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I am in the electrical industry and that doesn't look like tray cable to me. If you look at the pictures you'll see hand rails stacked on top of the pile. The "stairs" also seem to have the typical, traction type steps that you see on other coaster stairs. Not implying that they are definitely stairs, but pretty confident in saying that they are not cable tray.

Thanks for sharing the photos. It looks like a fun park!

If you look on the webcam, it looks like the course is complete through the break run. That means we have the final helix and one piece from the splashdown left. This really looks like a fun ride and a great addition to KI. I can't wait to see some new pictures of the completed track.

Nice to see the park get up and running. From the article, it looks like a lot of fun. I just wish S&S would build a medium or large roller coaster to help entice the Salt Lake crowd to venture up to Logan. It would be very cool to have S&S try out some new ride concepts at the park. I hope to try out the screamin swing this weekend. I'll post a trip report next week. Finally some local competition for the thrill seekers.

Sad thing is that the lines, especially on weekends, are very long for the slides. Park City has four apline slide tracks, and lines average about 20 to 30 minutes. This alpine coaster does look really cool though. My only concern is like on alpine slides, a slow rider in front of you can ruin your own experience. Hopefully the spacing in between riders will allow some faster riders the room to let loose with the breaks.

The screamscape layout does look really fun. Nice to have a really themed and interactive ride at Cedar Point.

Scott "how many days again 'til the aquatrax is announced?" B. I do believe it's about 9 days or so. Or at least that's what old Snoopy is saying.

I think an important part of credibilty lies in realizing you have made a mistake, and then admitting it. It has come to my attention that my "inside source", the main source of a lot of my info recently on S&S, has turned out to not be trustworthy. There is enough untruth in the information that I feel compelled to assume that all of the info from that person was in fact untrue. While news of S&S's restructure has been whispered a lot recently, the majority of the filler information I posted was in fact false. I am guilty of taking on the inside information and posting it as my own, for which I am sorry. My source, a contact in a chat room that seemed to convincingly fill in a lot of gaps in the S&S news for me, was not an S&S employee, and seems to have fed me some false information that I was stupid enough to assume had credibility. I take full responsibilty as the conduit for the information, and feel the only ethical thing to do at this point is to admit my mistake and publically apoligize to S&S and the community. The biggest mistake I made was to connect some dots and assume that Kather Archer was the source of my information. Kathy in fact had no knowledge of most of the information in the posts and had nothing to do with it. I regret ever using her name and apologize to her for any damage that reference has caused her. I have talked with Kathy and personally apologized for any damage I have done. Any connection to Kathy was an assumption on my part, and in fact was never personally confirmed by me. Since most of my sources information has turned out to be false, it is very clear that they also had no real contacts within S&S. I hope that by clearing my conscious on this issue I can help clear up any inaccuracies I helped perpetuate against S&S and Kathy. There is a real danger on passing on second hand information, and I understand that danger very clearly now. Again, I want to express my sincere apology to S&S and to Kathy for any misrepresentation I have perpetuated.

I have some new information on this. As of last night, an unnamed buyer has officially made an offer for S&S and their assets. I know my contact has been contacted by the interested party in regards to staff and payroll info. The question of relocation also arose during her conversation with the prospective buyer, so S&S may be on the move. The whole process was a bit surreal to her in that the buyer never identified themselves, but one of the main investors was present in the room with her, so she felt OK in giving out the info. If things move forward the buyer was planning on flying out to Logan early next week, so I may have more info then. I have also been told that the building is officially available for lease, but have not been able to confirm this. Once I get some more concrete info I'll pass it on.

Celebration City, at least I think that is what Stan named it, is not owned by S&S. Stan payed for it himself and used private investors. Not sure if the investors in S&S wil go after it or not, but as of now it only has a putt-putt course, and restaraunt/arcade, a three tower sling shot ride and that crazy vertical tube that blows out your ear drums. No Screaming Squirrel, Extreme Swing, Drop Tower or any other rides. My guess is that if S&S goes away, so will the park as there really isn't all that much there yet anyway. I had hopes at one time for an S&S test park to try out their newest crazy ideas, but that never came to fruition.

