Coaster Palooza

^We don't need a watch, we have a calendar.

That's a great TR Scott. Congratulations on your anniversary. I am guessing you were married one week after us. Of course, I don't know what year. We like zoos also. We have been to the San Diego Zoo and the National Zoo in DC. My wife loves watching the meerkats play. They are so fun. I just hand her the camera and leave her alone for a while.

^^^I can't believe that, in this day and age, that employers are still overly critical of when people start. Unless you're working at McDs, BK, or somewhere that you have to punch a timeclock, then why do you care what time I show up? At my job, I can come in at 5, 6, 8, whenever. I can leave at 2, 3, whenever. I know that I put time in at home and on the weekends and so do they. Good for you Terry to get out of there!

We can't let Big Mike rip Larry like this. Come on people, SHOW LARRY SOME LOVE and congratulate him on the chamionship!

^^We didn't check out the maze. All we did was ride the coasters and get out. Kind of an all out sprint with Larry limping pretty bad. I was going to give you a call, but we didn't know when we would get to the park, or how long we would be staying. I should have given you a call on Friday, but I got pretty busy. Hopefully we can do Fright Fest at SFDK. ^The men's game looked pretty tough. There were a few errors that hurt them early and playing the 7 time champs didn't help.

I'll have to get a "Where's Waldo" going for Chuck in all the trip reports.

I had the pleasure of meeting larrygator this week. He came out for a softball tournament at Twin Creeks in San Jose. Larry’s co-ed team made it to the Championship game on Saturday and won it! Larry was the pitcher. His men’s team also made it to the Championship game, but lost to a team that has won it 7 times! After the games, we went to Great America for some credit whoring. It actually only took us just over an hour to get it all done. I know Larry wanted to get back to see the LSU/Florida game and drink free beers. It was great meeting you and taking you around Great America. I hope you enjoyed Gilroy Gardens, SCBB, and SFDK on Sunday. Onto the pictures! YES!!! All 7 coasters at Great America in just over an hour. This was also on a Saturday. We arrived around 5:40 and I got him back to his hotel at 6:45. Great day. The sun is going down, can we make it? Number 5 coaster, just 2 more after this one. Yes, we didn't get on Taxi Jam. He thought that this is what they meant by riding the woodie at Great America. Now for the worst coaster in the world. A quick photo op at Survivor. Number 3 rollercoaster. Hey I fit...are you comfortable Larry? Next stop, let's see if I can get on this time. How was your second ride in the front row? Not busy, want to ride again? First stop. There was some good Halloween theming. Hey Larry, what do you do when you win a championship? Celebrate with the team, hell no, I have to credit whore Great America first. Big group hug. Champions! Final out, a comebacker to Larry to end the game. Second out was pretty tough. A fly-out to right field with 2 fielders converging. It was a great catch. First out in the bottom of the 7th. Larry's team is up 15-14. He had to tape up his leg during the game. and scored He actually got a base hit here. Larry pitching. Larry got on first in his first AB. They were arguing before the game over the volume of the British team's music. It was too loud. Larry trying to stretch out some pulled muscles. Onto Championship Saturday! Coaching 1st base. His men's team was playing well though. Larry's co-ed team had a couple tough losses. This was actually taken on Friday.

