The Great Zo

Thanks guys! Not a problem! If you want bigger versions of any of them just let me know, these are obviously way sized-down.

I have a whole lot of Zach trip report to catch up on. Better get started. From BGW... If you aren't at least spending part of your time on a TPR bus ride looking out the windows -- especially when we're driving through the backwoods -- you're doin' it wrong. Thank you! And may the phrase "comfort collar" go down in coaster lore for all its wonderful irony! Griffon is right there with it, but those two are my tops at BGW. From KD... I mean, yeah, that's a great way to describe it as a Cincinnati / KI veteran! That section of the park is weird. It's got some big attractions as you mentioned, but it's not cohesive at all. It's like it doesn't tie into the rest of the park. With that said, it's nice to head to the "back left" and find that Flight of Fear is joined by a much better coaster than Firehawk. Though, maybe we'll get to say that at home in a couple years too... Skills honed by years of intense study, physics equations, and actually knowing how to correctly interpret my chosen radar app. From SFA... Quite different! If I want to be disappointed by an Intamin, I'd rather just wait for one to break down than to ever have to ride that craptacular "hyper"-coaster again. ACTUAL QUOTE! And the ones that were hanging up had big holes chopped out of them, too. Well, that was a park! It had flags! An arbitrary number of flags not to be exceeding six. Some fun updates, Zach. More catch-up to come later...

If it looks like a goat, acts like a goat, quacks like a goat... I think we bested that! Santa Clarita is basically in the desert! Almost like the most intense airtime hills do, but with the force in a different direction. So much hype! I'd been waiting to get out to California for the longest time. It's just the craziest mix of things I look for in a vacation destination, all in one place. Parks, cities, mountains, beaches. Maybe not the traffic, though.

Just finished reading this trip report, Bert. Great job putting it all together, and glad you had a good time on the trip!

OK, finally caught up on my local park's thread after a couple months away. Boy, that was fun. Crazy to see a coaster get removed! But it was fun to see everyone here guessing on what ride it would be. Here, I compiled a list of all the rides that were speculated to possibly be on the chopping block. In all seriousness, bye Firehawk, won't miss you at all, you giant hunk of crap. Bring on 2020.

Caught up on this report and loving it so far. My hope is that one day I'm half as good as Chuck at writing photo captions. This TR is a clinic.

In the US, yes? I believe there is still one at Bakken, but that may be it. Movie Park Germany has one too. https://www.movieparkgermany.de/en/in-the-park/attractions/pier-patrol-jet-ski

Just put up a trip report from WCB at Knott's! http://www.themeparkreview.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1887029#p1887029

Pictures from Knott's -- Part 3! And now, the long-exposure night pictures segment of the post! I had enough time before ERT that I was basically able to do a full lap of the park with my Gorillapod, getting long-exposure pictures of anything I could find that looked interesting. I couldn't ride GhostRider, but I am pretty happy with this picture of it. I think there's actually a train going by on this Silver Bullet picture, but you can't see it. You can kinda barely see it on this one. Let me continue my crusade that all coasters need running lights. The yellow really stands out nicely against the dark blue sky. Last Silver Bullet shot -- the lift hill and the super-steep drop! Colorful lights in the Mexican section of the park. The Jaguar! pyramid is lit up! in soft blue! Sol Spin -- a Top Scan -- is basically made for long-exposure shots like this. Here's one at the end of the ride cycle, as the arms of the ride are settling back down. The only problem was that several of Knott's flat rides (including this one) were running very short ride cycles. Not great for the riders, and it made photography a little tricky. I basically could only get two pictures of Sol Spin per cycle. Xcelerator is lit up for the evening. Oh, and so is HangTime, and wow... ...this is a beautiful ride at night. The full-track lighting package is stunning. Not that it's evident in these pictures, but the lighting changes color as the coaster vehicle goes through each section of track! It's a really awesome effect. The strings of lights from under the ride look fantastic. RESTRICTED AREA. DO NOT ENTER. Avoiding the crowds in pictures like these required some careful (and lucky) timing. A back view of HangTime, with the SkyCabin tower behind it. The dark rides were looking fantastic at night as well. The rock work was all done up in orange and red. Very rustic. The on-ride photo flash made for an odd effect on this log flume picture. The train is steamin'. I even got a picture of the entrance to Mystery Lodge, because why not? I went looking for any more "spinny" rides I could find, because you get weird effects like this one -- it's the Balloon Race ride in Camp Snoopy. The concentric circles of the Ferris wheel. The bright yellow of the Wave Swinger. The odd conic shape of the flyers. It's not easy being green. Alright, it wasn't all photography -- we rode some coasters, too. I caught John and Zach Z on HangTime! (because they stayed on an extra cycle without telling me, while I walked out the exit!) Meanwhile, plenty of empty seats on Xcelerator. Fun fact -- on my first Xcelerator ride, I didn't realize you launched right from the station. Boy was that quite the jolt. A view of HangTime from the Silver Bullet station, and that's the last picture of the day! Man, this was just what I needed -- a super-fun stress-free theme park day. Great people at a great park. Thanks for reading, and Part 2 at SFMM is coming soon!

