Jonathan

Thanks for your comments, Jarvis. Yes, the elephant on the Kings Island flume totally drenched us, whereas the Carowinds one is too weak to even reach the boats. Most of the footage you see in the videos is actually most of the decent shots that I got. I'm not quite as dedicated to filming as you are (don't think I would ever have the willpower to go to a park and not ride anything!), so I take out the camera when I have a chance, and don't really think about what I'm filming. No 'fashion show' from Dave at Indiana Beach, but don't worry, I think there is one more later in the week. Interestingly enough, Carowinds used to have a boat tag like the one at Indiana Beach (the armored boats and the guns), although the one at Carowinds did not have the weird train thing you could get on. They removed it in the late 90's, I believe.

After much delay, Part III (Indiana Beach) is up: http://www.jonathan-hawkins.net/index.php/videos/ There's also a video from Quassy/Lake Compounce on last year's Ride World trip. Enjoy!

The problem with your reasoning, Twister II, is that most people like what they are told to like. Objective listening is a rarity for most people. EDIT: This is sort of unrelated, but at the same time somewhat helps illustrate my point, and also makes me incredibly furious: And America will fork over the cash without thinking twice.

If you have a gold you get in free to Silver Dollar City, and 50% off at Celebration City. Regular gets you 50% off at both parks.

Time Bandits A brilliant film for both adults and children, although I probably would have been terrified if I saw this when I was a young child. Probably Terry Gilliam's most imaginative film, and as always it is wonderful visually. More flaws than his other movies, but there are some hilarious moments (such as John Cleese as Robin Hood), and the ending is quite shocking. 8/10, B+. Other Gilliam films: Brazil - 10/10, A+ 12 Monkeys - 9/10, A Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas - 9/10, A Monty Python and the Holy Grail - 9/10, A The Fisher King - 9/10, A-

I don't know if we just hit those flyers on a bad day or what, but no one in our group, even the most experienced snappers, could come remotely close to snapping them. Glad to hear you had a great time, though. Silver Dollar City is definitely one of the best parks I've ever been to. It and Dollywood are both two of my favorite parks, but I think I slightly prefer Silver Dollar City with its dark ride and tilt house. Oh, and Thunderation is the best mine train ever.

Oh the humanity.

If you have the opportunity to go on a weekday, then yes, I would definitely say it is worth the trip. Granted, it is my home park, but I don't really think I am *too* biased. On a typical weekday you should be able to get all the rides done fairly quickly, as long as you don't go to the waterpark. Top Gun is one of the best inverteds B&M ever made, in my opinion, and after you ride the Flyers once you'll probably want to spend the rest of the day on them. Hurler has also been running very well lately. My only suggestion would be to get to the park when it opens and go to Borg first thing if you want to ride it. Carowinds does not have the great collection of coasters that Six Flags Over Georgia has, but it is a nicer park in my opinion.

"Oh my god what's that hole opening in the sky.. It's.. a plot hole" "War of the Worlds" Everytime I started to become engrossed in the movie, an incredibly terrible gaping flaw slapped me back into reality. There were some moments in this movie that never should have made it to the first test screening before someone said "Hey, that makes absolutely no sense." The ending felt really tacked on and was pathetically Spielberged (and please note I am not a Spielberg hater; in fact I've enjoyed most of his films). For a summer blockbuster disaster movie, I have no desire to see it again, because there is simply no fun in it (intentional, at least). That was what Independence Day had going for it in my opinion; despite its flaws and problems, it was simply a fun popcorn movie. The good news is that "War" has solid performances from the entire cast (with some unintentionally hilarious moments from Tim Robbins), and as you may expect, the special effects are outstanding. The sound, at least in the theater I was in, was wonderful. It's by no means the worst film out right now, but I would suggest spending your money on something else, like "Batman Begins" (which I still haven't seen @#@#), or "Crash" if you can still find it playing somewhere. C+, 6/10

Wow. Just wow. I don't think I would ever have the patience to do something like that.

My plans for tonight got cancelled, so naturally I stayed home and typed out an incredibly long rant on the internets.

