maeryk

Comet, Hershey, on Sunday.

^ thanks. Now I have Venga Boys stuck in my head.

Probably.. 16 years? I got into em, then just stopped being able to afford to go to parks, and no real interest, for a looooong time, then got back into it when the local park upped it's rides. Now I'm a junkie.

Well, we already know Lazer and the "public picnic tent" are gone at Dorney for 2009, but they've been tight-lipped about what is coming next year. However, I have some inside info.. they will acquire, in a STUNNING move, 4000 additional trash cans for the park, as well as 2 shiny new park benches, and four signs saying "Here's where we tore out a classic ride to install garbage cans!"

hehe.. yeah.. you don't really think they are paying for 15 million or higher dollar coasters just for the money paid by "enthusiasts" do you? It's the family groups like mine that rake in the dough.

I'm aware of that. That was a "as a contrast" not "as an exception." Knoebel's still beats em up one side and down the other, though.

What strikes me as funny is you can bring your own food into Knoebel's. For that reason, their food is reasonably priced and tasty. And they always seem to be selling plenty of it. I was at Hershey yesterday, and they had a pretty good spectrum of food, and it was definately above Cedar Fair's usual standard for food.. but it wasn't cheap. Not by a long shot. I'll take bison burgers over catered chicken wings or coldstone creamery any day!

across ALL parks, what would it be? For me, It would be games that give away basketballs. Probably just a stupid personal pet peeve, but it's THE most annoying thing, to me, in parks.

Head for superdooperlooper.. not quite as forcey as Laser, but just bars.. I don't think that one even has belts in it. Yet another classic Schwartzkopf.

The track looks identical to the track on Hydra. (IN person). It has the same sort of welded-triangle look to it on the sides of the squared off portion, which I can only assume gives it mad strength. (Hydra is pretty light on the supports as well. Far more so than Talon, which has the older "straight side" support tube)

I was there last weekend, and they have all the footers in, most of the track on the ground, and one piece up already. It's not as close to IJ as it looks in the photos.. I think the main issue will be draining out the pond there to do the work they need to do in there.. (though it looks like the footers are already in the pond, as well). However, my concern is what they will have to do to a normally smooth and sub-forcey B&M to turn it into a painful, kidney punching, shoulder dislocating, chin smashing ride like the rest of their stable! (Seriously.. it was my first trip to CW.. and although I'm happy for the credits.. most of those rides are _painful_. Vekoma certainly has the knack for ride design.. but good LORD the restraints on Top Gun are ridiculous! And don't _even_ get me started on Dragon Fire or the two woodies!) To be fair.. Italian Job, Vortex, Thunder Run.. those are pretty good, fun rides. But Sky Rider took a large chunk out of my left thigh.. have those designers at ToGo ever heard of a transition that isn't a 90 degree jerk?

Favorite? Upstop wheels begging for mercy on woody airtime machines.. love that hrunggggggggggggggg g g g g g g noise as Phoenix hits the top of the hills.. Least favorite? The noise Talon makes. Or lack thereof. It amazes me how much they did to quiet that beast, after I heard what Great Bear sounds like.. and I'm torn between whether the ride is better, because it's silent, which lets you forget the ride more, or whether it's worse, because you don't get the "in the grip of a giant thrashing death machine" feeling so much.

Most of the "rear facing" shots I have ever seen for pro-video usually show the last "car" anyway. Edited cause: Just DUH!

I quit a couple of days ago. I have been smoking between one and two packs a day for 20 years. Now, I'm using the patch.. but I still find the physical craving (not the addiction.. the actual craving) of "holding and smoking" to be the worst part of this. My brain and body KNOW I have enough Nicotine in my system. Its just that need to get the RUSH you get from a smoke. And even though you don't REALIZE it is a "rush" from the smoke.. it still is. Good luck! so far, I have spent more on "snack foods" in the last few days than I would have on Cigarettes.. but that will level off.

Okay.. maybe my memory of ferrous metals is wrong, but in the Natl. G special they showed a Lim coaster (flight of fear, I think?). They claimed that C-shaped magnets acted on aluminum fins on the side of the ride to launch it. Now.. has someone invented an aluminum magnet that I am unaware of? Is that a mistake? or have I just completely blanked on some way to make aluminum react to magnetism? Thanks!

Laser was only closed due to the rain. It was running two trains yesterday, and the park was also empty. Snarking titles aside, the reason there were no lines for Hydra on Sat. was that there was no-one in the park. Never is when it rains like that, except for a couple of inner-city bus trips. Yesterday was much the same.. and I do have to say, Hydra has actually picked up some speed in it's Sophomore season. It's quite a bit quicker than last year, but still not a brain scrambler like seem people seem to want. Not sure how anyone can say Talon is forceless though.. unless you are riding in the middle of the train all the time.

Shangy's is down the street from my house. If you like 80+ dollar a case beer that you cannot find anywhere else, and don't mind it skunked or bad, it's a good place to go. Other than that, other local distributors get my money before SHangy does. I've gotten some funky _BAD_ beers from him, and he refused to do anything for me about it. Just sayin.

More than likely, it has to do with the owners previous experiences with "guys your age" acting like complete tools on 18+ nights, and the women pretty much behaving themselves. Or, previous experience with no women whatsoever attending and it being more of a sausage-fest than nightclub. You have to do what you have to do to draw in a crowd.. if it means that the proprietor wants to set age limits differently, that is certainly his right. He can also ban baggy pants, gang colors, etc. Maeryk

Uhh.. what? Why would _any_ of those agencies fine a park for something that was a staged accident? None of them would care, I'd wager.

Steel force blew it's lift chain the first weekend the park was open. (May 1?). It took something like 3 weeks for them to get a new chain from the manufacturer. It was open again last weekend, but closed an hour or two early on Sunday (this past). Presumably due to the Wild Thing issue, but no-one at the park said why. They just closed it. As of 10 minutes ago, it is running all three trains empty, and has been all day. Presumably testing. (the park is closed right now).

As of five minutes ago, Steel Force is running all three trains. Of course, the park is closed, so they are empty, but I'd say the lift chain is fixed. I would hazard a guess that they are A) breaking in the chain and B) testing it for the same issues that WT encountered. (It's nice to work 8 minutes from the park!) Maeryk

Sorry, ParkTrips.. that was a response to the post above mine saying that all the Loopers had been retrofitted with OTSR's. Sorry about the confusion! Maeryk

Laser at Dorney still has "just" the lapbar restraints, and it is reputed to be one of the more intense Scwarzkopfs out there. Maeryk

I have XM.. also cannot stand Hoo Hoo, and his re-recording of 20 year old bits with Artie instead of Jackie. Now he's taking Fridays off.. yay. I think XM has the superior channel lineup, even discounting the "big names".. and I have the Delphi MyFi 2Go.. the _truly_ portable portable, that even allows me to listen sitting on my front porch, with no antenna connected. However, word on the air is that there will be a newer version of the MyFi coming out, that will also allow you to store MP3's from your PC in it to listen to off air. Oh.. and the really nice thing about the myfi, you can save up to five hours of programming and then play it back like an Ipod.. very handy for working inside an office building! O&A partyrock! Maeryk

I got thrown out of the house for eyeliner and stuff at younger-than-normal "leave the nest" age. Do what you want, but realize the potential consequences of your actions. And pay more attention in spelling class! (sorry.. the word is "retarded". "Retarted" means she has had small fruit pies re-installed in some fashion) Maeryk