Pictures from Knott's -- Part 2! Holy crap, this is a lot of pictures! No pictures allowed in the main show at Mystery Lodge, so I got this one before the pre-show began. I think this was from the first time we went through it. I was probably catching up on Twitter the second time. Like any western-themed park, there is a graveyard. Ha! It's an earthquake joke! Knott's has some history, too. This building is the Rivera School. It's a registered historic landmark dating back to 1868! Nearby, the Old School House is almost as old. "In recognition of the value to our nation of the education provided by the one-room schoolhouse, this plaque is placed on an original one built in 1879, near Beloit, Kansas." Woah, cool, back when our nation valued education! Class was in session! One ride I didn't get to go on was the stagecoach. I'm still kind of bewildered that a major theme park has a horse-drawn stagecoach ride. This is something I'd expect to see in Europe, but much less so here! Here's the post office, and the general store... ...and the jail, which I dared not enter. The "Shootin Gallre" at the Silver Dollar. And Judge Roy Bean's office, which sold bottles of coke instead of handing out jail sentences. These cowboys are just a'waitin' for someone to take their picture. Aw, but GhostRider, you were missed. Someday I will return to tame your wild curves and drops. Mrs. Knott, that's one fine chicken you have there. Hey, our photo lap has made it back to the front gate! These two just kept dancing all day long. A map of indian homelands, which should probably serve as a reminder that we weren't the first ones here. Snoopy clock! So, I got a picture of the Sierra Sidewinder sign! And then I realized I didn't actually have any pictures of Sierra Sidewinder. Sorry. I do have a picture of the park's tiny Ferris wheel. Here's what all the ride signs look like in Camp Snoopy -- it's the best cohesive theme I've seen at any of the Cedar Fair parks. Yep, it's a kiddie coaster. Nope, I didn't ride it. Jaguar(!) though, I did ride. And it was good. I mean, this is pretty impressive -- there's a lot of detail on the top of this pyramid. Not exactly Epcot World Showcase quality, but quite nice. Fun fact: this train can hold 400 riders at once. I love that Jaguar! has an exclamation point! right in the name of the ride! Oh, hey, I guess I did get a picture of Sierra Sidewinder. And I remember being really upset because Montezooma ran like 3 seconds after I took this picture, meaning I was /that/ close to getting a three-train shot. The Mexican-themed area was cute, and very colorful. Anyone want to Klobber a Kat? Alright, where's Bert and Laura? I got some carousel pics for you. It's a goat! I think! This carousel was originally at Hershey! Then it moved to Ohio! Then, like anyone with half a lick of sense, it moved out of Ohio! Hey, it's Silver Bullet! Which isn't actually silver! Well, alright, the supports are silver. Actually, I thought the ride looked great -- bright colors against a crisp blue sky. And green palm trees, because California. I kept wondering, though -- why are the first five rows teal and orange, while the last three rows are teal and yellow? The big helix near the end over the water. This is a good way to end an invert! Looking at you, Great Bear! After that photo lap, it was about time for our group lunch. West Coast Bash! 3:00pm - 4:30pm. That's us! Prizes! AKA "crap the maintenance department was about to throw out but decided to give away instead!" We've got wheels! We've got more wheels! But John doesn't have wheels! Poor John! And we've got Jeff Tucker, who kept the crowd engaged with stories and jokes and banter. You might even find his voice on one of the attractions in the park! So, how do you win a wheel? You ... win a "best Owen Wilson impression" contest? Seriously. I'm not even joking. And here's your winner, putting all those youngsters to shame! If that doesn't work, you can win the official WCB dance-off! I think this is ... some kind of interpretive dance? Perhaps "pitcher on the mound with a broken elbow?" This must be the "pretending I'm on Tatsu at SFMM" dance. Boy, that whole prize session was, uh, something else. Yeah. It was something else. Anyway, let's head back to the park, where the green flag is flying at HangTime! Palm tree / coaster juxtaposition #207... Just dropping by the boardwalk... Palm tree / coaster juxtaposition #462... Love the curvature on the track in this one! Are we flashing some signs at the top of the lift? John, what say you? HangTime first drop reaction shots are where it's at! This is the photo goldmine at Knott's! Even if I never got anything as good as Griffon Lady (may that picture never again see the light of day, lol) I was quite happy with the results here. The calm before the drop. Tough shot -- I think this was the little double-down bump above the queue entrance, and the cars are moving pretty fast at that point! More crazy hairtime and fun reactions. Oh, and I think I got Zach Z in this shot! Different angle -- this one from the queue, right under the drop. Those are some screams, I tell ya. A few of these people appear to be in some kind of pain. The weird angle of the hang at the top of the first drop sometimes presents a bit of a "Cousin Itt" effect. I hope Gerstlauer makes more coasters like HangTime. It's a lot of fun, wasn't overly expensive, and doesn't take up too much real estate. Alright, last HangTime pic for now! Finally got on the train in the evening. It was a good ride. We got robbed. That part was funny.