Part II is up! Paramount's Kings Island is featured in this one. http://www.jonathan-hawkins.net/index.php/videos/ Please comment! If you loved it I would appreciate the encouragement, and if you hated it I would love to know how I can improve.

http://www.jonathan-hawkins.net/index.php/videos/ The first video from the Midwest Conquest is now up at my site. Part 1 features the first two days of the trip at Libertyland, Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, and Holiday World. I won’t know for sure until I edit the rest of the videos, but I am anticipating 8 videos total to be released from the trip. With each video from the Midwest Conquest, I will also be re-releasing the video from the corresponding day on the East Coast Trek in 2004 since most people did not get to see those. The Williams Grove and Six Flags America videos are up now. Once I edit the next Conquest video, these three videos will be taken down, so get them now! Please feel free to leave comments and criticism!

Go ride one. You'll know then.

Good to hear it went okay. I had surgery myself Wednesday; had to get a bone graft in my mouth to prepare for a tooth implant I will be getting in the future. Lots of milk shakes, pasta, and pudding for me for a while!

My photos are now up at my newly redesigned site (jonathan-hawkins.net). Day 1 - Libertyland Day 2 - Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Day 2 - Holiday World Day 3 - Paramount's Kings Island Day 4 - Indiana Beach Day 5 - Michigan's Adventure Day 6 - Six Flags Great America Day 7 - Mt. Olympus Day 7 - Timber Falls Day 8 - Six Flags St. Louis Day 9 - Silver Dollar City Day 9 - Celebration City Enjoy! Videos will start appearing in the future...

I agree, the Dells is freaking awesome. Friday was my first visit, and it is a wooden coaster lovers paradise. Hades is my new #1, Avalanche #3, and Cyclops #8. Zeus is pretty fun as well.

