The Great Zo

Marcel crosses the checkered flag! First Texas/Midwest trip report completed -- and a very good one. Great work!

Here's Seaside Heights, and Seaside Park. They're adjacent boroughs, with Porter Street as the dividing line. Funtown Pier straddles the two municipalities, and Casino Pier is further north, totally in Seaside Heights.

The fire is so big, the smoke plume is showing up on weather radar.

Nice stuff from Toronto! Sorry the CN Tower was so crowded -- I've been up there once, on a weekday in November, and there were maybe 50 people in the thing. Really glad you saw the old city hall, too -- love that building.

This is very strange considering CP doesn't even list Wicked Twister on their website. Yup, this must be brand new. I just checked a picture of mine from August 9, and there was no fast lane sign in the spot where the picture on the last page shows it. Would have been mad if I missed it while I was there!

With all the love for Millennium Force, I'd toss in a vote for TTD, if only you were up there for long enough to enjoy it! Mamba's nice at sunset from the left side of the train -- downtown KC lit up in orange. I also love the views from both US dive machines, as others have mentioned. Not a coaster, but I have to mention Summit Plummet -- you can see pretty much anything over the treeline in the entire WDW resort from up there. Allow me to toss in a vote for Little Dipper at Little Amerricka. At least, it's one of the most unique views from a coaster. I don't think I got a picture while I was there, but if you can find one online, you'll be dying to see it.

Low pay, long hours, danger everywhere... you sure that's not just an ad for employment at SFOT?

Done. Definitely interested in a US summer tour!

Those are some nice pictures. Well done. Where were you standing for this one? I'd love to get some pictures from that spot also.

I hit #100 on Judge Roy Scream at SFOT, and then hit #150 on Whizzer at SFGAm.

That was great to get to see the first-ever dragster rides for yourself, Bas, and Yin. As I recall, that was also a pretty big milestone for you, wasn't it?

And for the crazy people who actually paid for ERT on Hades? They should have paid us for that wonderful privilege! Store-brand ibuprofen? Not strong enough. Not even close.

Was just thinking the same thing! "Oh no, Marcel's going to have to come back and do another trip over here, what a shame..."

Agreed. Favorite part of the layout, by a long shot. Flipping upside down is one thing, but nobody's gonna expect to be held there for a couple seconds! That part is pretty crazy. It's similar to the Outlaw Run 153-degree inversion, only taken to its logical extreme. I was surprised by just how comfortable that bizarre-looking element was, and I'm guessing you'll get a similar sensation out of this one. It's not really hang-time -- it's more zero-G, and really fun. Agreed with the last poster that it may even be negative-G that keeps you in your seat. Pfffft, we're keeping them all for ourselves!

^ Agreed, definitely not a wing-over. Actually, it reminds me of the "inverting drops" on the Smiler.

I never tried it in the very first row, but my first ride was in row 3 or 4, and even that was intolerable. My "Little Titans payment rides" were sadly further back (row 9 or 10) and those were organ-busting, spine-shattering atrocities. For those of you who got in the very front -- was it better by any measurable margin? I will say that the entire turnaround felt to me like, say, a GCI that's been around for a few years. I wouldn't call it smooth, but it was tolerable.

Well, that just killed my appetite for a lousy microwave dinner at work tonight. Apologies to our electronics staff for attempting to reach through my computer screen and pull out the cinnamon bread and double-fried chicken.

Well that explains why I have almost a thousand pictures from August 6...

Marcel! Didn't know you went through Detroit. That was the end of my trip -- I have pictures of that same fountain. Can't wait to see the rest of your trip report, I know you had as much fun on the tour as just about anybody!

It seems disingenuous to compare any wood coaster to what we all survived at the Dells, but thankfully, The Boss wasn't in the same league as Hades. That said, it was rough (jackhammeringly-rough in a couple spots), and I think most of us were good after one ride (maybe two). The helix at the end seemed to be in pretty bad shape. There was definitely a minority of the group, though, that enjoyed The Boss enough to give it a few rides. On the plus side, I thought the layout/design was one of the more interesting wood coaster layouts on the entire trip.

Following along on twitter ... it looks like it's happening.

This also happened to me, on my first ride, no less. My near-death experience at Mt. O came on the Poseidon go-kart track. I was fifth out of the station, and got T-boned at the end of the first curve -- no more than 15 seconds after starting. I ended up facing the wall near a split in the track, unable to move. I looked around -- are the park employees coming to help? Anyone? Nope. After getting hit a second time, two helpful people used their go-karts to push my kart off the wall. Was I on my way? Nope -- I ended up going the wrong way on the split! So, at this point, I'm by myself, facing the wrong way up the track, and with probably 60 seconds to right myself before facing a head-on collision. I looked around for the park employees -- still, nobody there to help. So I did the only thing I could. I threw my backpack off the track, jumped out of the kart, and began pushing it away from the wall and straightening it out. After three attempts, I got it turned in the right direction, only to watch the kart go rolling downhill without me in it! I grabbed my backpack and started running after the kart -- first approaching on the left dropping my backpack in, and steering a little -- and then on the right, grabbing the steering wheel at a full sprint, and leaping into the kart in what would have been a very dramatic scene if anybody associated with the park had actually been watching!

Kyle, you and your crew were awesome! Thanks for putting on a great hour for us.

Just got back from the Outlaw Run night ERT! That will stand out as one of the big highlights of this trip. At least 90% of us had never seen the coaster before, so our first rides were all in the near-complete darkness. Not an ounce of wasted track, and airtime everywhere, even where you wouldn't expect it.

A statement from Cedar Point, relayed by the Sandusky Register: