mrhambone

The WORST part of the traffic was Friday afternoon, going from the Zoo to Casa Loma. The 401 was jammed solid, and we were running out of time. So we got off the 401 at Bathurst and tried to turn left at Eglinton Ave. It took us five cycles to make the left - and only because we ran the light! Going back to our hotel in Mississauga took nearly an hour! Yep - LA traffic is a piece of cake compared to Toronto!

We were in Toronto last weekend, and Ontario Place was our fallback plan if we needed a time filler. Looks like our kids missed a fun stop! But wait a minute – when we were at the Ontario Science Centre (awesome place!), the IMAX intro said that they were the only IMAX dome theater in Ontario (it even says it on their website!). So if Ontario Place has one, does that mean the Science Centre is scamming everyone? Great shot of the CN Tower – we went all the way to the very top. Would have been a great view except for the *cough* clean air! One other question – is the 401 always jammed solid on a Saturday afternoon? It was worse than the DC beltway at rush hour!

FYI - Marvin The Martians dog's name is - K-9!

Here's a few - these are adverts for the WDW Star Wars Weekends that are appearing at the Orlando airport.

^ 3/10 - Stating the obvious!

Rock and Roller Coaster is also a good one - my favortie is when Steven Tyler yells, "Are you ready to rock? Here we GO! **BOOM**".

How about PKD/PKI Flight Of Fear - "Thank you for showing us your world. Not it's our turn to show you ours.... **launch**" Aside - Best launch ever was off an aircraft carrier, sitting backwards in a windowless cargo plane, with no clue, and into the remnants of a tropical storm. Talk about intense.

The law says something to the effect that employers are obligated to either hold the person's position open or offer the person a similar position when they return. I don't know the exact time frame, but I believe this obligation is only for six months, maybe a year max. So when someone gets recalled for four years, the employer is under no obligation, or law, to hold their job. What is illegal is for an employer to either penalize someone for leaving or not let them serve. For example – when it comes time for the annual two week obligation, an employer can not charge the employee two weeks vacation pay, or say no. Yes, this sucks, and is a major deterrent to joining the reserves (or guard). There has been talk of reforming the laws, but major corporations have been fighting the change. Keeping someone's job open for a few years is not in the best interest of the corporation! Another interesting factoid concerns pay differential while on active duty – the difference between what someone makes as civilian and what they make on active duty. Every employer is different, and they are not bound to any laws. Some employers will pay the differential so there is no loss in pay, some employers do not pay the difference, and a few employers keep the person's pay unchanged. Once again, there is a time limit, and it's usually six months. The employers I have worked for paid me the differential while I was on my two week active duty obligation, so I never lost any money. Which was a good thing because my active duty military pay was about 75% of my civilian pay. And I have known a few reservists whose employer kept their civilian pay unchanged – talk about raking in the money! Hope this helps!

Here's my POV – I was in my sixth year as a Reservist after having four years on active duty. I was five months away from getting married, and considering leaving the military. The reserves stopped being a one weekend a month gig – I was spending more and more of my free time between drill weekends doing work for the next drill weekend. I also had a new civilian job that was requiring a lot of extra work. It was becoming difficult to juggle two careers, plus a pending wedding. I went to my Commanding Officer in April, and explained the situation. He was very understanding and supportive. He suggested that I take a six month leave of absence so I could get married, go on my honeymoon, and reconsider. I agreed with him that this was a good idea. He also started the paperwork process for my departure in case that was my decision at the end of my leave of absence. August was my last drill weekend, and my leave of absence started on September 1st, 2001, three weeks before my wedding. And then 9/11 happened. Within a week of 9/11, 75% of my unit was recalled for a two year tour in Afghanistan. Prior to taking my leave of absence, I was at the top of the recall list. My leave of absence put me at the bottom. Had I not taken that leave of absence, my wedding (and honeymoon) would have been cancelled. After a lot of soul searching, I decided to leave the military – my new family had to come first. My choice. Because my Commanding Officer started my paperwork in April, my request was approved. In the weeks after making my decision, many people came to me asked why I was running away when our country was just attacked. Some even called me a coward. My only response was, "I've served my country for ten years – how long have you served?" For those of you out there who do not wish to join the military, I respect your choice. It's a hard one to make, especially with today's political climate. And that's my point in all of this – institute the draft, and you take away the choice. That's one of things that makes this country great – the freedom to make our own choices. John "Go Navy!" Hamilton PS – The majority of my unit that went to Afghanistan for two years went on to Iraq for two more years. That's four consecutive years of active duty! All of them lost their civilian jobs, and many of their families had to go on welfare because the military pay was half of their civilian pay!

