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Big Mike, you're a lucky man! For many reasons.

Happy National Roller Coaster Day Everyone! Unfortunately, I'm heading off for 9 hours of work. No coasters for me.

Mine was Corkscrew at Cedar Point in 1987 I believe.

^ There's a good chance you may be in some of the photo's that I didn't post though. I'll look through them and see if I have any of the station with any ride ops in it.

^ Nice! I always keep bags from every park that I go to, as well as receipts, tickets, wristbands, and the usual maps and brochures like everyone else.

You could easily make a day out of it. If you plan on shopping too, you could easily make 3 days out of it. I too was surprised at how massive the mall was. I suggest heading up there. Be sure to check out the other parks up that way too. They were all great!

^ Thanks a lot! I really appreciate it. We did indeed have a ton of fun!

What a bummer, Big Mike! Congrats on your 700th coaster though. That's awesome. I have a ways to go before I get that high up there. I have some good news too. I wanted you to know that the Big Mike Road Show has inspired me to do my very first TR EVER, ON ANY SITE!!! That's special if you ask me. Here's a link to it. I wouldn't advise that you check it out while on the road though. I want more BMRS updates, and not from the hospital! Follow this link to my report when you get a chance to check it out. Hope you like it. Drive safe out there! Brian

That's all folks! It was an amazing trip. I really hope that you enjoy all of my photos (if you make it through all of them). I know that I am! It feels good to be able to share my trip with people who actually care about this stuff. There's nothing worse than getting home from a trip and wanting to tell people about your trip, and no one cares! Thanks for reading everyone. I really appreciate it! Comments are welcome. Enjoy!

Alright... this is the last update. I promise. I'm going to start this update with a few photos that my Mom took from Day 3 at the MOA. Day 4 photos will follow after that. Day 4 consists of photos from Como Town in St. Paul, Minnesota, Pirates Cove in the Wisconsin Dells, and a few photos of stuff that I collected throughout the trip. Enjoy! LAST PICTURE OF MY TR!!! These are the two shirts that I purchased. A Hades shirt from Mt. Olympus, and a Renegade shirt from Valleyfair! Park receipts, wrist bands, tickets, pencils, pictures, and even a ring from the ring toss at Valleyfair! Some larger park maps, and yes... I'm so nerdy that I keep bags from parks! Here are some brochure's, maps, and our putt-putt score cards, as well as the free game that I won at the MOA. That's how many miles we drove during the 4 day trip. Get your magnifying glass out. That's me in the second car. In Illinois, they a lot of rest stops that are above the highway. It's pretty neat. This is my last photo of the trip. I'm going to post one more photo that my Mom took of me, then on to the collection of crap that I collected during the trip. I had to try Del Taco. I think I like it better than Taco Bell. Hawaii? Nope, just the Wisconsin Dells. 91 holes! That's insane! I wish I had time to play all of them. Playing putt-putt. Of course, I won. Sorry Mom. More pretty landscaping. It's cool how tropical some of these places feel. Another shot of Avalanche. Look what's right next door! It's the cute little Avalanche. Unfortunately, I had to pass it up this time. Waterfall. Brenda is my Mom. I am Brian. Water! Water makes anything fun. Pirates Cove landscaping. Passing by the Wisconsin Dells again, we couldn't pass it up. We stopped at the worlds largest Pirates Cove putt-putt place. Look off in the distance. That would be Hades at Mt. Olympus. And more! More prettiness. Notice the MPH. It was like that for a while! Windows down. Messed up hair. Sleeping passenger. This is just like every other trip I've ever taken! The prettiness that is Wisconsin. This would be my car, and the locked gate behind it would be the gate that I conned an employee in to letting us in to so my Mom didn't have to walk all the way around to the entrance. What a nice guy he was. That there would be the ride operator that laughed at me. You laugh at me? I'm the one having fun! The whole course. The lift and the spiral drop. Photo of Screaming Dragon from outside the park. Park entrance. Ticket booth. Como Town's carnival like midway. The station and sign. POV Baybeee! This seems a little ass backwards to me. It feels like the train is going to tip over to the left, so it seems to me you'd want the bigger person on the right. Ok... as I was typing that, it came to me. Bigger person on the left so you don't squish the smaller person going up the lift... Duh! Look at that little beauty! Here's what we drove a half an hour out of the way for. The Screaming Dragon at Como Town in St. Paul, Minnesota. That's my last name. Minneapolis or St. Paul? This begins the update for the last day of the trip. Day 4. This was our hotel as we were pulling out of the driveway. This was our bed at the hotel. Notice the left side of the bed. That's my sleeping bag, and pillow. I never use the sheets, pillows, or blankets at hotels. I also never use the remote. Yuck! This is the last photo from day 3 of our trip. My new best friend and I! Look to the far right of the photo. That's me whoring it up on the Back at the Barnyard Hayride.

Alright, here is update 2 from Day 3. Hope you're still following along! After this update, I'm going to make something to eat, take my laundry out of the dryer, then post my photo's from the last day of the trip, which was Como Town in St. Paul, Minnesota. I promise it will be over soon! Leaving the mall now. This is also my last photo from the MOA! Please stay tuned for the last 2 small updates. Thanks for reading! Giant Lego clock tower thing-a-ma-jiggy! Lego dinosaurs again. The Fairly Odd Coaster comes right down on the midway. Check out that ladies face, haha. The last drop. Looking out from the log flume line. I still can't get over how amazing this this looks, and rides... and it's in a damn mall! The entrance to the basement for the Underwater Adventures Aquarium. My Mom and I in the middle of our game. We kept letting people play ahead of us so we could enjoy the view and take photos at our leisure.

This is update 1 of 2, for Day 3 of the trip. I have a TON of photos from the MOA and Nickelodeon Universe that I'm going to post. The first 99 are here, and as soon as I post these 99, I'll finish up with the rest. Here we go. These are from Day 3 of my trip which took place at the Mall Of America and Nickelodeon Universe in Bloomington, Minnesota. They are in the order of which we went about things through out the day, and not grouped by ride or anything else. Enjoy! Close up this time. Update 2 from Day 3 up next! Zippin through the turnaround. Most of the course. Tight, forceful little helix. You get pretty close to the Sponge Bob coaster from the golf course. Having some fun with the theming. Some of the course. "No Cussin'". That unfortunately wasn't the case. It looks awesome, but that's about it. The artificial grass was too soft for the ball to roll good on, and the whole course was completely flat. Time to play the most boring putt-putt golf course ever! The other super creepy, realistic, mannequin/statue! A special shout out to the Big Mike Road Show & moose! A Christmas section that had a carousel, and Skiers and Snowboarders that actually went up and down hills. Creepy! Told ya so. They were eerily realistic. They had a store that had a different section for every holiday. They also had a couple super creepy statues, which you'll soon see. This Halloween thing had a ferris wheel, tilt-a-whirl, and I don't remember what all. Me waiting for my food. My Mom waiting for her food. Dinner time at Famous Dave's. This thing was so nice. Top of another one of the lifts. I'm not 100% sure, but I think there were 3 lift hills. Aaaaand another. Another overview. Top of one of the log flumes lifts. Inside the Nascar challenge. You actually race against a bunch of other people and the cars move as if you're actually driving them. From what I could tell, it seems like you move on to other rounds if you win or something. Who knows... back to the good stuff. They had a Nascar challenge. I hate Nascar, but I had to take pictures for my roommate. He drag races, and hates Nascar more than I do. Another section of the mall. This reminds me of the inside of a giant cruise ship. I think this was that Wii Fit - Family Challenge that they keep advertising. Another. See what I'm sayin. They had different theming for each section of the mall, as you'll see . It was nice. It kept you from getting bored of looking at the same thing for hours on end. Another overview shot. Some Straight Edge fun at the movie theatre. Here is where you exit, and go up the second lift hill. Here is where you enter the log flumes cave. Pepsi Orange Streak's super long train. It just looks so good! Look top left. You can see how close Avatar Airbender gets to the ceiling. Some what of an overview of the Fairly Odd Coaster. A different view of the other dinosaurs. More Lego Dinosaurs. This time with babies. A nice view of the drop. On the 2nd floor, you can get pretty close to Sponge Bob Square Pants Rock Bottom Plunge. Another. Aquarium in the resteraunt. Rainforest Cafe. We did not eat here, as I have ate at 2 other Rainforest Cafe's and I didn't care for the food at either of them. We are now done with the