6/12/05 Midwest Conquest Day 9 Silver Dollar City Celebration City Silver Dollar City What a way to end the trip. I'm not sure why they did it, but when Silver Dollar City found out about our trip, they treated us to an amazing day. Thirty minutes before Silver Dollar City opened, we were ushered for free to the back of the park, and treated to ERT on the park's newest coaster, Powderkeg. The treatment we were given aside, Powderkeg is an awesome ride. It has a good launch and huge floater airtime on every hill, yet it is not too intense for the entire family to ride. It is a perfect addition to the park, and in all honesty was probably my favorite steel coaster of the entire trip. We were lucky we got the ride session, too, as within 15 minutes after park opening, the lift broke, and the ride did not reopen untill around 4 in the afternoon. As the park opened, we headed to Wildfire, and passed by the masses of people heading to Powderkeg. We were able to get 4 rides in on Wildfire, which is also a really good coaster. One of the better B&M loopers, in my opinion, and also one of the best steel coasters on the trip. The first drop in the backseat provides great airtime, and the low to the ground turns are really cool as well. While we were in the area, we hit the log flume, which had a decent course and got us incredibly drenched. Since we were wet, we hit the next coaster, Fire in the Hole. It is identical in layout and very similar in scenes to Blazing Fury at Dollywood, with a much roomier loading area, and a dalmation on the loading platform. That was definitely the first time I have seen a dog in a coaster station. While heading to the other side of the park, we noticed the most insane portion of a rapids ride that I have ever seen. Naturally, we had to ride it. The rapids ride at Silver Dollar City was the best I have been on, and we all got absolutely soaked. There are some crazy drops and rapids that cause waves to come crashing over the rafts. Looking back, I probably should not have gone on it, since i remained soaked for the next 24 hours. Not ready to get drenched again, I watched on as Paul and Jay rode the Waterboggan, which is very similar to Dollywood's Slidewinder. We then ran into more of the group on the Flooded Mine, which may be the best Sally dark ride shooter that I've seen. We had a blast on it, and then headed for our final coaster. Thunderation is one of the biggest and fastest mine trains that Arrow made, and it is also unique in that every other car faces backwards, so the ride offers two different experiences. Also, it is the best darn mine train I have ever been on. I usually don't care for them, but this one is smooth as glass, has incredible terrain, and is actually fairly intense. I ended up riding it six times during the day, and would have loved to ride it more. After that, we hit another very cool attraction, Grandfather's Mansion, an old fun house. The tilted room with furniture and the swing was great fun, and it's unique attractions like this that help make parks such as Silver Dollar City such great experiences. It is a good thing Silver Dollar City ended up being the last day of the trip instead of the first as originally planned, because we would have been spoiled. The park invited us to lunch at Molly's Mill, and gave us a free buffet plus drinks and dessert. There was so much good food, and we all ate until we nearly exploded. I guess we needed to work off those extra pounds, because most of the group hit the Marvel Cave together. Marvel Cave is something that no other park in the country can offer: a strenuous hour long walking tour through a real limestone cavern. It was really interesting, and we had a great time, the highlights of which sadly were Dave falling down on some stairs, and everyone blinding each other with their camera flashes. At the end of the cave, an inclined railway takes guests back up to the park. I split off to shoot video, and hit Thunderation a couple more times. When I got over to Powderkeg, I found that the ride still was closed, so it looked like I was not going to get any footage. But then, as I stood there, I ran into Dave, and we witnessed trains begin testing. Talk about perfect timing. The ride opened, and we were on the second train out in the front seat. After more filming, I hit Wildfire and Thunderation again on my way out, and everyone gathered at the vans to head over to Celebration City. I was extremely impressed by Silver Dollar City, and, aside from the ERT and lunch the park gave us, it was easily the nicest park of the trip. Celebration City It is a little odd going from Silver Dollar City to Celebration City, which has a totally different atmosphere, and honestly has a long long way to go before it is a great park. From what I hear, though, SDC has really stepped it up a notch in the short time they have owned it since it was Branson, USA. I joined Paul Fowler for a ride on their flying scooters upon arrival, and we were disappointed to find that we could not snap them. We hit their S&S double shot, which was excellent, and then joined the group for the first coaster of the day, Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt, a S&MC Hurricane, is an evil portable coaster. The twist and dive halfway through the ride ranked right up there with Cyclops and LoCoSuMo as one of the more devilish rides of the trip. Next up was the biggest improvement that Silver Dollar City has made since purchasing the park: Ozark Wildcat, a GCI woodie. The first half of the ride is pretty good, but nothing like Thunderhead, while the last little run of bunny hops and turns is spectacular, and as good a stretch of track as on any coaster out there. The ride as a whole did not impact me too much, however, on that first ride. We had dinner at a fairly decent pizza place, and after that came one of the more bizarre moments of the trip. Sadly, only one park on the trip had a set of tea cups, and that was Great America. Since we were so pressed to get the coasters in due to crowds, none of us were able to hit those tea cups. But what to my eyes did appear at Celebration City but a small carousel near the front entrance, which, you guessed it, had two mini tea cups on it. Paul and Mark crammed into one, and Dave and I crammed into the other, and we went completely nuts. The cups had no restrictions on them, and we spun full speed for a few moments before the carousel even started moving. I felt like my back was going to get bent over out of the car. Next, we hit the final credit of the trip, Jack Rabbit. Jack Rabbit is a Miler portable steel coaster, and it is also incredibly evil. Ridiculous turns and stand up air were abundant on this wild little ride. We ran into Jay there, and told him about our tea cup experience, so I went back and rode a cup with Jay. I nearly died, as Jay had it spinning so fast that I could not even breathe. Paul was behind us filming, and after slowing down his footage and counting the rotations, we found that we averaged about one revolution per second! I had destroyed my finger on the tea cups, so I stopped by first aid for a bandage, and then rode the Ozark Wildcat again with Jay. We then met the rest of the group for Celebration City's impressive 30 minute light show, and after that received our final spectacular surprise. For 30 minutes after park closing, we were treated to ERT on the Ozark Wildcat, and the many rides I got during that in the dark with the lights off, I was truely able to appreciate how great the Wildcat is. It is not quite Thunderhead, but is in my opinion worthy of being a top 10 wooden coaster. With a final lap on the Ozark Wildcat, sadly, the Midwest Conquest came to an end. It was about 11 PM when we left Celebration City, and somehow our brave drivers survived the night, and between 6 and 7 AM we arrived in Memphis. After saying our goodbyes, we parted ways, and I headed back to North Carolina with Dave and Jay. When we picked up Jay's car, it would not start, so after some fun fixing that, I finally arrived back home around 20 hours after leaving Celebration City. Like the East Coast Trek, the MidWest Conquest was absolutely unbelievable, and I cannot thank enough those who planned it and attended. I know Chris and Natalee worked endlessly on this trip, and if they enjoyed themselves even half as much as I did, then I think it payed off completely. Chris and John did a great job of driving the vans for the 2,500 miles we covered, while Natalee and Jen were dedicated navigators. Like all long road trips in big groups, there were a few conflicts and confrontations, but I'm really glad everyone came. I have so many great memories from this trip, and coaster-wise, I do not even want to begin contemplating refiguring my favorite coaster lists. Until next year...