Here's another thought – This one's from a newspaper editorial. Every American would serve two years in either the military, the Peace Corps, or the America Corps. There would be a lottery every year to determine who goes where. Upon satisfactory completion of their two year stint, they would be allowed to drink, drive (but not drink & drive), and vote. The whole idea was to give young Americans a better appreciation of their country, and the world around them. I do like Ted's idea. Always bothered me that there are people in this country who expect the government to take care of them, but they won't give anything back. John "Proud to have served my country for ten years" Hamilton

^ Was a fan in the past < Now a fan in the present V Will be a fan in the future

Here are a few of my favorite non-park pics - enjoy! This one's for Nick – Shay #7, Roaring Camp Railroads, Felton CA – just north of Santa Cruz. If you're ever in Santa Cruz, this is a must do attraction! Heading down the upper Mississippi on a steam boat – Wisconsin is on the left, Minnesota is on the right, taken just north of Winona, Minnesota Big Surr, between Monteray and San Simeon - a drive that rivals the best coasters!

Wow. We're still in shock over the loss Saturday night. That was not our team that showed up! McNair and the offense was pathetic! So many missed opportunities. Heap getting intercepted at the 1. Lewis breaking up a Manning pass that was going straight for Reed. Jamal never got a chance to break free. So sad. Well, on the bright side it could have been 35 to 6. And to add insult to injury - the Patriots won! We could be playing at home next weekend! What's really sad is that many believe this was our last shot. R. Lewis is getting worn down, Ogden may retire, McNair is slowing down, and Jamal hasn't been producing. Not being a pessimist, but next season is looking iffy. Anyway - go Saints! What they are doing for the city of New Orleans speaks volumes. From where they were last year to where they are now is phenomenal! And go Patriots - please, PLEASE do what the Ravens should have done!

What about Colts / Ravens on Saturday? If you want a Superbowl caliber game, then look no farther. One of the top ranked offenses goes up against the best defense in the NFL. Jamal Lewis vs. one the worst run defenses in the NFL (although that wasn't the case last week). McNair vs. Manning the elder. This game is going to be hard fought from being to end. And let's not forget the reason why the Unitas statue is in front of the Ravens stadium. Baltimore is still bitter about the loss of the Colts. I still remember watching the Mayflower van leave Baltimore that cold snowy morning so long ago. Whenever the Colts come to town, it gets very personal. This town is bursting at the seams with the chance to end the Colts season with a loss in Baltimore, and keep the curse of Unitas alive! BelizeIt – Yes, the Chargers may just be the best in the league, BUT look at their schedule. The majority of the teams they faced were sub-par teams. They had a very easy schedule. What's going to make Sunday's game fun to watch is that they are going up against a very strong and experienced team – something they haven't seen in quite a while. If the Chargers beat the Pats convincingly (none of this field goal with time expiring crud), then they may just have what it takes to go to Miami. Oh, and just a reminder. The Ravens were only one of two teams to beat San Diego this season, the first team to beat the Saints (at home, no less), and (to a lesser degree) beat the Eagles in pre-season. Go Ravens! PS – While Baltimore was without a team, I became an adopted Eagles fan while going to college in Philly. This was in the late 90's/early 90's during the Buddy Ryan era, when Cunningham was just starting to make his mark. I attended a few block parties in NE Philly on Sunday afternoons when the whole neighborhood came out and rooted for the Eagles, and I was always impressed by loyalty fans. Reminded me of Baltimore and how the fans continued to hold onto the Colts, even though they were gone. If Baltimore does drop out of the playoffs, and if the Eagles are still in, I will put my Ravens cap in the closet and take out my Eagles cap.