Pictures from Knott's -- Part 1! Knott's Foggy Farm. Can barely see the top of the S&S tower! The fog was gone pretty quickly, though. More bird pictures. What's with all of them hanging out near the Knott's parking lot? The TPR group gathers! Single file line, please. And now, we enter the park. It was not yet time for Knott's Scary Farm. Those berries are everywhere. Nature shot on the way into the park! Where to begin? How about with HangTime, the new hotness? Yeah, so here's about where I realize that a TPR bash is not a TPR trip. When I hold up my camera to a coaster full of riders on the brake run on a TPR trip, everyone goes crazy and smiles and waves their hands. When I hold up my camera to a coaster full of people I don't know at a TPR bash, they just kinda ... sit there. Oh well. Anyway, back to HangTime. Or is it Hang Time? Or does it matter? Silhouetted in the morning light. The big non-inversion near the start of the ride is fun. This is what ERT looks like -- plenty of room on the HangTime cars! A bit of twisting at the top of that element! Oh, and there's James, who I hadn't seen since the 2013 TPR trip. Hi James! Now we're inverting. Here's the ride's first "hang time" moment -- hanging off the top of the lift. Almost everyone with their hands up. Guy in the front row is all "ok, so when do we drop?" More happy WCB riders! And now they're upside-down! Flat view through the supports. Alright, let's head past these mini-lakes on over to Xcelerator. Quite the reflection. Almost looks like someone painted the coaster on the sidewalk. A ha, this is the spot for some Intamin awesomeness! The big launch up! The big drop back down! Nice paint job on these trains, too. This is a pretty speedy ride, and it shows. So, how about some facts about the coaster? It was the original Intamin hydraulic launch coaster, opening in 2002 -- two years before Dragster destroyed Cedar Point's maintenance budget. Trying to figure out why there's no one in the front row ... oh, there it is! A GoPro! Yep, there was filming being done, and I can't wait to see the footage. More WCB riders. I'm posting a lot from the morning ERT because I hope TPR people find themselves in the pics! Oh, and this ride has the classic Intamin T-bar restraints, which are very comfortable. Cresting the top hat. A selfie-rider-cam in the making! Xcelerator is ... very pink. Not that there's anything wrong with pink, it's just ... wasn't it red at one point? For those wondering, most of these pictures were taken from the queue, which was basically empty during our ERT. Very easy to get some nice angles of the ride. For those of you who need to catch your breath and/or contemplate existence after a ride on Xcelerator. Oh, hey John and Zach Z! And some other guy I don't know in the middle. Sorry, other guy. Palm trees, roller coasters, and the LA Lakers. Must be in California. No editing needed to get these crisp blue and green colors. If only the coaster weren't so faded, lol... Spying HangTime through the Xcelerator track! Alright, moving over to pick up a case of Montezooma's Revenge... Launch through the little ring of lights. Heading up the back spike! A little bit of airtime if you sit in the far back. Funny that this is sort of a Mexican-themed shuttle loop, when I've also been on a shuttle loop /in/ Mexico. Our final ride on the morning ERT was the S&S tower, Supreme Scream. It's a tall tower, which I believe was running a drop program. During the afternoon, I caught it running all three towers. Just one for the morning, which was plenty enough for the ERT. They are supremely screaming. Inappropriate picture up the leg of the tower. With morning ERT done, we began our loop of the park's other rides, starting at the low-capacity Coast Rider. Yep, it's a mouse, and it had to have been the tamest mouse I've ever been on. Even the hairpin turns up top were pretty forceless. Voyage to the Iron Reef was an interesting ride. I scored 123,900. I didn't even come close to matching that guy who has 4 of the top 5 high scores of all time. But whatever. I tried to hit a lot of those golden compass things. Is this any good? Let me know! The Calico Logging Company... ...home of the Timber Mountain Log Ride. It has a drop! It has a lift hill! It also has lots of cool stuff on the inside that I didn't try to take pictures of. But enjoy a few pictures of people on the drop, because these are always fun. The selfie-boat! The scared-couples-boat! They all made it through alright. And now, the TPR boats! We are on a log flume... ...we are on a log flume... ...Robb is on a log flume... ...Robb and two fanboys are on a log flume... Moving across the midway to the Calico Mine Company. This is a fantastic dark ride! First, you board a little train. The vehicle is set up like little mine carts with seating around the edges. Just one picture from the inside, where we stopped in this big cave of wonders, which was pretty awesome. The Knott's train (officially the Ghost Town & Calico Railroad) had itself a busy day. When it was running, the lines were pretty long. It also had some downtime. Baldwin Locomotive Works, this thing outlived all of you! Taking a look at some of the theming around the park. Don't go crossing this half-dead outlaw. Pumpkins and small animal skeletons! A huge Halloween display appears to have taken over this fountain. I love observation towers, but as for the Knott's Sky Cabin, well... I got a few good pictures, but it was a struggle. Hey, getting Xcelerator at the top is pretty good timing. Especially because it was one of a few rides that weren't exactly dispatching too quickly. A look down at Silver Bullet, the final coaster credit I'd pick up late that night. Just a bit of hang time. Kind of a neat view of HangTime, basically flush with the two big elements after the drop. Knott's history! Walter Knott had a farm! They had berries! How could anyone have guessed? So, I got a boysenberry-filled churro. I took this picture and immediately laughed because, well, um, it looks kinda funky. I really should have named this 'hello.jpg'. ...and if you get that reference, have mercy on your soul. Anyway, back to the coasters, here's some Pony Express. It's the second one of these I've been on, after Steeplechase at Coney Island. People seem to love to "ride the pony" on these rides. The gimmicky seating arrangement is, to be honest, a little uncomfortable. Hey, look! A better coaster in the background! Bigfoot Rapids! It's a rapids ride! Which means I didn't go on because I didn't feel like risking a soaking. I did try to take pictures, though. It wasn't easy -- there aren't a lot of good places to get pictures of this one. It didn't look like the best rapids ride in the world, anyway. Well, these guys look like they're about to tip over. Not a ton of big splashes -- sort of have to hit the waves just right. We headed on over to Mystery Lodge, where we were absolutely mystified.