We went to Virginia for our wedding anniversary and to visit Gyendolynne’s parents. The trip was from Friday night through Wednesday morning. Our anniversary was on Saturday and we went to Busch Gardens on Sunday. There was also this new ride called Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg that we had to ride. I think all of you might have heard of it… Chuck (cfc) also met up with us at Busch Gardens. It was great to meet you and talk about the TPR Japan trip. I was glad you had such a good time. I’ll let the pictures tell the story of the trip. One final parting shot. Dinner at the Olive Garden on Tuesday night. Dave had his Miller. How do you end a perfect day? There was some HopDevil still there from our trip in July. On the way to the car I saw this. This is the end...or is it??? Jack is Back! Howl-o-Scream was already starting by the time we got out. This is a fun ride, but the wait was terrible today. Chuck is wondering if anyone wanted any popcorn. Gyendolynne enjoyed the ride. Cemetary We took the train trip around the park. Chuck's thinking, hey Rick, this line ain't all that bad. We made it back up to the front to get on Apollo's Chariot. They have this displayed instead of the grape stompers. for Viva Italia We stopped off in Italy. Hi Nessie. and that's the show.. The chicken dance. Always a good show. Strike up the music, the band has begun..... Chuck & I approve. I don't think I have been drinking yet. The air conditioning was good to me, but really cold to Gyendolynne. Getting the stage ready. We did this last time we were here. This time we wanted to see Oktoberfest. Here's us! Here's Chuck, I know it's been a while. That's Dave & Sue ahead of us. Alpengeist from the skyride. Loading station. Three train operation helps. Everyone needs a check list. I actually like this part of the ride. It's a dive....I know, I know. Unfortunately, we had to finish drinking before we got on Alpengeist. Chuck, on the other hand, knew just how to relax. Realizing her lack of skiing knowledge, she shouldn't have had that beer. Gyendolynne decided to booze it up before Alpengeist. I think Chuck was starting to "lose" it a little bit... Getting ready to ride Darkastle. Dave & Sue on the skyride. SPLASH!!!! Here are a couple photos of Griffon. We decided to take the sky ride to Germany. Gyendolynne's mom was able to get a bird to eat from her arm. Gyendolynne was attacked in there and had to leave because the birds wouldn't leave her alone. It's a dive coaster. Okay, I have had enough of that too. see, told ya! The cat will jump into the fireperson's waiting arms... Pet Shaninigans. This is Dave, he didn't dive or splash. There's a splash after you dive also. Here's our on-ride photo. Still diving.... Here come some happy riders. It's still a dive coaster. They had 3 trains going, but the ops were slow. Chuck even stated that they weren't going as fast as they normally do. Here's the loading area. by the way, Griffon is a DIVE coaster. Now for the reason we are here. There is a 40-45 minute wait. We need to stop off and talk to the bird handler first. Look who's here! It's Chuck (cfc). Great to meet you. Getting across the bridge...and..... More skeletons I'm glad to see all of you made it through! They even had the talking skeletons out front. Pretty bad jokes. Here are some of the decorations. Yep, that's the event! Getting ready for my game that I will miss because we went to Busch Gardens. Gyendolynne's dad and I have the same brand of shoe on. I have really gotten fat! I hope I fit on Griffon tomorrow!!! We really like this place and we always go there at least once when we visit. Our anniversary dinner was at the Log Cabin in Stafford county. We start our trip off with a free first class upgrade. It's always the best way to start off a red-eye to the East Coast.

Thanks for the shout out. I don't think I got the smashed pennies from that machine. I know that one of the Pirates of the Caribbean machines was broke in either Disneyland, or DisneyWorld. Can't remember which place. Great TR by the way!

Great pictures and TR Chuck! I was glad to hear about your trip first hand. Now, with these pictures, the trip comes to life. It was really great meeting you too! I will have my TR up soon.

Well, I had the Inversion IPA. It was a great beer. I know, very descriptive right? It did pass the test. Thanks again. Here we are...

Tonight we decided to break out what Derek, Heath and Kim gave us from their Norcal trip. Yes I know it was a while ago. I will post the IPAs in another reply. It definitely isn't for Gyendolynne. She will stay with Sierra Nevada. Very tasty. Thanks for the beers. I did drink the other one too! I know this will be good. mmmm...Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale.

Thanks Coasterbilly. We had a great time in the area. I know we'll need to make it out to SFNE again. We would also like to go to Lake Compounce again.