aquarium. We have ventured back in to the mall. Here is another Lego statue. Star Wars? Halo? I don't know. Ticket counter. Circle Of Life. My Mom after I convinced her to pet the stingrays. Jaws! Ugly octopus. I never realized how gross those things are. I can't believe people eat them. Yuck! Little Sea Horsies! Get it? How clever. Snake... YUCK! They had a pretty decent sized model of the Titanic. Flesh, and everything else besides bone eating piranha! Baby alligators. The tunnel has ended, and I expected it to all be over, but I was wrong. There was still all kinds of stuff to see. Look at this lazy ass thing. Look at those teeth! What the! This thing was awesome! Duh nuh, Duh nuh, Duh nuh... A giant stingray. There we go! I was surprised at how big the aquariums were. I guess there is over a million gallons of water. That's HUGE! A turtle. In Shark Cove? I want sharks! Shark Cove... Now I'm excited! Piece of a ship. If you look closely at that sign, they had some neat trivia along the way. Fishies! Which you're about to see a lot of. They had different parts of the tunnel too, that had fish from each of the regions or whatever they are. We are now in the 300ft underwater tunnel. These are some sort of weird looking half alligator, half fish things. Take note Cedar Fair. That is actually a trash can! My mom making her way through the foresty section. They had all kinds of different stuff while making your way down. Here is a Koi pond. On our way to the Underwater Adventures that is in the basement of the mall. One of the little caves. The splash, which got me a lot more wet that I expected. The last drop on the super sweet log flume! Up the lift it goes. Weird snake-ish looking pine tree thing. I have never been so dizzy in my life. I had to literally close my eyes and hold my head when it was over. Luckily though, it didn't make me sick. Here is the sign, cause in Brian fashion, I photograph everything ass backwards. Cute little thing ain't it? Yes, I did whore this thing up. It didn't even take any begging or paying anyone to ride it either! Sponge Bob's over banked turn and the Dora ferris wheel. if you can't tell, that's me in the front seat. I swear those aren't nerdy goggles. They are my actual glasses. Pepsi Orange Streak's control panel, with 5 cameras! My Mom patiently waiting for me. Everyone wave to my Mom. Pepsi Orange Streak's lift hill. Down the drop, which gave some good airtime. Up the vertical lift. I also forgot to get a photo of the awesome sign for this coaster. I'm upset about this one. Even though there are a million pictures out there of the sign, I don't have one of my own. Sponge Bob Square Pants Rock Bottom Plunge in the loop. Look at that twisty Gerstlauer goodness! One of the 3 photos that I took of Avatar Airbender. I guess i was so nervous that it was going to make me sick, that I forgot to take some good photos of it, and get a photo of the sign. Oh well. Finally... Nickelodeon Universe. I was really surprised at all of the super nice landscaping. You didn't feel like you were indoors at all. Some random Lego stuff on top of the store. There was a ship and an octopus, which was exciting. And again. Lego Dinosaur. Sweet! Lego's... Mmmm! I thought this Lego store was going to be an actual store that was huge, and it wasn't. It was still awesome though! We have arrived!

I'll be working 1-930... Booo! Maybe they'll finally get the Serpent running at Kokomo's by then. It's right across the street from the mall that I work at. I could run over there before work or on my lunch and do a little celebrating.

I'm with the majority here. I really loved SDC. I thought all the coasters were awesome. The employees were SUPER nice, and fit the part. The park is beautiful. The cave tour is amazing. The food is even better! I can't wait to get back to this park. I personally like SDC way more than Dollywood, but Dollywood is definitely a great park too! Like someone stated above, next time your there, purchase the combo ticket. Now that you have all the credits, take your time going through the park and make sure you take everything in. The place really is amazing!