Part 1 -- Knott's Berry Farm / West Coast Bash Day 1 September 8, 2018 Knott's Berry Farm is a park I've heard about for a long time -- Xcelerator's groundbreaking launch, the well-themed mine train and log flume, GhostRider's prevalence on coaster TV shows many years ago, and boysenberry everything. I'd have to miss out on GhostRider, which was down for maintenance, but the rest of the park was open for business. I'll start by showing off the design on the shirt we got at the event, plus our lanyard / schedule for the day. Yep, we started things off with a full two hours of ERT, and did most of our rides on HangTime and Xcelerator -- in my opinion, the two best coasters at the park. After ERT was done, we started to make a loop to pick up the rest of the coasters, before realizing ... oh wait, we're about to be late for the TPR group photo! Where the heck is the wagon camp? Well, we were late, but somehow we snuck into the photo just in time. From there we actually did go through the rest of the big rides at the park, exempting a couple of the coasters that would be on the evening ERT. With so much already knocked out of the way in the first few hours, we opted not to get Fast Lane passes, which ended up working out fine. Some of the big rides had decent lines in the middle of the afternoon, but we just skipped 'em until later. I got my boysenberry fix in the form of a stuffed Churro. It was tasty, overly expensive, and looked kinda grotesque. We also got evacuated off the brake run on Mystery Lodge ... do I have that right? Or was it the lift hill, John? Well, something broke, and we didn't get to watch the show. Our group lunch was entertaining, mainly because we learned that over-enthused young teenage kids would pretty much do anything to win a used coaster wheel. I wouldn't recommend following their example. John was sad he didn't get a wheel, but personally I'm glad he wasn't willing to do what was necessary to win one. Did you know that if Jeff Tucker tells someone to pick up a glob of cole slaw with their bare hand, and stuff it in their pocket, they'll actually do it? Jeff is one powerful, powerful guy. With most of the rides out of the way, the afternoon and early evening was mainly spent doing photography, wandering around, and just enjoying the day. We did finally get to enjoy the magical wonders of Mystery Lodge, which ran successfully in the early evening. Oh, and we finally rode the train, which we'd missed twice already due to downtime. Evening Exclusive Ride Time was very, very exclusive. We used that time to finish the run on the coasters, ending on Silver Bullet. After two rides on the most intense B&M Invert ever built, we were totally exhausted, and ready to call it a night. How was Knott's? I really liked the park. I was surprised at how well the park feels insulated from the outside world surrounding it, despite being enclosed by the gridded streets of a very busy area. The theming is very nice, especially by Cedar Fair standards. I'd say it's the nicest looking Cedar Fair park on its own merits, though Cedar Point has to win when the surroundings are factored in. Knott's isn't a huge park, and you'll definitely only need one day there, even for a first time visitor. However, the slate of attractions is very well rounded, even when considering family attractions and the park's kids area. In fact, I really loved the cohesiveness of the kids area, right down to the ride signs that all shared the same branding. Put simply, despite being a corporate park, Knott's does a really good job disguising that fact. I do think there's room to improve the dining options, which is a pretty typical complaint about any Cedar Fair / Six Flags park. We've seen some small steps in the right direction at places like Cedar Point and Kings Dominion, so hopefully that's a sign of things to come. Alternatively, I probably should have thought about actually eating at Mrs. Knott's to get some fresh fried chicken -- perhaps that might have changed my opinion. I do love