calcajun

Some are gonna love it, Some are gonna hate it. It is just going to be one of those coasters. From what I was hearing, I made sure I rode it brand new instead of waiting till next summer. I certainly didn't hate it. Just wish it was not so "aggressive" . Because of that, I won't ever plan to head that way to ride it. Now if i have to go to Houston or San Antonio there might be a chance I might stop by to give it a few spins.

Yeah, Hi. Welcome to Kemah Boardwalk. Located on Galveston Bay where you can dine on seafood and steak, then enjoy family amusements, owned and operated by Landry’s. Sitting right on Galveston Bay. A number of resturaunts to choose from. Live music. Lodging and shopping. Of course The Boardwalk that runs an extensive length along the backside of the area. I always hate it when someone with a similar car parks next to me. Yes, This is like the fourth time this has happened to me. There are some family oriented amusement rides. Then of course there is Boardwalk Bullet. While taking photos there were people slowly streaming in. It was apparent they were only coming to ride BB for the first time, then after a ride or two or three, they would head back to their car and leave. I over heard quite a few comments from those leaving that the ride hurt. As far as my experience, it was rough, but it did not hurt me. It was at the threshold of crossing the line to pain, which interfered with the fun factor. Now what I am going to say is just the way it is. You can watch the ride cycle and see the movement of the train and riders and know what kind of ride you are going to get. I only ever sat in the 1st or last car on all my rides. I mean why ever bother with the middle of any train on any coaster. So the reason it is (almost painful) is the train shuffles real bad in many spots. Not just shuffle, but bangs back and fourth. You can clearly see and feel it. Then there are spots where the train bounces or Jack hammers. In the evening it was running quite a bit faster and with that came some discomfort so I rode it 3 more times and called it a day. Of course different people have different levels of tolerance. Last summer I did not think The Voyage was rough. It did not hurt me and I was just amazed at the end of each ride. As many say, it is very aggressive. Maybe that’s how BB should be classified right now, aggressive. The way BB rides now, leads me to believe it most likely won’t age well and you should ride it as soon as possible. Most comments I got from people where the back was the best and out of control. When I rode in the back I got three, maybe four, spots where I got airtime and my lap hit the restraints. Sitting in the front I got at least six. For the most air I suggest the front. There are three big drops. Generally, a drop down into a high speed high banked turn, then back up to a setup for another. This seems to be what we are now referring to as the first half. After that, the rest of the ride is more like a slalom, which in the front gives you some airtime but the back is just ho hum. It is interesting what they did with the tiny amount of space this thing is on. You won’t see many varied photos since you just can’t access the ride for photos. My take is it is an ok ride. Its roughness or aggressiveness does take away from the fun factor it should have. The coaster is too small to be “thrilling”. Younger less experienced riders will find it fun and thrilling though. Should you fly over to ride it? Probably not. Drive a few hours or a day to ride it? Sure. Here is a shot I have not seen yet. Then the rest are pics we will see over and over and over!

Hey! Was looking at the weather and decided to head to Kemah thurs and spend a day and half with BB then SFFT Sat and Sun. Judging from what we hear i think BB may get to rough for my taste in the near future so i need to get my rides in NOW. I'll be there Thurs and Fri. WEeee

I guess the quality would be ok if it was daytime and you could see it.

Awesome! I was sad to get to the end. Thanks

Yup, like i said few weeks ago. Use to defend giant if you sat in the right seat. Last month after my first ride, that was it for the day. I did not want to re ride it. Too bad i did not get pics or ride the intamin drop tower Sat cause it did not open on Sun.

I would think she would have experience in merchandising if she had the job.

Funny how someone in merchandising would ask that and not know you can target specific customers for your product. DUH!

The best ones ever.

When you know how to tie your shoes, they don't come off.

Not sure what poles you talking bout that signs hung from. The sign at the Michoud entrance and the sign at the Six Flags Parkway entrance are still there.

No. Why? You think cause it is still there they thats a sign SFNO will return? Well, It is not.

Yeah, the steel coasters certainly can be saved. like batman the worst damage is that the PLC and or control rooms went totally under. Trains were al just above waterline or higher. Whether They get saved, who knows. Well, Shapiro probably knows.

As most errbody already knows the bulk of Batman pieces parts now sit at SFFT. As of today they are still working on dismantling the Queue House. Sometimes Queue houses are left behind but i suspect since this ride is suported higher than the rest, and this house is tall, very large and metal, they are saving money by moving it with the rest of the ride. In other areas the Parking lot is now clear of all Fema trailers. Only area being gaurded is the back entrance.

Last week someone asked what i had been doing and i replied with this kinda PTR. As you probably figured, i rode some coasters in texas this past week. Besides that i have been wasting way too much time. Recently though i have been thinking how i don't even know what is around where i grew up and where i now live. I Had started looking at places in and around the area. More so state parks and scenic routes. Couple weeks ago i went to Northshore nature center. Intersting thing is that it is just one mile down the road from me. I have passed it hundreds of times but never realy knew what it was. It is a few miles of nature trails. Then not long after i visited Fountainbluex state park which is just a little farther down the road. I had been there before. Sugar mill ruins in Fountainbleux state park. Today i went to Fairview State Park. This is the home of Mr Otis. He owned the land and house. He donated most of the land to the state then it became a state park. Then when he died he left the house to the state and it is now a museum. Atchafalaya river Then this eve i took a brisk 3 mile walk down the lakefront which is about a mile from me. Saw these clouds and took a pic before my walk. Just trying to do some different stuff.

I don't realy know what it is but, it looks like a grasshopper of some sort.Very colorful. It is quit big. The last park i went to had some even larger in black and yellow. So you get an idea of it's ize it is sitting on a two by four.