^Thanks Matt Here is the rest of the TR: We were so happy to finally be able to sleep in today! Our day started around 11:30 with a run down to the hotel’s restaurant, not UNO, for breakfast. This was starting out to be a long morning and we were struggling to leave for Foxwoods. We finally left around 3pm. Foxwoods is the largest casino in the world and the Hard Rock Café isn’t small either. We have been to many of them and this is one of the best. The HRC in San Antonio is still the best in our book though. The short, 1 and a half hour trip back suddenly became a little longer once we hit Hartford. There was a 3 mile back-up to get through the city. We detoured around it and made it back to the hotel in time for dinner with the group at the NBA Hall of Fame. This was a great trip! Day 4: 8/5 – Early Flight home (got up at 4:30am), nothing adventurous, we’re just happy to be here. Oh yeah, by the way Gyendolynne left the next day for Mexico! Hasta la Vista. Here's the dessert. Cheesecake James and Laurie were deciding what to have for dinner....or was it dessert? Meg didn't mind though. Steve was tired of having his picture taken. We were actually coming over there for dinner. I guess Uno's tonight was out of the question. We're not big NBA fans, but we figured why not go? The NBA Hall of Fame was across the parking lot from the hotel we were staying at. We are going to have to have a party to use all these pilsner and hurricane glasses we collect. It's one of the biggest HRC inside the biggest casino. We decided to go to the Hard Rock Cafe in Foxwoods on Saturday.

I'm going to finish up the rest of the photos from Six Flag Discovery Kingdom. And in case you forgot where you were as you were leaving. Here is another reminder. I'm Batman! It seriously has to be the smallest cape ever. The porcupine did a scat on the stage and the girl was putting it in her pocket! Do we have anymore Excedrin? More fun... I can't believe I got on it again. Boomerang was finally running. Here is another shot of the aligator. This isn't your typical Oasis. More color Nope Watch that hand Gyendolynne. Heath and Kim are in these next 2 shots, but I don't think I took the pic at the right moment. Some V2 I somehow broke my tooth. I dont' really know how. I just woke up with the tooth chipped. Derek rides Roar, here's the proof! They are all trying to keep cool in their cubbie holes. The penguin area is neat. and turtles. Lets look at the Aligators. Hey Sylvester, where you going? Oh, Boomerang isn't operating yet too!!!! More character goodness. Rub the belly for good luck. I knew his or her name was Shouka. Onto some better things. Did we pack Excedrin? I'll say it...OUCH! I can't believe Derek and I rode this. Gyendolynne was smart, Heath and Kim needed the credit. None of the other rides were open! I can understand sometimes that rides need to be worked on, but Medusa wasn't open when the park opened. Kong didn't open until after 11am, Roar and V2 were testing! This is Labor Day! One of your busiest days. Have the rides operating! Rant over. We all rode Cobra because... They're on there somewhere. Heath, Kim and Derek riding Medusa. A special Starburst moment. Hey, we know you people. 6-Flags, here's a tip. When you are supposed to open at 10:30, open the gate at that time! Don't start your pre-opening ceremony at that time. I told you they had signs everywhere. More characters. I love Marvin the Martian. These characters were entertaining Characters in the front entrance while we wait forever for the rope to drop. Just in case you forgot where you were, they have Discovery Kingdom posted all over the place. Hey Shamu....I mean Shouka!!! Everything was so colorful at SFDK. We haven't though The trams have changed. Yay! We're here.

Sorry for the double post, but I couldn't continue uploading my photos yesterday. I can't believe this photo was taken! Yeah, I know Derek, but what are you going to do? When in Rome... The groom and me. The wedding party and family. Me, filming and snapping photos. This was the wedding ceremony. It was very casual. Awwww... This is us at my friend's wedding. Yes we had matching Hawaiian outfits on. Random character Even though it was August, they were already getting prepared for Halloween. There's the gigantic toilet bowl. These guys were playing their trashcans. Sorry, no imitation, just a random photo. They have some nice swings too. I found a couple of my pals. We decided to have lunch instead. NO WAY!!! Not Today! This was a good ride. Nice and smooth, like Medusa at SFDK. Shall we ride in the front row. This is a better wait than Superman was. Lifthill goodness It's not like the other Batmans at other 6-Flags parks. Yes it is! Is that Batman I see? More flat rides. Some random Wiggles' stuff. Yep, it's Catwoman We decided to hit the little rides because of the crowds. S:ROS is just awesome! Ohhhhh.... Aaaaaah.... Ooooooh....