I finally got around to seeing Episode III. In short, I thought it was much much better than I and II, but still a far cry from the original trilogy. I did think it helped tie together the prequel with the original trilogy a lot. There were some incredibly horribly terrible moments, but the second half of the film was outstanding, in my opinion. 7/10 Star Wars 10/10 The Empire Strikes Back 10/10 Return of the Jedi 9/10 The Phantom Menace 6/10 Attack of the Clones 5/10 Revenge of the Sith 7/10

Did not have an Internet connection at our hotel in Branson, and we drove through the night the next day, so here is the Day 8 TR and Day 9 will be up soon. 6/11/05 Midwest Conquest Day 8 Six Flags St. Louis We slept in a little late on Saturday and then headed for Six Flags St. Louis. We were greeted with a downpour, and had lunch at the McDonalds beside the park. Then we decided to get in and out of the park as quickly as possible so that we could get into Branson at a decent time. I took off in a near sprint into the park with Bobby and Jay, and we flew directly to the Boss. After about a 20 minute wait, I took a ride in the next to last seat. I thought it was a pretty good ride, and not very rough at all, but unfortunately there was very little airtime. We then rushed to the next wooden coaster, Screamin' Eagle. Eagle also had very little airtime, but it was running awesome, flying down the drops and around the turns, and very smooth. After that, we rushed to Mr. Freeze, and after about a 20 minute wait, took a ride. Very fun, and I may even like it better than the Chiller. I split off on my own after that, deciding to ride the woodies again instead of getting the other credits. I hit Boss up front, which was not as good as the back, and then ran into Dave, who had yet to ride a coaster, instead riding every single flat ride in the park. Together we hit the River King Mine Train, which was okay, and then went back to Screamin' Eagle. After that, it was getting close to time to leave, so we went over to Batman, and checked the line. It was absolutely massive, and I figured I've been on a million Batman clones, so no big loss. I instead rode Ninja, the Vekoma looper, which was suprisingly decent. By that point, the sky was black, and rain drops were beginning to fall. Dave and I sprinted back to the front of the park to meet the rest of the group, and we got out of Six Flags as quickly as we could. I had a decent time, although I see no reason to go back until they get another big coaster. Some members of the group had bad experiences, and I think the general consensus seemed to be that it was the worst park of the trip. We did, however, have a great time after the park. The drive was long, and we got stuck in traffic for a while, but eventually we did arrive in Branson, and drove around admiring the incredible tackiness of the entire strip. After checking into our hotel, we hit the Rib Crib for one final meal together, and a great one at that. It was a fairly relaxed day, with the smallest amount of park time of the trip, resting up for a big day on Sunday. Dave: We went to Six Flags St. Louis, stayed 3 hours, the place sucked, and we left. Jay: The park could use a lot of work in every single aspect.