the proliferation of boysenberry-flavored items, though. It's a unique thing for Knott's! How were the rides? Xcelerator -- I was not expecting this ride to be this good. I looked at it and figured it'd feel like Storm Runner's launch with a less-interesting second half. Wow, was I wrong about the launch. The initial jolt on this thing is absolutely crazy -- way more intense than even TTD or Kingda Ka. It messed up my insides every single time I rode, and I think I rode it at least 7 or 8 times. The curves on the second half of the ride were more intense than I was expecting, too. This was my favorite ride at the park, and probably slots just into my top 30 overall. HangTime -- When I first saw this ride's layout, I wondered if it'd be sort of like a mini-Kärnan, given the presence of a few similar elements. Kärnan, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is probably the most underrated coaster on the planet simply because no one ever talks about it, and it's insane. Well, HangTime is not Kärnan, and its name should have been a clue. Kärnan takes its elements at speed, to produce an crazy-intense ride. HangTime takes them slowly, to provide ... well, hang time. That's not a bad thing -- this is a really fun coaster! It's got a fun first drop, some cool twists and turns, and it's the only coaster that I know of that ends with a cobra roll. I can't believe there are people out there who don't think of this as a "major" coaster. It's a big deal if you ask me, and it's definitely worth multiple rides. Silver Bullet -- Alright, this ride gets too much grief due to its ramp of a first drop. I forgot about that part pretty quickly, because the rest of it is quite fun! It's far from my favorite B&M Invert, and maybe I would have liked it a little more if I weren't so dead tired, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Sierra Sidewinder -- I've been on D'wervelwind at Toverland, another ride of the same type, so I knew what to expect out of this one. It spins, it has a more creative layout than a lousy spinning mouse, and it's well worth your time for a ride or two. Montezooma's Revenge -- My third Schwarzkopf shuttle loop! I really like these, though the backwards inversion keeps me from loving them, since I just don't love backwards stuff that much. Jaguar! -- Yes, I do believe the exclamation point is part of the ride name! I love these Zierer super-long-train coasters! Frankly, I found the trains rather uncomfortable, but I enjoyed going all around that part of the park and checking out the views on the way! Exclamation point! Another one! Pony Express -- Meh. Just glad to get this out of the way before the line got too long. Coast Rider -- It's a mouse. A really, really tame mouse. Supreme Scream -- It's an S&S tower. Sky Cabin -- Ooh, an ob tower with windows that make it almost impossible to get good pictures out of? Of course I had to ride it twice, take about 300 pictures, and then use maybe 5 of them in this trip report because they all came out so awful. Mystery Lodge -- You know what, I was impressed with the special effects. When that cloaked guy appeared, I had no idea where he came from. The best part was getting to see the intro twice in one day! Voyage to the Iron Reef -- Eh, I liked it, but it felt a little over-complicated, I guess? The ride vehicles were weird, and a couple of the screens weren't allowing any shots to be fired. That was odd, and it probably hurt my score. I'm glad Cedar Fair decided to try a ride like this, but I can't help but feel that the next day's park had the better shooter... Timber Mountain Log Ride and Calico Mine Ride -- Absolutely loved them both. I was really excited for both of these rides, especially with the work put in to restore them in recent years. There's simply no reason to expect to find dark rides as good as these at a Cedar Fair park, but these are outstanding. If the lines were a little shorter I'd have loved to ride each of these again, and they'll be a priority for whenever I visit next.