Thanks for the kind words everyone! It really was a great trip. I will post the last photo update of the trip tomorrow. And you didn't add me? Pshhh! Just kidding. Add me though. I always like new people to talk to, especially about roller coasters and tattoos! Pennsylvania is a good place to be stuck riding coasters.

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it! I like your location (On Renegade). I wish that's where I was right now, instead of sitting in this chair!

Hope you all enjoy my photos from Valleyfair! I work all day tomorrow so I wont have time to finish my TR. I'll finish up the TR on Wednesday with pictures from Nickelodeon Universe, Mall Of America, and Como Town. Thanks for reading!

Alright... here are my photos from Day 2 of my trip. We spent the majority of the day at Valleyfair! in Shakopee, Minnesota. We spent the rest of the day at our hotel room in Bloomington relaxing and trying to get caught up on sleep. Again... I'll end this update with a few photo's that my Mom took. Hope you enjoy! Pizza Hut! Our breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Here we are again on the Antique Cars. Thanks to the employee for taking the picture while that bar was in front of my Mom's face! Let's take each others picture at the same time: Part 2! There I am in the front seat of Excalibur. That's me in the front seat of Renegade. This was our view out of the hotel window. This is my last photo for this update. The next 6 photos were taken by my Mom. This was our hotel room. We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Blomington, like a mile and a half from the Mall Of America. It was pretty damn nice for only $68 a night, thanks to Expedia! Our room got screwed up. We were supposed to have 2 double beds, but ended up with one King. Everything was booked so they couldn't move us around. As you can see, we made a divider with pillows. Some of my collection of soaps, shampoos, conditioners, and lotions from hotels. I always carry them when I travel, cause you never know when you may need them. Ever slept in the car for 4 days and had to take baths in pools? haha, I have! My Mom relaxing in the chair in our hotel room. Took a photo of the entrance to the park on the way out, cause I seem to to everything backwards. This is my last picture from Valleyfair! Some people about to get soaked on the top spin ride that I can't remember the name of. Sweet arcade theming with Wild Thing in the background. Train tunnels. Blurry on ride photo of me on Wild Thing. Two trains! Up the lift it goes. Wild Thing's station and sign. Another nerdy train shot. This one for a reason though. The axles were at least a few inches too short, so any time the train would turn it would slam to the outside of the track. Someone needs a new tape measure! Look, a train. Mmmm... Wild Thing airtime! Corkscrew, coming out of a corkscrew. Screwy huh? A lot of Corkscrew is over the water. Train POV. Wild Thing tunnel. The goodness that is Wild Thing, shot from the train. Nerdy train shot. Steel Venom's train flying through the station. Nerd shot. Steel Venom just coming out of the holding brake. Someone's about to get wet. Driving Miss Daisy. A mini carousel! Look at how tiny the horses are. Looking up through the ferris wheels structure. I'm a structure nerd. I love bridges and weird buildings, and any other cool structures you can think of. Corkscrew in it's loop. That's me! Ladies of TPR... I'm 28 and single. I don't drink or smoke or do any drugs. I love roller coasters, traveling, and riding my bike, and more importantly... I love my Mom! Let's take each others picture at the same time. It's really nice when parks have ferris wheels, trains, monorails, or antique cars so my Mom can actually ride something. Corkscrew's first hill, as well as Wild Thing's first hill in the background... with only one train. Booo! High Roller's turnaround. The small but fast and rocky ferris wheel. More prettiness. My Mom and I on a little bridge. I have no idea what she's looking at, but it's definitely not the camera. More nice landscaping. Aaaannd another! Most of Mild Things layout. Here is Mild Thing. This would be my 2nd, and final denied credit of the trip. Frog Hopper, cause the kids were so damn cute on it. At least it looks good! A better shot of the train. A dark shot of High Roller, rolling back in to it's station. Just in case you like Wild Mice though, here's a close up of one of the cars. Yuck! Another damn Wild Mouse credit. Excalibur going up it's lift hill. I really expected this ride to be jerky like a mine ride, but it was surprisingly smooth and fast, and had some airtime! Excalibur's train leaving the station. Blurry on ride photo of me on Renegade: The Outlaw Coaster! Sexiness! The trains look so nostalgic even though their brand new. Station fly-by, again. It's a beautiful thing, what do you expect! Here comes my chariot! Some of the hidden line that goes under the station. I've been spotted! Train coming out of the station fly-by, and some of the queuing area. Good ole' GCI station fly-by! There's just something about Millennium Flyer trains that I love so much, but I can't put my finger on it. Renegade's sign, entrance, and exit. Mmmmm... GCI! This is what I was most excited for in the park. I wasn't let down! Something else that I thought was nice... even though it's full of algae and seaweed. Even though there's a little waterfall and a fountain, it looks pretty stagnant. Treasure Tree Gift Shop. Obviously... Corkscrew. I was surprised at how nicely landscaped the park was. I think I can, I think I can... This is most of High Roller, which would be more appropriately named Slow Roller. One of Wild Thing's massive helix's. Here you can see how close our VIP parking spot was. Ok, it was a handicapped spot for my Mom, but it sounded good for a second. Ahhhh yes, here we are! A decent view of Excalibur while driving down the highway. For a second I thought the Big Mike Road Show must have been passing through. Welcome to Shakopee, Minnesota!