6/10/05 Midwest Conquest Day 7 Mt. Olympus Riverview Park Timber Falls I'll say it right from the start: The Dells was freaking awesome. For the first time, we did not have a morning drive, so after waking up, we packed into the vans and drove right down the street. We passed Timber Falls, but the destination for the morning was Mt. Olympus. We rolled in and met up with some others, got our discount tickets, and then headed into the park. I joined a few others in making a beeline for Hades. I've heard mixed reviews about Hades; some absolutely love it, some don't think it is anything special. I think our group had the same range of opinions. As for myself, I have never been so stunned on a first ride than I was on Hades. The tunnel absolutely blew my mind, and I was shocked by how fast the train roared through the finale. The pre-lift section is awesome as well, with some killer pops of air. Hades honestly had almost everything I could want in a coaster, and I can say right now that after around 215 coasters, it is my favorite. The violent turns and sudden drops inside the tunnel reminded me of Thunderhead inside of a tunnel with PTC trains, while the final part of the ride reminded me a bit of Legend. Needless to say, before continuing on to the other credits, we hit Hades again. After being blown away by Hades, we were nearly thrown away by Cyclops in the back seat. That has got to be the most insane drop of any ride anywhere. Cyclops was a giant hit with everyone, and most everyone agreed that it is extremely underrated. Short, but extremely sweet. Zeus was getting greased up, so we hit the incredibly odd Dive to Atlantis water coaster. After an ubsurdly long and boring float through a trough, our boat ascended the lift, nearly valleyed in the hill, and then plunged down the drop, absolutely drowning everyone in the boat. After the drenching, we hit the other big wooden coaster, Zeus. In the front seat, Zeus is a really good ride, but it is completely overshadowed by Hades and Cyclops. Many of the other seats were very rough, and the train was jackhammering in a lot of places. After more of Hades and Cyclops, we hit the last credit we could get (could not get on the kiddie), Pegasus. It's a pretty fun ride intended for families, and a good compliment to the bigger coasters. We walked up to Riverview Park after that to see what kind of credits we could get. We eventually decided just to buy enough tickets to ride the Galaxi. The Galaxi operator let us ride free, and also explained to us how he designed the Galaxi, Cyclops, and Avalanche... Since we rode that free, we used the remaining tickets to hit the two kiddie coasters, so I got 3 coasters for $4. Back over at Mt. Olympus, after some more rides on the big coasters, the bottom fell out of the sky. We took shelter in the indoor waterpark, which was too jammed to do, so we hung out in an arcade for a bit. Chris Z. and Jay won over a thousand tickets between them, and had some fun picking out prizes, and then we noticed the sky was blue again. We spent the remainder of the afternoon riding the woodies as much as possible, and then it was time to head over to Timber Falls. After getting our group discount at Timber Falls, Paul, Jay, and myself rode with Chris Z. back over to Mt. Olympus, and rode Hades two more times before closing. Then it was back over to Timber Falls. Timber Falls is a small place, with a few miniature golf courses, a large log flume, and then, Avalanche. As if the awesome coasters at Mt. Olympus were not enough, Avalanche is an amazing ride, and immediately jumped into my top 5. The speed the train maintains throughout the duration of the ride is simply unnatural, and the 6 seat train looks bizarre flying around the circuit. Every hill delivers standing air, and the banked turns are very violent. The park's flume was also pretty awesome, and we had a great time doing a double ride on it. Then some of our group rested, while others (myself included) rode Avalanche repeatedly. I believe I got 14 rides, and it was a great finish to what was for me the best day of the trip so far. I probably have 3 new top 10 woodies after today, with Hades, Avalanche, and Cyclops all jumping up there. I ate at a Culver's with Bobby for dinner, which was awesome, and now we are at a hotel in Bloomington, Illinois, resting up for Six Flags St. Louis. Jay: This day obliterated my top ten, even moreso than it already was from this trip. Riverside is a , but Mt. Olympus and Timber Falls are both great. Dave: The last drop on Cyclops should be against the law, but thankfully it's not.