CONTENTS: Part 1 -- Intro / Knott's Berry Farm (Page 1) Part 2 -- Six Flags Magic Mountain (Page 3) Part 2.5 -- The The Angels Angels of Anaheim (Page 4) Part 3 -- Disneyland Day 1: Disney California Adventure (Page 5) Part 4 -- Disneyland Day 2: Disneyland Park (Page 6) Part 5 -- Disneyland Day 3: Disneyland Odds and Ends (Page 7) Part 6 -- Disneyland Day 4: Disneyland Grand Finale (Page 8) Part 7 -- Heading South... (coming soon) --------------------------------- Hello TPR! Time to get started with a new trip report from my first-ever adventure to southern California! Yep, just like it says on the image above. So glad they built that sign just for me. Admittedly I haven't been on the forum that much in the past couple months, with things just getting really busy with travel -- TPR-related and otherwise! But I've tried to catch up and read some of the things I've missed. Let's see, there was... * That guy who was totally obsessed with traveling fair rides (my favorite since that wave pool pressure chamber guy...) * Another round of absolutely useless golden ticket awards... * The big news that the Long Beach Cyclone Racer is coming back! Super excited! Oh, and I caught up on some of the other trip reports that have been posted along the way. A few favorites I want to give a shout to -- Erik and Smisty's Vancouver Oddventure, Rai Fox's week at a Knoebels cottage, and The Ytterbium Analysis. Give 'em a read if you haven't already! Oh, and I'd be remiss not to mention the 2018 TPR US trip reports by Zach and Bert, which chronicle two busy weeks from my summer. Those of you who were on the trip with me might be wondering about this, but for now I'm not planning to write a trip report from it. I'm focusing my efforts on this one, and can't wait to share a ton of great photos from a really fun journey. If you've read some of my other TRs, you'll know what to expect from this one -- a mix of theme parks and other adventures, and sixteen metric tons of pictures. Hope you enjoy it! --------------------------------- First, a little about how this California trip came about, because it's been in the works for several years. I'd been wanting to make my first trip to California at some point, and was hoping to time it out for West Coast Bash. Meanwhile, I'd settled into a once-every-three-years schedule for taking a Walt Disney World trip with my family, and the last one was in 2015. We'd discussed visiting Disneyland at some point, and eventually decided to shoot for 2018, during our favorite time to travel in September. So, the challenge -- could I get the stars to align and do West Coast Bash, a family trip to Disneyland, and a lengthy period of time for my own vacationing, all on the same trip? Well, if you're reading this, then I guess it worked out. Before I go any further, a huge thanks to John (coasterlvr) who put me up ... or put up with me? ... for the first few days in California. After two years of TPR trips, I knew John wasn't going to try to kill me or anything. And he didn't! John, you're a hero! Here's a short intro to chronicle the travel on the first day. If you're looking for Knott's, just scroll down a little bit! September 7, 2018 I departed from Columbus. I'll be sure to tell Zach it's because it's his favorite airport -- but really it's just because they had $5 long-term parking, which is too cheap to pass up. Goodbye to cow-town. Creative cropping. Oh, and I got delayed on my flight out. So what's a weary traveler to do? Find the Jeni's vending machine... ...and eat ice cream for breakfast. The statue of George H W Bush means I'm in connecting through Houston. New airport credit. You know how airports have public art displays all over the place? I'm so glad that I ran across this nightmare fuel. Oh, and now it's storming, and I'm delayed /again/. THANKS ANDY. But, there's a rainbow at the end of every rain cloud. Finally, my first view of the mountains of southern California. Boy, that tall one on the left side of the picture looks interesting. Another statue -- this one is John Wayne, which means I flew into Orange County so I wouldn't have to deal with LAX. More airport public art. Here's a Pikachu made out of groceries. vWhat's a visitor to do on their first day in California? Find the Pacific Ocean! John and I headed to Huntington Beach. HB stands for Huntington Beach. I spell things out like this so they can be easily understood. A long walk on a long pier. ZOLTAR SPEAKS! It's an ocean I've never seen before! That's kind of a big deal. Oh, and we timed it out for sunset, which I figured would be great. Yep, first day of the trip and I'm already doing cheesy artistic shots like this one. Platforms and boats way in the hazy distance. Catch the fish. Well, maybe this isn't the most beautiful stretch of beach in the state... Waves heading to shore. Another one of my trip report staples -- birds. Wind/surf on the choppy ocean. An orange glow on the shore. Notice that few people are really swimming. Maybe it's because the ocean is about 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Yeah, I know that's not really possible, but whatever. Surfing, the right way. Surfing, the wrong way. The sunset starts to reflect off the beach! It's almost as shiny as John's head! Not the only ones there watching it. Sunset sequence, part 1. Sunset sequence, part 2. Sunset sequence, part 3. Sunset sequence, part 4. Clouds on the horizon, so didn't exactly get to see it go over the water, but not bad for the first day in the state. Oh, and then we headed up to Buena Park and went to Porto's for dinner. And that's the second time I have to thank Zach in this post, isn't it? Ugh. Well thanks, Zach! You steered us right! Porto's is magnificent, even if I'm still confused as to how a business like this is so stinkin' busy all the time!