Keep in mind this was a spinoff of a photo TR i did elsewhere a while back. Thought some of you guys might like to see these pics. I will try to find the other TR and post it later. Well anyways, I went to check out another state park Saturday. This will be the 3rd one. I will probably give these a rest since all the trees are starting to look alike. Plus they are all fairly close to each other so the type of trees, swamp and wildlife are pretty much the same. I did find that this particular park was the nicest one out of the three i visited so far. I won't bore you with lots of pics. Just a few. This is Tickfaw State Park in Springfield, LA. There are quite a few different stops throughout the park with a pavilion, boardwalk and trail at each. The one i was most interested in was the trail that led to the river. My first stop though was the Nature Center which was very nice. Plenty of awesome nature displays and whatnot. This has the longest boardwalk of the three parks i visited.This was about half mile or more long. The boardwalk winding through the trees and swamp. I passed some peeps and they were talking bout a spider they see. I wanted to remember where the spot was so i could look later. Not long into my trip on the board walk, i ran into this one. So the boardwalk here is broken up a bit with a trail at one point. This one is also quite long which is good. The others i walked elsewhere ended and i wanted more. This one ended and i was ready to move on. So before leaving i go back to where this huge spider was suppose to be. Took me a few minutes but i found it. Can you see it? Yeah, it took me a while to find it. It was a good way off the board walk.the camera was zoomed in all the way for the photo above. Here is the same pic cropped.Keep in mind that i had no tripod and the cam was zoomed all the way in so this is a little fuzzy. Off down the road. Some rental camps. Little farther down and a picnic pavilion, trail and small water play area. Then down the road is a campsite. Beyond that you pass through the nice scenery. This park was just immaculate, clean and very nice to look at as you make way to each trail n stuff. So there are 4 or 5 diff areas with trails attached. I quickly checked on two of them that had the standard single file width gravel trails. I was headed straight to the back of the park to the last one that goes to the river though. Finally reached it. Again, the park is very clean and nice to look at. This is the very end of the park where the trails are located that head to the river. This is more like a small road than a trail. Bout a mile to the river. Along the way is usual stuff. Some trees and swamp. Then some swamp and trees. Did i mention how some flying bugs can be a real pain in the ass? Some more swampy area. Came across this. I could not get close enough to take a good pic cause it would walk farther away every time i tried to get closer. So after about a mile walk i reached my goal. The river. Here at the river bank there were quite a few butterflies eating something off the ground. Nearby in some bushes were some more. After playing with the bugs i started back. just before you hit the river you pass this trail. This one is quite different than all the other trails i walked so far. This one is more wild and scary. It was also somewhat wet and soft I decided to walk down it a little. Came across this odd shaped ant mound. Decided to play with it for a while. At this point in time i was super hot and all sweaty so didn't feel like getting on the muddy ground to get some real good close ups. I did decide to disturb the top a little to get some ant action going. This didn't come out so well but it is lots of ants running round. It is nice to spend half, or a day walking the trails n stuff. I don't think i could take a whole weekend of it. The End

Thank goodness no one was hurt.

I missed it also. I wanna see. At my former park maint would tie off the train before we evacuated so this would not happen.

It is true you could walk the same distance in both parks and catch more shade at SFOT. SFFT all around is WAY nicer to look at though. I have made twice as many trips to Fiesta than over texas. Just my preference though.

Who saw this coming? 3D 3D 3D 3D 3D 3D 3D So get out yer 3D specs and take a look. This one not so great but i like doing them.

They were taken with a 10 megapixel digital SLR. You should see the uncompressed pics before they are converted to jpeg.

There are most likely quite a few nice looking parks. Thing is, lots of us look at the coasters and rides we are headed to and don't see the park itself. SFOG is another real nice one. Will have some pics from there before the end of the season.

Cool, on your way driving by, pick me up!

Took a ride over to the Texas parks for a few days to get those coasters ridden for the summer. I only took a few pics and actually not much of coasters themselves. We already have a ton of them and I also threw together the SFOT video in 06 which can be found at YouTube if you do a search for “calcajun”. Most times PTR’s concentrate on rides and coasters. I was actually thinking how nice SFFT and SFOT have matured nicely with age. What I found was the few pics I did take were mostly of the parks and not rides. Personally I find I prefer SFFT more over SFOT. SFFT has a more diverse theming and walkways are more brick and stone set in the quarry, whereas SFOT is larger and has the live concerts throughout the day but mostly just blacktop paths. Just my personal preference. Yours may vary. Certainly in the middle of july it was hot, humid and uncomfortable. Both parks were packed Sat,Sun and Mon. Here are a few photos of Six Flags Fiesta Texas Here is what you meet first . Very nice. Beyond that is the plaza to the ticket booths Then beyond that is the plaza into the metal detectors and entrance to the park Once through the entrance main street is complete mission style buildings. Go to your right and you end up in the western section Walkways and paths here are pretty plain but that goes along with this particular theme Some coasters in this area And a rapids ride Movin on Then you hit the 50’s with the drive in, theatre, high school Ect There is the boardwalk which is just that, a pier Then there is the medieval section Then heading back to the front of the park Next--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are a few photos of Six Flags Over Texas At the entrance So I figured these are a dying breed. Sat it was up and running but I was riding coasters. Figured I would get photos of it Sunday. As you can see it did not run Sunday. Most likely a staffing issue I guess. OOoooo, freeze is the coolest Nice flat and purdy Nice theme on a swinging ship. The exact stuff is on the other side. OOoo, I like this one This one is just ok. I like Mind Bender WAY better OOOOO, Loook, a foot chopper, wait. Never mind. Coobrila stuff Look at the Derek! And it is open. Judge roy scream. Didn’t even bother to ride it Texas Giant. Shame I didn’t go ride this when it first opened. It is pretty bad now.