6/9/05 Midwest Conquest Day 6 Six Flags Great America Somehow, everyone survived the night, and we all awoke on time Thursday morning for the drive to Gurnee, Illinois. Traffic was bad, but could have been much worse, at least from what I saw in the brief moments I was awake. We saw the Chicago skyline from a distance, payed a thousand tolls, and eventually arrived at Six Flags Great America, where we were greeted by hundreds of school buses in the parking lot. Apparently school is ending here, so instead of taking exams, which is what I recall I had to do, they go to Six Flags. Needless to say, the park was fairly crowded, although the bulk of the masses seemed to be in the water park. We broke off into smaller groups this time, with everyone hurrying as fast they could to hit all of the coasters. I hung out with Dave, Jay, Bobby, Anthony, Martin, and Chris Zahn, who joined us for the day, and Bobby, Martin, and Anthony later broke off from the group. Our first stop was the ride we figured probably had the worst capacity and the biggest chance of going down; Deja Vu. In just a few minutes I was on the ride with Jay near the back of the train, and I added another Deja Vu to my list (the first being Over Georgia). It's a good ride, and very intense, although a little rough in the cobra roll. Moving on, we hit Vertical Velocity, which was a near walk-on, and a pretty fun ride. Next, we hit the Ragin Cajun, since we assumed it was one of the lower capacity rides. It's a pretty good mouse, and we really got our car spinning well. Continuing to fly around the park, we encountered our first significant wait at Whizzer. Aside from being a unique coaster that you can't find anywhere else in the country, Whizzer is a really fun ride, and I'm certainly glad they removed Shockwave instead of it. Moving into the Southwest Territory, we encountered a fairly significant wait for what would be my 200th coaster: Viper. I rode in the third seat, and was really surprised by how awesome this coaster was. Amazingly enough, it was built in-house by Six Flags. The third seat has a ton of ejector airtime, and the fan turns are crazy. One of the best coasters so far on the trip, in my opinion. And continuing with another good coaster, we waited a while to ride Raging Bull, and I completed the US B&M hyper trifecta. We rode in the backseat, and it was a very fun ride. The trims were unnecessary, and there isn't as much airtime as Nitro or Apollo's Chariot, making them superior in my opinion. On over to American Eagle, I was once again surprised. I rode the red (forwards) side, and wasn't expecting the ride to be as extremely smooth as it was, and there was some airtime as well. There are 3 incredibly heavy trim brakes, though, and I would love to see what the ride could do without them. We were getting hungry, so we decided to eat, but first hit the junior coaster, Spacely Sprocket Rockets, which the operator allowed us all to ride. At this point Anthony and Martin departed for Superman, while the rest of us had lunch at the Farmers Market food court (I had a foot long corn dog...), and then Bobby departed. With five credits to go, we waited for the Demon, which was an incredibly bizarre ride. The harp music in the first tunnel, and flashing Christmas tree lights in the second tunnel were odd surprises, although the coaster itself was quite rough. Back over to American Eagle, I got the backwards side, which, like the forwards side, was a fun smooth ride. After briefly meeting the rest of the group to determine a departure time, we waited for Superman: Ultimate Flight. Like the Great Adventure version, it lacks the conformity with the terrain that the Over Georgia version has, but it is a very good ride. Continuing our trip through B&M land, we rode Batman, the first ever inverted, which was of course your standard Batman. Finally, we got the 13th and final coaster, Iron Wolf. It was not very good, but it honestly was not near as bad as I thought it would be. Probably smoother than Vortex, Mantis, and Chang. Before leaving, I rushed for another ride on Viper and American Eagle. It was unfortunate that the park was so crowded and I didn't have time to hit any flat rides or rerides on more of the coasters, but I was still impressed by the park. Definitely one of the better, if not best, Six Flags parks. After the park some of us hit a White Castle, which we are now feeling the effects of, and then drove to Wisconsin Dells, and we are looking forward to a great day tomorrow. Comments... Jay: Nothing really stood out, but the park was really good, and handled the crowds really efficiently.