Thank you. As I said in the origonal post, the investors are looking for a buyer as well, but the reality is that Kathy has drawn up bankruptcy papers four times in the last week for the investors. This tells me that bankruptcy is a very real possibility to escape debt. They keep adding and subtracting assets from the paper work as they get info on possible payment from parks that have not yet paid for recent installations. If S&S fails it will be because they haven't been payed for recent rides that have not "functioned properly" according to the parks. Remember that Vekoma filed for bankruptcy as well earlier for similar reasons, so S&S may still operate, but only time will tell. Getting parks to pay for their rides is apparently a very difficult proposition. I may find out more this weekend as I am going to see two more employees, but at this point, information is not coming from the investors, who will ultimately decide S&S's fate. Someone mentioned earlier that Stan was at the Cedar Point ride opening. This all happened in the last two weeks, so that ride opening pre-dates the bankruptcy. Stan was removed as president as a result of whatever has led the company into potential bankruptcy.

I have been out most of the day, and I must say I am surprised at how many members have called me out for bullshit and lying. There is an old saying about people who never trust anyone else or immediately assume someone they don't know is a liar. Usually those people are untrustworthy themselves. I thank Wes41190 and others for coming to my defense, and all the nay-sayers can wait until the official announcement. My contact at S&S is the head of HR, so my guess is she knows a bit more than most about what is going on. As Wes41190 pointed out, I also sell electrical products to them as well, so I have confirmed the sale/bankruptcy with at least four other employees. I recognize that I am a newer member of the community, so with time maybe my posts won't attract so many a-holes looking to start a flame war. Everyone has to start out at some point, and the rest of the members owe them at least the opportunity to prove themselves to the community. Apparently this is my opportunity.

I have from a very good source within S&S that within the week S&S will either be sold off or declare bankruptcy. Stan Checketts is no longer in charge of the compay as the investors he mortgaged the compnay 4 years ago have assumed control. The parking lot is almost empty, which I have personally confirmed and the contact I have, who is very high in the company, has been told that a decision about the future of the company will come later next week. I don't know the details that have led them to this point, but the bankruptsy/ sell off is an inevitable reality at this point. This is not a rumor or speculation. Not sure how I feel about this. When I get more information I will pass it on if the story doesn't break wide on it's own.

Interesting idea about the mouse moving. My contact at the park in the electrical department says the mouse is staying as they spent upwards of 120k this spring upgrading the power to the area, including new dedicated lines to The SPider and the Wild Mouse. Seems a waste to run a dedicated line to a ride that was potentially moving after the season. I agree that the Spider and the Mouse are very similar, yet they both still draw really well. My hunch is that the mouse in Robb's add is not Lagoon's.

Lagoon has erected the first vertical support on the new coaster for next year. It looks to be less than 100' tall, so not sure if it is the top hat support or not. Pictures to follow later tonight. The first support, maybe 100' tall.

My vote for the best all around food is Hersheypark. Their food is all freshly made and their brisket sandwiches down by trailblazer are especially good.

After about 60 or so woodies, I can say without a doubt that El Toro is by far the best forst drop on a woodie, maybe even the best first drop on any coaster with the exception of MF. Just my 2cents.

If that is even close, at this point only a new car style would make this at all interesting. The supports show at least some inverted track, so a wing-walker seems more and more likely. The pictures does use the footers pretty well though, a nice job IMO.