^Lake Compounce is a great little park. My wife and I really enjoyed our time there. It was extremely hot and pretty crowded, but we had a great time. Now, onto the rest of the Trip Report. We tried our best to get up early for SFNE, but it wasn’t working out. We arrived at SFNE around 12 noon, kiss of death! The park’s entrance was still packed, but it wasn’t up the stairs….yet. We were told on the weekends that it usually gets all the way up the stairs. Those of you that have been there know what I am talking about. Today’s main mission was to ride Superman – Ride of Steel. The wait was over 90 minutes, but we didn’t care. If it was the only ride we got on today, we were going to ride it. S:ROS is truly a top 10 steel coaster for me. It gave us an awesome ride. We were in the second to last row. Mucho airtime! Next we headed to Catwoman since it was the closest. We realized we weren’t going to get on every coaster this trip. We went to the back to ride Batman and surprisingly, it was a walk-on. It was getting late for us at this point because the wedding was at 5pm. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and left. We will return SFNE. The wedding was great. It was hot and humid, but the ceremony was terrific. It was just what we needed after a hot day at the park. We closed UNO again! We waited 90 minutes to get on. You are one hell of a ride. The queue however wasn't that great. Superman has some great drops and airtime. This is where Superman lives. I like what 6-Flags did with having characters walk around the park. Hey, is this another "one of the oldest" carousels? With all the time we had, I decided to take a picture of the #1 coaster sign. We can't believe that everyone isn't already in the park. Holy cow! This place is packed and it is noon. oh man, is that the line? Coming across the bridge... Still on the tram here. We're troopers though. Here is a view of the parking lot. When we arrived at SFNE, we saw a ton of buses and the parking lot was getting full.

^^I had no idea that was the General Manager. Thanks for letting me know. ^Soren, I will get more photos up soon, hopefully later tonight.

Here is some beer thread update for when BACT came out to NorCal. Sorry it is late, but oh well. It burned quite a few acres. On our way home we could see the huge fire by Henry Coe State Park. Sometimes the most random things become interesting. This was the watchdog of Toronado's. Pretty interesting atmosphere. I was woosing out on some small glasses. Derek has his corner seat...now what happened to my seat when I went to the bathroom? Here's the gang. We chased after the BACT crew to Toronado's where we met up with Bubba. and here is one of Gyendolynne. A hoppy photo of Kim This was our sampler after we left SFDK. Derek has reported on the place a few pages ago.