6/8/05 Midwest Conquest Day 5 Michigan's Adventure Wednesday quickly turned out to be one of the crazier days of the trip. There were some strange adventures in the hotel during the night, and then on the drive to Michigan's Adventure we encountered the biggest speed trap I have ever seen. Our van was ticketed, and we were told we were going 10 mph faster than the other van, even though we were following right behind it. Eventually we did make it to Michigan's Adventure, and we were welcomed by a nearly completely empty parking lot. The concrete pathways let us know immediately that we were at a Cedar Fair park. We immediately hit the six coasters the park has, and got them out of the way in no time, with no lines. We took over the Big Dipper junior steel coaster, as well as the junior woodie, Zach's Zoomer. We were beaten around by the Arrow Corkscrew, and then surprised by how smooth the Mad Mouse was. The biggest surprise for me was the Wolverine Wildcat, which was a very smooth and very fun wooden coaster. Saving the best for last, we hit Shivering Timbers. Timbers was utterly dead, delivering almost no airtime, but luckily it would pick up speed a lot later in the afternoon. With the credits out of the way, most of us headed directly for the water park, where we spent a good portion of the day. Michigan's Adventure's water park is nothing out of the ordinary, but they have a decent amount of slides. The new Tornado was the only slide with a significant line, and I did not ride that, as I've been on them before. We attempted to ride the shoot the chutes, but they required shoes to be worn, so that got nixed. We had some wild rides on a few slides, and Paul and I nearly overturned our raft on one. After spending most of the afternoon there, I had lunch with Anthony, and then we headed back to the rides side. We ran into some of the others, and hit the Falling Star, which was just plain awesome. After that it was nearing time to assemble for some final rides on Shivering Timbers, so I hit Wolvering Wildcat one more time. Shivering Timbers was running much much faster, although there are still a lot of potholes in it. I got seven rides total I believe for the day, and really enjoyed the ride, but I certainly don't think it deserves to be #1 or #2 like it is on some polls. We drove out to Timbers for some filming before leaving, and then made it back to our hotel in Michigan City with no incidents. We hit a Chili's for dinner, and had a wild time, and it looks like a couple people have made the mistake of going out tonight. Should be a long day tomorrow for them... Jay: Shivering Timbers needs to get out of there and find a decent park to go to. Dave: Kentucky Kingdom is a heck of a lot better.

6/7/05 Midwest Conquest Day 4 Indiana Beach We are at the Days Inn in Michigan City, Indiana right now, and I just got back from destroying everyone in poker. It's pretty late, so unfortunately I don't have time to type up a long report. In short, Indiana Beach was absolutely awesome. Easily one of my new favorite parks. It reminded me of Williams Grove, Myrtle Beach Pavilion, and Knoebels put together. We made great time in the morning, and got to the park well before opening. The first ride of the day was Hoosier Hurricane, which was surprisingly good. Nothing to write home about, but a fairly smooth and well maintained out and back. Next up was Cornball Express, which simply amazed me. I never could have imagined such a small ride could pack such a punch. After 20 rides during the day, I think it may very well be my second favorite woodie behind Thunderhead. It certainly helped that the park was totally dead the entire day. Next up was the Air Crow (flying scooters), which were fun, and swung out over the water, but they were difficult to snap. We also hit the Tig'rr Coaster, which was a blast, and then decided to try it again, packing 4 people into a car. Needless to say, it was an insane ride. And speaking of insane rides, the next coaster was Lost Coaster of Superstition Mountain, which is one of the most ridiculously bizarre and awesome rides ever created. The drops and turns that coaster flies through are absolutely sick, and riding backwards is really wild. Near the back of the park, we found another highlight of the day: the boat-tag, which everyone enjoyed not once, but twice. I can't remember everything we did during the day, but we rode almost everything, and there honestly wasn't a bad ride in the park. Every coaster was great (yes, we also rode the Galaxi), and all of the other rides were outstanding. The Double Shot was probably the best S&S tower I've been on, and the Yo-Yo was run well also. The bumper cars were insane with the spring boards around the outside of the driving area. We managed to get a line of people, led by me, to hit the spring board, causing a ridiculous collision. Aside from Lost Coaster, Indiana Beach also has some awesome dark rides. Den of Lost Thieves, the Sally dark ride, was a lot of fun, and Frankenstein's Castle (extra cost) was an absolute riot. The park had numerous other flats as well, plus a skyride, fascination, a small waterpark, and of course the lake itself. The only downside of the day was the cheeseburger I had for lunch, which wasn't too great. Everyone was extremely content to stay at Indiana Beach until close, and most of the group marathoned Cornball Express to close out the day. The drive to Michigan City was quite an adventure, as we watched a tornado nearly form near us, and then had difficulty finding the hotel. Once checked in, instead of sleeping, of course, some of us hit a Steak N' Shake, then played cards. We've got a fairly long drive to Michigan's Adventure tomorrow morning, so I'm going to turn in. Dave is out cold again, so no comments from him. Jay: Kicked butt. Everything was awesome. Knoebels on the lake. Good milk shakes as well.