^^^^ Ask and you shall recieve. With my El Toro ride offically in the books, I thought I would pipe in on my Voyage versus El Toro opinion. I have been lucky to be near both rides when they opened. My Voyage experience was that it was an amazing, creative layout that packs a major punch. The ride is ferocious and un relenting all the way through. There have been a lot of reviews on the net, so I won't go into detail on the exprience other than to say it was fantastic, easily my #1 at the time. My only qualm being the ride beats the living turd out of you so rerides will cost you some serious creaking and groaning the next day. I was at Great Adventure in early May and I remember thinking El Toro looked a bit overrated. It just didn't have the same visual impact that the Voyage does. That said, I'll try and reconstruct yesterday's ride. First off, the train is ludicrously long. It seems to go on forever in the station. The gates open and you sit down in the very comfortable seats. I tried to pull down my lap bar to give me a little air and was told that the attendant would do that for me. This seemed silly to me, but as the attendant started putting the restraints down I kept hearing rumblings. As he got to my seat he leaned in and stapled the lap bar down. Now, I'm married, so it's not like I use my balls for all that much any more, but if I did, they would have been out of commision for a while. The attendant rammed the lap bar down and made sure I didn't even have room to wiggle at all. Little did I know I would be very grateful for this. One other point, I was sitting in the second to last car. The ride slowly rolls out of the station and approaches the lift. As the car engages on the lift I was amazed at how fast the ride went up. So much like Millie, but it seemed even faster. Towards the top the size of this ride really kicked in. This is one monsterous woodie. The train crests the hill and a beautiful thing happened. I actually got air on the crest of the hill. Around the turn we went aproaching the first drop. The visuals were like Nitro in that the second hill seemed way to close to ever allow a drop and rise in that short of a space. Now comes my first true opinion on this ride. The train started to straighten and drop. I found my self accelerating insanely and I hadn't even started to drop yet. In short order I was hurled down the most insane drop ever on a coaster. I have been on Millie, Superman ROS's and Nitro, the big drop rides, and I must say they don't even come close. El Toro's first drop was almost orgasmic in the sheer sustained ejecter air-time. The bottom transition was amazingly smooth and the train rose towards the crest of the second hill. Again I was thrust towards the heavens as the train roared over the second hill. Pure bliss and the best sustained air time I have ever had. Third hill was same as the second. I could not believe Six Flags would allow such an extreme ride! As we approached the diving turn, I got some serious lateral negative G's and the trains negotiated the turnaround very smoothly. Not to say it was boring as the angles and transitions were a blast. The next three air hills were smooth and fun, but nothing like the first three hills. As the train cranked a left turn in preperation for the twister section, it rose towards another innocent little hill. Holy God in heaven!!!! This little hill was the most insane airtime I have ever had. Remember when I wrote I would later be thankful for the stapled lap bars? It was for this very hill. I can only pray Six Flags won't trim this section. It was amazingly cool to see an entire train of hair standing straight up on this drop. Pure bliss! The twisted section, while fun, was in reality a moment to catch you breathe from the insane first section. While the first half was very quick, the ride seemed to wind down in the second half of this section into the breaks. I have read a lot of great reviews of the Voyage, and I also loved the ride. That said, while the Voyage is longer and visually more fun to ride, El Toro is the better ride IMO in that it is every bit as extreme, while being smooth enough to be re-rideable. It is trully amazing. We are blessed as coaster geeks to have two rides as great as this in one year. The airtime on the Voyage was amazing, but El Toro's just seemed more forcefull and better sustained.

I can only hope that it doesn't rain. Thanks for the great advice!

I am traveling to Jackson on Monday to take in GA. I know KK will be down. The weather says a 60% chance of thunder showers. How is GA in terms of dealing with the rain? Will they shut down most of the rides? Any advice in how best to tackle the park would be very appreciated. I am assuming the park should be pretty empty on a Monday in the springtime. Only if KK hadn't Kraped out.

I did not mean to imply another Vekoma, moreso to imply another lackluster ride. Again to clear up the statement, the Marketing employee (I do not remember his name) stated that the ride design was done in house, not through Zierer. The trains are to be fabricated from a European company, but the design work was not. Zierer, according to my contact, is not the designer of the ride, but may still provide the trains.

Yesterday I was at Lagoon and ran into one of their marketing employees out talking to the guests. I asked about the new ride fro next year and got some interesting info. I was told the new ride design was done "in house" and only the cars would be manufactured by a European company. I asked if that meant Lagoon was fabing the track and he said they were. Having met the in house engineer through my electrical business, I must admit to being a bit afraid. The marketing guy did confirm at least two barrel rolls, but the rest of the ride is top secret. Apparently a promo video was shown to all of the full time employees over the past few weeks and the few I spoke with seemed a bit underwhelmed. Here's hoping we don't get the Bat part 2.

Being a Schneider distributor, I hate that American's are so fixated on AB. As for the AB everywhere comments, I am pretty sure that Schneider got the controls on Tatsu. I saw a few Powerlogic meters on the control cabinets and the Integrator on the job is a Scneider user. I think AB has something like 50% of the US market and less than 1% of the international. Sucks that like Nema, AB seems to have really marketed well in the US and as a result no one else seems to get considered. My guess is Schneider and Siemens will start to erode AB's US share as the new platforms from both companies are more robust than anything AB can offer. AB looks nice and programs well, but Schneider at least can do everything AB can and more. I guess it is just a matter of time.

Little old Lagoon is getting a new launched coaster for 2007. Nothing great, but should be nice for this little park.