Coaster Palooza

Great TR Jahan. You make me want to go to Disneyland for Christmas time. We have never been there for it, but we have been to DisneyWorld 3 times for Christmas.

I know it has been a while since I posted in here and I don't want this to get too long, but I have a few pics to post. We'll start out in Vegas in October, head to Virginia for Thanksgiving, have a stop at Gordon Biersch on Tuesday in San Jose and then we'll end with a surprise and a surprise guest. I hope you enjoy. not a bad view and except for the Sharks losing in a shoot-out, it was a great evening. I am tired now and finally home for a night. Here's our seats... We're outside the Shark Tank. Our first stop was at one of my favorite places, but all I would have there is Bud Light. The Winter Bocks from the previous night were still hangin' around. After a great Tuesday night, my buddy Jim asked if I wanted to go to the Sharks game last night. He had extra tickets and I asked Bubba to come along too! Ooops, wrong one. Here it comes... We took the light rail downtown and now we are waiting for it to take us home. I decided to break down and buy a Winter Bock. Steve was happily and patiently waiting for the garlic fries. Jim made sure to roll up his sleaves so the wings wouldn't get all over! We got our table and we are ready to eat! Here is our group. That is Steve on the left. Two free drink tickets each! I really like Winter Bock, but I can't drink too much of it. My friend, Jim, would come along too. He also was in Vegas and will come up later. They were tapping their new seasonal keg of Winter Bock. Steve is a member of Gordon Biersch. We got home on Sunday and Gyendolynne's friend Steve asked if we wanted to go to Gordon Biersch on Tuesday. It really tasted great and there wasn't any after taste that I usually get from Sierra Nevada. Before we got on our flight home we decided to have a couple of beers. This one will do. Here's what the tavern looks like. Well I definitely had to have a Full Moon. Then I saw this. It was their winter brew. I went with the old stand-by of Blue Moon. I can't remember what Gyendolynne had, but her dad, Dave, and our friend BJ had Stonewall Stout. Not a wide selection. While we were in Fredericksburg for Thanksgiving, we went downtown to this tavern. Last shot in Vegas. We did drink more, gamble more and eat more, but I will put that in a TR for later. No Jim, that isn't all yours. A lot of relaxing on this vacation. We made it to the right place. This isn't really so much in order, but we took the bus to Margaritaville. We were staying at Mandalay Bay. Here is our group at the table. First stop, Hard Rock Cafe

Great pics Soren! I was glad to see you made it to the Hard Rock Cafe. I agree that all of them seem to look alike in the memorabilia area. Some of them have dedicated sections though for their local rock stars. An example would be the Ted Nugent wall in the Detroit HRC.

Flying to DC and spending Thanksgiving in Fredericksburg, VA with Gyendolynne's parents.

^I don't want to hi-jack the thread off topic, but here are the answers to your questions. I bought my car one week after my 16th birthday (October 30th, 1985). It was beat up pretty bad and it looked nothing like it does now. If I can, I will find an early picture of it. Within 3 months we had it running and had the body work done. The engine crapped out again though and we put in a 1985, 302 Motorsport racing engine (late January/early February 1986). It has chrome headers that you can't see also. At that point it was close to being done, which was around spring 1986. We added rims and tires later along with re-doing the interior. I haven't really done anything with it in my later years. We had to change batteries, get tires, and fix the carburetor because it sits a lot. Other than that, nothing has been done since 1986. One big thing is that my dad worked for Ford for 30 years. He had connections to get a lot of the parts and Mustangs Only was a tremendous help too.

I don't have 5 favorites, I have one. It is my car that I have had since I was 16. A 1967 Mustang Fastback. Here are some pics from a recent car show. Me inside. The engine Couple more pics from another car show. This car won the show This is my boss' car. Yep, if I could choose another car, this would be the one. Magnum showed up for the car show. My Mustang, a 1967 Fastback. I have had it since I was 16.

I need to get back in the gym and lose weight too. Last year I was down below 200, now I'm around 235, I think. Maybe I will post a scale picture later.... Good luck man!

buy, buy, buy.....they're all selling, well then sell, sell, sell....

WHAT???? Larry, where is Grizzly on your list of super-duper awesome wood coasters???

We're hoping to do a South trip and a New York trip. South - SFoG Dollywood Carowinds Hard Rock Park New York - Who knows at this point...

^Agreed Chuck! That's where we ate when we met up with you.

I'm happy to see the red hair man. You have come to the dark side....

I know that you feel changing your major is a "major" change, but it really isn't all that bad. My brother changed his major 16 times! He survived it. In the end, he had a degree in sports medicine, a minor in biology and another one in physiology. He became a teacher and now works in the tech field as a network manager. Go figure. Your life is beginning. You can't make a mistake that isn't undoable at this point. Try things. If you don't like it, change it. Enjoy!

Just a quick place, then I will look at my list that we have from the past couple years. Days Inn by Silver Dollar City. It is right next to a Pizza Hut. I don't recommend this place. The people were nice, but the rooms all smelled of smoke. They called it the Lakeview Inn. It is located at the Jct. Hwy 76 and Hwy 13. A suggestion is to become a card carrying member of one, or more, of the hotel chains. You get some awesome perks. You can get a Best Western card withm, or without, a AAA membership. That combination is really great. Ted has suggested the HIE "priority" card.

Nothing broke at our house and everyone is fine. Our cats got pretty scared though. Our phones didn't work for about 30 minutes too.

Nice geeky trip report Ted. I always loved playing pinball. It got a little different when they changed from the old style to the "new" ones where it is almost like a video game. I remember playing the Star Trek version a few years ago where the trigger was a fazer to shoot the ball out. Kinda cool and different.

^^This is the only thing I could find. She was in the background of a couple pictures. Unfortunately I didn't get an up close photo.

I totally appologize for bumping this, but my in-laws just sent me some photos and I wanted to add them to the TR. I believe this was the chicken dance. Some photos of Oktoberfest to follow. The 3 of us just goofing off. Now the TR is complete. Another smashed penny machine! I don't know what the deal was with the expression on my face. This is the bird that started attacking Gyendolynne. Chuck and I in the middle of Ireland, I believe. Dave & Gyendolynne outside of Cork Screw Hill.

Some hot co-ed softball players, just for Big Mike. This is all in good fun Mike. I know we haven't met yet and I am just joking around. Here's a great one! How about someone batting. A stellar female. Hey, she's squating, does that count as stretching? There's also a second woman playing 3rd base!

Scott is awesome...see other thread if you want to know why. http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=39263&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=20

^^^There are hot girls in softball??? I would have liked to see that too!!!

^No offense taken, but you might want to go back through the pictures. I see that the catcher for the other team is a female and I have Larry pitching to a couple of females. Just a little confused on the lack of female photos in a coed softball game.

^^I had no idea that there was a limit to the number of softball pictures that I could post. I will make a note. By the way, I had about 20 more pics.

^We went to the San Diego Zoo last year and it was a blast. The next time we go, we want to do the safari. You get to actually be on the ground and watch the cheetahs run by. It looks and sounds awesome. The place isn't in San Diego, but more north of it. We have been to the National Zoo around 5 or 6 times because Gyendolynne's dad was doing some locating (water lines, etc.) for them for the new panda exhibit. We sort of had a behind the scenes tour of the place. The panda area is great. Our wedding was on 9-22-01, 6 great years!

^Everyone went to Griffon in the morning. By around 1 it was nearly a walk-on. The only wait was for the front row. Alpengeist was a walk-on and Darkastle wasn't anywhere near a bad wait. Apollo's Chariot looked full, but that was only on the deck. The queue was empty. Have Fun!