The Plan: (8/1-8/5) Fly to Hartford, CT to attend a friend’s wedding in Springfield, MA The Mission: Ride as many coasters as we can in between the events and get to an out of the way Hard Rock Café. Read on to see if the mission was accomplished. Day 1: 8/1-8/2 - A red-eye, Lake Compounce, a family dinner and no sleep First off, we take a red-eye flight (8/1) to the east coast with a 3-hour (planned) lay-over in Pittsburgh, PA. Unfortunately it was our only route. We did get bumped to first-class though, round-trip. We also had a pass for the USAirways Club and it came in handy for the 3-hours. Upon arriving in Hartford (8/2), we had to get to AAA to buy discount tickets for Lake Compounce. We had excellent directions and never got lost! Lake Compounce has become another favorite small park of ours. Boulder Dash lived up to the hype for us and we got all the credits there. It was extremely hot and the park was crowded. Surprisingly, the wait for Boulderdash was under 15 minutes. Actually it would have been a walk-up if we didn’t want the front row. We were at Lake Compounce from 12:30-4pm. We headed to Springfield after Lake Compounce. The hotel that we were staying in is only 10 minutes from Six Flags New England and it also uses the same parking lot for the NBA Hall of Fame. We aren’t big NBA fans, but we did end up going to the Hall of Fame on Saturday (8/4) night. Once we arrived at the hotel, we were informed of a family/wedding dinner that we needed to attend. It was to start at 7pm. We got to the hotel around 5:30. With no sleep and being in the same clothes as we were in yesterday, we got quick showers, a short rest, and put on our happy faces. The dinner was great at a neat local restaurant. We closed down UNO, a restaurant next door to the hotel after the dinner. Here is Meg again. Here is Steve's bride Meg with her family. Here is my friend Steve, his sister, Laurie, and her husband. That's a big beer. My friend's brother-in-law, James, is behind me. Here we are again. In case it has been too long in this report since you have seen us. They had the old-style Coca-Cola bottles too. Couple more photos of the restaurant's decorations. The restaurant was decorated incredibly. The place was in Springfield, MA. It has such a small town atmosphere. Here are a few photos of the restaurant/bar. My friend was getting married and we went to dinner with them Friday night. The trip wouldn't be complete without smashed pennies. This shows you how close it is to the skyride. Here comes Boulder Dash. Oooohhh Nice view though. It is way too long. It was so hot that day that this was miserable. This skyride was nothing like the one at Knoebel's Boulder Dash again. Here is the waterpark area. It was really crowded that day, but it wasn't bad at the rides. This was how full the tram station was. Boulder Dash on the way to the skyride. Their bumper cars were nice. This dude invented the Boo Blaster. Here's the car. Getting scared. Nice little dark ride. Had to ride the flap-jacks. Some neat theming around the park. Worst flyers ever. Especially after having just been to Knoebel's. I survived it. There was some pain, but... I'm in the second row if you can see that far. Here comes my first headache of the trip. This is their kiddie area. We did get our on-ride photo. Showing some love for the train. The dispatcher was hilarious. One of the ride ops was going really slow and he made the comment of, "Now that the second ice-age is over, we can dispatch the train." That made my day! The wait was very tolerable. but this is why you go to Lake Compounce. and there were really good flat rides, They have a nice drop tower... With the long wait, we decided against riding Wildcat until the end of the day. Here's the entrance. My favorite thing, going through the tunnel to get to the park. We made it! Didn't we pick up this car in Connecticut? They had this display at the AAA office, so I decided to get a pic with it. We had to go to AAA in Hartford to get our tickets to Lake Compounce. This photo is all too familiar. Franco Harris and George Washington. The couches were comfortable in the club. Where do you go when you have a 3 hour lay-over in Pittsburgh? We closed our day at Uno's restaurant next to the hotel.

Hey Derek, Sorry I am so late with the posting of my pics. I thought it would be better to put them in here instead of creating a whole new thread. It was great to see you, Heath, Kim and meeting Kevin (Bubba). Last photo at Great America. They're in there somewhere. Heath and Kim in the front. Here is the "no shade" queue. Come on guys, time to ride the best ride in the park! Fireworks tonight. I decided to get a photo of everyone watching them. Derek has to get some photos of Vortex. Should we all follow? Where are you going? He decided it would be better if he used his butt. Derek pumping water... Ooops, it is closed. We won't ride it today, but Derek and the gang got on it later. Everyone survived. Still hurting. Coming back around. Ouch, oooh, aaaahhhh!! Derek and Bubba getting ready. Everyone rides except for Gyendolynne...she knows better. Some love for Invertigo. Derek's 666 coaster. Here are Heath and Kim looking none too worse for wear. I think Derek made a new friend with the guy in the yellow shirt. He saw us again at Drop Zone. Sure, we're all smiles now. Here's the group heading to the headbanger known as Vortex. Yep, Spongebob was at the entrance. Gotta get a shot without Paramount in there. I think I know you...

Sad news.... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070831/ap_on_re_eu/obit_beer_hunter

Nice TR Matt! I found your two "wet look" photos to be oddly similar, except the expression on your face.

Great TR Ted! Gyendolynne and I liked visiting Kennywood with you and Catrina in July. It is always great to go through a park with people that know it. Nice job on staying awake for your gig that night too. I remember when we came to see you last August and we drove from Gettysburg. We were pretty exhausted, but your band does a great job.

^Sounds like you might go down a couple of coasters in your coaster count???