How great is our bus? And how great is our bus driver? You forgot to mention "funnel cloud myth debunker" but the rest of that is 100% correct and verifiable. Sure, we may have had a couple "lightning within a 10 mile radius" delays, but hey... You're the pioneer of the "throw yourself off the side of the train, look straight down, and watch the structure of the lift hill disappear beneath you" technique. But that's too long a name so we'll just call it the Zach. I know someone who had an even bigger shout out to the crew! Late-night post-coastering euphoria, thy name is Cook Out. Great spot for after-hours hush puppies, shakes, and parking lot makeouts. (that last part wasn't any of us, I promise)

I'll take mine with no egg, thanks. Of all the weird things I saw on these two days that made me shake my head, this one is just... I can't even put it into words. This is why it's important to read a coasterlvr trip report very, very carefully. Glad you enjoyed the cookie-wich, which at least looked more appealing than the business end of that stuffed churro of mine. Great post John, great day, had a lot of fun!

Zach's trip report has begun! Rejoice! Agreed with much of your review of the park. Twisted Cyclone was fantastic, JB's was garbage, and I'll take the slightly-less-peeled-apart lap bar, thank you very much. (hey Zach!!) With thanks to EB (vuurvogel) for starting the idea for me in 2016!

John, your trip report is legendary. And so is your ability to get over your ice cream excess from the day before. Your question for Neal about the Sky Tower was fantastic. Phrased beautifully. Well done. Neal also mentioned that the trees near Ninja are not coming back, though I seem to recall we got close to a few branches on our morning ride. Glad you liked X2. It was my favorite part of the day, especially when both of my legs had flown to the right side of the seat divider and my head was being jackhammered into the seat back. Also, the Honda was very Helpful. Sorry I couldn't get any cool night pictures this time around. (most of the preceding might be sarcastic) This sounds a lot like some of the stuff I've seen in Europe (Blue Fire, for example) and if it's like that, it's going to be great. (not sarcastic, this is actually really cool!)

What? Are they replacing the mechanism with something different, or just fixing them up? Nah, that was just a bad Lightning Rod joke, sorry.

That tweet absolutely makes me think about roller coasters! You know what it doesn't make me think about? New ride announcements, because it doesn't mention that, at all. Don't blame the park for your own unrealistic disappointment.

Personally, I'm really disappointed that Kings Island didn't announce that Velocity Magnetics was being hired to re-do the launch on Flight of Fear.

The KI-related teaser posters going up at Cedar Point and elsewhere are obviously not for some hypothetical major 2019 attraction, and with no signs of construction at Kings Island right now, no one in their right mind ever thought that.

Mike Koontz gave the name as Kings Mills Antique Autos. Also, I believe he said it's a 1/4-mile path, so if he misspoke later and said 3-mile, that one probably isn't correct.

Looks like a cool attraction for a park that needed another big ride! The layout is funky, but we'll see how it goes!

I've never been to California. Think that's gonna have to change. Very glad I'll be able to attend WCB for the first time!

Pretty sad that boats would be on the lake with severe storms very clearly in the forecast. A severe thunderstorm watch was issued at 1120AM, a severe thunderstorm warning was issued at 632PM, and the storms hit Table Rock Lake around 7PM.