Ouch. Ok, this newcomer just took a left hook and a hard jab. Time to regroup. I am in full agreement, and I am not trying to compare apples to oranges. I have failed miserably in trying to get my original thought out clearly. I grew up with PKD. Went there a lot as a kid before Paramount took over, and went there many times as an adult after the Paramount take over. It was a great family amusement park in the beginning – clean, safe, and fun. But it started falling behind the times, and attendance and revenue started dropping. Enter Paramount – they took over the park and pumped new life into the place. But the park changed as a result, and from my perspective, not for the positive (not talking about the quality of the rides, please). Let me try to put it into another point of view. Look at any small regional park that is still family oriented. A park that has maybe one or two large coasters, a bunch of flat rides, and not much else. This park does ok, but it is not a big money maker. Along comes a large corporation and buys the park. Now they have three options. First, do nothing and keep everything as is. Not a good business choice since the large corporation would not make any profit, or recoup their initial investment. Second, improve the park but keep the family as the focus. The problem with this choice is that they would be directly competing with the destination parks, like Disney, and have little chance for making a decent profit. Third, improve the park but change the focus and make it a thrill ride rich environment. Add new coasters, new shows, and new thrills. Draw in a younger crowd who can’t get these kind of rides at destination resort. But the problem is economics – coasters cost money. So they have to work with what they have to keep the initial outlay down so that the rate of return is higher. Anyone who has ever played Roller Coaster Tycoon has had to make the same choices. That’s what Paramount did at Kings Dominion – they took the third choice. In 1993 when Paramount purchased Kings Dominion, the park had 5 large coasters. Since then they’ve added 6 large coasters, several thrill rides, and doubled the size of the water park. Their target audience is now primarily the younger thrill seeking crowd. Families are still targeted, but it appears they’ve taken a back seat to the younger set. In order to do all of this economically, the park had to make do with what was at hand. Volcano was built in and around an existing mountain that was undersized, but would have cost a ton to be rebuilt. The addition of the Hurler interfered with the steam train, so the train was removed (and as an added bonus saved the park maintenance money). The lake was filled in because it was cheaper than clearing land in the old safari. (Note – yes, I know, the lake was filled in prior to the Paramount take over. Work with me, please.) But where did this leave the park as a whole? Was this choice the best one? On one hand, PKD is one of the best regional parks, and has an awesome assortment of rides. Four launched coasters (including the first launched SLC, the first air launched coaster, and one of the first launched steel inverted coasters), three wooden coasters, and the only Mack bobsled coaster in the US. The water park has been doubled in size, and is one of the largest in the mid-Atlantic. But on the other hand the park has a disjointed feel. The original lands have somehow been blended, and rides seem to be placed wherever they fit. The park has a large tract of land south of the Rebel Yell, Hurler, and Grizzly (site of the old safari), but access is restricted by those coasters. The majority of the patrons tend to be the younger, rougher crowd – as I said in an earlier post, if can get a little rough at times. Bottom line – the park made money. Lots of it. Hey, the CFI buyout of all Paramount parks was $1.24 billion! All of their hard work paid off, as far as we know. In their quest to make money, Paramount (in my opinion) took a road that led the park away from its family roots and feel. I’ve always associated Cedar Fair with traditional family style parks, and this post was started with the question – will CFI try to swing PKD back to being a family park, or will it continue to build PKD up as a showcase for coasters? Finally – what would you do? Sacrifice a small family park to make more money? Or stay true to your roots? That’s it, plain and simple. Sorry for the confusion. Thank you reading my small novel.

Sorry, bad attempt at humor!

No – I was referring to a bad show. As an example, look at the front of Expedition Everest. How much of the ride do you see? Not much, and that’s a very good show. In my opinion, Paramount took a great idea and theme, but didn’t execute it very well. End result was bad show. Same thing with filling in the lake. In my opinion (again), that ranks right up there with building a coaster in a parking lot, and not adding any scenery! Sorry – I meant to say the right side! Actually, it’s half of the former monorail station. Before the mountain, there was a monorail that went into the Safari half of the park – the part that is behind the Rebal Yell. There’s also another side to this that Rob alluded to – direction. Was the direction Paramount took Kings Dominion a good one? Was adding a bunch of big rides in an incoherent manner (why is there a bobsled in the middle of the Congo?) the right way to go? Look at the crowds PKD attracted in recent years. My last two visits over the last five years were not good ones – lots of fights, line jumping, harassment, and rudeness. Can/will CFI point Kings Dominion back to its roots? Or will it become the Magic Mountain of the east coast?

Unforunately, there is no room to add more trash cans!

Just came across the following album on web shots – it's 258 pictures of Kings dominion from the old days - http://news.webshots.com/album/419637432CUOxsq?start=0 Pretty fun stuff to look at, but I started noticing how much Paramount has destroyed a beautiful park in the name of adding more bang for the almighty buck. I also began to wonder if CFI can undo the damage that Paramount has wrought. Look at what CFI is trying to do at PKI with SOB – makes you wonder if it's a loss cause? Here's two examples for you consideration. First up is Lake Charles from 1975 when the park opened, and then from 2001. Notice how the lake has been reduced to only a third of its original size? Second example is the Lost world mountain pre-volcano and post volcano. Take a look at the left side – it's all gone. What was once a nice piece of eye candy has been defaced with a mediocre coaster. There are even more examples, like the missing rides (sky ride and the steam train to name just two). Also take note of how much Paramount tried to squeeze into already tight spaces – maybe that's why Hypersonic is up for sale? Sigh. Here's hoping for the best. Plenty of room for fishing! Now it's just a puddle! I can still hear those Smurfs singing.... The blast coaster blasted part of the mountain away!

Forget Mickey - WTF is up with the mermaid sniffing her pits? And why are the first two watching her?