These are some very nice pictures! I'm excited to see the rest.

Glad you had fun Big Mike! I really love SDC. It's one of my favorite parks. I'm excited to see the photos. I'm even more excited to get my rubber ducky count on!

^ I was just at the park on Monday, August 4th. I was really surprised at how nice the park was, and how much fun I had on a lot of the coasters.

I hope you enjoyed the Mt. Olympus and Timber Falls photos. Tomorrow I will post photo's from Valleyfair! in Shakopee, Minnesota from day 2. Thanks for reading!

Here is the second photo update for Day 1 of my trip with the 2nd and 3rd parks of the trip, which were Mt. Olympus Water & Theme Park as well as Timber Falls Adventure Park, both being in the Wisconsin Dells. Again, I'll end this photo update with a few photos that my Mom took. Hope you enjoy... Here I am on the front seat of Cyclops, with some guy excited to be getting his 15 seconds of fame in the foreground, ruining the photo! Get that magnifying glass back out. That's me in the front seat heading down the drop out of Hades station. Here comes the cute little train out of one of it's high banked turns. This is my last photo from Day 1. I was pretty excited leaving Timber Falls, as I had a pretty rad souvenir. The ride operator never collected my ticket! Now, a couple photos that my Mom took of me. This little thing hauls some serious ass! Notice the people holding on for their lives! Look at the cute little train at the top of the hill. How deceiving that little thing is! A couple of the insane little hills. What a view! From what I could see, besides the coaster, the park had a log flume, maybe some bumper cars?, an arcade, and obviously putt-putt golf. Just pulled in the parking lot of Timber Falls Adventure Park. That is Avalanche that you see there. Leaving Mt. Olympus we saw these upside down buildings. I've seen a few of these in different parts of the country, but this was the largest out of all of them. Here you can see how big the parking lot is that Hades travels under. I was surprised at how long the tunnels really were, as well as how much action was packed in there! Another shot of Hades on the far side of the parking lot. Main Entrance sign for the parking lot. Hades just about to enter the tunnel on the far side of the parking lot. I really like the theming. One of Mt. Olympus' awesome (looking) wooden go-cart tracks. I say "looking" because I unfortunately didn't have time to ride any of them. Some of Zeus' airtime filled hills. Hades exiting the underground tunnel on the park side of the parking lot. For those that don't know (if that's possible), Hades tunnel goes all the way under the parking lot. 2 ways! Hades first drop and another entrance sign to the park. A closeup of Cyclops while on our way out of the park. I know it's kind of blurry and grainy, but that's me on the right again. Hades train pulling back in the station. The sort of station fly-by on Hades and some of the pre-lift fun in the background. Hades and Zeus' stations with Hades going up it's lift hill. The sweet entrance sign for Hades. Another shot, but this time with Zeus in the background. Cyclops and it's infamous drop. Notice the empty last car. 3 very good coasters. A little slice of heaven? I think so! Themed Restrooms, Resteraunts, and Shops. Some massive Greek theming! Triton... this may be the only picture that I took of any of the water slides. Opa. The very tame indoor spinning mouse. This is the only photo that I took of it, cause, well... that's all it deserved. Another shot of Little Titans. Little Titans. My first denied credit of the trip. I tried to bribe the ride operators with money, as well as some kids and their parents. Everyone just thought I was nuts! How do you do it Big Mike? Pegasus on one of it's last little bunny hills before hitting the brakes. A close up of the sign. Pegasus going up it's little lift hill. This thing is no joke! I rode in the back seat to see what the sign was all about. I found out! Up the lift it goes. Cyclops' sign. Get your magnifying glass out. That's me in the front seat. I had a nice view of Hades exiting the station while I was waiting for the front seat. Some of Hades pre-lift excitement. My much anticipated ride on Hades was almost here! Notice the nice drop right out of the station. You walk right next to Zeus' first drop while entering the park. Mt. Olympus is pretty photogenic from outside the park. Ticket Booth. This is Hades' first hill. You can see where it enters and exits from under the parking lot. Here is a picture of Zeus before entering the park. What's that I see back there?

