assholes and I'm really looking foreword to the day I get away from them.

Nice Middle America Photos. They really make me miss the Middle America and also get me excited for the Northeast Trip next year.

I would consider every comment from that article worthy of being in this thread. But then again, you really can't expect anything remotely intelligent from the people who comment on Yahoo News Articles.