I'll post the pictures from our 2nd park of Day #1, Mt. Olympus in the Wisconsin Dells tomorrow when I get out of work. Hope you enjoy the Little Amerricka photo's for now!

Here are pictures from Day 1, and the first park of the visit. Little Amerricka in Marshall, Wisconsin. The pictures are not in order by ride, but they are posted in the order they were taken through out the day. I did get permission to take pictures on the rides too, but unfortunately this was the only park I was able to do so. At the end of each update, I'm going to post a photo or two that my Mom took. (Mostly because they are of me, and we all know that a little self promotion never hurt anyone. ) Here we go... Here is a picture that my Mom took of me on the Little Dipper. While leaving the park I took this picture of the parks elaborate entrance. One of the few decent shots that I got of the Monorail. A close up of the train in the station. Isn't it nice? Some more family fun, cause that's what this coaster is all about! You can walk right up to this thing. You get so close you could slap the train when it passes by. After riding I snapped a few more photos of the Meteor in action. Here it is going up the lift hill. That's me going up Meteor's lift hill on the 4th lap! Another POV! This is some service! POV of some little bunny hops. Cresting the lift hill. Lift hill POV!!! I asked the ride operator if he would take my picture for me. He was more than happy to. He grabbed my camera and hopped down on the track and snapped away. The people at Little Amerricka were super nice! The train returning to the station. A nice photo of the old hand controls being used. Family fun on the Meteor. POV of the treacherous little bunny hills. POV on Little Dipper. Cresting the hill. You think it's just a coincidence there's a cemetery right there? I don't! Wild & Wooly Toboggan's layout. This is me crammed in the Wild & Wooly Toboggan car. I'm only like 5'6" and I was smashed in there. I don't know how anyone bigger, or taller can fit in these things. Lift hill POV on the Wild & Wooly Toboggan. The Mad Mouse consumes another victim! The section of the Mad Mouse where it felt like the car was lifting off the track and slamming back down. I'm pretty sure the bumpers on the front of the cars keep you from flipping over. On ride shot looking down the Mad Mouse layout. Close call or what? The crazy old school mouse cars. The train waiting patiently in the station for me to ride. The front of Little Dipper's train. The big drop! Little Dipper's lift hill. This, and the next 4 photos pretty much show the whole layout of the Meteor. While taking some pictures of Meteor I noticed this guy oiling the Mad Mouse lift hill chain... with motor oil for an automobile? I found this quite odd. Meteor's cute little curved station. I walked around the park before it opened and snapped a few pictures. This is the Mad Mouse. Part, or most of the parking lot. See the big cement things in the distance. There are piles of animal crap piled in there. I'm sure that's what helped contribute to the horrible smell. A sort of front entrance that cars and motorcycles were flying in and out of before the park opened. The Robert E. Lee Fairy. Talk about low water! The entrance to the Parking Lot with that sign that has the park hours on it, that I shojuld have payed closer attention to! Welcome to Marshall, Wisconsin... The stinkiest town ever! We arrived to the Chicago Skyway at about 3:30 a.m.